News posted by Rapido's Jason Shron...and it's not good

[lock4244]

I still don't understand why we can't tool and cast here in the US and send the unfinished parts for painting and assembily in China. This would greatly reduce risk and rising chinese costs.

Doesn't IM do that already?

[kalbert]

I didn't want to get involved but since kits were brought up I guess I will.

Please make more kits! I and many others out there are capable of building them, we'd all appreciate the price break, it would take the foreign unknowns and risks out of the equation, many folks who would not have otherwise built a kit would build them and discover they have fun doing it, there would be lots of poorly and partially built kits available second hand for pennies that make good starting points or parts mules for projects. It doesn't have to be a complicated kit, it can be roof walks, trucks, and brake wheel like the old Precision Masters and Roundhouse kits. Even the Intermountain kits are not terrible and can be built fairly easily.

[Scottl]

I would tend to agree and would welcome kits.  But I gather from the posts regularly seen on RW that many folk prefer a perfect, out of the box, r-t-r version in their particular railroad and design variation, so the market has responded to this.  To give (most) of the consumers what they want (painted, r-t-r, era, design), at a price point that won't get the  rants going, the companies go to low cost labor markets.  Profit margins certainly fit into this, but we're (as consumers) as much to blame for the loss of these domestic production facilities as the companies.  It's a microcosm of the larger economy, but this news of a factory in China is just a speed bump. 

Life will go on, and I still think we are in the golden era of n-scale.  The diversity and quality of products available now is tremendous. 

[lock4244]

I've a small stockpile of IM cylindrical kits, bot painted and undecorated. I also remember buying Roundhouse kits that required some assembly, but no glue, for boxcars, tankcars, gondolas, and refers. No reason why the same couldn't be done with the addition of grabs and other fine details added by the modeler. Even I can do that without making a total mess of it.

[Scottl]

I loved those kinds of kits when I was a kid doing HO and I still love them.  A nice evening project and you get to put it on the track and enjoy.  I just doubt the market is big enough for companies to do both and meet their targets.  They have enough variants to deal with already with road names and multiple numbers in many cases.  It's all inventory and money.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I honestly don't care much about things like grabs, etc... but I DO care about manufacturers getting whatever they're doing right.

If you're going to do a Conrail SD, I'm not going to complain if it's lacking the radio antenna and cab signal box. I AM going to complain if there's a dent in the cab roof, the horns are bent up, and I can see frame between the cab and hood.

I'm also going to skip a model if someone tries passing off something like a Northeast Standard caboose as an N5. But if the grabs aren't on there, eh.

I guess it comes down to "I can add stuff, but changing a roof on a painted car is a pain".

Therefore, it's not all the extra details I care about, it's getting the ones being applied right: amount vs accuracy.

[kalbert]

I honestly don't care much about things like grabs, etc... but I DO care about manufacturers getting whatever they're doing right.

If you're going to do a Conrail SD, I'm not going to complain if it's lacking the radio antenna and cab signal box. I AM going to complain if there's a dent in the cab roof, the horns are bent up, and I can see frame between the cab and hood.

I'm also going to skip a model if someone tries passing off something like a Northeast Standard caboose as an N5. But if the grabs aren't on there, eh.

I guess it comes down to "I can add stuff, but changing a roof on a painted car is a pain".

Therefore, it's not all the extra details I care about, it's getting the ones being applied right: amount vs accuracy.

Yea I'd agree I think. Not to worried about details, I'm more than happy to add those at my leisure later. The product cant be bulky and have ejector pin marks all over it and have just plain wrong proportions though. Big difference between high quality and high detail, I'm in the high quality camp.

[Nato]

    Some modelers found the IM PE Reefer kits to be intimadating and complex to build ,I knew atleast two of them. I found the box car kits alot easier, but built both type of cars. I even purchased one hopper car kit,but never have built it. It is not that I lack the skills, but when ready to run came out it freed up the time spent building them for other modeling projects,both on my layout and Radio Control Ships. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[crencs]

I had purchased a few of the IM undecorated Trinty 5161 hoppers when they were released.  I was disappointed that they had the end ladders, roofs, & the roof walks already glued in place.   I had tried prying one of the roofs off without breaking it – but ended up with a hopper for scrap. I also had to devise a new way to support the car for airbrushing using styrene sheet stock.  It worked ok but I was disappointed with the car ends because of the ladders being glued in place made it difficult to get even coverage of paint.  I emailed IM explaining my frustration with a preassembled hopper and requested unassembled undecorated kits.  They sent a polite reply and stated they would forward my request to the production planning team.  I guess there wasn’t enough interest as I haven’t seen IM release any undecorated Trinty hopper kits.  Maybe this post and others may change there mind.
Craig

[inkaneer]

I like kits too but I have to admit I got a plastic shoe box size container of unopened GHQ vehicle kits that were supposed to be "winter projects" or something to do when I retired.  I got M1 tanks, backhoes, motor graders, bulldozers, dump trucks, forklifts, if GHQ made it, I probably have it.  Sometimes we think on too grand a scale and the demands on our time by other aspects of life are not properly calculated.   I know I am guilty of that.

[sirenwerks]

I honestly don't care much about things like grabs, etc... but I DO care about manufacturers getting whatever they're doing right....

Therefore, it's not all the extra details I care about, it's getting the ones being applied right: amount vs accuracy.

Um, a grab iron is not a plank, so for some of us it's not an extra detail; it is, like you want, "getting the ones being applied right."

[wes_sutton]

A Down-under take on some of the recent developments.....

http://www.austrains.com.au/jan12nl53-ver1.html

Unless you are heavily into Australian HO, you only need to read the first 3 or 4 paragraphs.