New website for purchase of 3D printed model railway items

I started to develop a new website for my 3d printed model railway items just as New Zealand entered into a bit of a building boom and the "day job" started to absorb most of my time and energy. Progress has therefore been slow. I was spurred on more recently by the re-launch of the Scalescenes website. I knew John was including some links there to the products on my new website, so I thought I had better make sure that it wasn't a complete mess when someone clicked on a link.

The site still has some way to go before it is finished (if such a thing ever is), but I believe it is now ready for a wider audience.

The website can be found at www.modelrailwaystructures.com

Feel free to comment here or there. It would be particularly useful to have feedback on things that are not working properly. There are lots more products available at Shapeways than I've had time yet to add to the new website. They will be added when time permits. I'm hoping then to have time to create some new products. I have lots of ideas, but any suggestions for other new products would be welcome.

Just had a quick look, maybe some dimensions would be useful.

I had a look at the canopies, jaw dropped at the price, no dimensions so I can only guess, but looks like it would cost me a round £200/300 for a canopy for my first paltform I am building.

You're right Andy, some dimensions should be added.

You're right also about the price for a fully printed canopy with the canopy, roof, trusses and columns all printed as one item. It's aimed really at someone who just wants to get the result of a detailed model without putting in the time. You can buy the separate components individually and just use the bits that you want. Just the trusses for example, use your own valance, column and roof. The Shapeways printers charge by the volume the object takes up in the printer. It's much more cost effective when things are flat packed.

There are though people who don't have the time, or are not interested in putting in the time even if they have it available, who will spend the money to get something a bit different from the standard mass produced product.

Nice site and nice products.  The only thing that made me empty my cart was the postage. £7.00 if I read it right.

I know it is a flat fee regardless of how many items but even if you are spending say £60.00 it still seams a bit heavy for a load of lightweight products when I can get a couple of loco's delivered at £4.00.

It just feels a bit extreme. I was looking at a variety of sash windows and some doors and the cost of the postage just didn't ring true with the order value and weight / cost ratio. Maybe I'm expecting too much. I'm not saying I wouldn't ever pay it as the products look good but I think I would have to really over order to make the postage pay for itself. It just makes you think twice.

I wish you all the best with your enterprise though. Meanwhile I'll think on it and see if maybe I need to take some reality tablets. As I said, it might just be me being unreasonable. Great stuff though.

Cheers

Toto

I agree Toto that their postage rate is pretty steep. I always try to make sure that I order enough to dilute the cost when I am buying things for myself.

To be a bit fairer to them, I guess it is postage and packaging. They do pack things extremely well. If you buy a loco for example, the packaging is provided by the manufacturer and the cost is built into the price of the model. Here the packaging of the raw item has to be done at the factory. Stuff for the UK is probably printed in Holland and send by UPS with track and trace.I wish they would find a cheaper way as I'm sure I would then sell a heap more stuff.