This will be a post in two parts.
Part 1 is a quick specualtive summary of what’s happened with the POD that’s caused all these delays. It may be that we get more info on the problems later on, but this is what we think we know at this point. A lot of the text on The Bench is taken from discord, so some parts were def written by other people there.
Then part 2 is a quote from discord about a recently recieved order, and an informal but very serious answer from SFG official Jamie Perkins.
While the Bench will never be salty or bitter, constructive feedback and important info will always go here.
Part 1 – Speculative summary about the POD
Legally, your purchase contract is with Steamforged, they are the retailer, but we know that all the actual production and shipping is being performed by the printing arm of the My Mini Factory website. SFG do not produce anything at all, and in this case they hold no stock and do not ship it from their own premises.
Essentially what’s most likely happened, is that SFG approached MMF with an estimated order quantity. MMF said “no problem” and SFG went live with orders, and sold significantly more than expected.
At this point, rather than reach out to SFG and admit to being overwhelmed, MMF just tried to push through. This resulted in delays, printing errors and some fairly severe QC failures like the uncured resin we saw a while back.
It was only when customers got these problem models and voiced concern that SFG reached out to MMF and find there were production problems.
We’re now in a state of flux where all these things are trying to be resolved, and the delays will eventually level off. Yesterday SFG posted some info on the delays, including a form to request specific order info for drastically delayed orders.
Part 2 – fresh order feedback and SFG answer
This customer recieved their order of the full Butchers Guild, and wrote a feedback summary:
The Good
Basically all of it, the quality of detail is as good as I received from my first order and on a par with the cast resins from before the event.
The Indifferent
Fillet had her off hand blade snapped off, but it’s in the packet and an easy fix. There’s slightly more support material to remove on average than my previous Alchemist order. Shank may be a tad undercured, not sticky but a little too flexible, will give him a few minutes in the sun and see if it improves, no disaster if not.
What I’ll be raising a ticket for
Meathook doesn’t have any meathooks. These haven’t snapped off in transport as there’s nothing in the packet with her. It’s simply a misprint, and she’s one of the sculpts I particularly wanted to swap for my metal one.
What I’m tagging SFG directly for
The goal post was, aside from being the boars head from the Fillet box and not the one advertised (not a problem as I’d choose it in preference anyway) still hollow and leaking resin from the drain hole and had something that appeared to be uncured resin on the side of the hogs head.
This can’t happen, it’s a health risk. I don’t particularly react, but some people do, plus there’s a kids and pets consideration. If it’s not resin then that needs to be clearly communicated to put people’s minds at ease, but i can’t see what else it could be, it’s too thick to be left over rinsing agent or something.
Jamie Perkins, SFG
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We need everyone to understand how seriously we take uncured resin.
We’ve been very clear with our manufacturing partner regarding uncured resin / hollow models. It’s possible your order pre-dates the meetings we had about this, but it will be raised again. Certainly please fill the form in from my message yesterday, and additionally please send me order number and images please.
Quick additional thoughts, also partly stolen from Discord.
It is a concern that some people might have had this happen who aren’t on discord or facebook, or any other independent info source like The Bench, so SFG really needs to look at releasing some kind of safety statement or the like. That could be a big bad thing for both SFG and MMF no doubt, but sending toxic material in the mail could absolutely be considered worse.
For example, what if someone gets a model, doesn’t know what the stuff is and rubs their eyes? Kids and pets are another factor, as stated above. Uncured resin is not very water soluble so contamination is a big risk. Read the previous post about this here.
I do however really appreciate that SFG finally mention so clearly that they take uncured resin very seriously.
More info will come, for sure.