I live in Da Nang, Vietnam

I just got back from coffee at my aunt's place. There was a large pile of pre-cut brown paper on the table.
While she and my wife were chatting, i amused myself by folding them into envelopes. the next stage is to paste them up, and when they have about 20,000, they'll be sold to a local company for ore samples.

My aunt earns 800,000 vnd a month as a teaching assistant. That's less then $40. She dosen't get paid during the summer holidays.

So, what low-tech items would you gentlemen (as nerds and wargamers) like to see manufactured? My uncle may not have a cutting edge workshop, but they can do things VERY cheaply by our standards and IP is not an issue in Vietnam.


so. cardboard / plywood At-At's?, el-cheapo army cases? faction army cases? Space-hulk tiles ( 3d space hulk?)
Model solar systems? Blast markers? Display boards; pop-up table tops; themed movement trays; silly hats; pipes, bunker complexes ect.

I'm not short of ideas, but I don't necessarily know what would sell well enough. I don't want to tread on Moscovin's turf re printed books (and even then they'd just be agents, not the producers), nor are we looking at CAD printing or spin casting. I'm also aware a general thread like this will get less serious responses then - would you buy this? just think of here as a place to nominate cool things you'd love to own.

I'm currently designing an orrery for my own pleasure, and I'll be giving them the plans once i'm done.

well, i'm not entirely sure i understand what you're saying here, but interesting blast markers would be nice, and the orrery sounds cool too.
not know if its anything like what you and your peeps can do, but in the vein of wishlisting, what i am currently most yearning for is a nice looking, sufficidently detailed and rugged enough to be handled in a normal environment, scale model of a pelican dropship (ala halo) particularly in 40k scale and/or epic scale. thats the thing highest on my wishlist. the other thing i'd really like is fairly esoteric, is a full scale replica of a Seburo mn-23 (gun designed by masamune shirow) there were some nice resin garage kits from a while back, except they're impossible to find now-a-days.

both these things make me want to learn how to do digital modelling and get the not insignificant money needed to matter-print them...

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3d space hulk.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Be cool if your Uncle could work out a deal with GW.

The deal could go something like this:
GW gets boatloads of governement subsidized tin in exchange for not raising prices and sticking to metal castings (at least for specialist games)

Heck, maybe even other people making minis in the 'free market' wonderland wouldn't mind some governement subsidizes (rent, food, utilities) too, then we could do things real cheap too.

3d space hulk does sound good... which suggests the following:
http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/in ... ucts_id=22

The biggest problem with these printed terrain systems is the difficulty and time involved cutting and scoring them to size. It might be worth chatting with them about whether this sort of stuff could be outsourced, or whether they'd be willing to refer their buyers to your uncle.

After reading my reply to this thread, I thought I should clarify what I stated, as it was kind of mean spirited (albiet based in what I consider to be the truth).

Instead of putting this, 'and IP is not an issue in Vietnam' in small print. Why don't you hire, perhaps on some type of profit sharing arrangement one of the taleted sculptors on this site or others to make some ORIGINAL models for you/your Uncle?

As long as you don't just drop someone elses work in some mold rubber (Stealing, whether your government cares/encourages it, or not); but make your own, and use an original design (you can be inspired by others works, there's nothing new under the sun after all) you should make use of the cheap materials and labor available to you. After all, that's what capitalism and free enterprise is about to some extent (at least accoriding to the ruling class).

Heck ya it would be cool if they could be used in the games we all enjoy. 1/300 scale and 28mm scale. I'm also pretty much sure we'd all like to see alot of the same types of stuff, armor, genetically large armored shock troops, little demons, extra large 6mm troop transports in a more modern style, and 28mm 3d space ship interior terrain.

If you could print the books cheaper than Moscovian could, I really doubt he'd mind outsourcing to you.

Blast markers were a neat idea. I think it really depends on what materials are easily available to you and what you're trying to do. Are you trying to come up with something mass-produceable or are you thinking more handcrafting original projects?

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What do you think this is? communisim?

Trust me when I say Vietnam is far more feee market then either the UK or USA. Money here buys anything, assuming you have money.

Material costs worldwide are nearly identical. if the material is much cheaper, it's much lower quality normally. The only 'advantage' here is cheap labor.
(i say 'advantage' because it isn't really one when YOU are the labor)

So fiddly sorts of things was what I was thinking of.

I might just send worldworksgames an email.
I'd be surprised if the printer doesn't have an automated cutting system, but hey. I definitely think original works would be the way forward, it's just a matter of finding some things...

Maybe I should ask L4 if he want's to outsource his basing

Ha, Ha, ha !!! U Funny ... I'd like visit Da Nang just for historical purposes ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

I can't think of anything myself, but best of luck with this.

Thinking about it generally, your uncle's best bet is to develop distributors for handicrafts who are willing to pay near developed-economy prices for quality material. Given your involvement with Epic, I would tend to think about trying to arrange a commission-based business for army painting -- evidently reinforcements by post do a similar business, but the advantage to this sort of market is that quality, service, and trust are much bigger competitive elements than price.

Painting definitely. Buyer provides figures (material), you provide the labour. Have a look at Fernando Enterprises for example - http://www.miniaturelovers.com/
I have to say that the quality of their work has improved tremendously through the years. In the beginning they did almost only 'wargame' quality but I guess their financial success managed to get them more skilled labour.

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Or rather, their success managed to get their labor more skilled. One of the nice things about this kind of miniatures business that it rewards inhouse development of 'human capital.'

The trick, I think, is developing a customer base.

Must... withhold... asian woman... comment...

Please behave, Ottersir!

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