North American Publishing Firm - Pipe dream or possibility?

[NStarkel]

I agree with zathros stay away from evil walmart! lol i would probley try a printed kit if i saw one at target

[tomorrow]

To be honest, print kit in China has vast. I hate Wal-Mart. Very expensive! That does not save money!

[billy.leliveld]

Use Ecardmodels to sign up for a printed model, you have been setting new standards in papermodeling in the last 2 years,I don't know the break-even point for a model, but if you can wrap up say, 50 people for a printed model, it would be spreading the risk, I have build that laser-printed X15, and it is so much better than I can crank out of my inkjet....I would buy a laserprinted model instead of a download if i could..
Turn it around, so you don't end up with a pile of unsold models
there is a website here in Holland, which offers all kind of things, you have to chime in, and if they have enough participants they get it for a bargain, sort of that ...

[cgutzmer]

To be clear its not laserjet Its a real printing press but works in a digital format. It actually impregnates the paper whereas laser tends to sit on top of the paper as another layer (hence the cracking) I think anyway. I wont pretend to be an expert

As you folks have noted, getting buy in from those companies to reprint and resell their models here in the stats is key to this kind of project and if I cant get that kind of buy in from them it likely wont happen. At least 2-3 of them anyway. I certainly wont go into this without knowing I have a good amount of work that can be done and likely more places to sell.

Sure - wal-mart is not the greatest but if we could get the likes of wal-mart to carry paper models you know what that would do for our hobby? That would be a serious venture into a main stream hobby! Hobby Lobby and places like that would be a more likely first start. I contacted them once but never heard back....

Keep suggestions and comments rolling. No info is bad info!
Chris

[NStarkel]

Printed models would be nice my printer will print different on the top of the page than on the bottom! it's weird......

[billy.leliveld]

Chris is right, the X 15 is digital offset printing, and it it's perfect, and even with shipping costs it still would be cheaper than any plastic model

[SJPONeill]

An issue for the English-speaking world and a potential extra cost, might be the need to have proper (i..e not Googlish) translations of the instructions as the instructions that come with many of the models from Eastern Europe leave a bit to be desired especially if you are aiming to break into the popular market...

I would be a starter for many of these kits if they were available from the US, with metallic printing where necessary and precut formers, even in pop-out form in the model 'book'.

The IPMS Austria models (Draken, Rotodyne, TSR2, etc) might be another potential license market...if the plastic market is anything to go by (with the Airfix kits OOP already) a range of affordable colour options for the TSR2 would sell well...

PS there might also be a cottage market, assuming licensing issues can be sorted, would be to update and/or detail some of those older models that have 'potential' a long the lines of the current Trimotor rework...

[cgutzmer]

Great suggestions Can you define cottage market for me?

Billy - thanks for saying offset I had been neglecting the term (since I kinda forgot it)

[Gil]

Hi Chris,

What differentiates your business plan from others that have either failed or are failing? All retail is based upon a formula. Sooner or later the formula fails (for various reasons), with few exceptions, management is incapable of adjusting to the new norms and the business fails.

I think your biggest issue is demand. Paper models are not that well know to the public - so why even call them "paper" models? Next, most people do not possess good eye hand coordination let alone the capability to accurately cut out and assemble a paper model. Knocking this out of the process implies the introduction of "ready to assemble" models with Youtube style assembly support. I could go on but that would be giving the store away, now, wouldn't it?...,

+Gil

[cgutzmer]

The biggest differnce is that I am willing to do what needs to be done to adapt (If this is even a viable option after I have researched) none, zero, zip,zilch, nada of EVERY one of the current publishers was even willing to discuss electronic models. They are having problems because they are unwilling to change and adapt to the new environments and the way business's need to be run in this new higher tech era.

I am also sorry to say I completely disagree with you. ANYONE can build a paper model. Maybe they cant build a high level model at first but after some practice and learning how to do it anyone can build. Its the same with every hobby on earth. Gotta be willing to put the time and effort into learning the hobby.

Public visibility of the hobby is something I am working on. Its going to be a long slow process, I know that with certainty. Given the current economy a good low cost hobby is something that could easily break into the market (I am hoping anyway)

Also why call them paper models? Because thats what they are... I would hate for customers to buy it just being labeled a model then be totally and utterly angered because its not wood/plastic/whatever they were expecting.

This is a ways down the road after much research and market testing of course....