VGN64 posted:The industry is changing as injection plastic molds are less expensive to do. Time is money so the amount of time spent preparing for a brass model gets higher and higher as the customer demands more exacting rivets, bells and whistles. Judging by the success of Sunset/Golden Gates latest passenger trains and Atlas's Zephyr the world of $800-$1000 passenger cars may be disappearing. I can understand Key shelving the Zephyr and F units seeing what Atlas is doing.
Yes, but the brass industry is changing as well (or should be). Prices to produce high end brass models should not reflect the labor intensive craftsmanship as they once were. High end 3D wax printers are available (a nice jewelry quality 3D wax printer runs around $50K) so rapid development of lost wax components is available. A whole labor-taking step of making the rubber mold can be skipped, if you want multiple copies of a part, then just print more wax copies. The wax pattern quality will be better as you do not loose any detail by going from master pattern to rubber mold to wax copy. Now the wax copy is the 3D printed master pattern. Pattern makers now draw the part to the exacting level of detail they desire in 3D software instead of hand crafting a pattern from some construction material, like brass, styrene or wax. MMW's recent posting of their 3D truck renderings are a perfect example of this. The only thing that changes is the skillset and time to produce. Modifications can easily be made to the drawing to match road specific details, as well, without having to remake an entire new pattern from scratch. If the same use of technology can reduce the cost of making an injection molded model, then so too can that same (or similar) technology reduce the cost and time-to-market of making a brass model.
Scott Kay
Austin, TX
