Bringing kits to the On3-On30 market

[nkp_174]

I'm having fun preparing masters for On3 kits. I'm still a bit nervous about the business side of things: getting incorporated, setting up a website & payment system, making bulk part orders, and production. I know there is a market out there for the South Park cars...but not certain as to the Oahu Railway ones.

As a result of my acquisition of information on Oahu Railway items, I've come to the point where I'm going to have to build two layouts: one for the South Park (scenery emphasized) and one for the Oahu Railway (operations emphasized).

A major component of preparing the kits has been to design the parts in such a way that they are both easy to cast and easy to assemble (including, accurate paint). I've found myself making extensive use of my pre-production castings for the Oahu Railway coach ends to modify my roof master.

One of the pleasures has been the help I've received along the way...both the encouragement and additional information. I'm going to have a more accurate underframe for my Oahu Railway kit than almost any other model out there (this was thanks to a gentleman in California and another in Hawaii whom climbed under the surviving cars and provided me with precise measurements).

I would ultimately like to have at least 20 of these Oahu Railway coaches. They were the only NG road (to my knowledge) whom ran 20 car passenger trains.


(prior to touching up the roof)

I've caught three small mistakes on the ends of the car, and I've corrected them. One of the mistakes was related to the specifics of the frame and undetectable prior to getting measurement data, another was an NBW disappearing, and the last was an omission common to the plans.

[nachoman]

Good luck to you. At minimum, it will help you pay for your modeling expenses. Remember to save receipts so you can write off expennses on your taxes.

[Sumpter250]

I will also wish you good luck.
Starting a hobby related business, is one very quick way to learn the old adage, "it takes money to make money". :o .........in the beginning, it's all "take"

[nkp_174]

Yep. I've zealously guarded my war chest from Christmas to provide the start up capital. I received several pounds of rubber and resin (specific products I trust) for Christmas. I've performed a little bit of research into boxes.

Today, I'll probably immerse the completed roof master in rubber. I'm definitely going to pour the molds for the fascia and the modified end. I'm going to start out offering them less T/C not only to avoid providing models with parts they might not use, but also to reduce the costs.

Ironically, I just received my first copy of Scale Rails and there was a letter to the editor in it about a NYO&W modeler doing the same thing. It was just like last summer when I was reading an MR (or RMC?) primarily to check the prices on Roundhouse 2-8-0s for a conversion project...the same issue had an article on someone else who had already done the same thing!

[rebel]

I'm having fun preparing masters for On3 kits. I'm still a bit nervous about the business side of things: getting incorporated, setting up a website & payment system, making bulk part orders, and production. I know there is a market out there for the South Park cars...but not certain as to the Oahu Railway ones.

As a result of my acquisition of information on Oahu Railway items, I've come to the point where I'm going to have to build two layouts: one for the South Park (scenery emphasized) and one for the Oahu Railway (operations emphasized).

A major component of preparing the kits has been to design the parts in such a way that they are both easy to cast and easy to assemble (including, accurate paint). I've found myself making extensive use of my pre-production castings for the Oahu Railway coach ends to modify my roof master.

One of the pleasures has been the help I've received along the way...both the encouragement and additional information. I'm going to have a more accurate underframe for my Oahu Railway kit than almost any other model out there (this was thanks to a gentleman in California and another in Hawaii whom climbed under the surviving cars and provided me with precise measurements).

I would ultimately like to have at least 20 of these Oahu Railway coaches. They were the only NG road (to my knowledge) whom ran 20 car passenger trains.


(prior to touching up the roof)

I've caught three small mistakes on the ends of the car, and I've corrected them. One of the mistakes was related to the specifics of the frame and undetectable prior to getting measurement data, another was an NBW disappearing, and the last was an omission common to the plans.

You may do better and be cheaper as an LLC than a full corperation!

[AF350]

Wow, way to go on molding and casting kits they seem to be great so far. A lot of us have thought of doing kits but few ever make a go of it. You seem to have a good sence of detail and percision. I have played around with casting and molding and copied an old beat up gondola as a test of what I can do with the casting and molding products. Beware of undercuts as these can be a bear to deal with 2 or more part molds for some complex shapes is the way to go. Good luck, maybe I can learn from your experience as I am always looking for new info on casting and molding.

[Catt]

I'm likeing the looks of this coach.It should look great on my little Michigan tourist trap railroad layout.

[nkp_174]

I have a photo which I took purely because it is kind of cool:


L to R: 4 Oahu Railway coach interiors, 6 Oahu Railway coach sides, 4 Oahu coach roofs, and 4 South Park 34' 1879 roofs.

You can see some black spots on a few of them, those were some of the earlier castings which were rejects...but good enough for my own use...they had big air bubbles from an error in my casting technique...I filled the air bubbles for additional structural strength.

Michael

[nachoman]

[Gary S]

Michael, very cool. I am enamored with casting your own parts, although I have never done it. I remember back to when I was a kid looking in the hobbies magazines in the 60s and early 70s and seeing articles on casting all manner of things. To me, it was the essence of the hobby. One of these days, I'll get up the courage to try something. Part of my reluctance is not knowing what to get and where to get it. I'm sure a bit of research on the net would give the answers though.

Best of luck to your endeavors, and keep us posted of the progress!