Resin kits, Why are they so much?

QUOTE: Originally posted by jimz66 Why do resin kits cost so much? I have two theories. One is that they have a "Mold Life" in other words they only have a certain number of molds before they have to be destroyed, although, I do not know what that number is. Then the fact that resin is a solid material. Am I wrong or right?

Partially right and wrong:

1.) Silicon or RTV molds have a limited mold life, on average 40~60 good casts can be pulled from your mold.
2. The sculpting of the masters, creating the molds and casting the parts are all MANUAL processes and thus take time and SKILLED labour. i.e. the things that push the price up. (making a new mold takes about 2 days)
3.) Many casters use vacuum chambers, rotary/spin casters and similar to produce flawless casts, those machines cost a lot of money too.
4.) The source materials are pricey and also tend to have a limited shelf life.
5.) Many resin Kit manufacturers will atleast do a partial cleanup of casting sprues, mold lines, etc.(again labour & time intensive)
6.) There are many factors that will affect the quality of the cast, clambing pressure of the molds, correct mixture ratio of the Resin, humidity(too much and it bubbles), was the mold release agents properly applied between castings, etc.

Now compare this to injection molding that use metal molds and where the whole process is automated, i.e. put molds into machine fill hopper with plastic pellets and push the ON button.

One advantage of Silicone molds is that they allow for undercuts and similar which is not possible with Metal molds due to them being solid.

When I produced ship kits (Accurate Image Models) it was a single person operation, here was a sample of the process.

Choose and research your subject. Buy books ($$$), buy plans (more $$$).

Buy materials ($$$) Build your master. Not quite as simple as scratchbuilding a complete ship, because the parts have to be broken down into 'castable' components. Average time for a cruiser was about 400-500 hours, including research. Once that's complete...

Design the photoetch fret, draw the tooling, send it off to film (more $$$), get it reduced, then produced (more $$$$). Once completed and returned, you need to cut the frets down and inspect to make sure there's no burns or short shots.

Buy a compressor and pressure pots (lotsa $$$$). Buy rubber, usually in 5 gallon buckets (more $$$$). Buy resin (more $$$$), and mold release.

Have I mentioned that we haven't sold anything yet? :-)

Build mold boxes, and pour molds. Open face or squish molds can generally get 50-60 pulls if the part isn't too aggressive. Typically, I'd get 30-40 pulls from a 2 piece hull mold.

Cast all the parts...pour resin, try to remove as many air bubbles as possible by shaking the mold box at a high frequency. I'd take the mold box and rest it on an upside down orbital car waxer....then put it in the pressure pot, and seal it. Fire the compressor and put 125 PSI into the pot. Allow the resin to kick...drain pot, pull mold, try not to destroy parts in process. The above mentioned cruiser typically contains about 300-400 parts, and your average 8x10 mold can handle about 6-10 larger parts, and 20-30 smaller parts in a gang mold.

Once you have all the parts cleaned and packaged and organized, ie., 3 bridge parts, 3 turrets, 9 barrels, 4 fire control directors, 28 life rafts, etc, etc., you can package the kit...oh wait, we needed boxes (more $$$$) and some kind of printed label (more $$$, either for ink and labels or for someone else to print them).

Draw instructions, and print...6 to 8 pages on average, per kit. More $$$.

Then you add up your invested materials... Then you take that number, divide it by 100. That's your actual cost per kit...add in a profit, and there's your kit price...

If you invest $2500 in materials, (taking into consideration you've got a compressor and pressure pots already), and make 100 kits, then your kit cost is $25.00. Now take the hours you've invested, roughly 1500 or so to do the 100 kits and all the pre-production stuff. That's 15 hours per kit. Add in the cost of advertising and marketing these kits.

This kit would typically sell for $180 retail. So, after all is said and done, I'm making about $155 profit for each kit, or, about $10.50 an hour.

Now, that sounds like great money, but the truth is, you're laying out alot of cash on a subject that's not going to sell all 100 overnight. Truth is, it may take a year to sell 100 cruiser kits at $180. Then you must consider what your next kit is, and where that money is going to come from...usually, from the profit you make on the first one. So you see, you can usually pay back your materials rather quickly, 10-15 kit sales, but after that, you take that money and hold onto it for the next project, which, by the way, has just started this God-awful process all over again.

Did I mention that you do this in your garage, AFTER your real job is over??

That's why resin kits are so expensive. We touch every part that goes into that box.

Hope this helps explain things...

Jeff Herne

sometimes we forget just how much work goes into this process to produce these works of art. from a retail standpoint these kits are relatively rare compared to the standard kit therefore by economic definition the price will be higher.

Wow Jeff....that sounds impressive. Good on you mate and congrats for your efforts.
Also may add that resin kits have a weight scale effect, they look robust and nice...
ps But how on earth do you make the paint stick on the resin? My acrylics seem to hate the association with this stuff.

Acrylics have never really worked well with resins...I used to polish my patterns down with 2000 grit paper, then gloss coat them to get that perfectly smooth finish.

It works great if you use lacquers or thinned enamels, because although resin is inert once hardened, lacquers and mineral spirits will alter the surface of the model, allowing the paint the 'tooth' to stick.

Acylics won't...They adhere to the surface of the model without attaching itself chemically to the resin...

You can try a couple of things...wet sand the model with 1200 grit paper...that breaks the surface smoothness of the model without noticable scratches, or, use a sandable, non acrylic primer.

Most resin producers that are one man operations don't last for more than a couple of years. The burnout rate is quite high. The latest victim of this was Jerry Rutman, whose 1/32 kits and conversions were absolutely incredible. When Jerry posted up that he was shutting down, was because all the work that he put into making the kits didn''t justify the cost, and he couldn't build for fun. In other words, it's too much for one man, but not enough money in it to be able to afford an employee. See, we're all modelers too, and your hobby becomes your job...and that's never fun.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I never looked at it that way.

You should always prime resin and vinyl kits/parts, once primed you can use most paints on them including acrylics.

Remember you are paying for what you get, a limited run kit of something that the mainstream manufacturers would never touch. JOHN

After listening to how it's really done, it seems that to be in the resin business, it's more a labor of love than any money maker. Really, there are some pretty unskilled people that can make 10 to 12 dollars an hour, and they get no greif with it.

Really, it's up to us consumers to support them in any way we can, and myself, I'm happy to do it.

just my two cents, that's all.

QUOTE: Originally posted by benzdoc After listening to how it's really done, it seems that to be in the resin business, it's more a labor of love than any money maker.

Agreed, a side-effect to this is that because it is easy to make mold and cast in your garage there are now people that will happily buy an original kit, make their own molds of it and undercut the original producers with their "recasts".

This is not yet widespread in the AM and similar markets, but it has bassically crippled the resin(garage) kit industry in both Japan and the USA where it let to companies like Horizon, Fewture and similar going out of business or stop producing Kits.

Thanks for all the info on resin kits! I have a complete new respect for resin parts and the sweat, blood, tears, and bucks that went into making them. Hats off to all you guys and gals that make the resin kits and parts.

You are right in that it's a labor of love...and let me tell ya', there's nothing that can describe how you feel when one of your kits, built by someone else, wins at a show.

I've had a couple of my kits win at events that I attended, and it's a great feeling, almost as good as winning it yourself.

Jeff

PS: I've been out of the ship business for awhile now, about 3 years. I'm about to embark on a new product line of 1/32 and 1/48 detail parts for aircraft. Stay tuned, it's gonna be very interesting.