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mphostetler2008

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    Matt Hostetler

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  1. A lot of them can be bought all at once so you don't have to wait months or years to finish one. Id imagine its cheaper to buy a complete kit rather than one in installments since it would cut shipping costs drastically. The complete kit are in the 1200-1800 range. As for selling one that has been build, I doubt you'd make a profit let alone recoup your investment/time. You need to consider who would buy it. They are big cars, so displaying one takes up a whole lot more room than even your average 1:18 scales. They are pretty pricey, so even selling one at a break even price around 1500 is likely going to take most perspective buyers out of the market. Finally the biggest factor is what car it is. If someone is willing to spend big money on a model they are going to want a specific car that they can connect with. Lets say its the Lamborghini Hurican kit. The kit produces a yellow car. That means you have to find a buyer that has the space to display the car, the money to cover the price tag and connects with yellow Lamborghinis. Finding someone with those requirements is like finding a needle in a haystack. While its not impossible, its just unlikely. Building models for profit is VERY difficult to do even for the best builders out there. If kit costs and supplies don't put you in the red the build time itself usually will.
  2. If you have the 288 GTO kit too, it looks like its going to be a pretty nicely detailed kit. I got the photo etch kit for it and its unbelievably detailed, it even has a key and separate Ferrari key fob to connect the key to. I've been limited to painting bodies the last couple months due to a broken hand and wrist. I couldn't do much assembly or fine detail work with my dominate hand out of order. The 288 was one of the bodies I had painted so I started on it first. A 1/24 scale with 250 pieces plus photo etch might not have been the best choice to jump on while I'm getting the hand working again, but I'm up for the challenge.
  3. PERFECT! Those instructions were the missing link. I really appreciate the help.
  4. Started working a Fujimi 288 GTO and I am having trouble building the engine. The instructions don't show anything as far as building the engine. I noticed the sprue diagrams in the instructions show nearly every engine part as "not used". Why on earth would they mold all of these parts if they are not going to be used? I have been referring to the instructions to the 1/16 version but they aren't much help since the parts aren't quite the same. Do instructions for engine assembly exist for this kit or am I stuck to the trial and error method?
  5. Maybe try Cummins? I know CAT has scale engines like that. We use giant natural gas powered engines to build compressor stations where I work and the CAT guy always drops off a couple scale models of the different engines. Surprisingly highly detailed too. Finding a scale model of a vintage engine might be a little more difficult though. If you cant find a Cummins I bet you could make a CAT look like a pretty convincing Cummins with a little red paint and a few decals. The engines and scale models we have around the shop look VERY similar to the one you have pictured, but obviously they are painted CAT yellow. I know they sell the scale model engines to the public, they tend to be a little pricey though. Last time I looked they were going for about $100 or so depending on the model.
  6. Love the wheels, what are they? My friends dad actually found an RX3 a few years back as a barn find. It was a pretty cool little car and surprisingly clean for its age at the time. Pretty similar color too, light blue.
  7. I'm still waiting after about 2 months. Sent many emails and got zero responses. I eventually filed a complaint with Paypal a little over a week ago. My order changed from "Processing" to "On Hold" the next day so he obviously got the message. Unfortunately his poor business practices didn't end there, he still has not refunded my money. I have tried to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and make things right multiple times, but nothing changed. I speculate the problem is simply stock. I believe he only keeps the most common colors in his inventory. This would explain why some people get orders filled in a respectable amount of time, yet myself and others do not. For reasons unknown to me he advertises on his site a ton of different colors that he could in theory "get". Unfortunately it seems like if you order one of these colors you simply get bumped into the "processing" pile until he feels like he has enough people to make this color "profitable". This poor business practice will eventually be the end of Gravity USA. There's a reason why the 2 Gravitys split up, ones an honest company and the other was dumped for poor business practices, which he still practices. At this point I've written off Gravity USA as a loss and who knows if even Paypal can right this wrong.
  8. My order (pretty big) is still "processing" after more than a month. Sent multiple emails with no response. Pretty disappointing since I hear its good stuff and the color selection is great. Interestingly enough he must have time to update his website with new colors but no time to actually "process" those orders or even answer emails. Im giving my order another week, before I pull the plug on it. I placed an order with Splash and I had it in days. I couldn't be happier with them, I was shocked when I opened the package and found MORE than I ordered. I can't wait to spray some down tomorrow. I just wish I would have known about Splash sooner. I know where my next orders will be placed.
  9. I bought these wheels from eBay, so depending on the input from others I may be led to believe these are a cheaply recasted set of wheels. The more I work with them the worse they look.
  10. I just bought a set of wheels for a Z4 GT3 project I'm working on from Hobby Design. I've never used anything from them so I'm not familiar with their quality. There is a ton of flash on the wheels and I am uncovering air bubbles as I am trying to clean them up. Parts of the wheels are not even round (Luckly the backside of the wheels) My 2nd concern is with the valve stems. They are cast directly to a chuck of resin so I can only imagine how fun those are going to be to remove. Is this normal? I feel like I should have just went with the original wheels in the kit and made my own valve stems, at least those one are round....
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