DJ Dangerous

With all due respect, @ShaneC, and I apologise in advance if this is poorly worded or comes across too strongly, but it almost appears that you are here looking for an argument, rather than looking to learn or share. Some members here (not including myself) are offering you invaluable insights into industry, how things work, what the cost structures are, and instead of taking on board what they say, you dismiss it straight away. We're talking about several lifetimes of combined experience, from many different perspectives. These insights are something that many of us, maybe even most of us, will never have been privileged enough to see before, and should not be taken with a pinch of salt. You seem to be missing the whole point of a business: profit. Comparing what you can print in your bedroom to what a company can do is just nonsensical. It's apples vs. oranges, Canary Islands v. Ireland, there's just no comparison. Profit is generally speaking the incentive for creating a business. You view profit as a cost when planning, along with things like research and development, plant and equipment, wages, materials, taxes, travel and transport, shrinkage, many others, and decide on what is viable. If one were to set up a business and not make any profit, wouldn't one be better off packing shelves in a supermarket? There are always exceptions. I don't know the IRM lads personally, but get the impression that their margins are very small, and in cases such as the Ballast Plough Vans, were probably negative - that was like a favour to the community. Again, I can't speak for them, but when you look at pricing in general, economies of scale, how small the Irish market is now, and how much smaller it was three years ago, you can't help but draw such a conclusion. Likewise for Shapeways. The incentive for providing a marketplace is going to profit. The incentive for sellers using that marketplace is profit. To say that 100g of plastic is worth a Euro is ignoring everything else that has gone into designing and creating the product that costs more than a Euro. With time and experience, manufactures, designers, vendors etc will know what the correct balance is likely to be for a product launch, quantity produced vs. sales/time curve. Nobody wants to spend money on something only to see it not sell, and at the same time they want to sell enough to make the launch worthwhile. I'm sure that @Warbonnet said something to this effect regarding the next run of Irish buses, as 80% of the most recent launch sold out in about three days. I'd suggest that you take on board what you are hearing from these members, and try to use it constructively to learn a little more about how things work in the real world. It would also be great if you were to start selling some of your own SLA products here on the forum - with time, you would have real-world case studies that demonstrate how things compare, rather than just speculation. Going by the footbridge put forth by @RobertRoche, there is definitely interest and support for 3D-Printed projects such as this. Again, I mean no offence, but please start reading what members here post, and try to assimilate the information rather than ignoring it.

And the US has a population of 330 million people versus Ireland's 5 million. I'll be the first to confess that I've never seen a Micro-Trains model in person, nor a side-by-side comparison photo with IRM's stuff, but looking at images online, they remind me of Lima stuff for some reason.

Also worth pointing out that Hungary is even cheaper than China for labour.

Average wage in Dongguan is about a quarter of a Dublin wage, according to this. Probably closer to a fifth or a sixth when factoring in the weekly hours, as you pointed out. Still a huge huge saving if a project is likely to involve hundreds or thousands of man-hours labour. Plus the plant and the experienced technicians are already in place, avoiding start-up costs and quality issues due to inexperience. It would take a very bold investor with a lot of patience to start manufacturing in Ireland, and a market willing to pay ten times the price per item. Maybe with time, as Ireland becomes reknowned as a manufacturing capital, more companies contract Irish manufacturers, and economies of scale kick in, prices would drop. Possible, definitely possible, but probably not probable.

The kids must love you around Christmas time.

She's faking it. The computer isn't even plugged in.

Ordered and sent to a friend up there. Will figure out the logistics later. Thank you for another awesome bus!

Nor would I.

D'oh! D'oh, but not as bad as no shipping at all ever again... Now, will they last another twenty odd days in stock, that's the million dollar question...

Awesome stuff!!! But since you guys don't ship down here any more, will Marks Models or anybody else be stocking them?

Awesome stuff!!! But since you guys don't ship down here any more, will Marks Models or anybody else be stocking them?

Much better! Never thought of scanning one of those, d'oh!

So, when are the 47' Flats hitting the shelves?

Any close-up side by side photos with an IRM 42' Flat, for comparing the level of detail?

If you sort ascending / old to new like this, you know which liveries were oldest.

Noel did a great job with that one, but it still ended up looking like corrugated cardboard, despite his Trojan work.

I'm happy to buy any unwanted Cravens very inexpensively.

Ah, I'm sure people would have no problem paying €1900 per A Class instead of €190 if they were made in Ireland. Let's make Ireland great again and bring manufacturing home!

Labour costs have to be the main reason. More then ten times cheaper in China than the US, according to this piece. Imagine how much each model would cost the consumer if the labour costs in producing it were ten times higher, or more...

2024? 2024?

I had the same question in my mind. Why sometimes one tanktainer per flat, sometimes two per flat, sometimes on 42' flats, sometimes on 47' flats, and why sometimes there are only GCA's or only Bruhn's, and sometimes both... Suspect that the single vs. double practice is loaded vs. unloaded... Common sense pointed out by Mr. @murphaph

So, we have the 30' Bell Bulks and mmmmmaaaaayyyyyyybeeeeee some 45' boxes on the way from Arran... We have the 2021 livery 201's on the way from Paddy Murphy... And the 47' Flats are the missing piece of the puzzle!

So awesome! The 121 driver got a bit angry with you towards the end.

Is that a 47' that it's sitting on?

I thought that 201 - 205 and 210 - 214 were not push-pull capable, so were abandoned and left to rot outside Inchicore?