24 replies to this topic

[Art Anderson]

With all of the great new kit releases already out, and quite a few more scheduled, there is a need for photoetched detail sets for these kits. In the past, the Model Car Garage had always fullfilled this need. Not long after the new kits were out, we had a detail set available. It seems they are no longer producing ALL-NEW detail sets.

http://www.modelcarg...p?idCategory=33

These new, highly detailed 50s cars are just begging for separate lettering, emblems, interior trim, etc. to really finish these gems off properly. Maybe licensing fees are keeping these detail sets from coming to our benches?

How about it aftermarket?

Discuss please

I talked by phone with Bob Korunow of Model Car Garage just a week ago: He told me that he's had to deal with some family situations (elderly parents, IIRC), which has gotten into his time for drawing up new products for photoetching, but things have settled down, so he's getting back to the important stuff in his life and business.

Art

[Art Anderson]

4 years ago I would spend $45 on a resin kit, buy 2 kits (or more) as donors, a photo etch set, $30 worth of automotive paint and some aftermarket decals just to build a model if the subject interested me. Today I have to think out every dollar I spend. I would be a buyer for PE sets for kits that lack scripts and emblems, but I would want them smaller than whats been out before (no pedals, wiper arms, plate frames, ect.) to keep the cost down. Scripts and emblems only.

Craig,

For starters, I personally have never bought a set of PE that didn't include scripts and emblems, and have never really worried if they included other stuff I might not use (for example, I have here a complete set of the now-legendary Putty Thrower scripts from the 1980's, most having multiple scripts for all the different trim levels of the car they are meant for).

Unlike say, resin kits, there really isn't a way to just split out the parts that a particular customer might want, particularly if that means virtually wasting out whole sections of a fret of scripts.

In my resin casting career, I used a fair number of PE scripts, including the now very rare Putty Thrower sets, to get the scripts I needed for transkits of different trim levels of cars than offered by the MCG set were the Biscayne scripts, all the rest was there on the body shell already. Did that mean I just 'threw away" the rest of the fret? Not on your bippy, my friend! Someday I will more than likely use the Bel Air scripts from that, perhaps even the Impala scripts as well.

Isn't this pretty much the same thing as buying a multi-version (think 2in1 or 3in1 kits here)? I think it is--and that is the stuff from which parts boxes are made from, IMHO.

Art

[Art Anderson]

gets back to the whole philosphy of modeling: do you build, or buy?

OK, while not wishing to be seen as confrontational: Do you build your own scripts and emblems/badges?

Art

[jaydar]

I talked by phone with Bob Korunow of Model Car Garage just a week ago: He told me that he's had to deal with some family situations (elderly parents, IIRC), which has gotten into his time for drawing up new products for photoetching, but things have settled down, so he's getting back to the important stuff in his life and business.

Art

THAT is outstanding news.

joe.

[DirtModeler]

Coming from someone who produces a lot of photoetched parts, the problem for me isn't the initial setup costs, it's the time required to research and design the parts.

When i hear "make this part here", my head swims.

For me to make a part, i have to absolutely understand that part. I need to know what size it is, and the sizes of all the stuff it connects to, and how it all fits together. If customers would help with requests by doing some of the research, there would probably be more PE stuff being released.

Once i have all the dimensions, understand how the part fits together, and have a plan to how i could be reproduced.. I then have to draw it up.. all while following certain design rules for Photoetching. Oftentimes the initial design idea won't work, because it breaks the rules of photoetching. So you have to tweak things.

It's a time-consuming endeavor.

Another aspect is, having the actual model that people are talking about. If you want door trim for a 55 Chevy kit, i have to find and buy that same kit... then tweak and tweak and tweak the artwork until that door trim artwork fits the kit perfectly...

I haven't done too much for certain kits because i'm really paranoid about spending all the time and setup costs to make a new fret... and then the kit goes out of production.

Anyway, my point is it's just hard.. you have to make so many decisions on what to do, what will sell, what won't, and how best to invest your time.