Panamint models post-Shapeways?

[randgust]

We've had a couple of the Shapeways shops report in with what is or isn't possible post-Shapeways, but one that hasn't had any update is Panamint, (Eric Cox?) and if you're doing pre-1900 stuff, that's been the go-to source for a lot of older cars, trucks, etc.

Anybody know anything?   

I saw that the Shapeways shop still comes up, surprisingly.    I'm not sure if something is still going on, if it's a zombie situation, or what.

[spookshow]

I tried contacting Eric, but evidently the email addy I have for him is no longer valid.

-Mark

[robert3985]

I would be pretty bummed if Panamint is out of business if I hadn't bought a load of his 5' CB&Q Passenger Trucks, which are verrrry close to the wooden-beamed "Q" trucks under UP CA, CA-1, CA-3 & CA-4 wooden and steel cabooses, and I use them a lot in my 1947 thru 1956 era.

Photo (1) - Panamint CB&Q 5' "Q" Trucks on one of my UP CA-1's:


Photo (2) - Panamint CB&Q 5' "Q" Trucks on one of my unmodified MTL "Wooden" Cabooses...a pretty close replica of a UP CA Caboose:


Photo (3) - Panamint CB&Q "Q" Trucks under an IMR red CA-3 Steel Caboose I improved slightly with a deeper center sill, repositioned underbody details and marker lamps:


Last time I wanted to purchase some, the price was so ridiculously high that I didn't get any, and decided to model them myself and print them on my 3D printer.  Still not done with that project, but will be soon.

Eric had some trucks that were perfect for PFE Express Reefers also, but I didn't get any to put under my dozen or so Fine N Scale resin reefers since I bought their pressure-cast white metal trucks to go with them...which aren't quite correct.

So, I hope Panamint Models will not disappear because Eric's products were/are definitely superior.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[randgust]

Well I'm still bummed as I was looking at a couple of the 'really old' B&O flat-roofed passenger coaches for my logging railroad that ran secondhand stuff like that.   Nobody else makes anything close.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/VKQWDWUF9/r02-n-scale-b-o-1856-passenger-coach-w-o-int?optionId=301283445&li=shops

I can't get over that the Shapeways shops are still up and treading water.   There must be some kind of value here and a story behind the story, but i'm clueless.

[peteski]

I can't get over that the Shapeways shops are still up and treading water.   There must be some kind of value here and a story behind the story, but i'm clueless.

I'm not sure why it is surprising.
Shapeways probably paid for the whole year(or more)  of web hosting, so the website just stays up and there is nobody to shut it down. There is no other reason or value in it. It is not like the website was running on some computer sitting at the company's headquarters. It is likely up on some E-commerce cloud which hosts thousands of websites.

[randgust]

I have a tiny Shapeways footprint too, did one just model as an experiment.    They owed me a couple bucks, but I never got any correspondence.

The 'shop' listing of Panamint models shows up, but try to do anything with it and it instantly dies, as well as the contact pages - so it's not 'flash frozen', it's been deliberately tuned to still be 'up' but non functional.   Which makes me wonder if there's a deal in the works to try to leverage the value of that to another party post-bankruptcy.

My one-horse shop still shows too, which is kinda nuts.  But if you try to message me you get an 'under maintenance' message, and if you try to 'add to cart' it actually still lets you.   I haven't decided if I want to flush some money down the drain to see if the purchase function still works!

So the system has been partially, but not fully, functionally disabled.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I can't get over that the Shapeways shops are still up and treading water.   There must be some kind of value here and a story behind the story, but i'm clueless.

It's not terribly surprising. When they went bankrupt, everyone just went home and didn't come back. You've been to Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem. There are still work gloves sitting in places inside the still standing plant. It's like that, but digitally.

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[Chris333]

I can't get my page to open. But then again I have always had problems with their website. Used to cringe at just the thought that I had to go to their site. Nooooooooo.

[Pizzaparty]

My one-horse shop still shows too, which is kinda nuts.  But if you try to message me you get an 'under maintenance' message, and if you try to 'add to cart' it actually still lets you.   I haven't decided if I want to flush some money down the drain to see if the purchase function still works!

So the system has been partially, but not fully, functionally disabled.

When you try to check out it goes to site maintenance as well. I had some stuff in my cart that I was going to pull the trigger on before they collapsed