AEROGRAMME HOME > AEROGRAMME #11 [Sent 21st December 2024]
Seasons Greetings
Hello Friends
Welcome to the final Aerogramme of 2024.
I think it’s fair to say we’re all pretty exhausted here at VMC after what has been an extremely busy Christmas season.
We closed the workshop doors yesterday at 1pm and will return at 9am on Monday 6th January 2025.
You can still order from the website and we’ll be monitoring email, but no orders will be despatched until we return on the 6th.
Last week we had our workshop Christmas “do” where we joined up with our neighbour and former collaborator James from Project Air along with his team. We were also joined by Andrew Darby, designer of our Magnificent Flying Machines range. It’s a shame that our other remote team member Chris Long lives so far away, as it would have been great to have him there too.
A great time was had by all and I was uncharacteristically selfless in demolishing a second helping of Bread & Butter pudding that was going spare.
What’s a man to do when no-one else could step up to the plate? 😜
Before we are completely done for the year, Tim and I have one last task - breaking down the market stall at Blenheim Palace tomorrow night.
We make the 3 hour drive down in the afternoon but don’t get to start dismantling the display until at least 9:30pm. We will then have the long drive back to Derbyshire before we can finally call it quits.
Thank you to all of you who visited us at the various markets this year. It was really lovely to meet so many of you in person.
GPSR Woes
Well this one has snuck up on us in a most insidious way.
It could be that we’re guilty of extreme inattention, but seemingly out of the blue on the 13th December 2024, a new set of product safety regulations came into force for the EU and Northern Ireland.
Snappily entitled EU Regulation on General Product Safety (2023/988) or GPSR for short, the regulations impose a set of onerous and no doubt expensive requirements for all manufacturers and suppliers of goods into the EU and Northern Ireland.
There are various fines/custodial sentences etc. for those transgressing these regulations but the most likely penalty is that goods will be turned away at EU borders if they don’t comply or lack proper documentation.
There are two particularly tricky elements to compliance: one is that every product will have to have safety labelling and documentation in all 24 languages of the EU and second, that UK businesses must have a legally “responsible person” who is a resident of the EU to act as a liaison with the EU authorities on product safety matters.
The upshot of this is that, like a growing number of UK small businesses, we will have to stop supplying to the EU and Northern Ireland for the time being.
So just to be clear, you can no longer order from our website if your delivery address is in the EU or Northern Ireland.
Obviously this is less than ideal.
We will be taking advice in the new year and doing everything we can to ensure that we can comply with the new regulations. I imagine it will take at least a few weeks to get this sorted out so please bear with us…
A Final Thought
On a lighter note, Martin Pike sent in this quotation from Frank Zaic:
When you build a model plane from scratch, you put part of your life into the effort.
You fly such a model.
Elated when it performs superbly.
You excuse it when it performs just so-so.
And you cry when it is crushed by the envious earth.
Such feelings money cannot buy.
Hear! Hear!
COMMUNITY BUILDS BEST OF 2024
As this is the last Aerogramme of 2024, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of the excellent builds you lovely people have sent in to us over the past year.
January
VMC Tiger Moth by Ramses De Loof
February
KK Grumman F9F Panther by Eddy Dark
March
Veron Sentinel by Trevor Tabor
April
KK Auster Arrow & VMC Jodel D18 by Joseph Hascoet\
May
KK Talon by Chris Caruana
June
F.R.O.G Raven by Andy Sephton
July
VMC Romany by Stuart Marsden
August
F.R.O.G. Tomtit by Julio Isidro
September
VMC Westland Lysander by Barry Scollay
October
VMC Fokker DVIII by Paul Briggs
November
VMC Messerschmitt Bf-109 by Martin Pike
December
Aerographics Gloster Gladiator by Barry Scollay
As you can all see, there’s some serious talent out there.
Why not have a bash yourself next year and send in pics of your models to us at sales@vintagemodelcompany.com.
We’d all love to see what you can do.
All that remains is for me to thank you for your custom this year and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
All the best
Hadi & the VMC Team
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