Loren Perry of GMM has announced on SteelNavy that he will be winding down his photoetched materials. He has been in the business since the 80’s. He is 78 and health issues, among others, are driving the decision.
Due to the specialty nature of ship photoetch, that will be the first product line to close. Railroad, HO and N gauges, will follow.
I might need to stock up.
I have long used GMM products and have enjoyed their well presented instructions and quality of the material. Many have the same feelings about GMM. Loren’s products will be missed in the hobby.
Loren provided the market with what it needed. High Quality and a Fair Price with reasonably easy to read instructions. He’s only one year behind me in age. Hey, that"A" word eventually makes all of us put on the brakes. I hope he will retain good enough health to live well, he’s earned it. Way to go Loren!!!
That’s sad news indeed, He’s been my goto source for photo etch since I first used it on a Hasagawa Yamato build almost ten years ago. My web site has at least 3 links to his excellent PE sets: Yamato, Akagi and Myoko off the top of my head.
I’m glad you posted this, there have been a couple set’s I’ve wanterd for years - hopefully they are still available.
So sad the hear. Their P/E was the first of it’s kind and set the Market going. His products were the first that I used so it will be greatly missed…Cheers Mark
Loren today announced that his Gold Medal Models ship line of photoetch has been sold to MMD, the hobby shop distributor arm of Squadron. Inventory, drawing masters, instructions, etc are being packed for shipment. The trademarks will also transfer
min the next few months look for GMM photoetch available from Squadron or other shops which deal with MMD.
I have been friends with Loren Perry for a long time and many years ago I told Loren that when he gets ready to retire one day that I would like to be able to buy his line to continue on the brand Gold Medal Models that he created so many years ago.
Loren and his wife will enjoy a nice retirement and time together now and be able to sit back and watch his brand continue on even though it is located on the opposite side of the country! Loren resides in Lopez Washington… and of course Squadron is now located in Ellijay Georgia. So, big change for the brand. We intend to carry on with things the exact same way Loren has offered them. This includes his Photo Etch fittings in 1/700, 1/350, and other scales and also his decals and even his ship modeler’s PE guide book.
We have many of the 1/700 items in stock. About 1/3 of what Loren has left has arrived to us. Another 1/3 will be here Friday… and the last 1/3 will be here next week. After we get everything in, we will re-stock everything that has sold out… including the decals that have not been available for some time.
We have intentions of growing the line as well. Loren has a very specific way of laying out PE and instruction sheets and more importantly is very picky about the materials he used. We intend to keep everything the same. He didn’t name it “Gold Medal” for no reason!
We are also looking forward to having Loren on our upcoming “Squadron TV” channel soon interviewing him and letting him tell all of us the history of Gold Medal, how it came to be, and talk a bit about his personal model building hobby. We are really excited to be able to work with Loren on this interview and hope that you will tune in when the time comes.
As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email or call me and I will help you any way I can! We also have a live chat function on our website and as long as I am at the shop and not running around in the warehouse I am available there too!
This is indeed good news for us ship modelers. Far too many of these one-man-band operations either start out blazing hot (and just as quickly flame out) with innovative products, or they eventually disappear when the owner gets hit by the old age bus.
