So, as part of this build I was planning on weathering it with the Mig Ammo Vehicle weathering set but that's not going to happen.

I originally planned to obtain a sample of this set from Darren Baker and Jim Starkweather when Jim announced the set available for review in his August Mail call video. In fact I contacted Darren Baker on August 5th and explained to him when he replied that I would do a build review of the product that would be part of this build log. After waiting weeks and weeks for a response he finally got back to me with the sample reply. Talk to Jim Starkweather which I thought was kind of rude. I proceeded to contact Jim and again after another bout of the "round around" I finally got a response the end of last month! with a complete circular question of "what do you want to do with it" This after already telling me he was going to send the product to me.

In disgust I sent Jim a copy of the email I sent Darren Baker back in August explaining why I wanted it.

As I told Jim my time is more valuable than something like this and I am not going to ask again. Needless to say there has been no response from Jim Starkweather. You know It's not like I was asking for a 1/32 scale Tamiya Aircraft or latest Dragon kit as a sample which, not usually, seem to go to the same people over and over again.

This is just simply disingenuous behavior by both Darren Baker and Jim Starkweather. There is no contradiction of events here as I have the emails outlining what I just said.

Understandably, I cancelled my Kitmaker subscriptin and will not be doing build logs on this site anymore. You can catch me on Facebook and other modeling sites from here on out for build logs.

This is unfortunate on a number of levels, the least of which was that I was really enjoying this blog and finding it instructive.

I don't need to re-hash what Michael and Darren have very rightly stated, but I will highlight (hopefully as a matter of edification to those willing to take it as such) a couple of things of which Dave, in his frustration, seems to have temporarily lost sight:

1) A lot gets lost in translation when using e-mail as the primary means of communication, not to mention e-mails themselves getting lost in either the ether or the inbox. I speak from personal experience when I say great care must be exercised in choosing to read a malicious intent into anything that could be interpreted in different ways.

2) While it may be worth informing the community at large of a business that consistently fails to meet expectations, it does nobody any good (and in fact causes the most damage to the initiator) to launch this kind of personally-directed vitriol into a public forum when the targets of said vitriol are providing a service in exchange for nothing other than the good will of the community they support.

3) Modeling is supposed to be about fun, and Kitmaker is supposed to be about promoting and sharing that fun. This is entirely antithetical to that notion.

4) It is an axiom of sound leadership that one should praise in public and punish in private. By extension, if someone has an issue with the way this network is being administered that should be addressed privately--there's nothing to be gained going about it this way.

I could finish with something like, "Shame on you, Dave," but I would like to think that after some reflection and introspection he will repent of his brief fit of distemper, make his amends with Jim and Darren, and continue to contribute as the valued and respected member of Kitmaker Network that he has been in the past.