http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a9d6c9feeb404498732dab770&id=5f954f9aef&e=61dfa6b239
" We have received our German Set 3 from China and are in the middle of QC, and will be sending out the pre-ordered sets next week. We will not be offering future pieces in sets but only in pieces in quantity of 5 so please be aware. You will see the sets slowly going away. We have had a major issue with these pieces, we have had 100% failure on the Bismarck and Leipzig ships so these 2 pieces will not be for sale BUT they will be included in the pre-ordered sets plus 2 extra Panzer IV tanks and 2 extra Panzer V tanks to compensate for the defective pieces. We are very sorry about this but it is beyond our control."
Soooo… that is really bad news. I assume this is part of the reason to stop selling full sets.
100% failure sounds to me like the pieces are very warped or disfigured somehow. Apparently they are okay enough to include in the pre-orders but not for individual sale? I don’t quite understand. Very unfortunate since both of these were pieces I was REALLY looking forward to getting. Kudos to HBG for including extra tanks to compensate for the problem pieces.
Couple questions for HBG should they be inclined to answer: (1) Any chance of these molds being included or revised for future re-production? (2) If not, could these models be made available through Shapeways (in their appropriate A&A/Battle Pieces scale)?