July 2015 Update
over 10 years ago
– Tue, Jul 07, 2015 at 06:48:28 AM
I have been getting a lot of emails lately asking for an update, so I figured it was time to send one out.
On the metal side, we have in place what needs to be done to move forward. It's just a matter of selling enough plastic to pay for it now.
On the plastic side, we're grateful to our many new retail outlets who are carrying our product. It's with their support that we have been able to keep the business model flowing and ship out more of our backer's items.
I know the big question everyone has is "when" and I wish I could provide a solid answer to that. We are working as hard as we can in order to get your items out and they will be shipped as soon as possible.
Thanks for your continued patience.
Your April Update...
over 10 years ago
– Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 02:37:35 PM
This past weekend must have everyone itching to get their railway layouts up and ready because we received a record amount of emails and questions that I want to address to all of you as a whole.
Just for reference, our current fulfillment completion is at 20%.
First and foremost, we are still actively shipping items to our backers. Should your pledge contain ONLY ABS rails in black, dark brown, or reddish brown, you should have received the rail portion of your pledge. If you ordered ONLY ABS in Dark Bluish Gray, your order should have already arrived, or will be arriving very soon.
Now, with regards to the metal, first, a little history, During our last batch of extrusion that we ordered from the company, several of the rails were "corkscrewed" rendering them unusable. The manager had attributed this problem to sending them too fast through the die. He felt that slowing the process or re-timing the feed arm would correct the issue. Now, fast forward to today. We spoke with an engineer at the facility as well as an engineer from another facility who told us that that reason they were being corkscrewed was due to excess pressure in the die. With the small size of the parts which we are pressing, a special press is needed which limits the total tonnage of force used to press the part. In short, we were referred to another extrusion company which has the correct equipment to accommodate our needs. Why this was just disclosed to us now and not six months ago when we asked and were put on the list is beyond our scope of knowledge, however, I can assure you we're doing what is necessary to get the job done as quickly as possible and the correct way.
I have fielded several questions from backers regarding the plastic and why we are also selling product at retail while some backers have not been fulfilled yet. To answer that question, I would like to share with you a brief financial statement of the project:
As you are aware, the project was funded with a total amount of $87,357. Of this $47,965.94 was actually collected. This difference reflects fees taken from the total amount which were allocated to both KickStarter and Amazon.com payments as well as pledges which went uncollected due to non-payment of backers. For those doing the math, that's 57% return. An additional $11,952 was raised through BackerKit, of which, $9168.96 was collected after fees giving us a grand total of $57,134.90 to work with.
On the expenses side, the molds needed to make the plates and curves in ABS came to a grand total of $43,640. The balance due on the metal fixture cost $3770 as most of it had been previously funded via the company. Also, an additional $3400 was spent on CAD drawings that were needed to create the mold and for the metal process. That gives us a total of $50,810 not withstanding any incidentals, or, at the end of the day, around $6325 to work with in order to pay for product and shipping to roughly 400 backers and pre-orders.
As you can see, the funding shortfall left us in a position where we needed to find a solution to make up this difference. During our initial release of product, we were seeing very good retail sales which allowed us to begin shipping items to our backers and pre-orders by using any profits made to cover the manufacturing and shipping costs of those items. Within a month after release, those sales began to taper slightly, thus necessitating our need to slow the fulfillment process. Now that word of the product has spread and thanks in part to all of you who have been writing reviews and telling your friends about the product, sales have began to pick up again which will allow us to continue feeding the system.
I hope that this somewhat lengthy explanation now sheds more light on "what is taking so long". I can't promise you when your items will arrive. What I can promise you is that we will continue to diligently promote our product and that ALL of you will receive your items and you will be more than pleased with what you receive.
Again, I can not thank you all enough for making this project a reality and granting us your extended patience as we continue to give 100% effort to getting everyone taken care of as soon as possible.
Mike & Eric
ME Models
Shipping, shipping, shipping...
about 11 years ago
– Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 05:44:17 AM
I'm sure that by now, many of you have heard that we have finally reached the shipping phase on the plastic ABS products. As you can see, we are busy packaging products as fast as they come from the manufacturer. So far, we have fulfilled approximately 10% of our plastic orders and have been shipping at least twice per week. So, if you're still waiting on your ABS order, you should be seeing it SOON!
As for our metal backers, we have not forgotten about you and we will be taking that next step very soon...
Production has begun and an open letter to all supporters
about 11 years ago
– Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 06:51:25 AM
First and foremost, ME Models would like to thank everyone who participated in our community rail initiative. We would also like to thank everyone for being extremely patient with us as we have tired to demonstrate to you, the hobbyist and fan of model toy train railroading, all of the steps of our process including the capital needs, engineering operation, and the coordination and effort it takes to make a NEW product compatible with an existing product without any outside technical help.
Over the past six months, we have updated everyone with information and pictures as we reach milestones in the development of the new rail geometries. One has to keep in mind we are not in control of the six (6) small companies we contracted with in order to produce the track we all want. With that said, time-lines, projected delivery, and forecast, all become a moving target with no real delivery time.
We have also had to overcome shortfalls in capital. Some of the pledged monies from the initial offering went uncollected, therefore, we needed to self-fund the balance plus unforeseen testing costs. Along with 5 months of mold production, 6 weeks of mold adjustments (to make sure everything fits together), time for educating the contractors how to approach making a plastic railroad system, metal process testing, development of new fabrication techniques, and now the production of the track, this process has lead us to where we are today -- December 26, 2014.
We have decided to share with you what 260 backers generated for parts production. In order to fill the pipeline for those folks we need to make 229,500 connectors, rails and plates in ABS. (THREE (3) TONS of ABS -- 6000 lb.). In addition we will be producing 19,560 metal rails to cover all geometries. Our plastic manufacturer has been stamping for two weeks. We have ordered 44,000 feet (8.3 miles - ONE TON of Aluminum Alloy -- 2000 lb.) of extruded rail and are expecting delivery in early January.
We are accelerating the metal rail production. We have been working right along side our metal fabricator and they are focused on getting our metal rails done. Again for those of you who ordered the metal rails we are committed to delivering to you a high quality product that will meet expectation.
Now that we have brought you up to speed we are going to begin shipping and selling the plastic ABS track this Friday December 26.
If you are wondering why we are also opening up the ABS track for retail sales, we have been notified by the manufacturer that they will guarantee us NO machine down time during our product launch and we will get priority line time if we have larger part orders. This translates to faster delivery to you.
Again, we ask that everybody please be patient on delivery. We have added personnel to help with the shipping and packaging. Plastic rail orders will go out as fast as we can humanly process and package. You still may not see your order for 2 to 4 weeks. So please understand your plastic order will be delivered to you - AGAIN THANK YOU FOR THE PATIENCE!
Lastly, we have been working on additional geometries and the narrow gauge connector and will move ahead with additional geometries once we have completed our initial orders. As we dig out of the "hole" we will be looking to take care of the train community as we move forward.
We are very excited that you are all a part of this and could not have gotten this far without your involvement.
Happy Holidays!
Mike & Eric
ME Models
