For those of you who have been a member of this forum for a year or so, you would have seen several posts about the poor service from Dave Patrick Models; for those that don’t know, I’d like to share my experience.

Last year I purchased a copy of June 2005 Flying Models, which featured a cover story of a Dave Patrick Scale Masters Super Cub. After reading the article I feel in love with the idea of building my own.

Living in Australia meant that I would have to buy one direct from DPM. After some planning I decided to go with something different, a Scale Masters level Clipped Wing Cub. Once I made this choice I immediately logged onto the DPM website and purchased an ARF Clipped Cub.

Upon my order I sent an email through requesting express airfreight, with a note stating that I don’t mind paying the extra.

While waiting for my delivery, I ordered a Saito Black Knight 125 along with some other goodies. Two weeks past and I was beginning to wonder what was happening with my new order, as express freight from The States usually arrives within a week.

I once again sent an email, requesting a tracking note… two more weeks past, no reply.

I was getting nervous, so I sat up to 3am in the morning and made an international call to them. Dave answered and was quite polite, but didn’t know anything about the order, so he put Sandy on. Sandy said that she had taken the order and read my emails, but they did not have clipped wings in stock. I asked why she had not replied to my order or emails; she said, “I don’t know.”

I was told they would have some in stock in about 4 weeks and they would email me to confirm that it had been sent. 6 weeks had gone by, but no reply, so I called again. Sandy told me, that they had arrived, but were now sold out. She had forgotten my order and I would have to wait another 3 months. Being in retail marketing I am a stickler for good service, so I said forget it, I will buy something else.

A few weeks later I found out that Esprit Models had just taken order of several DPM clipped wings… funny that they didn’t have to wait 3 months. Still being keen about the thought of owning one, I purchased one off their site. 4 days later the huge box arrived.

Being that I had just spent about $1,300.00 AUD including freight, I was keen to see the highly praised quality that I had read about in Flying Models. My smile dropped as I pulled the plane out of the box.

The covering on the fuselage was wrinkled more than I had ever seen, the cowl had chips in it, the glue around several bulk-heads had given way, the windscreen was cracked, the landing gear was rusted and to top it off, I could see a cracked rib. I was shocked with the quality and as it was packed so well, I found it hard to believe the damage would have been caused in transit.

I immediately sent an email to Esprit, who wrote back stating that this was not uncommon for DPM planes and that they would no longer be selling them due to the quality and lack of service.

I decided that trying to send it back for a refund was a too-hard-basket situation and considering I was building it to a scale masters level, I would be stripping it back anyway.

When I stripped the covering back I noticed that the covering on the wings was shrunk way too much and every ribbed was cracked on both wings. To add to this, one wing had a massive wood knot in it and the other had a rotten piece of balsa sheeting, which was super brittle.

I have now been working on this for several months and have fixed all of the problems and have recovered it with life like Oratex fabric covering. Still to this date as I work on a new part I notice more problems. Today the one part of the landing gear snapped off due to rust and I realised that the main wheels are different sizes, by a 1/4-inch. ***?

I have given up on getting service from DPM, as has now been 9 months and I still haven’t received my replacement windscreen, which has been paid for.

I just hope that my post here makes people realise that Dave Patrick Models is a no fly zone. Their kits are poor quality and the service is non-existent . And don’t ever give them your credit card details because they’ll take your money for a part and you’ll never receive and won’t reply to your emails... and these days, they don’t even answer their phone.


On a positive note, my Cub is starting to take shape and I’m looking forward to posting a thread showing the build and final product.