My Shermania has gotten the best of me, and I have a local machine shop estimating the cost to replicate the IMI 60mm hypervelocity gun in 1/35. These were used to upgun M50 Shermans and M24 Chaffees for Chile. Naturally, a larger run brings down the cost. Anybody else interested in this gun? My design leaves it to the modeler to replicate the flexible rubber dust cover, if that makes a difference. I deemed it too expensive to machine that complex contour.

hmm, potential interest here, but what is the cost range looking like?

Price is TBD, Vance. The shop hasn't come back with the estimate just yet. I'm fairly certain that they will break out a quote with line items for CAD conversion, machine setup, and price per item. I told them to quote for two barrels for personal stock. Once the estimate is in, I can work up pricing based on amortizing part of the CAD/Machine set-up per piece, plus cost per piece and shipping. I'll know more in a couple of days.

Ok, I have a number now. Based on a batch of 20 barrels, the price is $30. Figure about $7 or so to ship it out UPS. I realize that this is about twice the going rate for a metal barrel, but had the shop quote a small run as this is certainly a niche product. Naturally, this price would drop if the machine set-up charges could be spread over a larger run. If you are interested, drop me a line at [email protected]. If there is sufficient demand, this could be in manufacturing in a couple of weeks. I'm looking into Paypal as a payment method.

Cheers!
Greg