[WWI] Profits and politeness - was/ Granddads in No VA closing shop

[Stephen Auslender]

I agree with you about the Vacs.
They are the closest thing we can get to scratch building.
but they do supply us with a starting point.
When they are accurate in contour we can use them and take off from there.
Then again, the use of vacuforms is not for everybody. Some guys really 
enjoy buying injectoin molded kits with all the parts ready made and then 
building the kit from there. These IM kits provide lots of fine details.
Others like to work from vacs simply because they really do not care if they 
put all the details in the model. Stuffing every possible detail in a model 
is not everyone's cup of tea. Everybody is different.
I have an idea for using the vacs in a different way. If it works out I'll 
report on it. If it doesn't work out I'll keep my mouth shut.
Stephen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Kendix" <mkendix at hotmail.com>
To: <wwi at wwi-models.org>
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 9:49 AM
Subject: [WWI] Profits and politeness - was/ Granddads in No VA closing shop


> >From: "Stephen Auslender" <auslend at snet.net>
>>Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 05:23:23 -0400
>>
>>Michael, You state:
>>"Technology has developed so that it's cheaper to produce resin and even 
>>injection mold products than it was years ago, with a significant increase 
>>in quality.  Thus, even for the more esoteric subjects, you can still make 
>>a profit using resin and injection mold. "
>>
>>I must disagree with your statement "make a profit.".
>
> Saying stuff like:
>
>>I feel that you are making this statement based too much on pure 
>>supposition on your part.
>
> is the sort of gratuitous condescending statement that appears to be 
> commonplace in your lengthy postings.
>
>>I have friends in the business of making vacuform and resin kits.
>>The time it takes to make the master, then to make the individual RTV 
>>molds, then to cast these items is incredibly high and must be factored 
>>into the cost analysis.[snip!]
>
> Well, there's small profits and there's large profits.  I'm not suggesting 
> one or the other - saying someone makes a profit doesn't mean they big 
> returns.  However, for sure, MPM, Special Hobby, Eduard, Roden are 
> producing subjects that are esoteric and still making at least enough 
> profit to keep producing more subjects. The fact these companies continue 
> to produce and remain in business means they are probably making 
> sufficient returns to keep them interested, otherwise they would go out of 
> business or cease producing these lines.
>
> The fact that Chroszy, Ardpol etc. are able to produce such high quality 
> resin kits speaks to their skill and tecnological improvements.  You are 
> correct.  Many of these "garage" entites don't make much money and do it 
> because they enjoy doing it.
>
> I'm guessing that the presence of these high quality short-run kits 
> reduces the demand for vacs, which some people regard as a more difficult 
> type of kit.
>
> Michael
>
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