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Minor pet peeve...


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Why?

AMT made a perfectly good '53 Ford F100 for years, in fact the last go-round of it was in the late 1980's. This kit, dating from 1964 could be built stock, custom or as a service truck. Nice tool, chock full of optional parts, including a complete chromed tool set (lots of those got robbed for custom car displays!) Often, this kit gets confused with the MPC (later reissued numerous times by AMT/Ertl as an AMT kit) which was the "flip-nose" version of the '53 pickup. Now if only Tom Lowe and Mke G. of Round2 could see fit to release the original AMT kit!

Art

Dittos!! That was a great kit!

B)

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Ok... I can let it pass on models that were tooled up in the '60s and '70s and even the '80s and '90s... but on brand-new kits that have been tooled in the 21st century, why do they still insist on making the wipers a molded-in detail instead of making them separate pieces?

Now that's what I'm talking about! B)

Are you wanting injection molded kits to include P/E wipers or molded plastic wipers? No molded wiper is ever going to be as detailed as a P/E wiper, and the wipers on Steve's Riv are pretty much "state of the art" at this time (and they do look great).

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I can live with molded wipers and door handles- scripts (especially very faintly-engraved ones) are what bother me. I like the idea of supplying them as photoetch pieces, or perhaps as a rub-on metal transfer, which might be a bit more user friendly compared to PE. Probably a bit more costly as well, now that I think of it.

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Are you wanting injection molded kits to include P/E wipers or molded plastic wipers? No molded wiper is ever going to be as detailed as a P/E wiper, and the wipers on Steve's Riv are pretty much "state of the art" at this time (and they do look great).

I'd settle for separately molded plastic wipers. I know that PE parts included with kits would raise prices too high for the average modeler. What I meant when I said "that's what I'm talking about" is how much better wipers could look if they weren't those molded-on blobs like most kits have. Even molded plastic wipers, if made as separate parts, would look way better than molded-in wipers.

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I love old AMT kits. Give me four screws 'n two wire axles and I'm happy. But, yeah, the wipers are less than stellar. Solution; I make my own. Recipe: styrene rod shaft, carved ABS arm, styrene strip arm extension and blade, Testors gloss black, Alclad chrome, insert shaft in hole drilled in cowl after carefully shaving off the molded-on wiper-shaped bumps.

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Separate wipers included on the chrome tree would be great if they were somewhere near scale and were molded and plated with no flash, but that doesn't seem possible given the examples I've seen. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Revell...

As for door handles, most of what I'm building these days are mild customs so they usually get shaved off, but I have made my own from ABS or styrene, cut them out of another kit body (ie. cut out of AMT '57 Ford then fitted to AMT '58) or robbed them out of a similar kit (Revellogram '59 Impala for AMT '60 Buick, and other '59-'60 GM cars.) Speaking of those handles from the '59 Impala, they do get plated with a little bit of flash present so they need meticulous cleanup and touch up, or stripping and replating which is a bit of a peeve, so I guess it's sort of a trade off.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think we need a Pet Peeve section,that way the manufacturers could go to a one-stop shop and see real quick what bugs us.

My PP is the holes in the hoods that are then molded over with a thin film of plastic. Honestly,I don't know of anyone,young or old who can't put a hole in a plastic body! I've tried dozens of ways to fill these score marks and no matter what filler is used,and/or primer, they seem to have an existence all their own.

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I'm with ya on this one Harry

Its seams that todays kit's cost more so those details should not be a shortcut for the company's.

Some kit's from way back have separate wipers and door handles so it looks like all of them could have added that detail and kept it going through out the years and new kit's.

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My PP is the holes in the hoods that are then molded over with a thin film of plastic. Honestly,I don't know of anyone,young or old who can't put a hole in a plastic body! I've tried dozens of ways to fill these score marks and no matter what filler is used,and/or primer, they seem to have an existence all their own.

I'm with you, Mike!!

That REALLY peaves me off!

B)

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I have a problem with people who can't spell "peeves" correctly...

but that's just me... :lol::P

I can spell correctly, it's just my Arizonan-to-English translator that sometimes hangs up. :o That makes me look bad! :rolleyes:

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I can spell correctly, it's just my Arizonan-to-English translator that sometimes hangs up. :o That makes me look bad! :rolleyes:

So wat you r sawing is peple in Airzone dont know too spel ? :lol: :lol: :P;)

(so what are you saying?, people in Arizona do not know how to spell?)

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I'd settle for separately molded plastic wipers. I know that PE parts included with kits would raise prices too high for the average modeler. What I meant when I said "that's what I'm talking about" is how much better wipers could look if they weren't those molded-on blobs like most kits have. Even molded plastic wipers, if made as separate parts, would look way better than molded-in wipers.

Detail master sells them for $4 plus shipping, I am sure if Revell or other manufacturer bought them in bulk they could get them for less. Of course thats if detail master is set up to do bulk orders. I'd pay the extra I guess.

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