Vehicles You Want in Scale

[peteski]

daniel_leavit2000,

That's a pretty good idea for getting around the licensing issue, if I do say so myself. Excuse my ignorance, but what is Northeast Truck Company? Is it still in business?

I'd love to work together with you guys to form the best business possible. I've already got a few things in the works right now, such as a loyalty club (10% off all purchases, 15% off pre-orders) as well as 'Golden Ticket' coupons (every production run will have a free coupon for a model of equal or lesser value inserted randomly), but I do like daniel's ideas for three releases a month. The Micro-Planes line is also pretty interesting, though I don't know if many people would be willing to drop the sum of money required for a 16" long model of a 777. I've never actually seen an airport scene on a model railroad in person, but perhaps that is just my inexperience - or perhaps those models would not be meant for railroads?

Regards,
Dreadnought

There are lots and lots of small planes to model (like military fighter planes and all those small private airplanes) before jumping into airliners.

Are those 3 models per month actually different vehicles or just same (or re-released) models with different decoration?  I can' imagine any small company (cottage industry) being able to release 3  different models per month for any extended period of time.

I interpreted Northeast Truck Co. as the name of Daniel's future manufacturing business.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

There is actually a healthy market for plane models out there. Most currently are produced in multiple scales and sold at airport gift shops and travel destinations (I know of at least 4 shops that sell these in MBK mall in Bangkok alone). I am sure there are enough aviation enthusiasts out there that would collect these - just look at how many aviation blogs there are compared to trains.

And while a 16" model certainly is large, jets are pretty easy to produce. A 777 would have less parts than the average freight car with applied grabs.

Northeast Truck company was a stillborn venture I started several years ago. The ultimate goal was to produce American made models of vehicles. Two build up capital, the company was to grow in three phases.

Phase 1: Shrink several models to N scale using hydroshrink. Cast these parts in resin and sell on eBay like WillModels does. This would be the "Standard Line"

Phase 2: Take all profits from phase 1 and hire a contractor to create 3d models which would be printed and finished, becoming masters for pewter models. This is how Showcase is doing business now. This is the "Silver Line"

Phase 3: Take the capital raised from the first two ventures along with the contractor and produce tooling for the first RTR display model. This would be a sedan and wagon version with low licensing fees to reduce costs. Micro-Trains, Bowser or Rix would be contracted for the molding with MTL or Bowser to finish and paint.

The maturing company would then take these steps:

Phase 4: Use capital from previous ventures to add tooling and models, add a "Platinum Line" with etched parts and full chassis and wheels.

Phase 5: Grow enough capital to bring production in-house with a small dedicated factory and paint shop.

I got caught up in the basement side of things... I needed to rebuild my basement to set up for production. Now that it's built out, I have no more money for crazy adventures and this whole thing was left on the back burner.

[Dreadnought]

There are lots and lots of small planes to model (like military fighter planes and all those small private airplanes) before jumping into airliners.

Are those 3 models per month actually different vehicles or just same (or re-released) models with different decoration?  I can' imagine any small company (cottage industry) being able to release 3  different models per month for any extended period of time.

I interpreted Northeast Truck Co. as the name of Daniel's future manufacturing business.

I'll have to see what production costs are like for each new mold. What I think I'll be doing is having the grille and other detail parts 3D printed, since they are small in HO scale and tiny in N scale, meaning it wouldn't be too incredibly expensive to print them - I think. The rest of the car will be resin, and, as I said before, since you can have common chassis between cars, it might be possible to create a 'family' of cars on a monthly basis, with, say, a coupe, station wagon, and sedan. That might be a goal, though, instead of a starting principle, depending on sales.

Dreadnought

[Dreadnought]

daniel_leavitt2000,

That's certainly a sound plan. I suppose I will be going around things a little differently, in that I am paying for a professional to design the resin molds upfront rather than shrinking a vehicle to N-scale as you supposed. I don't believe I will do any production on my end, but rather just be a distributor. Naturally, that's a much more expensive route, but I feel it is the better route due to my limited skills.

I'd love to hear some more of your ideas with regards to this business line. You said earlier that you would like to focus on trucks for the 'platinum line'. I would also like to produce a good amount of trucks, as well as farm equipment and etc. Did you have any specific sorts of trucks in mind when you mentioned that?

Again, I'd like any input I can get on what you guys think would make this type of business better. peteski's input has already been incredibly helpful.

Regards,
Dreadnought

[peteski]

You have some big plans here and I hope that you succeed.
I might buy some reasonable kits, but I can't see myself spending $30 for a finished model of a passenger car unless it is the same quality as the Trainworx trucks.  But even then I won't be buying dozens of them.  I'm basing my statement on Daniel's estimated prices.

[Dreadnought]

You have some big plans here and I hope that you succeed.
I might buy some reasonable kits, but I can't see myself spending $30 for a finished model of a passenger car unless it is the same quality as the Trainworx trucks.  But even then I won't be buying dozens of them.  I'm basing my statement on Daniel's estimated prices.

peteski,

I can agree on the price point. That is a little high. Vehicles are part of scenery and should thus be relatively inexpensive, since you're going to need a ton of them. No matter how detailed your vehicle is, it's still a secondary matter compared to trains and etc. on a model railroad.

Dreadnought

[thomasjmdavis]

As a general thought.... I like Daniel Leavitt's concept of producing at several quality/price points.  What I will need for my planned urban layout, more than anything else, are parked cars by the curb and "traffic"- something cheap, not necessarily highly detailed, definitely NOT rolling. Along the lines of the FineNScale 50s Chevy 6-packs. Saving the more detailed models for the foreground. 

Anyway, best of luck in your various projects.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.  But I do warn you, if it wasn't on the road (or the track) by 1956, I will probably pass, as I have a limited budget and a big layout planned.

[Dreadnought]

thomasjmdavis,

Thank you for your kind words. I can also agree on the different price points idea. My thought with regards to this is to first produce relatively high quality kits (let's refer to these as 'Foreground' cars, since they're meant to be right where they can be seen best), then, later on, to modify existing cars in order to produce a lower-quality version - 'Background' cars. These would differ by being a one-part casting, with clips extending from the inside of the body to hold the axle in place. I don't know of the manufacturer who did this before, but I've seen cars like this. I think it might be Life-Like; they were injection-molded plastic and relatively low quality, but cheap. It would be the same idea, but they would come unpainted to save even more, and so you wouldn't have to try hard to find different colors. These wouldn't have an interior and not have the fancy features like exchangeable grilles, and would be aimed at the lower end of the market to fill up background scenes.

Of course, an urban scene will need more than cars. As I mentioned in my original post, N scale needs more buses, and, for an urban scene in the '50's, you will also need a good amount of trucks, taxis, etc. etc. I hope this is a sector of the market I can capture.

Dreadnought

[Rich_S]

Speaking of Autocar , This outfit had a plant 1/4 mile from me from 1953 to about 1973 . Big a$$ trucks . Common to Long Island then .

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/162262079933_/COLONIAL-CONCRETE-NYC-1953-AUTOCAR-DC103-11-CY-REX.jpg

While we are talking mixers, how about a Mack DM 686 with a McNeilus mixer body?
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Or go a little old school, a Mack H81 with a Rex mixer body?
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[jimmo]

I haven't posted here for a while but the title of this thread caught my attention. I have been making, casting and selling N-scale vehicles on eBay (Willmodels) for over ten years. The discussion (so far) has been interesting. A lot of ambitious ideas out there which will require a lot more commitment of one's resources.

Asking members of an N-scale forum what they want in regards to N-scale vehicles and the answer you'll get is "everything." One of my biggest challenges in this venture has been trying to figure out what to make and what era to make it has brought me (as a lone wolf modeler) to pretty much make whatever I want and not get hung up on trying to hit the nail on the head with every release.

The idea of cranking out two or three vehicles every month, with all the complexities of the ultimate N-scale car model seems like a stretch to me. If you have plenty of time to dedicate to each model. If you don't have the time, hopefully you have the money to pay for someone else's.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket here, I just want to throw in my two cents and wish anyone who wants to "give it a go" the best of luck.

[Dreadnought]

jimmo,

Thank you for your kind wishes. I'd just like to state that I don't think the three-a-month goal is very likely either, at least in the beginning, due to the many difficulties and high costs of producing each new mold. I simply think that it is a nice idea to attempt to have that many different models so quickly, but I doubt I will actually be able to have that sort of release schedule.

Thank you for sharing your experience in this industry, as well. It is very helpful, and I hope that what I want to do in this line of business will translate into action rather than remaining as speculation.

Regards,
Dreadnought

[jimmo]

I'd just like to state that I don't think the three-a-month goal is very likely either, at least in the beginning, due to the many difficulties and high costs of producing each new mold.

It's not the mold that is difficult and expensive--at least not at the beginning. The time and expense of creating the masters will set you back more--especially if you have to have modifications or corrections made.

In your mold production, don't forget to consider the cost of replacing the worn molds along the way. One thing I found annoying when I was buying cast resin kits was filling bubble holes and the odd protruding shapes caused by chunks (of the mold) taken out by the resin castings over time.

[Dreadnought]

jimmo,

Your point on the expense of masters and the replacement of worn molds is duly noted. I hope that I will be able to be in the position to have to replace the molds at some point, if only because that will mean the molds are seeing enough use to require replacement. Thank you again for your kind help in this matter.

Sincere thanks,
Dreadnought

[peteski]

Jimmo would know this better than I, but you have to replace RTV molds fairly often. You can probably only get about 30 good castings out of a mold before it starts to deteriorate. Well, that probably depends on the number of undercuts. You can keep using the slightly damaged mold, but the product quality would suffer.

I'm curious: how experienced are you in making urethane resin castings in RTV molds?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

While there's not doubt a lot of truth to folks not painting and assembling much anymore, what about offering vehicles in an era that might entice folks to buy them?  All of Sylvan's offerings are from the 40's and 50's.  And with Classic Metal Works offering assembled vehicles of the same era(with the exception of the Galaxie and Impala) how big is that market?  And the way CMW packaged their offerings was a bit strange to me as well.  Who want's 2 of something in the same color? But even Atlas did this with the Ford cars and trucks they offered.  Yes my family owned two Fairmont station wagons while I was growing up. But not from the same year nor were they the same color.   Obviously there are reasons for offering 2 of each. But at least give us different colors.  Which I believe CMW did this later on.  Anyway, I do grow a bit weary of modelers being to blame when a product doesn't sell.  What about offering a product that folks want to buy?  I know it's very, very, easy to type that. But manufacturer's have to shoulder some of the responsibility of offering a product folks would want to buy as well.  But I would agree that in this hobby the trend is moving away from kits. 

Yes. This. I didn't know Sylvan even did cars in N because... they're way too old for me. You can only have so many "car shows" on a layout (for me that limit is 0... it's December).

And while I understand the nostalgia factor for a lot of this stuff, the fact of the matter is, I bet that wholly 60% of the N scale modeling market models after 1970, and probably 50% of those people modern 2000+.

Modern stuff sells. Look where much of the "big money" in tooling is going. Oil cars, modern EMDs and GEs, etc...

You wanna sell a bunch of vehicles? Make a mid 90s Toyota Camry or Honda Accord.

You wanna sell me a bunch of vehicles? Go look at sales data from 1980 and start working down the list.

And don't do a damned Delorean. I want stuff I can use.