Would you be able to provide photos of the effected Tactical Gray cases? Personally, I'm uninterested in any of the powder choices, and even more uninterested in not getting a case.
For those who didn't get the email but are are curious: some of the tactical gray cases (bead-blast only, not brushed) came back with a slight mismatch between the two halves of the case. Those photos above show the issue on the affected cases. The issue isn't really visible in natural light, which is why I think the inspectors missed it. However, as you can see in the second photo, it's more noticeable in warm light. This at least makes me feel good about my choice to do a final in-person inspection, as I was the only one of the three parties who inspected these to catch the issue.
Some people might not be troubled by this cosmetic flaw, but I don’t consider these cases to be up to my personal standard of quality, so I couldn’t in good conscience send them out to folks without first offering an alternative. I'm giving folks the option of a powder coat upgrade, a partial refund and the case, or a full refund and no case.
A couple of the gray cases did come back with a correct match, so you're only affected if you ordered a bead-blasted tactical gray and didn't get a shipment confirmation already (I've been sending emails to affected people today and just have a few left to send). In order to be fair, I selected who got the good gray ones based on the sequence in which people ordered.
If your order is affected, another option for those committed to getting an anodized case is you can just ask me to put you in r2.5 for a silver or black case, but that would mean waiting at least another month. I didn't even mention that option in my email because I couldn't in good conscience ask people to wait even longer. But if you're fine with it, of course I am too.
Unfortunately, I'm not offering blue or gray next time as anodized colors. Anything other than clear/silver or black just causes way too many problems to be worth it when one needs two chunks of aluminum of different volumes and surface areas that need to match. Getting a correct color match on the blue color greatly delayed the project, and now this issue with the gray cases. Unusual anodizing colors are cool, but this gray case issue will end up having cost me so much money; it's an experience I'd rather not repeat--especially since I've been able to get great results in exotic finishes with powder lately.
I've just about shipped all the orders that are ready (the vast majority turned out great!) and informed anyone affected either by a slight delay or a cosmetic defect. I'll probably post r2.5 in the next couple of days. That way I can batch any r2 replacements in with those.
Thanks so much for hanging in there with me everybody!