I want to try my hand at producing some kits on my laser. I am new to the hobby so I am hoping to get a little advice on what to try first.
I noticed that Model Railroader has quite a few articles with both train and structure designs.
Question 1 is: Is there any point in producing the trains that MR published; ie, are they not already being done by other companies?
Question 2 is: would it be better to start with buildings and possibly bridges, which unlike trains can be more of a “creation” that precicely following an existing model.
Question 3 is, is there much demand for bridges? Or could there be?
Question 4: How about road signs in each scale? The ones I have seen for sale don’t look so hot, and they seem to all have little round pedestals (I would think they should go right into the ground like a real sign does…?)
The material published in MR and other magazines is licensed for non-commercial use only, to produce any ot them will require a specfic license. Other companies have produced items from magazine drawings, so it seems that licenses are neogotiable.
The demand today is for specific prototypes, See AMB Laser-Kit for example.
With all of the HO scale electrics out there now, there is demand for PRR and VGN style catenary system: bridges, towers, wire hangers, etc. There is a small company producing them in the NH style.
Take a look at Walthers and Blair Line.
Personally, I would love a kit for the N&W H4 3 bay composite hoppers, buitl during WWII to conserve steel, later rebuilt with steel, some what like thier 2 bay counter parts that are offered by LL in the P2K line.
What materials can you cut? Wood, brass, stainless steel, polycarbonate, abs,…???
“The material published in MR and other magazines is licensed for non-commercial use only, to produce any ot them will require a specfic license. Other companies have produced items from magazine drawings, so it seems that licenses are neogotiable”.
I see that in MR magazine on the same page as the design, (in every issue where a featured, detailed design is provided) they state: Magazine purchaser may have photocopies of these drawings made as an aid to…commercial modelmaking…"
So I am guessing that articles that have that posted are ok to make commercially, but if not may be subject to the restrictions you sited?
We use a CO2 laser so we can’t cut metal. I don’t want to list the website here for fear of violating forum policy, but you can email me for further info. We do cut wood and styrene.
I will check out your leads on ideas for what is hot in the modeling world, thank you.
I believe that the restriction on the drawings speaks to reproducing the drawings themselves (e.g. you cannot photocopy them and include them in a kit), but there is no reason that you can’t build something from the drawings for commercial purposes (e.g. a structure or rolling stock kit).
Perhaps one of the MR staffers would provide a definitive answer?
In my opinion, scenery items such as signs might be more in demand and a better starting point to test the market than complete building or rail car kits. They should also be simpler and cheaper to make. One thing to consider is the added parts that must be, or should be, included with a building kit, such as window frames, window glass, chimneys, stairs, roofing, etc. that may need to be provided by another manufacturer to go into your kit. With freight cars, you might run into the same problem – you would need to include screws, wheels, truck frames, couplers, grab irons, and other small parts for a kit to be complete. Personally, when I shop for a kit, I avoid the ones that say something to the effect that “trucks and couplers not included,” are unpainted, or are cast in the wrong color plastic. Realistic looking traffic and advertising signs are something that would be nice to have instead of the shiny plastic ones that are not even painted in the right colors, or are a scale 3 or 4 inches thick, if they are painted at all.
I have seen photo-etched brass signs out there, but they’re not too common–a laser would be able to produce pretty good detail. Heck, I’d buy 'em.
Small details are nice but you might want a few varieties.
A few small structure kits–both to get yourself used to producing them and to get people used to buying them–might be worth trying. Small shanties, towers, utility sheds and other yard buildings, heck, even outhouses.
There are also plenty of other sources of blueprints and plans for buildings and physical items which might be more precise than those in MR.
how about making specialty era and locale-specific signs. Here’s some i would like to see:
accurately fashioned cast-iron crossbucks (like the ones on the crossing at the beginning of the movie The Flim-Flam Man)
accurately fashioned modern aluminum crossbucks(a lot of new crossings have each blade on each side of the post,like the old days, so maybe make them separable)
accurately fashioned crossing signals(with wooden gates and with fiberglass ones)