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Hi Robert,

From what I've seen of these kits, having a couple myself, is that to get just one printer capable of the size of these finished prints would cost in excess of $20K. The printers being used for these kits would have to be rapid prototyping printers, since they are the only ones I've found to have a z-axis height of at least 20 inches. These kits are printed bottom to top, so height is the major limiting factor. Also, looking at what I've received, the layers are about .03mm thick, so to get a cost effective product at that resolution, it can't be a common consumer printer, since a 6 inch tall print at this resolution takes my printers at least 12-14 hours to complete. Unless time cost is not an issue (which I believe is the case), to print on a scale and volume which it seems they are doing, a printer you or I could afford is not being used. My belief is that these are being made on idle rapid prototyping printers, which is why the cost for the buyer is so low. Somebody figured out making any money is better than making no money.

As for the tariffs, I'm enjoying the gnashing of teeth and crocodile tears. Buyers of these cheap kits, most of which are .OBJ files ripped out of World of Warships, are now having to pay the same tariffs that overseas (for me) customers have to pay for my kits. I've been dealing with European VAT and tariffs for years, so nothing leaves here without being undervalued on a customs form. In fact, I had one Chinese customer tell me he had to pay his government 125% of what he paid me just to get his kit. Made me want to form my own government...

And I mentioned cheap kits above. Why did I do that? If you go to my home page, you'll see a location tracker. I've been watching that, and you would be amazed how many pings I get from a certain location in China, which also happens to be the same location that MRY-SFW, ssmodel-wang, and alfahobbyuk all are located. Hint: They are all SSModel... Yet, no sales are going to that location. Weird...

I also mention the ripping from World of Warships. How do I know this is happening? Well, I bought the SSModel Cachalot kit, and the .OBJ file that was on another website (payment went to China, BTW...). When I compared the kit to the file, they are exactly the same, including the errors. My kit of the Cuttlefish (the sister boat) took a month to draw from scratch, and if the Cachalot had been the same, there are certain details that would have been found that would have been included in the Cachalot kit that are not there, as well as the incorrect details that are. I'll also mention that the first attempt to get the kit resulted in getting Cachalot parts with a ruptured HMS Thrasher hull that caused printer resin to be all over everything. When the correct part arrived, I found the kit was not 1/350 scale, but rather 1/309 scale. So math is also an issue with these kits.

So, in conclusion, here's my observations, as requested. This is not anything close to a viable, long term business formula. It's utilizing idle rapid prototyping equipment to make the product. It uses files taken from a game to produce it's product. For the most part, parts produced through this method have uncured resin inside, since they are hollow, and will eventually rupture due to the degassing of the resin. Since these kits are not made by people who are modelers, and understand how models are to be made, the end result, either at the time of receipt or sometime in the future, is this. These are exercises in what 3D printing can do. The Wyoming kit I have has the bridge printed as ONE part. Three decks and the cage mast. You can't paint it, it's got a big flaw in one on the sides making it unusable, and the lowest deckhouse is hollow with no venting holes, meaning there's uncured resin inside which will eventually cause the part to rupture. You can shake it and hear resin sloshing around. The only way this becomes viable is for someone who has knowledge of not only 3D printing, but also of how models are made, and isn't using idle equipment which cold either go back into service for their intended work, or be repossessed. Plus, they better have a very deep pocket for the start up costs.

I'm not going to even get into the lack of instructions, photoetch or decals...

Jon