Julian,
At the moment it is members only and it is detailed in the Parts List which is only available to members.
One kit was supplied to Phil Parker to do his "Build a kit in every scale" article in BRM. This was tied in with a bit of publicity for the 70th anniversary of the S Scale Society which was published along with the article.
There has been a fair bit of discussion about making the kit available to the general public as a taster for the scale but we would have to gear up to cater for modellers who might expect kits to be to the standard of these available in 4mm and 7mm scale - i.e. with full instructions, etc. At the moment members requiring a kit get all the bits in a Jiffy bag with a reference to basic instructions published in our Gazette and they are on their own.
If we do sell to the public then we would have to provide all the bits in more sophisticated packaging with good instructions and we would also have to have a fair stock of kits available for sale at any time. This would mean quite a change in attitude in the way we finance some of our parts, and, for a small society of around 100 members with comparatively limited financial resources, it would be quite an important step.
Some people are also a bit worried about a false impression being given about what is available for the scale. The parts the society supplies start with basic requirements, like track components and rolling stock wheels. Other parts are aids to scratchbuilding. We have no more complete plastic kits for anything.
However, the discussion goes on.
Jim.
(Parts Officer, SSMRS.)