Dear customer,

Today after truly long time of searching for better solutions or options I had to decide the future of SMDS. This was a hard decision and is well thought trough. 3 major impacts in my private life make it nearly impossible to continue SMDS on a satisfactory level to serve anyone of you. One of the impacts is the new job I was able to get, now being Captain on a beautiful Bombardier Global 6000. This on the other side brings me away from home over several weeks each month without interruption.

The goal when I was starting SMDS was to bring life to a death market when it came to modern French subjects. Looking back we can all agree, that thanks to the effort of SMDS even big companies started to realize there were other than US built airplanes that deserve looking at in 1:48 or other scales. With great surprise and satisfaction I now see Jaguars and Mirage F-1 popping to the market, planes that were completely neglected. Still waiting for the Mirage IIIE to come...
Together with my friends on SMDS we made many impossible things possible, and I was surprised about the success SMDS was getting over time. Unfortunately the Euro crisis started to get a big hit on us, and with the 3 latest ones in my life I can't continue, despite the success we have.

How to continue?
The masters of SMDS remain with those who built them, so my friends will get them back soon, and look to continue to produce them trough various channels. All items in stock at this time I continue to ship, but restock is most likely not going to happen anymore on this site.

Thank you all for your support and trust you had over the time with SMDS. It is still very cool to see built models where I can recognise SMDS parts or decals.

I wish you all very happy modelling and all the best!
Sincerely

Leander Niederhauser

BD700 / copyright flightforum.ch

Our friend R. Schneider has released some very nice decals for Swiss Air force fans. Available in 1:48 and 1:32 scale there are now accurate markings for P-51D and Hawk Mk.66 in stock. And some nice news about those decals:

- they are not ALPS printed anymore. So you can use them like any other brand of decals you know about. This is already true for the F-18 Hornet decals from the same brand.
- All sheets have paint masks included. Sometimes they help to protect the white from turning red, and some are there to spray the markings instead of using decals. Check the pictures!

Nicely done Roby! Congratulations from our side!

Many of our items will go "out of stock" soon, or they are already. The current rate of € / Swiss Franc would force me to raise all prices of resin parts by 20%. This is not very realistic, so I wait for restock orders until we know where the rally stops.
But we continue to release NEW sets/decals, so keep an eye on the 1:72 section ;-).

If someone NEEDS absolutely an item, we'll be able to do some restock rather quickly. Please let me know via the contact form!

Sorry for any inconveniences, and let's hope to see the rate going back to 1€=1.45CHF soon!

UPDATE 27.10.12: The prop blades are so fine, they were almost unable to be reproduced in resin. I truly believe we have found a fix for it, and the production is in progress. Slow tough...

Some time ago I asked via a poll how much you are interested in getting Spitfire noses in order to convert the ICM Spitfire to almost any Spitfire built.
Joël Ducasse did a great job on crafting those noses, and not only the noses, also all the small parts that come with the front area of the Spitfire. The propeller blades are so thin, that we are still trying to get them out nicely of the silicon forms. But a true eye catcher!
The first noses (trial shots) are here now, and for you to get a preview a photo attached here. (mouse over and enlarge)

The sets we plan to do are:

1: Mk VII, Mk VIII or Mk IX early
2: Mk XVI or Mk IX late
3: Mk X or Mk XI

All will have the prop blades, prop cone, air intakes for carburator, exhaust pipes and an instruction sheet.