It's their standard Value Added Tax or VAT (same as our sales tax as it were). As a service member under the Status of Forces Agreement with Germany, I don't have to pay it, but need to fill out a form for every purchase. Some shops take them, some don't. IKEA and the bigger stores will, but most hobby shops have never seen or heard of a VAT form, so won't honor it because it's a pain for them to file with the government as well... Certainly can't blame the business if they don't. Brian
Correct, it has to be shipped by surface and not air because of the solvent being classified as a hazardous/flammable liquid. Brian
Everything is getting nuts with shipping on liquids.Everything I buy has tripled on shipping recently.I bought some Duracote Gun paint last week,3 little bottles,4 ounces or less each,30 bucks for the paint,16 for shipping.For the life of me,I can't understand what's "hazardous" about silicone casting compound.I live 100 miles from Smooth on,and a guy that sells gun chemicals/paints is only a few miles from them,It's gotten so expensive to ship stuff,it's cheaper for me to drive down there if I need a lot of both..Pretty much,any order on 75 bucks or less,ad 1/3 for shipping..
I don't mind if it comes overland across Asia by camel train and takes six months, the problem is finding someone who will do it, sending normal stuff overseas is to much of a hassle for some online dealers.
Not only are they abusing their customers, they are hosing their employees. If you search the web for 'Rockford IL Testors' you'll find out they were ADDING JOBS last September (2012). So much for the BS on the shrinking market. Here's the local announcement. They aren't saying much to the community or the employees, same BS we're getting as customers: http://www.rrstar.com/blogs/alexgary/x776191577/Testor-Corp-consolidating-operations-cutting-jobs So my arguement on sell the line... hey, comes with plant and employees, too. This still impresses me as classic case of bad EVERYTHING corporate from RPM.
Interesting article. They give up a plant of 115,000 square feet and squeeze all in another plant of 27,000 square feet, which seems to have been used before, too. Maybe someone told them the future is paints that are downloaded on a smartphone. Being in Germany, Vallejo, Tamiya and Gunze might be the way to go in the future. It's a pity because I just had quite good results with Polly S acrylics (I am still learning how to airbrush). Shipping lacquer-based paints from the states is a no-no, same as to Australia. BTW, Tenax cannot be shipped by Airmail as well.
My responses so far have been along the lines of "We are unable to ship Tru-Color paints overseas as they are petroleum based" which is the reason the two local MRR LHS's gave years ago for no longer stocking Accu-Paint, so it looks like if you want U.S. RR colours but live outside the U.S. you're you know what because of Testors. We need a mixing chart for making specific RR colours from a model paint like Tamiya that is readily available all over the world even though you might need to buy three or four bottles of paint to mix the colour you want.
I thought of taking some bottles of Floquil and Poly Scale to the shop that has a big rack of Vallejo. Then trying to color match using the paint chart and holding up various bottles. That is how I did it a year ago when I was switching to Vallejo. Then sharing my results with the group. However, and that's a big However. I think it would start a big flame war over correct colour. What color is Box Car Red anyway? Or Santa Fe Blue? Is it the colour the day it was delivered? 6 months after? Two years after? All will be different shades of the original colour. I should just get the whip out and start beating myself now. At least save the gas to drive there and back. I was very happy with the colours I choose because my painting project was a free lanced NG box car. Colse BCR works for me.
Most of my painting these day anyway is for my freelance Westfalen & Gulf so something close to New Haven Warm Orange will do, after Accu Paint became unavaliable I switched to Floquil SP Daylight Red which was close enough. At least most factory painted Santa Fe stuff these days is good enough not to need repainting so a trip to one of the LHS's in Brisbane that stock Vallejo, and a couple of similar brands, might be in order, I have been using it for painting details and structures but haven't tried airbrushing it yet. Another irony is that I've found several formulas for mixing accurate Santa Fe colours in my searching in recent days but they all use Floquil paint.
If you think we feel hosed, how do you think these guys feel? This is what is so incomprehensible about this, they were actually expanding the brand and the reach LAST SEPTEMBER. http://www.rrstar.com/businessrockford/x189739702/Testors-hires-five-new-employees I worked for a company that purchased a 'neighboring' company in a similar product line about 50 miles away. Staff were recruited from in-house and relocated with hefty salary increases and full relocation, even bought out the local homes to make it easier. Less than a year later, they decided to close the entire division they had just bought. Some of the 'best and brightest' took on the assignment, 75 went up, 10 were offered to come back to the home plant. The rest were permanently terminated. The saying became 'went up on the Love Boat, came back in the lifeboat'. As much fun as it is to scream and holler at Testors as the root of the stupid decision to drop these products, me thinks that this is all RPM, just a longstanding veteran of corporate wars including three corporate buyouts within 18 months. I still wish they'd just sell the line and rights either to the furloughed Testors employees or another manfacturer.
"Her primary focus will be opening new customers in the food and drug channel and the respective broker management." "his focus will be business development for Testors by opening new channels of distribution and bringing new brands to market." So much for downsizing to focus on current lines. Jason
Should read "His focus will be reboxing the old products that are cheapest to produce so they can be sold in the arts & crafts aisle at chain stores."
yeah...Food and Drug channel? Suddenly I'm thinking of the mustard commercial.... Pardon Me, do you have any Reefer Gray Poupon? How about 'If your Testors Orange 'intimate customer' cement does not fully harden in four hours.... consult a physician immediately!"
I'm going to purchase a share of RPM, just so I can call and complain, and the investor relations manager will have to listen.
Marketing is not about finding out what your customers want and making it, it's making you customers think they want what you make.
1 share gets you just about as much throw as a customer buying one bottle of paint. You can try it, but I doubt you'll be taken seriously. I am not going to call Testors and complain or beg them to reconsider. The last thing anyone wants is for Testors to continue to produce a product they don't want to produce. It's going away whether they kill it off now, or divert resources from it and abuse it and cheapen it to the point that no one wants it and then kill it off. They have decided to let it go, it's best if we just let it go.
I agree. I think they let it go a long time ago. They did not innovate or introduce new product. I'm sure sales had fallen, especially in their military line. Other paint manufacturers were innovating and introducing new products. Testors did not. Time to let it go. Look on this as an opportunity to find new paint.
