Post by rick on Jan 25, 2011 17:41:44 GMT -5
I figure it's about time for me to post on here and put some mysteries to rest. I have purchased four of Bill Jorgenson's masters along with the rights to sell from him. The kits are the 1953-54 Vukovich Fuel Injection Spl., the 1957-58 Belond Spl., the 1977 Foyt Coyote, and the 1997 Indy Winner G-Force/Olds. My intentions were not to purchase and see these kits sit. Bill has been a friend of mine for ten years, a close friend I would say. I have seen & experienced the peaks & valley's that he has gone through. When he told me that he was thinking of getting out and that he was selling some masters I thought I would get involved, much the way Lance & his partner has.
So a little bit about me is in order I guess. My name is Rick Faeth and I live in Northern California. I have raced BCRA midgets for the last 16 years and have been at various times Secretary, Treasurer, & Vice-President of that fine association. I formed my own company Faeth Motorsports, Inc. and took over the operation of Shasta Raceway Park in 2007 as the promoter. We just completed our initial three year contract and have signed a five year extension with the fair board. I'm also the guy that did the 're-pop' of the Chris Etzel's Kurtis Midget in '06/'07 under the company heading of Vintage Indy Resin. Since this has been a topic of great debate here the last couple of days I will expound. The reason I did the 're-pop' was because being a midget driver/owner and being a vintage midget enthusiast I wanted to build more of these models since Chris included 12 different decals with the kit. I tried to contact Chris to purchase additional kits but by then Chris' website was down and he was no longer producing. I fell in love with this kit as well as Chris' Kuzma dirt car. Bill and I fostered a friendship since he used to race midgets and I do to. I approached Bill about showing me how to build a mold and cast resin. I built all the gear that you see on Lance's 'how to' page to make molds and cast resin. I also simplified the Kurtis kit a bit for the more mainstream modeler because lets face it anyone who opens up a resin kit the first time is no doubt a bit intimidated. I obtained my own white metal mold. After building all of the one's I wanted I had left over pieces since there was a minimum order for the white metal. So I thought there might be others out there that would also like to have this kit as well. First thing I did was try to get in touch with Chris. I first met Chris in 1998 at the Santa Clara IPMS show. His kits were stunning. We had lunch & I bought several of his kits. Subsequently any time Chris produced a kit I purchased at least one and sometimes two. Anyways, my first attempt to get in touch with Chris was to see if he would sell the master and the rights. I got no response to phone calls and emails. I tried to get Bill to see if he could/would be able to contact Chris but to no avail. I wrote (snail mail) letters to Chris next, again no response. When I came to the 500 Bill and I stopped by where Chris works/worked. The lady working up front said Chris could/would not see us, that he was busy. Interestingly about a week later the same lady called me in California to see if I would like to purchase racing t-shirts for my track. So I took it that since Chris would not respond to my request that he did not care. And to this day I don't think Chris cares since he never once asked me to cease. I also bought stuff from Chris off of ebay when he was cleaning house and he never expressed any dismay. So, I met Michael from Indycals and commissioned him to do what I thought was the 7 most popular decals for the Kurtis Midget. I produced all color directions and cast about 6 kits. Then put them on ebay. The response was good every kit I put on sold between $49 & $65 dollars. I then was contacted by a well known member of this board and commissioned to build him 6 additional kits. This member said the nose/grill was a bit off, and he was right. So I re-cast the whole body again. The second casting came out correct and I believe the member was pleased. I then did 6 more kits some went to Australia, England, and the Netherlands. I then started doing one-off casts and sold them off until I had sold a total of 23. Then for some reason nobody bid on them on ebay anymore so I stopped casting. I still have enough white metal to do 12 more and at least that many decals so I could produce more but with the new Revell 1/25 midget on the market why? I guess maybe there are some folks that would buy the re-pop, build it, and then use the remaining six decals on the Revell kit...? Anyways for the last three years at the track here in California we have hosted a three day vintage only show called the California Vintage Nationals, sprints, midgets, track roadsters, hardtops, supers, and champ cars. First year was tremendously succesful, second year okay, last year was off, due to economy. This event has been on Memorial Day Weekend so I have not been able to come back for the 500 since '07. This year I will be back for the 500, the plan is for me to get the masters from Bill then. He has already commissioned one white metal mold that will supply all four kits. He will also show me the intricacies of molding each kit. Then I will produce the kits.
I would like to say this about Lance's work. It is superb. Whenever Lance has produced a kit I have purchased it. I believe Lance's work is on par with what was once Chris' work. Bill is correct in his summation that Lance is the cornerstone of the industry. If things go well I may purchase more of Bill's masters. I suppose that's enough for now. Apologies for the length of this.
Rick Faeth
bcra91@netzero.net
So a little bit about me is in order I guess. My name is Rick Faeth and I live in Northern California. I have raced BCRA midgets for the last 16 years and have been at various times Secretary, Treasurer, & Vice-President of that fine association. I formed my own company Faeth Motorsports, Inc. and took over the operation of Shasta Raceway Park in 2007 as the promoter. We just completed our initial three year contract and have signed a five year extension with the fair board. I'm also the guy that did the 're-pop' of the Chris Etzel's Kurtis Midget in '06/'07 under the company heading of Vintage Indy Resin. Since this has been a topic of great debate here the last couple of days I will expound. The reason I did the 're-pop' was because being a midget driver/owner and being a vintage midget enthusiast I wanted to build more of these models since Chris included 12 different decals with the kit. I tried to contact Chris to purchase additional kits but by then Chris' website was down and he was no longer producing. I fell in love with this kit as well as Chris' Kuzma dirt car. Bill and I fostered a friendship since he used to race midgets and I do to. I approached Bill about showing me how to build a mold and cast resin. I built all the gear that you see on Lance's 'how to' page to make molds and cast resin. I also simplified the Kurtis kit a bit for the more mainstream modeler because lets face it anyone who opens up a resin kit the first time is no doubt a bit intimidated. I obtained my own white metal mold. After building all of the one's I wanted I had left over pieces since there was a minimum order for the white metal. So I thought there might be others out there that would also like to have this kit as well. First thing I did was try to get in touch with Chris. I first met Chris in 1998 at the Santa Clara IPMS show. His kits were stunning. We had lunch & I bought several of his kits. Subsequently any time Chris produced a kit I purchased at least one and sometimes two. Anyways, my first attempt to get in touch with Chris was to see if he would sell the master and the rights. I got no response to phone calls and emails. I tried to get Bill to see if he could/would be able to contact Chris but to no avail. I wrote (snail mail) letters to Chris next, again no response. When I came to the 500 Bill and I stopped by where Chris works/worked. The lady working up front said Chris could/would not see us, that he was busy. Interestingly about a week later the same lady called me in California to see if I would like to purchase racing t-shirts for my track. So I took it that since Chris would not respond to my request that he did not care. And to this day I don't think Chris cares since he never once asked me to cease. I also bought stuff from Chris off of ebay when he was cleaning house and he never expressed any dismay. So, I met Michael from Indycals and commissioned him to do what I thought was the 7 most popular decals for the Kurtis Midget. I produced all color directions and cast about 6 kits. Then put them on ebay. The response was good every kit I put on sold between $49 & $65 dollars. I then was contacted by a well known member of this board and commissioned to build him 6 additional kits. This member said the nose/grill was a bit off, and he was right. So I re-cast the whole body again. The second casting came out correct and I believe the member was pleased. I then did 6 more kits some went to Australia, England, and the Netherlands. I then started doing one-off casts and sold them off until I had sold a total of 23. Then for some reason nobody bid on them on ebay anymore so I stopped casting. I still have enough white metal to do 12 more and at least that many decals so I could produce more but with the new Revell 1/25 midget on the market why? I guess maybe there are some folks that would buy the re-pop, build it, and then use the remaining six decals on the Revell kit...? Anyways for the last three years at the track here in California we have hosted a three day vintage only show called the California Vintage Nationals, sprints, midgets, track roadsters, hardtops, supers, and champ cars. First year was tremendously succesful, second year okay, last year was off, due to economy. This event has been on Memorial Day Weekend so I have not been able to come back for the 500 since '07. This year I will be back for the 500, the plan is for me to get the masters from Bill then. He has already commissioned one white metal mold that will supply all four kits. He will also show me the intricacies of molding each kit. Then I will produce the kits.
I would like to say this about Lance's work. It is superb. Whenever Lance has produced a kit I have purchased it. I believe Lance's work is on par with what was once Chris' work. Bill is correct in his summation that Lance is the cornerstone of the industry. If things go well I may purchase more of Bill's masters. I suppose that's enough for now. Apologies for the length of this.
Rick Faeth
bcra91@netzero.net
