However, I can choose to not support other RPM products that continue to be available. My last experience with Rust-Oleum paint, for example, was genuinely not positive-- it shouldn't take three coats of a "covers in one coat" paint to do the job. This was a 1:1 Scale project, by the way, just so there's no confusion. (The top of my daughter's desk.)
Not having read all of this thread, the day the announcement was made I called Testors and in that conversation with a media person there ( whom by the way is loosing her job) it was said that the formulations would be melded into one Testors brand name in an effort to reduce costs and a multitude of packaging and SKU's. Some colors will remain in production under the Testors brand name but they will drop many of the individual RR colors that simply did not sell well. I think we will have a pretty good selection of other paint manufacturers stepping up to fill the voids. IMHO Mike
Why can't someone make paint vials of white base with little packets of pigment you add and shake? This is how Home Depot does it. Only model paint companies go broke trying to stock each individual color.
Well, if the media person is getting the axe that explains why the facebook page stands as testimony to the 'nobody really cares' side of this. Meanwhile, over on the Rust-Oleum side, the facebook page is almost as hostile as Testors on entirely different products. Wow, what a company. They took out a whole chunk of dedicated customers, PO'd the home community they were founded in, are laying off workers, etc. http://mystateline.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=398952 I'll be using this entire escapade as an example of how facebook can turn on you if you're not prepared for it. Wow. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I found the personal care side. They are making paint markers for hair touchup under a new brand name. Seriously. A new way to tap the graying of America. Looks just like our hobby paint markers, could be made on the same production line. A reverse on weathering with eye shadow! I'm telling you, you just can't make this stuff up: http://www.rrstar.com/businessrockford/x1273025215/ColorMetrics-hair-touch-up-product-gets-2nd-run Yep, here's where the company focus is going: http://colormetrics.com/ Notice how CAREFULLY they hide their identity on that web page. If it hadn't been in the Rockford paper it would have been totally underground. You can't find anything to link the two otherwise. The company has a Santa Fe, NM address on the LLC and a facebook page with no traceability. Mike, drive over there and investigate. See if it smells like Floquil.
Ha ha ha ha ha! I doubt if that's their core focus though... More like they have all the permits and equipment to make those kinds of products and and sell some time on their manufacturing floor to outside companies to generate some revenue. Lots of manufacturing facilities do this. Pretty sure rebranding CreateFX is their focus and hail mary to try and stay relevant and gain some traction in the arts and crafts stores.
So Mike,they're saying that they're not getting rid of Floquil,just getting rid of no sales colors,and putting it into the Testors line? Floquil is totally different than any other Testors paint,how do they intend to do that?? If they remake them in Testors regular paint formula,they might as well drop them altogether,be like painting with undercoating.Shoulda just dropped the low sales colors.
No you didn't understand what I said. They will re-bottle it as their own brand with a Testors SKU and drop the little sold colors is what I was told. No mention of re-formulation . Randy , I'll run right up there , it's only 300 miles away. LOL Thanks , Mike
I could almost buy into that theory if it weren't for the 'personal customer experience' corporate BS responses we've seen i.e: "we are more strongly poised to take your business to the next level through product and merchandising innovations, and increased customer intimacy." I suspect they have simply found out it's far easier and faster to make more money packaging stuff for the personal care market and to h$!! with the hobbyists, one product line at a time. The only question is what goes next, as the pruning in square footage is really astounding. If you were folding the best-selling colors into another line, you'd handle this completely differently unless your PR and marketing people are complete and total morons. They haven't said that in letters, releases, facebook..anywhere. It would be nice if they would, but at this point it would be a reaction, not a plan.
You are totally overestimating the PR in most big business!! This is the kind of thing that makes DILBERT funny. LOL Mike
Whoa... Hold on a minute here, there's getting to be alot of rumors started! I don't know where all this talk about folding the Floquill and PollyScale lines into other lines is coming from. They are not doing that, and have said they are not doing that. They are dropping all of the Floquil and PolyScale glass jar products. They have rebranded a couple of the Floquill products like the paint pens and the textured spray bombs and moved them to the CreateFX craft store label. They are expanding the color selections of the ModelMaster line to include some of the generic colors from the Floquill and PollyScale lines, but they are not going to be Floquill or PollyScale paint, they are going to be ModelMaster paint with names like "roof brown" and "grimey black". They are not going to offer the railroad specific colors in the ModelMaster line. This information has been posted here, Facespace, sent to members of their distribution chain, etc. It is not speculation, it is public communication directly from Testors. They are also rebranding the square bottle entry level products CreateFX. It is the craft store market they are going after with their "innovations and intimacy" not beauty products. Making personal care and beauty products has not been mentioned as the new focus of Testors, it has only been reported that a beauty product line that has been manufactured by Testors for QVC in the past will be getting another run at Testors. It is QVC's product line, not Testors product line. It is not uncommon for a manufacturer to sell available time in the manufacturing facility to outsiders. That equipment doesn't make any money just sitting there, and if paint production is caught up they sell the remaining hours of the day to someone else. This does not mean that Testors is exiting the model paint/product market. It means they have available time in their facility and have wisely chosen to sell that time to outside non competitor clients.
I wonder exactly which colors they're going to keep..I've used Modelmaster on a few passsenger train projects,the flat colors aren't so bad.
I don't understand why anybody is even bothering with all this. Testors has said they are not interested in the model train market. So let's just quit buying their products and support companies that ARE interested in the model train market. I think Testor's sales to the military modelers was very low. The military guys have discovered much better paint from companies that support their hobby. But in the future when I'm in home Depot and need Rust-Oleum, DAP, or Plastic Wood, I will try to purchase a brand not owned by RPM. Not a boycott, just brand awareness.
Pete,I'll tell you why I'm "bothering" with this...I have NOWHERE to buy paint.The only shop around here doesn't have Floquil NOW.He does carry Model Master.If I want Floquil,I have to buy a CASE of that color.[SIX bottles..] Now I can't even do that.Any other paint like True Color,I have to pay STUPID high shipping prices,I'm not paying fifteen bucks for a bottle of paint.If Testors is actually moving a lot of their regular RR colors to Model Master,it may actually be a good thing for me,I could actually buy it locally instead of paying high shipping,or getting nothing..I've used Model Master flat colors on trains,it's actually great paint,like fast drying Scalecoat.I may actually like it better than Floquil,but I don't use it because they don't presently have any RR colors.If they get even basic flat RR colors,I could mix what I need...
If they really are planning on moving some of the generic railroad colors such as grimy black, grays, etc. over to Model Master, why didn't they say so? If they are telling the distributors this (as they did on the initial announcement) where's the documentation? What I've seen so far are some verbal responses, probably a result of the uproar over all of this, no real written announcement that can be shared. I'm in the same boat as Lou, I could probably get some of the basics via Model Master, if I knew what was there or what wasn't, and I can order some of the other specialty railroad colors elsewhere that have a gloss base for equipment. It's the acrylic flats that are suddenly poof - gone - and Walthers doesn't stock Vallejo and neither do any of my local stores. I think one of the most appropriate places to press for answers is on the Testors facebook page, not here. Their military paint colors are organized by armies... and what I want might even be there, but they don't even have a decent online paint chip guide or an equivalency table for us. It's angering because it really, truly, is not just an announcement of a product change, but it's a finger in the eye of the entire modelbuilding community, including RC cars, not just us. RPM's relocation of Testors to a facility about 30% of its original size says they're no longer interested in the entire hobby market, really, punctuated with the inept announcement campaign apparently including getting rid of the person in Testors that should reply to the market! So sell the entire brand before you take the market with it. I'm also passionate about this because I participated in an employee buyout of our own company from an RPM-style company. Corporate had 'changed its mind' on the strategic direction and we were the odd man out, and we were scheduled for complete closure. The only way we got out was the FURY of one of our major customers that we were being shut down, threatening a lawsuit on incomplete deliveries. The path of least resistance for our own RPM was to sell the branch to the employees for a deep discount. That was three years ago, we're doing fine as an independent company again. The wrath of the customer was the deciding point here. And we saved 11 jobs in the community. Our customers sure spoke up when we needed them.
At best all we can do here is speculate. This isn't new to business ploys. Business people around the globe have bought up the competition only to shut it down. We can only hope others will pick up the ball, step to the plate or step up and provide for the model railroaders. As best as I can recall when having worked in a LHS, the guys buying the paint were so finicky they wouln'td buy Pactra or Polly Scale Paints. Wrong shade, wrong color, wrong this that and the other. We began to wonder why we made it available. Seriously. Interesting but we did sell a lot of rattle can Floquil. Not sure what was going on there.hboy:
You can buy Tru-Color directly from them and shipping is only $7 for up to 10 1 oz bottles and $10 for up to 15. That seems pretty reasonable shipping to me. Peter
Lou as other have said, there are other places to buy paint. PDX1955 said you can buy Tru-color directly through Tru-color. I just picked up a few bottles of Tru-Color to try from a seller on eBay. His shipping prices weren't too bad. I think it was 4.XX per order and only $0.15 per bottle after that. I seen another one who would ship for $4.99 and free shipping after that regardless of amount of bottles. I chose the first one because the second one didn't a couple colors that I wanted. That made the shipping almost down to what local tax would have been. Yeah it was a little more, but not that much. When you place an order, pick up a few more bottles than you want or do as I did [if possible] see if any of your local friends want any and split the shipping.
It is a matter of perspective. For those of us fortunate enough to live near a hobbyshop, this is a blow. For those of you who have to order everything anyhow, not such a big deal. I will miss being able to drive 15 minutes to the shop and pick up what I need, and finish a job the same day. I feel sorry for those of you that don't have this option but please understand that those of us who don't have to mail order, don't want start now.
Oh I understand Tony, I'm not trying to spark any flames. It's the statement that was made by Lou D; "I have NOWHERE to buy paint" If there is no other local option, then this is and becomes a viable option. I'm just trying to help out and give other options. Where someone goes and how they acquire their supplies is ultimately their decision. Trust me, I would much rather go my LHS and pickup one bottle of paint that I need within the last hour of the day than to have to place an order online and wait a few days. I have two decent hobby shops within my home town. One does not stock paint [in this case] but will order anything I want that he can get. The other stocks a little paint and supplies, but I choose not to do business with him for personal reasons. Therefore I order most of my stuff.
Good luck with that. The last time I grabbed some spray paint at Home Depot I saw that they now have the entire cage filled with Rustoleum products, with the exception of only 4 of the cheapo paints they have kept (White, Gloss Black, Flat Black, Red Oxide Primer), and I suspect that those too are probably owned by RPM.
