"Mark Lowther - Unfeasibly Miniatures" Topic

Does anyone have a line to Mark Lowther – Unfeasibly Miniatures ? His KS has gone stoney cold and the backers are getting twitchy. If he's wrecking an established business to bilk 61 gamers of 2,300 GBP he needs to see a shrink.

OTOH if he's in personal trouble we are entitled to know whats going on.

His website is still up unfeasibly.co.uk/news so any sort of news would be welcome.

If that fails he's about a 30 min drive from me and I'm not busy on Sunday ….

No idea bout the KS but I just started stocking teh Colonials stuff, via Black Hat. Had no problems….

I thought Black Hat had that line now?

Black Hat produce it under license I believe, they do not own the range.

Unfeasibly Miniatures disappeared without explanation for about 5 years and for a long time had the site open and taking orders. The range was/is excellent but the owner has form for dropping away and going silent.
Like the OP says, most people are understanding as long as there's some communication.
I hope it gets sorted out.

You can contact Kickstarter directly and they will take action to sort it out.

Sadly, looks like. Mr Lowther has taken the money and walked away. He's not replying to messages on the KS page, or on the Unfeasibly site. It's particularly irritating that, if his personal FB page is anything to go by, he's happily getting on with the rest of his life, with no evidence of any traumatic personal event that might somehow excuse his behaviour.

Needless to say, KS have taken no action despite several complaints.

It's inexplicable given that the KS seemed to be in its final pre-shipment phase, with the majority of the figures and moulds completed – I've mentally written off my relatively small pledge, which is a real shame, as it was a nice idea.

I wonder if FB might be a way to get to him.

I was tempted to start posting comments on his timeline, asking whether he'd spent our KS money on the gazebo he's just built in his garden, our the 'build a longbow' course he went on last month, or to pay his annual membership for his running club, but that seemed a bit over the top.

I don't see what's wrong with that. Name & shame I say.

… and on the 5th day of Christmas …

I know Mark as an acquaintance. I suspect he is having some issues but I would not consider him dishonest.

Give the man a break and I'll try to drop him a line and see how things are. Put the pitchforks away for now…

Guy

His silence makes your suggestion implausible unless he starts replying to the many messages he's been sent …. Then of course there is the matter of the missing figures.

Thanks for your help Guy.

Out of the blue, a feedback request from Mark, asking for confirmation of delivery address and promising the goods by end of December.

No updates on the KS page though.

Let's see what happens next…

Yup got that as well. My pledge was for Germans and Brits and a personality pack so I'm wanting for more information.

Same here. I don't mind the delay at all, but the lack of communication can be troubling.

This is why I'll never partake of a KS.

10 days further down the line and it's all gone quiet again – no follow up email or pledge manager form from Mark, so I'm not sure how he'll know what to pack and despatch to each of us, and keep to his December delivery commitment.

Gecoren/Guy could you again passon our concern please ? On 12th Dec Mark posted an update on the KS which included the following

"The first batch for delivery will be in the post to backers for w/c 19th December 2016, there will be an update when they are sent."

Apart from an email asking for address confirmations, so far nothing. Not even an email asking what we want for the money we shelled out ….

Acctingman1869,

If this KS goes bad it is not the norm. Yes, I keep my KS participation mostly to fill niches (Reaper Bones, Ral Partha Chaos Wars, small groups of figures,) instead of $100 USD+ but people forget this is investing not buying. Risk only what you are willing to possibly lose. KS's are not for everyone's comfort zone but properly done they mostly are fulfilling.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Mark Lowther sent to me…

Absolutely nothing. Not an email, not an apology and certainly no lead.

It's not the money, it's the principle of the thing: looks like he did the barest minimum necessary to get people off his back short-term.

The sooner he sells Unfeasibly to a more responsible and professional operator, the better.

I'm tempted to take out a small claims order and drag him to court. If he doesn't respond the bill goes up and he gets a CCJ on his record.

We seek him here…we seek him there…

It's Unfeasible (sic) that someone should trash his reputations and that of his business for such a small amount.

If you're thinking of buying some of his FFL/Tuareg figures, you can still buy with confidence from Mike at Black Hat: excellent service as always!

Guthroth, looking back to your OP, you planning a weekend visit anytime soon?

By the way, having trawled the LAF archives, seems Mark has some Previous for this sort of thing – back in 2008 and 2010 he dropped out of sight leaving a load of unfulfilled orders and unpaid sculpting bills behind him, according to other posters.

Does not look good.

After double checking he lives much further away than I thought.

Over the weekend though I have left posts on his personal and business Facebook pages.

Social Media has enormous power nowadays, so let's see how that goes.

Hmmm. Lo and behold an update promising figures in the post this week. Fingers crossed …..

I wouldn't hold your breath G, we've been here before and his update is rather lacking in any apology or explanation for his abject failure to both communicate and meet his commitments to date.

Another update, and signs of shipment. He still hasn't asked for details of what I want though.

Another fortnight, and apparently 2 figures have gone out. Wow ! More posted to his FB page, I am quite determined ..

Where's the Facebook page?

Good luck guys. I don't like hearing these ks stories.

I think Guthroth is referring to Mark's personal FB page rather than the Unfeasibly Miniatures one.

This is becoming a lesson in how not to run a KS: late, poor communication, no real explanations or apologies.

It's a pity, because the figures look great, though news of the new Perry plastic Brits in HS helmets may make many of them redundant.

Agreed. Poor show, and I hope lessons are learned. Polite but pointed – even barbed – posts on his personal FB page do seem to be bearing fruit however.

Sad to say but Mark is still giving us all the runaround. Despite promises of immediate deliveries it looks as if only a handful of single figure orders have been shipped and the majority of orders remain unfulfilled.

Communication has been non-existent, he's not logged onto KS for two weeks (and ignored the various comments and questions raised since his last visit).

Despite pictures of moulds and boxes of cast figures, I'm beginning to doubt whether he's got the means to meet his commitments – I wonder who his sculptor i(maybe Martin Baker?) and caster are and whether they've been paid?

However, the rest of his life seems to continue unaffected so not quite sure why possible reason he's got for trashing the reputation of Unfeasibly Miniatures over such a small amount of money.

IMPORTANT NOTE: none of the above should be considered critical of Black Hat Miniatures, who produce Unfeasibly's earlier FFL range under licence. I've had excellent service from Mike and he's the only way I'd buy anything from Unfeasibly in the future – if only Mark had handed over the project to him as soon as he realised he couldn't commit the time to it.

If anyone can make contact with Mark again and give him a shove to man up and face his critics, I'd be very grateful.

SIGH. He did email me directly on 1st Feb asking for details of what I wanted, but nothing so far. Maybe some more pointed comments on his FB page are called for. It does seem to provoke a response.

Still nothing but tumbleweed rolling down the street – no updates, no replies to comments left or PMs sent, and no figures (for me, at least – seems a handful of orders have gone out).

And the frustration is, there's no real apparent excuse or explanation – from the little we know of him on t'internet, he holds down a full time professional job, has a wife and nice home, is clearly not unwell – he manages to go running almost every day (13 hours in February that could have been spent packing and dispatching).

Crazy to destroy the good name of a small, niche brand of very nice figures over little more than £2.00 GBPk and 60-odd orders. Bloody idiot.

Still nothing :-(

Seems a few more orders went out in February but we're no better informed than we were more than a month ago.

Guy/Gecoren, if you read this, can you give Mark a shove, it's getting ridiculous. No updates or responses to questions asked on all his sites, even after logging in, it's now a year since the KS was funded. Yet he's still avidly pursuing his other hobbies, so no evidence of any real life crisis that might have prevented him communicating with his backers.

Sorry you guys are going through a KS hell.

unfeasibly.co.uk/news
"
This Account has been suspended.
Contact your hosting provider for more information.
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Just so I'm clear, if you give money to a ks project they can take the money and run and nothing anyone can do about it….?

Other than perhaps give them a good kicking if feasible!!

Only if they're an inherently dishonest and untrustworthy person.

"Other than perhaps give them a good kicking if feasible!!"

Or unfeasibly in this case.

I'll get my coat.

It would appear that the rumour about Black Hat taking over the fulfilling this KS are true.

There was an apologetic posting from Mr Lowther on the KS last night and this morning I have received an email from him copying Mike at Black Hat asking me to confirm my pledge.

As has been said many times KS delays are part of the game and even 1 year late isn't too outrageous if the promoter keeps backers informed.