Anybody know the story on Model Expo?

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Model Expo is one of the most important producers and dealers of wood model kits. There are only two real American competitors in the wood sailing ship genre: Model Shipways (which is owned by Model Expo) and Bluejacket. I’m a big fan of Bluejacket, but some of the Model Shipways kits - especially the newer ones - are excellent too. I’d hate to see either of those companies go under.

I’m seeing ominous signs that Model Expo may be on the verge of doing just that.

Its website ( www.modelexpo-online.com ) shows how many of each kit in the Model Shipways, Model Airways, Model Trailways, and Guns of History lines are in stock. As of a few minutes ago, ALL of the solid hull ship kits were out of stock. (Most of them have been for months.) The Model Shipways plank-on-bulkhead line supposedly consists of 19 kits. According to the website, the company’s total in-stock inventory in that line consists of 16 kits - and only four different ones: one Flying Fish, three Chaperons, five Rattlesnakes, and seven Philadelphias. All the others are “expected in 15-30 days;” most of them have said that for a long time. (At least one has an additional note to the effect that it’s “expected” in December, 2014.)

The plank-on-frame line consists (supposedly) of seven kits. Three of them are out of stock. The company has plenty of Mr. Passaro’s two excellent POF eighteenth-century small boats - plus three Emma C. Berrys and one New Bedford whaleboat.

In other words, if you want to buy a ship or boat model from Model Shipways right now you can pick from eight different kits.

ALL of the HECEPOB kits that Model Expo used to import are either gone from the catalog or out of stock. Them I don’t miss.

The Model Airways line consists of five beautiful, elaborate WWI (and earlier) kits. All of them are out of stock. [Later edit: there’s a new, extremely impressive Fokker DR-1 that is in stock. I missed it earlier because it’s not listed on the Model Airways page of the website. But if you do a search on “Fokker” you’ll see it. And its rather staggering price - which, I must say, isn’t unreasonable considering what’s in the kit.]

The situation with the cast metal “Guns of History” is a little better - but not much.

Plenty of the Model Trailways horsedrawn vehicles are in stock. That seems to be the best stocked section of the warehouse.

I know some members of this Forum keep up with the news on other forums. Does anybody know what’s going on here? It doesn’t seem like a company like this one, which operates as both a wholesaler and a retailer, can keep going like this for long. Like I said, if Model Expo went out of business, there would be a significant hole in the hobby of scale modeling.

2

I get an email from them almost daily. One of the more recent emails was about a warehouse reduction sale.

3

Me too. They’re constantly putting stuff on sale - sometimes at huge discounts. But they apparently have scarcely any inventory on hand. Doesn’t make sense. I hope these sales aren’t actually going-out-of-business sales.

4

Can Either of you go directly to their site and leave an E - Mail covering this apparent problem ?

5

it’s not a problem to me. I get emails from them, I look at the email and I delete the email.

6

I thought about writing ME, and In fact started such an e-mail. But the bottom line question is: are you people in financial trouble? I figure the chances of getting a straight answer aren’t good. (That’s not a criticism; talking directly to a customer about such things wouldn’t be good business practice.)

I’ll check out the Model Ship World website. I think Mr. Mosco, the proprietor of ME, posts there sometimes.

7

“…the bottom line question is: are you people in financial trouble? I figure the chances of getting a straight answer aren’t good.”

Good point. I don’t see them drumming up much business by telling folks “We’re on thin financial ice, our doors could close any minute, want to order something?”

8

Sort of like calling the wife of an old friend you haven’t heard from for a long time, and asking, “Is he dead or not?”

9

Well, after considerable time thinking about the precise verbiage, I did just send an e-mail to ModelExpo. I sure hope I get an answer; if I don’t, I’ll be even more worried than I already am.

I also checked the forum at Model Ship World. Couldn’t find anything relevant.

10

I’m waiting for my Skipjack…

11

My e-mail to Model Expo got a very courteous and informative reply from Mr. Mosko, the president of the company. Since he said it would be ok to share his e-mail with anybody, here it is:

Hello, John.

Thanks so much for your letter.

This is Model Expo’s 41st year and it has been 27 years since we acquired Model Shipways from John Shedd and Sam Milone.

Yes, we have some problems but we are at no risk of disappearing.

The problems started over 4 years ago when I decided to retire and dedicate time to having fun doing things other than running a manufacturing business. Business was doing pretty well so I turned the helm over to my best and brightest and made him general manager. Although, he had some good marketing and internet skills he did not like the manufacturing end of the business. He let production run under the management of a person who reached her level of incompetency and started creating disorder

As our business grew with newly designed items the production manager became more and more disorganized to the point that our “fill rate” on kits dropped off severely in spite of a growth in demand.

A year ago I came out retirement as Model Expo had suffered 3 years of falling sales at the rate of over 15% each year. Much of that was the elimination of foreign ship model kits. My general manager chose to find other employment and the production manager was a short time ago. I found a more capable person to run manufacturing. In spite of these production and slow delivery problems sales last year actually increased 10% and demand for some of our products like our airplanes seems to be insatiable.

You are right, we have very few items on the shelf today and website says it all. On the other hand we are having a lot of problems keeping up with demand. Example … yesterday we made 25 Rattlesnakes, but we had 23 back orders and the other two were snapped up immediately, so there are none available for another 3 to 4 weeks. We still manage to make 30 Constitutions per month but cannot keep them in stock, etc. etc. The situation is getting a bit worse since we have European distributors who are lining up and sending us advance payments for our airplanes. We cannot make enough to satisfy demand. We actually have two brand new kits in the Model Trailways series that are ready to go into production but will not until Sept. because we simply cannot catch up with our older products. This week we hired two more factory workers bringing the total in the production area to 9 people. John and Sam had 3 including themselves.

Solid hull kits ??? My predecessor did not like solid hulls … I don’t know why he announced Kate Cory, Newsboy and R. Taney as I have no immediate intentions to bring them back until we get our current line of products produced in sufficient quantities to meet demand. We are limiting production in solid hulls to Phantom, Sultana, Harriet Lane. Our carver in N.C. is shipping all of these hulls as I write. We have heavy back orders on all.

Bottom line, John. We really are shipping everything but most of it are back orders. Most of our kits are pre-sold and so you don’t see them as available. If you have a kit in mind order it and chances are good you will have it within 30 days. We are currently producing and shipping around 60 kits per day and are working hard to get up to 100 kits per day.

Sorry, for being long winded … but I am trying to give you a sense of what is going on.

Feel free to share this message with anyone you want.

Marc Mosko

President

Model Expo Inc.

3850 N. 29th Terrace, Suite 106

Hollywood, FL

I find this quite reassuring. Looks like the big problem at the moment is back orders - and when they get caught up things should stabilize.

12

I went to their shop many times when we lived in Davie, right across from Ft. Lauderdale. Last time I was there was about 8 years ago and they had an awesome selection of just about anything but gearing more to the maritime models. I found it a great place to get hard to get fittings and miscellaneous items. Their wood kit selection was very impressive. I even spoke with one of the guys that worked at Orange Blossom Hobbies that went belly up in the late 90’s. He was working there at the warehouse. I miss visiting that place. I hope things level and business picks up for them.

13

I am a big proponent of solid hulls. I believe more of these kits are finished than of the POB variety. I see no advantage of planked hulls on commercial/civil ships that have no gun decks. One can hollow out the areas below grating hatches on solid hulls if they have to show the ship is hollow but few people do. I strongly support the idea of keeping the majority of kits solid hull. I see so many incomplete POB models on shelves at modeling friends houses, but few solid hulls.

I fondly remember the old Guillows and Sterling solid hull kits. I got my start on them, finished them all.

14

I like machine-carved hulls too - IF they’re well made. Too many of them over the years have been visibly lopsided, were made of shoddy wood, or had pre-carved bulwarks that were way too shallow. (Options: dig the entire deck out deeper or chisel off the bulwarks and make your own, thereby changing the proportions of the hull.) The long-defunct Marine Models Company was notorious in that regard - though its overall quality standards were utterly inconsistent. It probably would be easier to build a bread-and-butter hull from scratch than to work with a bad machine-carved hull.

The Model Shipways hull I’m working on now is beautiful. Nice, clear basswood, symmetrical, and with bulwarks of just the right height. Thinning them down to 1/32" was a bit challenging, but the nice wood made it fun…at least the first side. Even the deck camber was right.

I don’t remember any ships from Guillow’s, but Don’s been around longer than I have; his recollections are more reliable than mine. I do remember a small series of sailing ship kits from Sterling, and a big range from Scientific.

I think I bought two Scientific ones. The Flying Cloud was junk: balsa hull and “print wood,” a handful of blobby lead castings, and a couple of crude drawings. The Golden Hind was a completely different kettle of fish: nice basswood hull and wood sheets and strips, much better fittings (though still lead), and a good set of plans by none other than George Campbell. I imagine the Flying Cloud was an older kit - and probably cheaper.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life in the hobby business that only a small percentage of wood kits in any genre ever get built. The stick-and-tissue airplane companies depend on that fact. (If more than a handful of those kits got built, the public would find out how miserably most of them fly.)

Long live the solid hull - and long live ModelExpo.

15

That letter does sound encouraging, and as a small business owner I can tell you that every sentence of it tells me a paragraph of information.

Interesting comment about a decline in sales through the elimination of foreign kits. He measures sales in $$$, and foreign ship kits are certainly the most expensive.

So its sort of the Devil’s alternative, you continue to hawk crap at high prices to people who end up dissatisfied, or you sell reasonably priced quality kits and watch your margins closely. I vote for the latter, and perhaps I’m reading too much into it.

As for solid versus POB, I always considered it a progression. I’m going to always be successful with a solid hull Model Shipways kit (three so far). They do indeed suggest that if you care to, make templates of the sections provided in the plans and fine tune the shape. Never have yet. I’ll do a POB when I’m better at seeing whats right or wrong with a hull shape.

Thanks for doing the digging, John. That helps a lot. Now, about that Willie Bennett.

16

He describes the Peter Principle, where someone will rise to the level of their own incompetence. Easy to deal with in the military, not so easy to deal with in the civilian world.

17

The Peter Principle also infects the academic profession. There, because of the tenure system, it’s hard to deal with. I’ve known dozens of administrators who’ve been promoted one level beyond their capacity, and stayed at that level till they retire.

18

Interesting… I’ve never heard that called the “Peter Principle” before.

19

It was a wildly popular book back in the 70’s.

One of the other take aways is that when you sell a business, you rarely ever cash out. Rather you stop working there but hold a continuing financial interest and receive dividends. That can lead to all kinds of mayhem, imagine being compensated on the basis of someone else’s performance over which you have no control.

20

I still get their catalog on a regular basis, and my wife bought me the spray booth that they sell for Christmas. Didn’t dawn on me that they might be having a problem. But, it sounds as though the owner has it under control.