P.E. Availability .

First ;

    You are right as far as that goes . The equipment costs for a start-up in this field vary .You need good employees who have that " Touch " too . Now that said , here's another factor , Funds .You cannot say well , I have $60.000.00 bucks so I'll start my P.E. business .

    You have to establish a line of credit at your preferred lending institution .Then you make the rounds of the industry shows with your samples , both on and off the model type you want to concentrate on and hope you get enough orders to cover all the costs involved .

Then there's advertising , No cheap one that ! That's the basic picture . It took me four years to set up a custom home building company and that was back in the late 70s !

Have to learn how to draw with a vector software. As with anything it is work and dedication. How much free time do you have vs. motivation vs. compensation is a simplified version of the decision. 

tankerbuilder

If I was twenty or thirty years younger I would start making P.E. For the modelers out there .

How would one go about doing that? As if I have a lot of spare cash just lying around.

Interesting thread as I was eyeing doing one for a 1/400 Tauro Italian cruiser conversion and naturally thought about one for the ZGFP sisters.  Then realized I could just use existing 1/400 stuff as really no one knows the difference between a German catapult and an Italian one and etc.etc.

Yeah G.

That was a blow for the modeling community for sure . Funny how the release goes out -So and So has passed , but the product will still be available .You know this happened with a company I was involved with . Guy bought it from the very old owner .Then he almost killed himself making it work .Then he sold it to two hot-shots who were going to make it great again .Then they sold it (Too much work I guess . )

    Now you take LOREN . I've known him ( he probably doesn't remember me ) since he was the Editor of a model ship magazine . That , my friend is a looong time . I am stocking up on stuff so I will have it.    Like you , money's tight on a fixed income . I still have no regrets on how I spent the rest of my retirement nest egg . My late wife was darn well worth it !

I agree Tanko. I am stocking up on ladders and railings.Mostly because when I do retire I will not be able to afford it.

BTW as you know Tom actually died.