If you're one of those manufacturers that puts conspic stripes on cars...

[jpwisc]

If you're one of those manufacturers that puts conspic stripes on cars...

THANK YOU. Yes, I am the diverging opinion on this one. Thank you for acknowledging that modern modelers exist. I know it isn't that tough to add them to cars, but I have other things to do with my time, and why should every car made be set up for 1980? I have added these stripes to so many cars already.

We all have different needs and I know many are chronologically specific, so thank you to the manufacturers that cover all of our eras.

[Puddington]

Pud,

I hear ya, but that is life in the Internet age for better or for worse.  Do what you do and do it well.  It's one thing when you have to make a decision about which correct versions to offer; I think you can tune any of the negative feedback out at that point.  Now, when a manufacturer chooses to use the wrong colors, wrong road number, wrong dimensions, etc. in spite of overwhelming resources available to do it right...that's when there's probably some merit to the negative feedback.  I don't own any Rapido products, but it looks to me as if you guys are out to do it right rather than do it quickly.

Is there any evidence to suggest that run-of-the-mill Internet grousing actually hurts sales?  I can imagine, OTOH, when something is universally panned (witness the IM SD45-2), sales probably suffer...but a half-dozen butthurt hobbyists should not make or break you.

Well, not our experience but I do know of one O scale manufacturer that had to get a court order against an individual who made it their mission to wreck that company because he was upset about the way a prototype was being represented....

We've had one person in a geographic area that was unhappy with our service (he'd continually played with a unit's decoder, burned out 4 before we told him we were unable to help him further) and he went from store to store in his area telling the owners/patrons how crappy we were..... hard to combat someone in a store at 10:00 am telling "their side" of the story.... did it costs us sales - yes.... part of doing business... yes..... is if "right and fair"...no... oh well.

[Scottl]

We've certainly seen some of the "salting the fields" critiques on these pages over the past few years. 

[Ken Rice]

If you're one of those manufacturers that puts conspic stripes on cars...

THANK YOU. Yes, I am the diverging opinion on this one. Thank you for acknowledging that modern modelers exist. I know it isn't that tough to add them to cars, but I have other things to do with my time, and why should every car made be set up for 1980? I have added these stripes to so many cars already.

We all have different needs and I know many are chronologically specific, so thank you to the manufacturers that cover all of our eras.

I'll second that.  It's always nice to find a model that's ready for present day railroading as is.  I have a bunch of cars that ought to have conspicuity stripes added, but it's pretty far down my priority list.

[flight2000]

If you're one of those manufacturers that puts conspic stripes on cars...

THANK YOU. Yes, I am the diverging opinion on this one. Thank you for acknowledging that modern modelers exist. I know it isn't that tough to add them to cars, but I have other things to do with my time, and why should every car made be set up for 1980? I have added these stripes to so many cars already.

We all have different needs and I know many are chronologically specific, so thank you to the manufacturers that cover all of our eras.

Well said and I'm in the same category as you. 

Cheers,
Brian

[thomasjmdavis]

One of the things I note on Railwire is that the higher quality, more prototypical manufacturers get raked over the coals over rivet heads that scale out 1/2" too big, not to mention board spacing, or car numbers or conspic stripes. In recent times, I think I have seen 3 notes on paint dates- which I can't read without a magnifier.  We have kind of given up on the manufacturers who still make their passenger cars reversed left to right, or whose rivet scale out to frisbees- actually, when those guys get something right, it is big news.

It is ok with me if MT makes some cars for modern train modelers, as long as I get my Erie baggage cars.  Which, I hope, come either in multiple numbers, or with decals for the car numbers.

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  I'm with you.  Modeling 1974, everything HAS to have ACI labels, CAN'T have U1 dots, and may or may not have 1 or 2 panel consolidated stencils.  I don't expect those, though, because most of the cars in my era predate all of them, and I would just as soon the manufacturers make a car match its as-painted "new" appearance, unless they are specifically making a modernized version.  If the car was delivered with any of these features, or received them when it was repainted, then the model should have them.  If they were added after the car had been in service, in the modeled paint scheme, please leave them off.  For modern modelers, I don't mind if the car doesn't have an ACI label, even if it should, because many of them lost those long before they were repainted.  Also, in many cases, repainted cars received them when repainted, and the placement varies widely, even in a class of "identical" cars.  I can add my own, although it's nice (for me) to have them.

Decal makers:  To go with that, we really need some high quality 2-panel consolidated stencils, for the late 1970s.  Walthers had a nice set, but they've been unavailable almost as long as the stencils themselves have been obsolete.  Not needing them, I don't know if anyone makes the modern stencils, but if not, there's another needed product.

Highball Graphics has some very nice ACI labels, and Microscale data sets have both ACI labels and 1-panel stencils, although they get expensive if you have a fleet needing ACI tags.