Let me start off with the quick answer that all the n00bs were looking for. Depending on your experience (which affects how much you'll screw up), your attention to detail and patience (which also affects how much you'll screw up), and how much of the necessary tools and equipment you already have,...
So a bunch of you just went "OH MY GOD". Believe me, this is the truth. It seems hard to believe that $20 worth of cardstock turns into several hundred dollars, so lets break it down a little. You buy $20 worth of cardstock, $20 worth of glue and xacto blades, a $5 metal ruler, a $10+ cutting board/mat, and get to work. You soon need to buy $20+ worth of fiberglass resin, and $20+ worth of fiberglass, and some Bondo at $10-15 a can. Then you go through $20 worth of sandpaper and Dremel bits (if you didn't have to buy a Dremel for $50-100). Then, if you're on a budget, you go buy a dozen cans of primer and spraypaint, at $3-5 each, for a total of $40-60 (more if you're using high-quality airbrush paints, or something). Don't forget your $40 gold motorcycle visor, straps, buckles, pressure suit, etc. It adds up quick!
Molds are worse, because you need dozens of gallons of supplies that cost $50-100 per gallon, plus clay, and on and on.
The Project Triangle
Most economics classes, especially at college level, talk about the "project triangle". It helps you understand the options you have to work with. It breaks the competing factors of projects down into three groups (cost, quality, and speed), and puts each one at one corner of a triangle.
The trick to the triangle is that YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ALL THREE. Point to any place on the triangle, and it describes a compromise. You can choose to maximize for any ONE OR TWO factors only. If you try maximizing for all three (by picking a place in the middle of the triangle), you are actually losing some of two options, to gain more of the third.
So you really only have a few choices:
Those are your ONLY OPTIONS. (Smart people out there: Lets not get into discussions of the true mutual exclusivity of the options here, please. Don't confuse the people that this is intended for.)
How does this help me?
This helps you understand what happens based on your priorities. If you are on a very tight budget (kids!), but want to have it very good quality (molded armor), it means that it will take you extreme amounts of time, like having to manufacture or dig up your own chemicals! You obviously can't do that, so if it's ok to go with some less quality, you can compromise some. For instance, Pepakura armor can end up being pretty good quality visually, but it will never be as good of quality as cast armor. So you give up some quality, to move closer to the time side (because you don't want to try inventing silicone mold rubber again).
This also answers the 405th's most age-old n00b question, which is "Why does it cost so much to make paintball Halo armor?", or "How can I make cheap paintball Halo armor?" (HINT: YOU CAN'T!) The reason why you can't, is because that is an increase in quality. As the triangle shows us, if you increase in quality, you move further from cost and time, so it's going to take more time and cost more money.
This happens with any choice you make, and it will instantly tell you what you're going to have to give up. Another example is a movie studio. The movie studio needs to make 50 sets of prop armor very quickly, and it has to look good for the movie, so it costs them A TON. Cinema prop makers typically pay a professional sculptor to very quickly create a very nice clay model. They then take hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars of mold rubber, and pour it all over it. They then pay a professional painter lots of money, to do a movie-quality paint job very quickly (faster than you or I could). So for the movie studio, they accept "Good and Fast, but not Cheap."
The Law of Diminishing Returns
Engineers often follow something they call "The Law Of Diminishing Returns". What this law says, is that as something gets better, it becomes more and more difficult to make it even better yet. And it's cool, because it too applies to almost everything.
It relates to the Project Triangle, because as you get closer and closer to one side of the triangle, you give up lots more of what you are moving away from (exponentially, even).
Let's think about a couple examples, starting with cars. You can buy one of the cheapest cars on the market, like a Toyota Yaris that is $12,000. It's a decent car, it gets good gas mileage, it will get you to work for years to come. But for twice as much as the Yaris, $24,000, you can get a Toyota Tundra full-size pickup truck. Much bigger, can carry tons of stuff (you could probably put the Yaris in the back), bigger / more powerful engine, tow your boat, WOW! Then, for almost 6 times as much as a Yaris, $65,000+, you can buy a Toyota Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser is 3 times as much as the Tundra, but it's not bigger, doesn't have a more powerful engine, and can't carry more stuff. So what did you get for your extra $41,000 (extra 3+ Yaris's worth)? You got leather heated seats, navigation unit, some bragging rights, extra cup holders. See the diminishing returns? When you went from the cheapest to the middle, you got a lot more. When you went from the middle to the top, you didn't get as much more, even though it was many times more expensive.
So for armor, you can do a pretty good job with Pepakura, and do it for a few hundred dollars. If you want to get into molded armor, which is better quality, it doesn't just cost a little more, it costs many times more.
This also applies to all the people that want to do extreme things. If you are trying to make real metal armor, paintballing armor, carbon fiber armor, etc., the quality might be 2x as good, but it will cost you 10x as much time and money. Or if you want to use some exotic construction method, like CNC machining it out of solid billet material, you can get to the finished product 2x as fast, but the machine and materials are ridiculously expensive.
Economy of Scale
Economy of Scale is what happens if making a different amount of items causes the price to change. In most cases, but not all, making more allows you to make them cheaper. It also has limits.
For example, if you make Pepakura armor, you have to make each one by hand. Making more doesn't let you make them much faster or cheaper, except that you might make them faster as you get better. But if you make a mold of the armor, it might cost you $1000, but you can make 25 copies that take only an hour a piece, before the mold breaks. So that $1000 ends up costing each of the 25 molded pieces $40, but they take 1 hour to cast instead of 12 hours of cutting and gluing paper.
Conclusion
So plan your project, and consider what is really important to you. You really only have 3 sets of options to weigh: Good and Fast, but not Cheap. -OR- Good and Cheap, but not Fast. -OR- Cheap and Fast, but not Good.
- Pepakura-based armor: Will end up costing you around $300-600+
- Molded armor: Wil end up costing $1000-2500+
So a bunch of you just went "OH MY GOD". Believe me, this is the truth. It seems hard to believe that $20 worth of cardstock turns into several hundred dollars, so lets break it down a little. You buy $20 worth of cardstock, $20 worth of glue and xacto blades, a $5 metal ruler, a $10+ cutting board/mat, and get to work. You soon need to buy $20+ worth of fiberglass resin, and $20+ worth of fiberglass, and some Bondo at $10-15 a can. Then you go through $20 worth of sandpaper and Dremel bits (if you didn't have to buy a Dremel for $50-100). Then, if you're on a budget, you go buy a dozen cans of primer and spraypaint, at $3-5 each, for a total of $40-60 (more if you're using high-quality airbrush paints, or something). Don't forget your $40 gold motorcycle visor, straps, buckles, pressure suit, etc. It adds up quick!
Molds are worse, because you need dozens of gallons of supplies that cost $50-100 per gallon, plus clay, and on and on.
The Project Triangle
Most economics classes, especially at college level, talk about the "project triangle". It helps you understand the options you have to work with. It breaks the competing factors of projects down into three groups (cost, quality, and speed), and puts each one at one corner of a triangle.
- Good: This is quality. How much does quality matter to you? Does your armor need to be really tough, or just tough enough to wear at a convention? How long does it need to last, or do you care if it breaks periodically?
- Fast: This is speed. How long will it take you to make? How much time will you spend working on it? Are you going to have to learn new, difficult skills to complete it, or to use special tools?
- Cheap: This is cost (the biggest issue for most of our younger members). How much will it cost you to make? Will you have to buy special tools? Are you going to have to buy multiple sizes and colors of similar things? Are you going to have to use fancy or exotic materials?
The trick to the triangle is that YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ALL THREE. Point to any place on the triangle, and it describes a compromise. You can choose to maximize for any ONE OR TWO factors only. If you try maximizing for all three (by picking a place in the middle of the triangle), you are actually losing some of two options, to gain more of the third.
So you really only have a few choices:
- Good and Fast, but not Cheap.
- Good and Cheap, but not Fast.
- Cheap and Fast, but not Good.
- The absolute Best, but not Cheap or Fast. (Rarely possible.)
- The absolute Cheapest, but not Good or Fast. (Rarely possible.)
- The absolute Fastest, but not Good or Cheap. (Rarely possible.)
Those are your ONLY OPTIONS. (Smart people out there: Lets not get into discussions of the true mutual exclusivity of the options here, please. Don't confuse the people that this is intended for.)
How does this help me?
This helps you understand what happens based on your priorities. If you are on a very tight budget (kids!), but want to have it very good quality (molded armor), it means that it will take you extreme amounts of time, like having to manufacture or dig up your own chemicals! You obviously can't do that, so if it's ok to go with some less quality, you can compromise some. For instance, Pepakura armor can end up being pretty good quality visually, but it will never be as good of quality as cast armor. So you give up some quality, to move closer to the time side (because you don't want to try inventing silicone mold rubber again).
This also answers the 405th's most age-old n00b question, which is "Why does it cost so much to make paintball Halo armor?", or "How can I make cheap paintball Halo armor?" (HINT: YOU CAN'T!) The reason why you can't, is because that is an increase in quality. As the triangle shows us, if you increase in quality, you move further from cost and time, so it's going to take more time and cost more money.
This happens with any choice you make, and it will instantly tell you what you're going to have to give up. Another example is a movie studio. The movie studio needs to make 50 sets of prop armor very quickly, and it has to look good for the movie, so it costs them A TON. Cinema prop makers typically pay a professional sculptor to very quickly create a very nice clay model. They then take hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars of mold rubber, and pour it all over it. They then pay a professional painter lots of money, to do a movie-quality paint job very quickly (faster than you or I could). So for the movie studio, they accept "Good and Fast, but not Cheap."
The Law of Diminishing Returns
Engineers often follow something they call "The Law Of Diminishing Returns". What this law says, is that as something gets better, it becomes more and more difficult to make it even better yet. And it's cool, because it too applies to almost everything.
It relates to the Project Triangle, because as you get closer and closer to one side of the triangle, you give up lots more of what you are moving away from (exponentially, even).
Let's think about a couple examples, starting with cars. You can buy one of the cheapest cars on the market, like a Toyota Yaris that is $12,000. It's a decent car, it gets good gas mileage, it will get you to work for years to come. But for twice as much as the Yaris, $24,000, you can get a Toyota Tundra full-size pickup truck. Much bigger, can carry tons of stuff (you could probably put the Yaris in the back), bigger / more powerful engine, tow your boat, WOW! Then, for almost 6 times as much as a Yaris, $65,000+, you can buy a Toyota Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser is 3 times as much as the Tundra, but it's not bigger, doesn't have a more powerful engine, and can't carry more stuff. So what did you get for your extra $41,000 (extra 3+ Yaris's worth)? You got leather heated seats, navigation unit, some bragging rights, extra cup holders. See the diminishing returns? When you went from the cheapest to the middle, you got a lot more. When you went from the middle to the top, you didn't get as much more, even though it was many times more expensive.
So for armor, you can do a pretty good job with Pepakura, and do it for a few hundred dollars. If you want to get into molded armor, which is better quality, it doesn't just cost a little more, it costs many times more.
This also applies to all the people that want to do extreme things. If you are trying to make real metal armor, paintballing armor, carbon fiber armor, etc., the quality might be 2x as good, but it will cost you 10x as much time and money. Or if you want to use some exotic construction method, like CNC machining it out of solid billet material, you can get to the finished product 2x as fast, but the machine and materials are ridiculously expensive.
Economy of Scale
Economy of Scale is what happens if making a different amount of items causes the price to change. In most cases, but not all, making more allows you to make them cheaper. It also has limits.
For example, if you make Pepakura armor, you have to make each one by hand. Making more doesn't let you make them much faster or cheaper, except that you might make them faster as you get better. But if you make a mold of the armor, it might cost you $1000, but you can make 25 copies that take only an hour a piece, before the mold breaks. So that $1000 ends up costing each of the 25 molded pieces $40, but they take 1 hour to cast instead of 12 hours of cutting and gluing paper.
Conclusion
So plan your project, and consider what is really important to you. You really only have 3 sets of options to weigh: Good and Fast, but not Cheap. -OR- Good and Cheap, but not Fast. -OR- Cheap and Fast, but not Good.
