Thank you. What you're saying is pretty much what I suspected and have been told by a couple of people, and the last comment did make me chuckle 😄
Mind you I really understand now why it takes so long for Marui et al to design and produce any new model, rather than iterations of M4/AK/G36 etc. types that they already have the main designs and tooling for, let alone finding enough actual consumer demand for something that would make business sense to produce.
Thank you 🙂
I haven't really worked out the true costs at this point. I couldn't do it accurately anyway unless I finish the 'snagging' on the prototype, and sourcing some items rather than just using what I happened to have from some years back may be a problem. Case in point is the optical sight. I happened to have a little 10mm diameter optic that was apparently part of a test rig for the swingfire missile system from the 1970's. It was just about the right size for the EM-2 and fitted within the conical shroud nicely. However finding any similar size modern version that will fit has eluded me the few times I've searched.
Machine time, tool breakages, man hours and so on as you point out are unknowns for a 'production' version, rather than my try, try swear at it, hit it, curse it, bleed on it and try again approach to the prototype 🙂