People

I'd guess the /real/ secret is selling them, and in particular making enough money from it to make it worth the bother.

Anyone know how many packs of plastic soldiers get sold? While no doubt zillions of WWII huns get sold for years until the moulds wear out, some of the more obscure sets lurking on Plastic Solider Review can't sell in huge numbers, can they? I guess what I need is a military modelling firm to do a set of "refugees" or "collateral damage" or something.

Don't get Enzo started. He'd probably point out it was the wrong kind of wing for that particular type of Spitfire :o)

(kim)

Some firm or other does generic sets of Nato and Warsaw Pact troops. Just add white flags to represent the Dutch contingent :o)

(kim)

Think its disgraceful you should single out the Dutch in that way. What about the italians with their vehicles facing homeward.

Cheers, Simon

Whoo, somebody has issues? :o)

The trick is in selecting a subject that is both popular now and likely to be popular in future years. I once spent an entire ten weeks doing exactly that due to an enforced period of ideleness caused by an abdominal problem. Nothing ever came of it despite my relatives owning a plastic injection moulding plant.

(kim)

I never poke fun fun at other nationalities, unless they're eastern, western or southern region enthusiasts :o)

(kim)

Kim used to work there

That would explain the train load full which I saw coming FROM Italy at Frethun one day a few years ago. Must have failed acceptance trials.. Brian

I rememeber a couple of years back that Land Rover supplied 800 Defenders to the Italian army, despite, as one wag observed, only having two reverse gears - one of which is very slow ;-)

Cheers Richard

Probably the ones lent to Americans after they discovered Hummers won't fit down roads in Bosnia etc... ;-)

Richard

I'm actually Dutch myself but fell in love with English railways when I first arrived here.

(kim)

British road vehicles - of course they failed acceptance trials!

Arthur Figgis wrote in news:13hvijvf3th7i26 @corp.supernews.com:

I used to do all right at college, bought a casting machine because I was to tight to pay commercial rates for figures and from there went on to selling to friends, out of the back of magazines and at shows (no internet back then!). Certainly paid for my outlay and made it very much worth my while at the time. The trick was to look for gaps in the market. For instance back then there were no 15mm Renaissance artillery pieces available commercially. Made big bucks.

But then you leave college, move on, live out of the back of a suitcase for a few years and everything goes on hiatus. When I come to populating my layout I may well go back to casting my own, who knows a few years from now you might see my add in the back of RM :-)

I think the market for Renaissance artillery pieces at my college was pretty close to zero. They probably had some of their own in the cellars anyway :-)