RSEA

I've been watching this thread and I agree with some of the points Perry has brought up. I'd just buy the latest HL and Tamiya gearboxes if I were wanting to design a chassis that would accept them. I don't think any current RC tank manufacturer produces a complete die-cast lower hull for their tanks, not even Tamiya (they use stamped aluminum, and very thin aluminum at that). $30K just for tooling for a little Hetzer model's lower hull, that seems kind of high to me. I was quoted $10K for producing all required metal tooling for injection molding of a 5 foot long submarine model back in 2006. That was a price for tooling created in Asia, probably China, not in the USA. I got the quote from a local US protoype production company. Maybe die cast molds are more expensive than injection molds.. I've never looking into die-cast mold making so maybe Perry is right.

A new model every 2 months seems to be an unrealistic expectation. I think you'd be spending far more money in production costs in your first year than you would earn in profits from sales of the models trying to do that. That would be at least 6 new models in a calendar year. Neither Tamiya (with just tanks) nor HL have done that and look what a HUGE company Tamiya is. Heng Long is now an established player in this model tank game, but look where they are headquartered, in what is probably the cheapest country on the planet to produce toy models. All this model stuff is coming out of Asia and Eastern Europe.

Now I realize this venture started at least as just a static display model, but even if we talk about static only, who makes models in the USA that are global sellers? Who makes models in US that are global sellers and are actually manufactured in the USA for that matter? I say all this in part, because I notice your location is in the USA...which I was actually surprised to see. I thought maybe your just a really wealthy guy, who wants to try something fun with his money (which I have no issue with if that is the case, I wouldn't mind being in that position myself). But, when your having an HL gearbox donated for your design research, it doesn't seem like your a guy with deep pockets. I'm not trying to be insulting either, like Perry said. Though, I am curious to see if you actually can pull this off, especially being a potential US model company.