Just getting a regular paint job and correct lettering seems to be a challenge with off shore, I can't imagine what it would take to do something as complex as our cars tend to be.
Well, judging from the "off shore" competition in recent years, what it takes to get out products that are competitive with MTL involves accepting an interval (on average) of just over 2 years between announcement and delivery of product, as opposed to 2 weeks for MTL. That being for cars where tooling already exists. The delay when tooling has to be made seems to be up to 10 years for off-shore, 1 to 2 years for MTL (I think Covid and the Talent fire may have delayed the PS-2 just a bit).
And even with 2 year (sometimes 10 year) lead times, for off shore manufacturers there is also the problem of translating "mineral brown", "boxcar red", "ACL purple", "C&EI blue", "Erie gray-green", and "Dulux gold" into other languages, Dupont and Pantone numbers notwithstanding. Or at least apparently, since so much product is delivered in colors that don't match the artwork used to solicit the pre-orders (or photos of the prototype).
Now, if I could just convince MTL to produce 1937 and modified 1937 boxcars....yes, I know once every 5 to 10 years, that other company ships a few in a (very) limited number of roadnames of the 50 roads they announce, but would be nice to be able to pick one up once a month... Or the earlier 1920s-30s single sheathed cars (the ones in between the USRA cars and the "war emergency" cars). Just think of the length of the threads arguing over whether to make Pratt truss or Howe truss versions....
