Hiya guys,

I havn't built the Darby but HAVE built many other Dumas kits. Generally I think the comments in this "thread" are a bit hard on Dumas. I've been to the factory and spent time with owner and workers. ( I live bout a 100 miles from them) Believe me, they are dedicated to this hobby and I think, offer a lot for the money. Designing the kits, creating the processes/jigs for "mass" building of kit components is not easy. A lot of labor intensive work, and everyone knows how expensive labor is--especially competent, talented, creative people. This small, family run and owned business is out to make money, no doubt about it. But in my opinion they earn every penny. No stock major company in or out of the hobbyworld would even bother doing what they do because the big profit margin is not there. Think of the competition Dumas must be feeling from the cheap, foreign labor that build and sell all of the recently marketed "ready to run" "scale" stuff that we scale modelers snub our nose at.

Sorry if I sound like I'm in the Town Square on a soapbox. And no, I have no personal connection to Dumas

John De Broske -- azcaptain