Well I am not real happy to have to bring this to everyone’s attention but as you can see from the Following AEF Designs is not Honest in it’s dealings and has stiffed me for over 6 months now! I ordered 3 Half Track Conversions from Tony Engelhart back in November last year, I asked if they were in-stock and here is the reply I got from him: “All are in stock. If you can use a Postal money order that would be great.” Which I did on 17 November 2006 in the Amount of $116.60. Now remember they are supposed to be in-stock by Tony’s own word! Now December comes and goes still nothing? So I E-mail Tony again on 3 January 2007with the following: Hi Tony ,Back on 17 Nov 06 I sent payment for the following items ,1.) WA-8 - US M-3/105mm Half-Track Conversion $27.50 ,2.) WA-5 - US 75mm M-3 Half-Track Conversion $38.50 ,3.) WA-6 - US 40mm Bofors Half-Track Conversion $40.00 ,By USPS Money Order in the amount of $116.50 now they were to be Christmas Presents but that has passed. I was wondering when I can expect them to be shipped? ,Cheers Jeff. His reply was: Jeff, The WA-8 and WA-6 was shipped in-between blizzards. The mold failed on WA-5 while producing your order. I will, hopefully, get out out to you in the next 10 days. Tony, Now this is a month and a Half since he was paid for items he said were in-stock! And I did get the two items. # weeks later! But Still have not received the WA-5 75mm Halftrack Conversion. He now refuses to even respond to my inquires about the item or even offer a refund, He seems to think once he is paid it is his and you no longer matter. So I was forced to Report him the The USPS Postal Inspectors who say his correspondence proves intent to Defraud. I will also be reporting his illegal Activities to his Local Law Enforcement as well. So be warned that AEF Designs is not an Honest Company and does not follow the Law in it’s dealings. BEWARE of Dealing with AEF Designs!
Sorry
Jeff Larkin

Jeff-- thanks for the warning. Avoid minefields when you see explosions on the horizon.
DJ

I tried ordering from them some time ago and received nothing. Fortunately I didn't pay them anything.

You might as well tack this nest to the Ken Myers thread. I've dealt with this guy since '91, when I received two resin Sho't upgrades. Most of the parts were unusable, but I managed to redo a lot of them, and made them into fairly good models. His response when I complained about the warped upper hulls was that it happens, and a good modeler knows that and can fix them. Being naive, as it they were my first resin kits, I ordered more parts from him, but received the wrong parts. He promised me several times to remedy the problem but never did. He sent me three CLAMs units, when all I wanted was three oil pump stowage boxes (quite small) I guess he figured I should be happy I got more than I paid for.
I took a chance a few years ago and ordered from him again. Mediocre quality parts, mot of which are blatant copies of Tamiya parts with MINOR upgrades (T-54 turret) and lots of missing parts (L33 Howitzer) He told me on the phone he would get the missing parts to me right away, and I've never heard from him again. Here's an interesting snippet from a letter dated 30 Jan 1996:
" I apologize for the delay in responding to your fax. AEF is a part time venture for me and any amount of time is finite. As to your comments and concerns about quality, the simplest response for me is if you want something done right, do it yourself. For years I had employees..." Blah, blah, blah...
Anyone got his address? I'm driving to Denver tomorrow for a vehicle extraction class.

ETA: Here's the address on the fax-
14413 East 74th Ave.
Denver

Stil correct?

Well here is the new one: 11107 County Road #3 Kirk Colorado 80824
Hope it helps but hey let the Postal inspectors get him! I hear He is a Cop so much the better that a crooked Cop goes down! Really pisses me off as I am sure he uses it as a shield to practice his thivery.
My 2 Cents
Jeff

You guys need to keep us informed on the progress you achieve with this fellow. I sure hope the word gets spread around.
thanks again
DJ

To those of us who've been around a while, AEF=a decent place to start for scratchbuilding patterns. Sadly, he is/was the only sourece for many conversion sets, including, IIRC, the only M728 conversion.

All well and good if you get what you pay for? But Him saying he has it and taking your money and not delivering on it is just not good in my Book? Might be the only place for some items but he don't send them so I would not recommend him??? (JUst being Humorous I know you are not supporting him)

Actually Using the FSM article scratching a M728 isn't all that dificult.

This seems to be a reoccurring theme on several sites over the years.
Again, hopefully some day he'll get his act together.

Well, truth be told, this wouldn't be the first time a good seller has gone bad, due to financial or other problems. And unfortunately, I doubt that any vendor that has gone bad should be expected to become good again.

Just call me a senile old optimist, as I believe that anyone that has turned the wrong way, can again turn the right way.

Jeff, I feel your pain...I've dealt with Tony Englehart, the owner/operator of AEF, on more than one occassion. I can echo what 18B said. I have done my fair share of casting parts myself, and the problems that AEF has are easy fixes, and yes, a lot of what comes out of there is a rip off of slightly modified kit parts. He simply demolds them too damn fast, the resin isn't fully cured and as such, warps. I have been to his house, well, more like a dump to pick up a kit. Very cluttered, messy etc. As with others here, my kit was supposed to be "in stock" yet when I got there to pay for it, pick it up, he was just pulling it out of the molds. It was still curing when he handed me the box. I pulled the parts out and set them down on something flat while I killed time with some small talk. Didn't help much, but I did ensure I got all of what I paid for. As far as I know, Tony is a DOD cop, or at least he was. The suggestion about the postal inspectors is your best bet. To sum things up, lousy customer service, and mediocre product at best. How he has stayed in business this long is beyond me. I wish I had the molds he does. He has the opportunity to do extremely well if he was to get his QA and customer service issues fixed. Will he?? Beats me.
I have seen AEF stuff that was donated from somebody at a contest for the raffle, be left on the table at the end of the day. They couldn't even givbe it away If that doesn't speak volumes itself, I don't know what would. "Q"

I looked at their site. Interesting footnote:

My grannie was right. Things will catch up to you. Maybe not today, but some day. Go figure. "Q"