Wingnut Wings has issued a cease and desist letter to Border Models to halt its upcoming release of the former WNW 1/32 Lancaster kit, according to a Kitlinx blast email of 6 November. US-based attorneys acting on behalf of WNW issued the cease and desist notice, which Kitlinx received.
WNW’s move would effectively halt distribution and sales of the kit in the US, but its reach beyond the US is unclear. It’s possible that the kit may still be available in markets outside of the US, and it’s extremely likely that WNW may not be able to halt kit production and/or sales within China, where intellectual property and commercial law favors native Chinese interests and does not neatly align with the practices of much of the industrialized world. In other words, enforcing a cease & desist in China is really hard.
One thing is certain: the fabled WNW/Border Models 1/32 Lancaster kit just became harder to get, if not impossible. Thanks to its exorbitant price and large display footprint, not many of us were going to buy one anyway. But for those who must have one, be ready to do without, or be ready to look to one of many China-based hobby sellers who are already doing a brisk gray-market e-commerce trade.
Sprue Pie With Frets 
That’ll stir things somewhat!!
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Wow this will sound like thunder to hobby.
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You. An probably now add a zero to the sale price. 🧐
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Not to get too much into a spat that I know nothing about, but the C&D letter is little more than a nasty letter with a strongly worded demand. There are many more steps involved before this little disagreement could affect the sale of kits in the US.
Now, I am no expert in US federal court practice but should this escalate to an injunction on the sale of the kit, then the WNW lawyers would need to show an overwhelmingly solid claim on the copyright ownership and convince a court that WNW would suffer extraordinary harm if the sale of the kit was allowed to proceed.
Considering the demise of WNW and the murky nature of offshore agreements, they might have some difficulty here.
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You are correct–a Cease and Desist letter does not carry the full weight of an injunction or other court order, so compliance with a C&D is something like voluntary or discretionary. More like a threat of a lawsuit, which might scare off distributors and dealers who don’t want trouble–or maybe attract a few speculation-minded buyers. Most of the US hobby industry tends to defer to C&D letters, and at least one model railroad manufacturer I can think of who openly flouted a C&D effectively went out of business. (Meanwhile a local hobby shop that bought a case of said forbidden stock did well selling the rare sought-after item for years to come.)
Kitlinx’ statement, for its part, appears to indicate cooperation and deference to WNW. My presumption is that most US-based distributors and dealers already view a large, expensive kit like the Lancaster as burdensome, slow-moving overhead, and that a legal threat (credibility admittedly unknown, as you point out) makes stocking it even less attractive.
You are also correct in that this C&D doesnt make much of a difference in any event–any fanatic, regardless of geography, who ‘needs’ the Lancaster will find a way to get it. This story would be different if the kit were another, more conventional subject expected to sell in much higher volume at a more accessible price point–imagine a world where a Tamiya Phantom or P-38 or Hellcat were subject to a C&D or injunction.
Certainly adds to the WNW Lancaster ‘legend’ though, doesn’t it?
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Would it be fair to say the team at Wingnut wings received the sample from the mold company and it wasn’t up to scratch, so requested it be up to their usual standard and the mold company said errr yea na this is what ya get and thats where it all went pear shape? guess there is a lot of dollars at stake if a mold is not correct, who pays?. only another theory.
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