I'm not looking to set up a small factory here.

Reinforcements by post do a fine job, and the amount of investment of money and time needed to build up a decent painting company? yeesh. possibly small time commisions, but sourcing paints, brushes will be a headache (i brought mine from the UK)

what i'm looking for is to set up a 2nd income stream for my aunt. No factories, no sweat shops, no heavy labour or machinery. 2-3 people max.
THEY MAKE ENVELOPES FOR EXTRA CASH for heavens sake.

I was thinking more generic nerdy things - things that they simply wouldn't have come across but has a market in the developed world. I'm currently looking at doll house accessories.
I can set that up reasonably easy - it's a premium hobby market (look at Etsy, then look at the prices on Etsy), there's existing mags to sell via and (I think) there's a much bigger market then wargamers, let alone Epic.

Amusingly, toy soldiers do feature in doll houses, and would be approx epic scale. go figure.
I've also emailed World works games, exodus wars, and dark realm minitures (and yes, i know at least two of those will read this). Not a desperately professional letter, but it'd be intresting to see if I get a reply.

Other ideas I've had that require a small amount of mechanisation - the orrery, and custom cut wine bottles for presents.
the latter would be aimed at Vietnamese market initially.

Making envelopes for cash does sound pretty sucky. My single parent mum's only paid job during my lifetime was delivering newspapers, so I can empathise on the crappy pay for work front.

Thinking about this more the only thing I actually want made any time soon, is a solar cooker in order to be able to cook food for free when I’m homeless and living in a tent this summer. It’s something I want to build myself soon as it’ll be cheaper and the skills could be useful to learn. I don't know if it's suitable but I thought I’d throw the idea in there as a different sort of possibility. I know very little of what life is like in Vietnam, but the overall picture everywhere in the future is pretty much certain to be rising fuel/energy costs and worsening economic times.

It was one of Archdruid Greer’s blogposts where I first heard about solar cookers – link here (relevant bits several paragraphs down). He seems to suggest there could be a business opportunity for someone making and selling them. His blog and the related forum is generally good for tips and inspiration on low-tech DIY / energy saving / handi-craft.