Racing Buggy Decals - At Last !!!

[DJTheo 2]

Got them today, put them next to the originals, marginal differences (which aren't even Chris's fault - yellow a bit darker), would put them even on a shelf queen, superb!

Thanks Chris for the great job, hope more will come, will buy and sell as many as I can to help the financiation

http://www.vintagetamiyarc.com/

[rc-martin 218]

Yet another happy customer, as Tony the tiger would say.... They're Greeeeeaaaatttt!!!!! Buy some Now!!! (ok, i know he doesn't say that bit)

Don't take life too serious, you'll never make it out alive!

[Mogsmex 0]

Well I've finished the shell for my runner and very impressed with chris's decals and I think it looks pretty good in my blue/yellow colour scheme for a runner !

Also Darrens (dazmeister) shells excellent and ideal for a car i wont

have to worry about !

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=2903&id=285

[hellbelly 1]

Mogsmex, that scorcher looks excellent - nice job

Pete

[Mogsmex 0]

Cheers Pete,

Just need to finish the rest now !!

Glyn.....

[RETRO R/C 59]

Hey guys !

I have to tell you that these decals are absolutely sensational !! I would be more than happy to have them on a new built ! They are THAT good.......

For the price - it sure beats waiting for the "factory" set to appear on ebay - and then paying 100 USD for them !!

Grab them while chris is in a generous "not for profit" mood........I am thankfull chris is not a greedy person - and a true enthusiast.

Thanks Chris for the great decals !!

Cheers

Darryn

[stressedjason(2) 0]

Hi all,

I just got the repo SS decals from Chris yesterday and I must say the quality is great! Keep up the good work Chris! Thanks so much!

Jason

[netsmithUK 488]

Hello All,

Bit of a long one this. Had my first bit of negative feedback regardign the decals and I felt it made for an interesting read, so here goes...

Buyer wrote:

quote:

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I ve just receipt the decals this morning. As a grafic art profesional, I cannot be as satisfied as i would like to be for those reasons :

The scanning of the pictures has been done with incorrect resolution for printing. just see pennzoil logo on the top right side.

The colours used for example in bilstein logo is not the correct one.

The paper used for decals is a digital printing one, no a serigrafic decals so the thin plastic and the glue will not fit correctly on models.

Since you sold out the repros, i was working on a redrawing of all logos to make "real" decals for Sand scorcher, hilux, and rough rider, because i have always made my own decals with serigrafic suppliers. When I saw yours, I stopped working, I bought one to see the quality of the job done, but seen sample, I ll return working on them.

What feedback am I supposed to leave? 30 euros for a 5 euros digital repro is not the better way to make friends.I ll use those on a monster beetle body, but will not fit them on a sandy

body.

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id="quote">id="quote">

I was disappointed with this first negative response so i replied:

quote:

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I am sorry you do not like quality of the decals. I can honestly say that this is the first bit of negative feedback I have had about them, on the 20 or so sheets I have sold.

I was keen to point out on the auction that they were not perfect, but people should ask questions before bidding.

Of course if you are not happy with them please return them and I will refund your purchasing cost straight away.

I can gaurentee you that these decals are not produced from scans, all the artwork is original vector based work which i created. Again I pointed out on the auction because of the output device the decals did miss some of the finer detail. I am currently investigating other output techniques. Because the items are only produced in small runs the output cost to me is not a great deal less than I am selling them at. If you know a repro company that can output this quality for 5 Euro then please let me know.

I'm not in this to try and make a fast buck, I produced the decals for me, got great feed back from anyone that I saw them , so decided to put them on ebay - where they have recieved nothing but praise.

As I said at the begining if you are not happy with them please return them and I will refund your purchasing cost straight away. You would be the first to take me up the offer.

Hope we can sort this amicably. I will be keen to see a set your decals when they are finished.

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id="quote">id="quote">

Another email then arrived....

quote:

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It not a problem to have bought decals for 20 GBP. As you was saying in your auction, the logos had been redrawn. I ve been doing that for aprox. 4 years with freehand. When I redraw a text, i make each letter new, each logo can take aprox 3 or 4 hours.

I think you didn t do that, you only redraw color boxes but the text is from a scan of originals or from decals available in many URLs.

The diference between scanning and redrawing can be seen if resolution is not correct and you see pixels. You also don t get original colors from a digital printing (not yet). And the plastic support for digital printing is worse than for serigraphy.

I think the reason you haven t got any complain is because no one of the buyers works in grafic arts. I ve been working in that for 10 years now and i ve been designing, picture retouching, making films, and planning production for (removed) for a long time now.

Your job is not bad, but redrawing each text, you can reach the perfection. With a little supplier who makes stickers, you can print A4 with low costs. The only fix high costs you have is for the "masks"

With which programs did you make the artwork?

In resum, with aproximatly 2 weeks of hard work, you can get better

originals.

---

id="quote">id="quote">

This one began to rub me up the wrong way, he is saying that I've printed them off from scans which just is not true and also that some of you lot that have bought decals are not entitled to like them as you are not a graphic artist. I felt I needed to reply....

quote:

---

The reason I haven't had any complaints is that the people that bought them have been happy with them - its as simple as that.

Thier profession is irrelevent. They have recieved goods and they are happy that those goods were worth what they paid for them.

Neither you or I have any idea what thier professions are.

I've worked in graphic design for all my adult career which now stands at over 15 years - so i know the difference between scanned bitmaps and vector based artwork

Where ever possible I have used all new fonts. Where I couldn't find and exact or very near match I have hand traced the original letter - still producing vector artwork though.

No part of the printed decal sheet which you have recieved is printed from a scan. The pixels you see are as a result of the output device used not the original artwork.

The whole sheet took around 20hrs or so to complete. I agree if I took longer they would be better - that is obvious.

You are right on the colours the way the decals are produced is a result of laying a colour film down (not mixing colours) and the colours to choose from where as good as i could find.

(I actually have three original sheets and the colours don't actually match between them! - Ford ranger ones are even worse)

I agree if I had them produced in exactly the same way as the real decals were done, the colour match/quality would have been much better. But I looked into it, and the costs we simply too high unless I had hundreds of sheets done, which was far too much money for me to risk - like I said I have only sold around 30 sheets so I would have been way out of pocket.

I produced these decals because a lot of friends wanted them and were willing to pay that price. Many people had talked about it but never actually got around to getting any produced. If you can produce better quality decals at the same cost or less, then please let me know - i know a lot of people that would be interested.

I agree the decals are not perfect - but my auction states that and I am not saying that someone couldn't do better if they spent more time and money on the project. My decals are merely there for people that want to do up thier runners and don't want to pay a fortune for original ones.

The bottom line is, you have ask yourself whether they are worth £20 or not to you. If they are then it was a good deal and we are all happy. If they are not worth that then return them and I will refund your money. I can't say fairer than that. Keep them if you are happy or send them back if you are not.

Regards

Chris

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id="quote">id="quote">

A few hours later another email pops up....

quote:

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For the length of your answer, it seems you ve been embarrassed by my

opinion.

Just one observation for you to understand all. I was waiting for serigraphy decals, and I receive digital printing (you don t indicate it on your auction). The quality of sticker, if you work on grafic arts is very diferent, it s obvious it s a digital.

I was just thinking there were real stickers. I think its normal for a restauration to get copies at a lower costs and all the buyers are satisfied with your work, some of them make stickers with personal printer and are happy with the result to.

I have no intention to leave negative feedback, but i did want to explain my opinion. I know how much time spend costs to redraw all logos. But a digital repro is not a real sticker. You may have to indicate it in all your auctions.

This mail is not to call your job in question again. All of us does try to do our best ever, and more in this kind of hobby. It is stupid to pay 150 dolars for original stickers when you can make some dozens repros with this money. But it s not correct to sale digital repros as stickers when they are not.

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id="quote">id="quote">

I am begining to enjoy this now so I reply...

quote:

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I don't really want to keep going over this, but I feel I have to reply. I cannot see how you arrive at the conclusion that because I take the time to respond to queries that I am ebarrased in any way - I thought that was called Good Customer Service. If I did not reply that would be rude.

As I said in my very first mail - I just want the whole issue sorted amicably. The length of my reply is purely down to the fact I address the number of points you raise.

I am embarrassed by nothing that has been written at all, we all have opinions. Some of the customers I have sold to are among the biggest Tamiya collectors on the web. Of course, I am disappointed you are not happy with the decals, but other than offering you your money back I cannot see what more I can do.

The more I think of it I really can't see what we are discussing - as I have offered to refund your money, the only reason you would keep them is that you are happy with the quality for the price.

So then you are just expressing opinions on how to make them better, which I appreciate, but were all very obvious anyway, ie

- They would be better if i spent longer prepairing them

- They would be better if I used the same production method that the originals were printed with

- The colour matching would be better if I used the same production method that the originals were printed with

No argument from me on any of those points, but as I explained I could not produce them in the numbers required and still keep the price at an acceptable level.

Over whether they should be called decals or not - i will continue to use the term as that is what the printer referred to them as, and thats his business which he does all day every day. (Maybe its just a language thing)

As for feedback leave whatever you wish - one negative in a stack of postives for the same product will not be a problem and when I leave my response saying I immediately offered a refund, people can make up thier own minds.

So thats about as far as we can take this discussion. I've acknowledged the fact that they are not perfect. You get the final say by your actions, if you are 100% happy with them, in terms of quality and cost, then keep them. If you are not then return them and I will refund your money in full.

Regards

Chris

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id="quote">id="quote">

What do you reckon - Am I being reasonable here or what, I've offered the guy his money back at least 6 times during the course of the discussion. I get the feeling it will rumble on a while yet...

[sparky(2) 2]

Chris,

As far as I see you have the patience of a SAINT to put up with this anal retentive turkey. He is just trying to "break you down" in my opinion. You have responded more than adequately and should just move on as he is "spitting hairs" at this point.

JMO.[]

Regards,

Spark

[Shodog 1835]

The ball is in his court. If he is really unhappy with the decals then return them. Some people just aren't happy if they are not *****ing about something. I haven't seen your repro decals. I wanted to buy a set but I have enough of the originals that I really don't need them.

On another note. The original decals are not that great in the first place. The registration is off so slightly. The super champ decals I just used were some of the worst examples. There were faint white out lines on many of the stickers. Usually I like to leave about 1mm of clear part around decals when I cut them. this leaves a nice crips edges and you don't run the chance of taking a corner off of the decal. With this super champ set, i cut them right on the edges. considering that the Decals were made in the eighties, I guess I can't complain. As Tamiya went along, the decal sheets got better and better.

[Edge(2) 0]

Chris,

Have you managed to do the Ford Ranger ones yet? I would like a copy when they are done.

As for Mr Opinion in the mail above, tell him you cannot spend more time talking to him via mail as you need the time to correct your terrible mistake! Offer him a membership to Tamiyaclub so he can place his commentary in a forum, then we can respond, ...and he can start taking orders for his $5 repros.>!!

What a Cilly Sunt...

[netsmithUK 488]

The Ford Ranger decals are done. I am just trying to find the best way of outputting them. The device that is currently being used has no match for the fawn colour - silver is the closest match.

Hopefully get it sorted this week.

Chris

[DJTheo 2]

Well, there are always people who know everything better and say they will do something perfectly but never have done anything except clever words, just ignore him as he is a joke, when he makes as good ones as yours for $5 he can talk. It is interesting that although he doesn't suppose to like them, he doesn't want to send them back []

I am not in the printing business but have a good eye and can compare and even the Tamiya ones aren't really perfect, so why should they? The latest fashion in restoring 1:1 vintage cars is to restore them to original factory condition, which was far from perfect and not to a perfect condition as they did in the last decades...

And this obsession about not calling them decals, what should you call them? Adhesive paper with coloured shapes?

[WillyChang 1814]

quote:Originally posted by DJTheo

And this obsession about not calling them decals, what should you call them? Adhesive paper with coloured shapes?

---

id="quote">id="quote">

"Self-adhesive non-original decorative device suitable for radio control"... [:I]

[Razer 0]

I still don't see why the guy doesn't send them back or keep them. Maybe he's lonely and he just wants to keep talking about it?

[Manuspain 0]

I think most of you need answers.

As I told to Chris yesterday night, I m sorry the "decals affair" has grown more than I wanted and my opinion needed a reply to everyone. So as I did with him yesterday, i ll try to explain to everyone.

I bought decals thinking there were made by "traditional way", serigraphy. I get deceived to receive a digital copy because of the specific plastic is not really the same as the normal one, colors in digital cannot be the same, the ink is not so stable and my sheet has some defects in some logos (pennzoil, spark plugs, jackman wheels) but I haven t seen more sheets than mine...

I left a neutral feedback because Chris would have to mention it on the auction.

Why don t I send it back? First of all, I never send back something because I think it s my responsability to ask before buying and I didn t, and as I said, I ll use them for one of my monster beetle bodies.

As I told him, I contacted one of tamiyaclub member because I wanted him to scann RR and SS decals to complete the ones I ve got. My intention is to redraw all logos and make decals as I made before for my kyosho bikes when I raced with them, for my cars, my friends cars, and maybe for a tamiyaclub member who I could help. I ve been making special parts for my own cars for a long time, independently of the cost (aluminium, resin, fiberglas...)

At the moment, I ve been talking to Chris about his projects and I m looking with some of my suppliers the way to get solutions and low costs for Chris ranger's decals and for the one s I m redrawing to. The difficulty is that some decals have exclusive direct colors added to the CMYK ones - more colors, higher price -

For sure something can be done.

I made a crashed entry in Tamiyaclub. The first time I ve made enemies with tamiya oldies!!!!

Chris, did I forget anything?

See you soon.

Emmanuel

[snollan 3]

A crash entry into tamiyaclub is an understatement. I've read Chris' ebay description and its as straight up as it gets. IMO the words "not perfect" and "best REPRO racing buggy decals I have ever seen" tell me that the decals are close but not perfect.

The only suggestion I have for Chris is to add the following to his acution:

Feel free to ask any questions because WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET!

[DJTheo 2]

quote:The first time I ve made enemies with tamiya oldies!!!!

id="quote">id="quote">

Hello Emmanuel and welcome to the board.

First of all there are no enemies here, we are all friends [] People have nothing personal againt you, just wrote that the way you handled this auction was wrong, which are personal opinions and everybody can form his own one and in the end everybody makes mistakes.

quote:I left a neutral feedback because Chris would have to mention it on the auction.

id="quote">id="quote">

I also believe that it is not ok to leave neutral feedback before talking to a person, especially to one like Chris, who gives you all the options, it like not giving someone the chance to correct his error, if anyway he did one (still don't think so). Not all people are or should be specialists about something when they sell it and may not now the difference. If you are the specialist, great, but you should pose then the correct questions. Imagine for example that you sell a Tamiya car to chemist and he leaves you neutral feedback because he claims "after chromatographical and spectroscopical analysis I found out that the molecular structure of the B-parts has been altered and you didn't mention it!".

Also you must admit that the $5 cost of the decal you wrote wans't very serious or is it?

We all should be very carefull when we judge things, since as humans we are often driven by our emotions and make mistakes, everybody does...

[netsmithUK 488]

As far as I'm concerned this matter is all sorted now.

Lets just move on. No hard feelings.

Thanks to all of the members that 'defendered my honour' []

Chris

[SJoerD 2]

Please, dom't let there be enemies here! That'd be real bad. I'd go with the other members and move on. I found out so many TC members are out there being very nice to me. If you treat them nice in return then it will be beneficial to all of us in the end. Let's say this all was just a little misunderstanding. []

As for more decal idea's: how about Sand Rover decals? I bet those are tiny sheets as SR has fewer decals, and most of them are the same as SS decals you already made. I think you can put multiples on a A4 sheet. What do you say? I can really use decals for an SR, that's why I ask... []

Now all I need is a good HB / SR chassis though... [xx(]

Sjoerd

[Manuspain 0]

Hi

I finally have used some of Chris decals this week end, and i must say that they are great repros.

At first time i was worried about the quality of the ink and the quality of the glue. But all those doubts are far from the quality of those decals.

I tried some cleaner products, i applied a clearcoat on them, and they are nearly perfects. the plastic and the glue allows you to applie them easily and look good when applied.

I showed the decals to a friend of mine (a tamiya lover to) and he was thinking they where original ones !!!!!! He only told me that if I don t say they are repros, I wouldn t notice the difference.

So Chris, you can be proud of your job.

I ll post new pictures of my rough rider soon in my showroom.

[netsmithUK 488]

Glad you like them.

I've now got an even better production method which should mean the Ford Ranger ones are even better.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

Chris

[Bibbo 3]

I just started reading this forum. Pleased to see everyone can move on and not bare grudges.

I think alot of these things can blow out of proportion because of the different languages, some non English speakers can easily come across sounding different to their real meaning. I've worked for many years with people from all over the world and it's very very easy to get wires crossed.

Anyway, all fine now I see. I might delay decaling my Ranger and use Chris's decals instead and save mine in case I need them in the future.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1920882277

P.S. seen a few original sets on "Da Bay" guy in US seems to have cornered the market. They seem to go for around $50 or so