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The Grundel wrote:Keep this in mind, felony ruins your life. This kid owes you money but to take away his right to vote, own a gun, ect.. Is too much.

battle ready studios, it is totally inappropriate to plug yourself (for 5 paragraphs) and advertise in someone's thread about a negative experience and how to resolve it.

Really? All he has to do is return the models and money ... simple. If the charge goes through, it's through his personal inability to reach a settlement and he has no one to blame but himself.

I thought BRS' views on this matter have added far more to the thread than yours.

ruminator wrote:

The Grundel wrote:Keep this in mind, felony ruins your life. This kid owes you money but to take away his right to vote, own a gun, ect.. Is too much.

battle ready studios, it is totally inappropriate to plug yourself (for 5 paragraphs) and advertise in someone's thread about a negative experience and how to resolve it.

Really? All he has to do is return the models and money ... simple. If the charge goes through, it's through his personal inability to reach a settlement and he has no one to blame but himself.

I thought BRS' views on this matter have added far more to the thread than yours.

Completely agree. Felonies do ruin lives. However, he only has himself to blame. and BRS comments were spot on.

He may be charged with a felony. But, he should have no problem pleading down to a misdemeanor.

I wouldn't have any moral issues with reporting this to the police.

I've been busy. I went to the 11th's Company's tour last weekend, but I was able to file my case. As, to the felony charge, all this guy has to do is return my stuff. If he wants to avoid that, all he has to do is pick up the phone / email / meet me and it'll go away. He isn't doing these things. Maybe he sucks at life that much, but I'm trying to not go to court, but he seems to not be able to do anything other than that, hence I believe he wanted to steal from me from day 1. I don't have data to support any other conclusion. Plus, it isn't really my problem, soon it'll be between him and the State of Maryland.

Here are the newer posts via Facebook I've had with him, please note, he's gone off the grid again:

September 14Mike Krakosky Jr.
in couple of weeks

October 6Nick Evancich
Just checking in to see how things are coming along and when everything will be finished?

November 6Mike Krakosky Jr.
i am sorry my comp was down

November 6Nick Evancich
I want my models and $ back

November 6Mike Krakosky Jr.
ok
i will send them out to you as fast i can i am broke due to my comp and doctors bills

November 6Nick Evancich
Well, I have bad news for you. I filed a police report and MoCo has turned it into a theft charge. Tomorrow I'm filing small claims court papers.

It is outrages that it took 58 days for you to contact me. I called, emailed and drive over to your house

November 6Mike Krakosky Jr.
you don't have to do that

November 6Mike Krakosky Jr.
my comp was down and you have not been to my house
why are you charging me with threft

November 6Nick Evancich
You have my money and property. Why didn't you answer your phone?

Well the papers are getting filed tomorrow and I've already filed the police report and went to see the commissioner to get it turned into a charge. If you can make it right before, Monday morning, I'll drop the charge and not file the papers.

November 6Mike Krakosky Jr.
i don't have any money
i can give 150 on tues and another in 2 weeks

November 6Nick Evancich
How much of the work is completed?

November 6Nick Evancich
We both know that your computer being broken is simply an excuse, from your facebook stream, I can see that you were on-line between 9-14-11 and now. So, to me that means you were ignoring me. Because you were ignoring my attempts to contact you, I got the police involved.

Once I file charges against you, you magically come out from whatever rock you were hiding under, coincidence? I don’t think so. But, I don’t really care.

I don’t believe you had any intentions of painting my models. I asked many times for a work in progress picture and you didn’t send one.

I’m not dropping the charges until I get all of my money and models back (I’d be stupid to since you have shown a tendency to go off the grid). I will delay filing in small claims court for a couple of days.

Here is my proposal:
You show up at my office on Tuesday morning around 1100 with all of my models and whatever money (in cash, since there is no way I’d take a check or MO from you) you can scrap-up (your finical status is of no concern to me, since I’ll happily take this to court). I’ll give you the police report of your theft (and you can call MoCo and start dealing with them) and we will figure out a payment system for you to pay me back.

My office is:
3000 K St NW
Washington, DC

November 9Mike Krakosky Jr.
i am sorry that couldn't get to your office on tuesday
let me know when is the next time i can come to your office
i didn't get paid last night until after 1pm

Just take him to court already. He obviously thinks you aren't serious.

keep us posted evancich, hope it finally gets resolved.

hang in there!

nectarprime wrote:

The Grundel wrote:Keep this in mind, felony ruins your life. This kid owes you money but to take away his right to vote, own a gun, ect.. Is too much.

battle ready studios, it is totally inappropriate to plug yourself (for 5 paragraphs) and advertise in someone's thread about a negative experience and how to resolve it.

SO he should just let this kid get away with theft then? *rolleyes*

Battle Ready isn't advertizing at all, he's just stating his experience. Simmer down.

Indeed, and he isn't taking away his right to vote, own a gun, etc., the kid is forfeiting them through his own actions. He knows the consequences of going down this road and was given many opportunities to resolve it outside of legal action, and chose not to. The way this is being handled is 100% the right way.

If this were you, you wouldn't say "a thousand + dollars of mine were stolen, well, it's okay, I don't want the guy who stole them to get arrested or anything, just forget about it".

Uhhh I saw these fellows at Philcon today. If they are there tomorrow I will grab a picture. I am looking at the picture on his fb page for the date of 8/31. I know it was him because the 2 in the photo were together.

inquisitorlewis wrote:Uhhh I saw these fellows at Philcon today. If they are there tomorrow I will grab a picture. I am looking at the picture on his fb page for the date of 8/31. I know it was him because the 2 in the photo were together.

Thank you for the vigilance!

I mentioned it because he claims to be broke. The convention membership is 50 dollars I believe.

I remember faces because I am vending there. I know it was those 2 100%.

Thanks, if you see him again, ask him to call me

Did not see him today. Sorry I hadnt made the connection sooner.

My advice is to avoid all communication with him. Let the police handle it from here on out. I have a feeling this is not his first rodeo so him communicating with you is planned, and it might bite you. If he contacts you again, tell him he needs to contact the police department you filed the report with. Or what ever they told you to do.

You have my support Evancich.

I agree that Battle Ready hasnt done anything wrong, relax Grundel, and yes felonies are a dangerous thing to your life, so try to avoid getting them. Fraud would be something i probably would avoid...

Jesus, just read the entire thread. Really hope you get your stuff back.

Is this the same guy that "the eternal warriors" podcast were pimping a while back?

The Grundel wrote:Keep this in mind, felony ruins your life. This kid owes you money but to take away his right to vote, own a gun, ect.. Is too much.

battle ready studios, it is totally inappropriate to plug yourself (for 5 paragraphs) and advertise in someone's thread about a negative experience and how to resolve it.

He took away his own rights when he committed a felony and broke the law.

Keep up hunting this guy down, he's obviously a scammer.

So, I drove over to Mike's house today. He was home (he lives with his parents, they answered the door). He gave me my models back. I asked him how much of the work was completed and he said 85%. I gave him a copy of the police report I filed. And I drove home.

I unpacked everything when I got home. 2 of the boxes I sent him were unopened. The army transports I sent him still had the packing peanuts in the trays, which means to me that he did not open or paint anything. Also, everything smells like smoke now.

I'm not dropping the charges (to the folks that are claiming it is civil vs criminal, they are ignorant of the law {my work address is in this thread, google that and you see that I work for one of the most prestigious law firms in DC [it became criminal when somebody can get the state interested in the case and if you know folks in that line of work it is easy]}). I'm not dropping the suit.

All this guy had to do was to return my models and money. Obviously he spent the money and do 0 work on the project, so I'm not sure why he thinks he is entitled to my $.

To sum up:
I asked him for months after the project was overdue to return my stuff & $
He did not
I got the police involved
He started talking to me again
I asked for him to return my stuff, he did not
I drove over and got it back

I paid for this adventure, how was that my fault?

evancich wrote:So, I drove over to Mike's house today. He was home (he lives with his parents, they answered the door). He gave me my models back. I asked him how much of the work was completed and he said 85%. I gave him a copy of the police report I filed. And I drove home.

I unpacked everything when I got home. 2 of the boxes I sent him were unopened. The army transports I sent him still had the packing peanuts in the trays, which means to me that he did not open or paint anything. Also, everything smells like smoke now.

I'm not dropping the charges (to the folks that are claiming it is civil vs criminal, they are ignorant of the law {my work address is in this thread, google that and you see that I work for one of the most prestigious law firms in DC [it became criminal when somebody can get the state interested in the case and if you know folks in that line of work it is easy]}). I'm not dropping the suit.

All this guy had to do was to return my models and money. Obviously he spent the money and do 0 work on the project, so I'm not sure why he thinks he is entitled to my $.

To sum up:
I asked him for months after the project was overdue to return my stuff & $
He did not
I got the police involved
He started talking to me again
I asked for him to return my stuff, he did not
I drove over and got it back

I paid for this adventure, how was that my fault?

Don't worry, I think it's just been one solo poster that's felt that criminal charges are "too harsh". The truth is that he brought this on himself, and actions have consequences.

Good luck getting everything resolved, and out of curiosity, he stated 85% was done, you mentioned stuff that wasn't done, but I'm not clear, was ANYTHING painted or done? This doesn't change the matter of him not delivering and keeping your money, but I find myself curious.

Yeah, so this army is off to Blue Table Painting. Shawn, is so far the only painting service that I trust / rely on.

Mike @ the Painting Apocicary is a scammer.

I've had nothing but trouble with Painted Figs.

The only great experience I've had is with Shawn at Blue Table Painting. If it wasn't for him and his company, I would have given up on this painting service idea.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@targetawg, to the best I can tell he painted 0 (no) models

Glad to see you got your items back. Hopefully you get your money back from him in court. Don't back down.

Firstly, well done on getting your stuff back and sticking to your guns. A lot of people whinge and complain when these things happen but aren't willing to put a bit of effort in to get a resolution.

evancich wrote:Yeah, so this army is off to Blue Table Painting. Shawn, is so far the only painting service that I trust / rely on.

Mike @ the Painting Apocicary is a scammer.

I've had nothing but trouble with Painted Figs.

The only great experience I've had is with Shawn at Blue Table Painting. If it wasn't for him and his company, I would have given up on this painting service idea.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@targetawg, to the best I can tell he painted 0 (no) models

This is a real shame. I'm seeing more and more scammers lately when it comes to commission painters / converters.
It aggravates and infuriates me to see such tarnishing of a service that many companies and individuals work hard to polish. I guess people just really need to take a step back and really research their potential service provider before committing.

~Ghost

@Ghost, sure.

I went with Painted Figs in 2008 due to the D6 Generation recommending them. Plus, their prices were very low. I sent them around $10k and 5 armies. After 3 years, I got 1/2 a Space Marine army and 1/2 an ork army back. I've offered to pay Navin to ship the rest (probably 2k models) back, but he keeps falling thru. So, I'm probably going to have to re-buy that DKoK army that he has of mine and all the Warmachine and Firstorm stuff.

Mike (that this thread is about) was recommended by the 11th Company and Eternal Warriors. Mike lies, is a thief, and doesn't seem to answer email or calls, hence he is a scammer.

Shawn, at Blue Table Painting, I found during a google search for painting services, when I was looking into using Painted Figs, years ago. I went with Painted Figs due to price. Shawn is more expensive, but not that much more. Plus, (which is the most important), he gets the project done. I've had hundreds of models painted by him.

So, this experience has taught me that: don't listen to advertisers on podcasts and only use painting services that show results.

Part of the reason this thread piqued my interest from the get go was that I met Mike at the NOVA briefly this year when he came by my army on display. When he heard me mention that I sculpted/cast the bases I made for my army, he chatted with me for a minute or two and asked me to consider doing some sculpting/casting for him, and gave me a card for his "business".

I'm leery about turning my hobby into a business, and so I didn't end up contacting him, also, I want to be careful who I work with.

Turns out, it was a very good thing I decided to be careful, and seeing this thread of yours definitely made up my mind 100%, which is a good thing.

I'd never use a commission painting service, just because it's one of the (if not the) biggest part of the hobbies for me that I enjoy. However if I did, even I think I'd stick to the big name guys like GMM/BTP/etc, which is a shame. I've painted commission before myself for friends and various folks on the internet over the years, and people who scam/don't follow through/refuse to make their mistakes right, make it very very hard for the "little guy" to get into the business, as people are just very reluctant to trust them (for good reason).

evancich wrote:@Ghost, sure.

I went with Painted Figs in 2008 due to the D6 Generation recommending them. Plus, their prices were very low. I sent them around $10k and 5 armies. After 3 years, I got 1/2 a Space Marine army and 1/2 an ork army back. I've offered to pay Navin to ship the rest (probably 2k models) back, but he keeps falling thru. So, I'm probably going to have to re-buy that DKoK army that he has of mine and all the Warmachine and Firstorm stuff.

Mike (that this thread is about) was recommended by the 11th Company and Eternal Warriors. Mike lies, is a thief, and doesn't seem to answer email or calls, hence he is a scammer.

Shawn, at Blue Table Painting, I found during a google search for painting services, when I was looking into using Painted Figs, years ago. I went with Painted Figs due to price. Shawn is more expensive, but not that much more. Plus, (which is the most important), he gets the project done. I've had hundreds of models painted by him.

So, this experience has taught me that: don't listen to advertisers on podcasts and only use painting services that show results.

Fair dinkum. My condolences mate because you have no luck at all >_<

BTP, as much as they have their 'haters', have got to be the most reliable painting service I've ever heard of. Consistent quality, consistent turn around and generally good customer service. Sure, there are services that can get you a 'better' paint job, but I don't think you can go past BTP for the things that matter
~Ghost

evancich wrote:@Ghost, sure.

I went with Painted Figs in 2008 due to the D6 Generation recommending them. Plus, their prices were very low. I sent them around $10k and 5 armies. After 3 years, I got 1/2 a Space Marine army and 1/2 an ork army back. I've offered to pay Navin to ship the rest (probably 2k models) back, but he keeps falling thru. So, I'm probably going to have to re-buy that DKoK army that he has of mine and all the Warmachine and Firstorm stuff.

Mike (that this thread is about) was recommended by the 11th Company and Eternal Warriors. Mike lies, is a thief, and doesn't seem to answer email or calls, hence he is a scammer.

Shawn, at Blue Table Painting, I found during a google search for painting services, when I was looking into using Painted Figs, years ago. I went with Painted Figs due to price. Shawn is more expensive, but not that much more. Plus, (which is the most important), he gets the project done. I've had hundreds of models painted by him.

So, this experience has taught me that: don't listen to advertisers on podcasts and only use painting services that show results.

You sent $10,000 and 5 armies all at once to a commission painter, you had never used? Word to the wise man, maybe start with just 1 new time and not sending them $10,000... I'm sorry you got ripped off, but I can see why. The fact is, people scam, because they can get away with it.

I hear so many horror stories of X being ripped off by Y, but except in this case (The OP) I rarely see anyone follow through and have any legal action done.

The fact that so many people let it slide, is why some of these kids think they can get away with it. They read about some guy on Dakka who is going to send him $1000s up front and an entire army to do work and of course, his eyes get big and his sense flies out the window. It's not right, but, the reason people scam, is because they can get away with it. Don't let them, ever.

@IdentifyZero: No, I sent Painted Figs a Space Hulk job, which they did a great job on. Then I sent them my Descent figs, which they did a great job on.

Then I sent 1/2 of my UM's, which they did a great job on and ditto with my Orks.

After 10 or so successfully completed projects, I felt comfortable and went all in. This was the time Navin ran into some business trouble.

I know the story and have independent data to collaborate the story, so I believe. Basically, he hired the wrong person and that person caused his business to implode.

If I would have sent all that stuff and money 6 months before I did, I would have had everything painted and painted well.

But, as it stands, Navin is doing what he can to stay afloat and packing up and shipping back 2k models is not high on his list of things to do.

You can go here: http://www.paintedfigs.com/gallery/complete

Search on my name and see all the stuff he painted for me.

I don't really care all that much about money (my wife and I are both independently wealthy); I want to have every 40k army (and Firestorm and Warmachine / Hordes) painted with every possible combination of FoC, and I don't want to paint them myself. I have the models to do this, I just need them painted.

That said, I didn't really go after Mike for the $, I went after him because he wronged me and I'm tired of being wronged by painting services.

+1 for independently wealthy.

On a serious note, I have followed this thread for a long time and it's been really interesting. I feel for you, having to deal with person(s) like him.

Regarding the painting services and all the scammers, there should be a thread here on DD with recommended services and their current status...

evancich wrote:
But, as it stands, Navin is doing what he can to stay afloat and packing up and shipping back 2k models is not high on his list of things to do.

Wrong.

This should have been his priority. Packing the stuff back up and getting it returned. Bad business practices and issues are not the problem of the consumer.

I'm glad you're independently wealthy as well and I'm happy that you're willing to take a loss from Navin and co because you're so rich. Not sure what the relevance to the topic is or that anyone cares about your financial status, I'm sure many browsers and posters on Dakka have more then some of us realize, they just know something called humility or even in this case, being humble goes a very long way.

If you were talking like that to this guy, is it any wonder he decided to rip you off after bragging about your wealth?


EDIT: I have been on your side this entire topic and I still don't endorse any theft, even the one committed by Navin and co. However, that has to be one of the most conceited comments on these forums I've ever heard from anyone regarding your wife and yourselfs Independent wealthiness.

evancich wrote:
I don't really care all that much about money (my wife and I are both independently wealthy);