Hubert's Gone?

[asarge]

I just got back from doing a show in Knoxville and there wasa dealer from Dayton who knows Frank Hubert and claims to be in the know somewhat. According to him Mr. Hubert got in a bit over his head and did sell out. Now I'm taking it with a grain of salt as to the reasoning for him selling out so I believe his information is suspect as to who said bought them. According to this dealer(and this covers ALL tooling) Horizon purchased the tooling because Huberts was doing so well, they were threatening Athearn, so Horizon decided to purchase.

The reason's I suspect this information may not be accurate is for two reasons. First, this guy went on somewhat of a rant about the fact that Horizon was threatened because Huberts was "Made in the USA" and it was taking sales away from Athearn. I susepct this guy is upset with Horizon as they won't sell to him because he has no retail storefront. Walthers too. I have a hard time beliving that Huberts threatened Athearn's sales. In the two days he was there, he sold one Hubert's car and that was a guy we sent there because he wanted an HO NS Woodchip car.  The other reason is the news I saw when I logged into email when I got home this evening that Athearn bought the T55 tooling. I just can't see Athearn buying both and I can't see a reason why Athearn wanted Hubert's.  HOWEVER, even though I suspect this rumor to be bogus, I cannot discount it so it is possible that Horizon did buy Hubert's tooling.

BTW, thanks to Phil Brooks for inviting us to his home to see and run trains on his layout last night. He has a neat layout that occupies a pretty big space but the design is pretty simple and the area's that he has done the scenery on for his articles are awesome. It's a fun layout!

[ljudice]

I can definitely see how Athearn would be afraid of Huberts. Their rather devious tactic of not producing any products, combined with their decision to keep an extra-low profile by not updating their website for 9 months would have me worried too.

[asarge]

I can definitely see how Athearn would be afraid of Huberts. Their rather devious tactic of not producing any products, combined with their decision to keep an extra-low profile by not updating their website for 9 months would have me worried too.

  ;D Wahh Hhha HHhaa!

Too answer you'r question about MDC Lou, We have been told by Horizon that there is some dissappointment in the sales of the ex-MDc products. We have done ok with it and the Hopper packs ten d to do well, but I personally believe Inkaneer has a point. HOWEVER, the ex MDC HO tooling has done much better. I do believe Athearn as a flawed market plan dor Athearn, but what do I know, I only have to order it and sell it to the customer, so I'm pretty stupid in the manufacturer's eyes.

[ljudice]

Seriously I'm sad about Huberts, since some of the cars were nice - they just needed better paint and lettering. I just don't understand why, after going to the expense of buying the tooling, they would not ramp up with a conservative release schedule - like Deluxe or FVM - 3-4 models a month - and do them really well. There was a lot they could do with the gons, etc...

Athearn, well, they've had hits and misses. But again, with a lot of the MDC cars, they have not had such great attention to detail. I mean anyone with a PC can get a gross feeling for "did we do the right scheme on the right car". Do they think N-scale buyers are less picky?

With the credit crunch it's likely we're not going to see too much new stuff for a while...

[TiVoPrince]

Hey JJ - On the Joann's web site there is a product for scrapbooking called "corrigated courdory". The didn't have it in the store, so I went with fine medium brown courdory for the fields. Test run - two problems...bubbles from white glue under the fabric and you are right, I need tackly yellow glue. I tried the white glue on the toilet paper roller and it didn't work right.

Let
the glue get at least 50% or so cured before aplication.  I preferred to pour yellow glue on a plastic plate and stir it routinely during the evening while I do other stuff.  When the glue is dry enough to resist flow, fire up that TP or minimal nap paint roller and go diagonally across grain until you have nice coverage only on the ribs.  For lettuce/cabbage I alwas preferred AMSI 'eucalyptus' to get a softer green that mimics the colour I see from a distance. 

My method was to apply glue while tacky, cover heavily with foam, apply wax paper over the area then pour sand over the wax paper to weight it forcing the foam into contac with the glue.  Removing the sand/wax paper without pulling too much foam up.  Using your favorite method of saving the excess foam when vacuuming. 

Altenatively painting the ribs may work if you can come up with something that has a nice body in a subtle colour.  The 'puffy pains' intrigued me but were far too vibrant to be convincing...

[sirenwerks]

What's corduroy fields got to do with Huberts again? I think I missed that part.

[Van Horne]

What's corduroy fields got to do with Huberts again? I think I missed that part.

I'll second that one!  Also, I am sad to see Hubert's fail.  He did three different series of Southern Rail of BC boxcars that enabled me to build up a decent fleet.  While there were a few minor QC issues and rather slow shipping with the last order I got from him, the cars are pretty nice.  Hopefully someone else will pick this line up. 

David

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm sorry to see him go too.  His line did fill a bit of a niche in the N scale market, but they were a bit pricey and the painting/lettering were only so-so.  I wonder if he has any undec inventory he wants to unload? 

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Well it was an exciting idea, but not to be:

Good Morning Dan,

 

Hope this e-mail finds you well.  I checked with John Engstrom at Athearn.  John said Athearn has not acquired Hubert’s tooling.

 

Shane

[sirenwerks]

Maybe Bluford or Fox Valley can/will? I'd hate to see the gons and the boxcars go and they would be a fine jump start to a young companies product line. All they need is less paint and more (marketing) love... I'm not speculating, just maybe putting a bug in someone's ear...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That'd be nice.

I picked up a bunch of the long gons a while go and I love them. I'd hate to see them all disappear.

[sundowner]

I agree, for a modern modeler there gons and box cars are a must have.