“Realistic scenery with realistic prototypes at a realistic cost”.

I can't resist to comment on the back and forward on the list in the last few days. There's large questions about how to grow the scale. Again it always comes back to cost. Since I'm going through the process at the moment, lets do the numbers.
1 pr of wheels, N scale metal UK1.60 = NZ4.20 at this evening's exchange rate. 1 pr microtrains couplers at US$2.50 = 3.70. So the fixed costs are NZ$7.90 before we add anything. lest say that the total cost of a 4 wheeled wagon chassis is $10. If you are selling them through shops, once you add the %50 you can see we get to $20, just for the chassis. Now, you can avoid selling to shops, but where do you place the benchmark for breaking even by selling X units.
Its just as well I'm going to make models for me isn't it ;v)