Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
..... More discerning / knowledgeable modellers will buy a kit and fit an etched chassis.
Exactly.......play toy trains.........or build a railway model
Col.
..... More discerning / knowledgeable modellers will buy a kit and fit an etched chassis.
The gist of Dapol's reply was that they understood my points but had sold every model made, presumably 1800, so must be doing something right !!
Thanks Richard... a voice of balanced reason concerning R-T-R at last....Can I point out that there is a middle way.
Like you, I do wonder how many people buying the dapol wagon will bother building any kits. Totally agree about the brakes, it is toy like, but if people gratefully lap it up and buy them then where is the incentive to improve them? I also wonder if people accept deficiencies in rolling stock that they would not tolerate in locomotives?Personally I don't see that R-T-R would take away that many sales from Kits; since a person who relies entirely on R-T-R is unlikely to buy a kit anyway....
It is indeed just a great shame that much of the R-T-R in 7mm is failing to reach acceptable standards; to be honest the list of 40 faults with the Dapol wagon doesn't really matter - the single issue of the brake shoe "alignment" (using the word rather loosely) is enough to put me off, if I'd wanted one in the first place....
Anyway now Adrian has given us more of an introduction, may I re-post "Welcome to Western Thunder", but this time without the smiley.... oh b*gger...
Thanks Richard... a voice of balanced reason concerning R-T-R at last....
And was it ever any different, Cynric? Well, it has changed a bit; those of us with aspirations might expect the RTR to be a decent basis, a timesaver that will free up resources for other jobs, rather than being a major project in itself as RTR used to be.
IMO RTR manufacturers would be better off making coaching stock of post-grouping/BR types & freight vehicles that ran in block trains up to & including the BR era, the kit manufacturers can then supply the more individual items of stock.
I wish they would & with prices to suit.............plenty more scope for my kit bashing thenOne further point could people be looking at the standard in OO and super imposing it onto the O gauge offerings as many in the 4mm camp don't seem overly bothered about small discrepancies
One further point could people be looking at the standard in OO and super imposing it onto the O gauge offerings as many in the 4mm camp don't seem overly bothered about small discrepancies
Why would you, as a kit producer, pay even that much? Surely, it's a fiver's worth of raw material, a couple hours of your time and a wheel set? This, incidentally, works out to around £35 inc P&P using your price list when you include the wheels, which automatically begs the question; why are you charging it if even you wouldn't pay it?I can reveal that Ebay is a great source of cheap RTR PO wagons... I never pay as much as £35 inc P&P... often less than £20
No offense, but with your vast catalogue, if you're not making even this much you're doing something very wrong. With a conservative average order as low as £25 (approx 1 wagon kit) that's only 54 units per week - I would assume an average order is much, much higher than this, considering you don't have a web presence and don't accept credit cards, albeit with a frequency that is very low.That amounts to taking about £70,000 out of the O gauge money pot... It is no skin off my nose if I say that A.B.S. Models has never turned over £70,000 in one year with the combined sales of all our ranges !!
Again, no offense, but most kit producers and smaller suppliers don't know how to sell their product. I'm not pointing fingers but if I didn't know how to do something I would ask somebody who did. I've read various posts by manufacturers over the short period of time I've been in this hobby and can't help thinking that they are just busy building the slippery slope they're about to take a ride on. It sounds all too much like sour grapes to me.Most modellers have no idea of the economics of the small manufacturer, most of whose proprietors rarely earn the average wage. Their businesses can be destroyed almost overnight when the big boys move in. I know it is "survival of the fittest" but the fittest may not necessarily be the ones you have
expected or wanted to survive...
Again, no offense, but most kit producers and smaller suppliers don't know how to sell their product. I'm not pointing fingers but if I didn't know how to do something I would ask somebody who did. I've read various posts by manufacturers over the short period of time I've been in this hobby and can't help thinking that they are just busy building the slippery slope they're about to take a ride on.