White Ensign is back up and flying.....

That is the best news I've heard today!

Bill

That explains why all of their stock was unavailable right after the announcement, they already had a buyer.

Do you know if WEM will still be UK based, or is Tom's Modelworks just buying the name.

I know that TMW is based out of Huntington Beach, CA, so I think everything will be US based from here on out (no more exchange rate issues and high shipping costs for US buyers). Below is the  bit of text myfriend sent me..... it's from the Facebook announcement:

From the new owner of WEM resin & PE products:

"I am very pleased to announce that Tom's Modelworks has purchased the inventory and the rights to manufacture White Ensign photo-etch sets, resin kits and accessories. White Ensign has made outstanding products over the years and, being a modeler myself, I am happy to be able to continue to offer them to the modeling community. I am not yet certain how this will operate or exactly when all the WEM products will again be available but I will work to make it sooner rather than later. John Snyder and Dave Carter have graciously been assisting in the transition and I wish to publicly thank them for that.

"Once I am further along with this I will clarify how and where these great products will be available. In the meantime, I ask for your patience.

Sincerely Richard Harden"

........at first it sounded like just the naming rights were purchased, but if I'm reading between the lines correctly, it sounds like he's trying to bring back most if not all of the product line. Resin parts, etc, are mentioned as well. I'm sure it will take some time to get things situated and up and running......but it's nice to hear that the whole thing (if not most) will be back soon.

Yeah.....I guess this explains the "out of stock" we all saw. I couldn't imagine a "run" on the entire company inventory unless something like a buyout was going on.

Matt

This is awesome news, thanks for sharing it!

Groot

Nice! If Toms is based in HB, that's my neighborhood and I need to pay them a visit!!!

This is great news!

Yeah, my buddy is in Long Beach and actually went over to where Tom's is located to pick up some Titanic benches. Being from NorCal, I have absolutely NO idea how close HB is to LB or any of the outlying areas. To me, they're all right next door to each other......seeing that the word "beach" is in the names, they've ALL got to be next door to each other, right? Jeez......I love being geographically ignorant.

Matt

Long Beach and Huntington Beach are separated by Seal Beach... About 2 miles of pacific coast hwy ;)  I can see Long Beach from my corner of Huntington Beach... At least parts of it... but both are good size cities... I googled the address and it is in a residential neighborhood. I am curious if he has a shop here for the manufacturing of PE and Resin, or if he works out of his garage...

There was a "run" of sorts.

They posted on the forums that they were closing. They told us what the final day of business operations was going to be. Then Dave faced a lot of orders coming in (as did the Colourcoats vendors in the US) and he had to stop taking orders, because he had to be able to ship out everything by the end date. (a business being taken down to sell of the parts can't even do shipments after the cease date)

Then Soveriegn stepped up after the asset sale to announce the paint line had been purchased, then later, Richard announced that Tom's had purchased the assets involved in the resin and photo etch lines.

The flow of events is still up in place in the various message boards that the postings were put up on. (ie, nothing "fishy" was "pulled" in the disposal of assets they were ordered to do)

Rex

Thanks for the info, that's a bit of a bummer. Will just have to hope someone in Europe will step in to fill the gap. I know other companies sold WEM products, hopefully that will continue.

warshipguy

That is the best news I've heard today!

Bill

Great news!

TarnShip

There was a "run" of sorts.

They posted on the forums that they were closing. They told us what the final day of business operations was going to be. Then Dave faced a lot of orders coming in (as did the Colourcoats vendors in the US) and he had to stop taking orders, because he had to be able to ship out everything by the end date. (a business being taken down to sell of the parts can't even do shipments after the cease date)

Then Soveriegn stepped up after the asset sale to announce the paint line had been purchased, then later, Richard announced that Tom's had purchased the assets involved in the resin and photo etch lines.

The flow of events is still up in place in the various message boards that the postings were put up on. (ie, nothing "fishy" was "pulled" in the disposal of assets they were ordered to do)

Rex

Now that is terrific news!

Bill

Great news now maybe I can get my Tsesarevich deck that I had on backorder.

Bill

I have just been looking through the AMP forum and there is good news about the Colourcoats range of paints. They have been bought by a new company based in Scotland called Soverign Hobbies. they don't seem to have their own website just yet, just a FB page. It appears that they are not planning on selling direct but are looking for distributors.

Thanks for the update Bish, hopefully my LHS will carry them but if not hopefully a larger website will.

Steve

Thanks for the information, Bish.  It's good to hear about the Colourcoat paint.  Hopefully someone will pick them up on this side of the Atlantic, once they start production.

I hope so Check. I know that posting paints, especially enamels, is a bit tricky. Royal mail seems to have taken things to an extreme and I think some companies won't post enamels at least outside of Europe. But I am sure someone will pick them up. Who use to sell them over there before.

Bish, here in the USA,  it was Mid-Tenn hobby, Freetime hobby, Battlefleet Models, and the most obvious one was Snyder & Short

Since the "shipping by sea container" problem was already solved once, I expect that they will just do it the same way when the product gets back into production.

I am starting to think that a Colourcoats, XtraColour, AKAN, MisterKit, etc,  online store in the US might be a good business idea. (with "etc" meaning get all the other non US paint lines in there too)

Rex

Hopefully the new company will contact the old suppliers, that would make sense to me.

When you say shipping by sea, I take it you mean the US companies getting their shipments across.

Yes, in Sea Containers.

I can't remember if all 4 took part in it or not, but, at least Mid-Tenn and Freetime got together to place an order to make the Sea Container charges spread out better. (I hope I got the right two retailers)

ye, that would help. I am sure someone over there will pick them up, there must be plenty of interest over there and I doubt you guys want your own orders shipped by sea.

I thought they pushed the Sea Container off the dock and hope it floated to wherever it was supposed to go. :0