Nick Dunhill
Western Thunderer
Hi Ian
I'm up to professional build number 45, and most have been clients who have bought a kit and simply want it building. It's not an unreasonable assumption when you buy a kit that it is fit for purpose. Somewhere in the region of your number 1. In my experience the majority of kits are closer to your number 2. There is an expectation gap that need not exist.
Not unreasonably a client will expect an estimate for building a model in advance. And, by experience, I can give a reasonable figure. The problem is that you can't anticipate where the kit lies between number 1 and 2 until you're building it. The difference between 1 and 2 can be x2 or even x3 price, and often there's a shock in store.
A lot of my job has become managing expectations, and I got burned a few times in the early days, spending many hours scratchbuilding my way round kits that are wrong and/or unbuildable.
I just couldn't send this kit to the painter knowing it was so far out. But I will have worked for a couple of days for nowt. I blame very poor design, perhaps the designer will offer me some financial recourse, but I doubt it. They shoud withdraw the kit from the market and fix it before selling any more.
At least the client will get what they paid for.
I'm up to professional build number 45, and most have been clients who have bought a kit and simply want it building. It's not an unreasonable assumption when you buy a kit that it is fit for purpose. Somewhere in the region of your number 1. In my experience the majority of kits are closer to your number 2. There is an expectation gap that need not exist.
Not unreasonably a client will expect an estimate for building a model in advance. And, by experience, I can give a reasonable figure. The problem is that you can't anticipate where the kit lies between number 1 and 2 until you're building it. The difference between 1 and 2 can be x2 or even x3 price, and often there's a shock in store.
A lot of my job has become managing expectations, and I got burned a few times in the early days, spending many hours scratchbuilding my way round kits that are wrong and/or unbuildable.
I just couldn't send this kit to the painter knowing it was so far out. But I will have worked for a couple of days for nowt. I blame very poor design, perhaps the designer will offer me some financial recourse, but I doubt it. They shoud withdraw the kit from the market and fix it before selling any more.
At least the client will get what they paid for.