Rob Hall Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Casey said: Sadly, I think that's entirely accurate. Worse still is that the "meh, good enough for me" crowd may have been their target audience from the get-go. The gushing 'best kit evar' type of comments on the Salvinos FB page is sickening...a lot of clueless rabble out there... Edited July 12, 2018 by Rob Hall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill J Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 The battery looks pretty well represented but I doubt it's intended location is accurate. Someone mentioned the AMT and MPC Malibu kits, those were originally tooled in the mid '70's. Kits were about $4 back then and there was no CAD/CAM. Models were done by eyeball and hand work. Today kits are done on computers and should be fairly error free with some correct input. These guys laser scanned a weak model to create their 3D images and ran with the inaccuracies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niteowl7710 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 4 minutes ago, Casey said: Sadly, I think that's entirely accurate. Worse still is that the "meh, good enough for me" crowd may have been their target audience from the get-go. Well ya know...it tiptoes down that line of - alright there's a lot of things wrong with the engine/transmission, wow look at those sink marks on the odd 2 parter chassis...buuuuuuuut will you ever see any of that again once it's built and sitting on a shelf? Same thing with the rear bumper and body line issues - how many people (general public, not Colonade fanatics) REALLY know what that's supposed to look like who'd be viewing the built model? I see a lot of "never built a NASCAR before, but I bought this!!" comments afoot, and I think the relative openness they had on FB showing live video after live video of the molding process, their willingness to interact - with positive comments, and gee golly willickers will you look those decal numbers are printed in CHROME!!! Combined with the limited run numbers, they can sell out 3k of them before the "negative rivet counting" can stop it. Actually a quick check of their website this morning shows they're about to run out of them on their end...VIOLA sales success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill J Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) P.T. Barnum was right it would seem. BTW, the decals were done by Powerslide and Cartograph printed. The one nice thing about this piece of kit. Edited July 12, 2018 by Bill J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hall Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 4 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said: Well ya know...it tiptoes down that line of - alright there's a lot of things wrong with the engine/transmission, wow look at those sink marks on the odd 2 parter chassis...buuuuuuuut will you ever see any of that again once it's built and sitting on a shelf? Same thing with the rear bumper and body line issues - how many people (general public, not Colonade fanatics) REALLY know what that's supposed to look like who'd be viewing the built model? I see a lot of "never built a NASCAR before, but I bought this!!" comments afoot, and I think the relative openness they had on FB showing live video after live video of the molding process, their willingness to interact - with positive comments, and gee golly willickers will you look those decal numbers are printed in CHROME!!! Combined with the limited run numbers, they can sell out 3k of them before the "negative rivet counting" can stop it. Actually a quick check of their website this morning shows they're about to run out of them on their end...VIOLA sales success! In their credit, the decals and instructions are decent. It's pretty amazing that it has the "GM Licensed Product' logo on the box...I guess GM wasn't too picky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can-Con Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I won't be buying one as I'm just not into nascar but has anyone mentioned the top corners of the windshield? We've had a lot of mid-size GM cars in my family over the years so I'm pretty familiar with them. The windshield is the first thing that I noticed, stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Wrench Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 IMO, a newly tooled NASCAR kit released in 2018 should be done to AT LEAST the same standards of quality and accuracy as the Monogram and AMT/ERTL NASCAR kits released by those respective companies more than 30 years ago. This one falls well short of that mark. What we have here, essentially, is a mashup of the Polar Lights NASCAR Charger chassis and a styrene clone of a poorly done diecast body, shot through with a generous helping of '70s MPC NASCAR kit DNA. Yeah, I suppose one could build this thing into a halfway decent-looking shelf model if one wanted to put the effort into doing so, but, if an accurate replica of a NASCAR Olds of this era is your goal, I think your best route is a resin body and a chassis from one of the aforementioned AMT/ERTL kits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rat Roaster Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 58 minutes ago, Can-Con said: has anyone mentioned the top corners of the windshield? No, but i'll bet the windows are the scale thickness of the glass in a Brinks truck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
echoxrayniner Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) I gotta ask though, given I know the square root of jack **** on sales figures for model kits, but it's fairly well known that NASCAR kits are a tough sell at any given time(atleast, during the 80s and 90s when the whole friggin' world was flooded with them and now they just can't seem to sell 'em off cheap enough), what the hell was their plan with this one? The decals are fantastic and the instructions solid, but why half-ass it with the model kit itself on an already harder to market product and crank the price through the ceiling while you're at it? I'm kinda torn with like, should they have cheapened out on the kit more(like not using Cartograf for decal printing) to make it a more competitively priced product to match the accuracy and detailing that the modeler in the end has to fix up using spare parts or resin bits, or should they have cranked it all up a notch, kind of group effort resin caster-styled focus on high quality and accuracy but equally high purchase price? I mean, not that it makes a friggin' difference given the Olds seems to sell like hotcakes anyway making half my point moot... Edited July 12, 2018 by echoxrayniner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hall Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) <sarcasm> Given the accuracy issues, maybe peel and stick decals might have been more appropriate. </sarcasm> Edited July 12, 2018 by Rob Hall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrObsessive Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 4 hours ago, Mark said: I'm pretty certain NASCAR teams were "massaging" the roofs on these cars. I don't recall hearing or seeing any complaints about the AMT or MPC NASCAR Malibu kit bodies that use the same style roof...could be that those bodies are accurate for a racing version but not so much as a stock body. For a stock roof, what's wrong with the Jo-Han '75 Cutlass? Well, in all fairness the AMT one (particularly the '75 Laguna) is not right to me either........especially in the quarter window area. It's not so much the entire roof is off, I'm looking at particularly the shape of the side window profile-------right at the upper window line. Just doesn't look right to me, but nothing that some sanding and reshaping couldn't fix. Yeah, the Johan '75 Cutlass will be my go to source as far as doing any kind of '76-'77 Cutlass at this point. The roofline is dead on correct for that-------I was hoping that the NASCAR body would have gotten some other areas right. The bodysides are a real killer for me looking at it further. As was mentioned, there should be a distinct crease right above the rockers, as this was one of the changes for '76. Gone was the Oldsmobile "bulges" on the fenders. Also, the C pillar kink or bulge on the beltline is absent------yet something else I'd have to add. It was mentioned in another part of this thread that some raced with smooth sides. That very well may be, but it's just something more I'd have to correct. For what this kit is costing, IMO it should be a lot more accurate, even for a NASCAR runner. There shouldn't be multiple things one has to "fix" at this price point sadly. Frankly, the only thing I can see usable on this NASCAR body would be the hood! At least the creases and whatnot are correct on that-------------I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niteowl7710 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 30 minutes ago, echoxrayniner said: I gotta ask though, given I know the square root of jack **** on sales figures for model kits, but it's fairly well known that NASCAR kits are a tough sell at any given time(atleast, during the 80s and 90s when the whole friggin' world was flooded with them and now they just can't seem to sell 'em off cheap enough), what the hell was their plan with this one? The decals are fantastic and the instructions solid, but why half-ass it with the model kit itself on an already harder to market product and crank the price through the ceiling while you're at it? I'm kinda torn with like, should they have cheapened out on the kit more(like not using Cartograf for decal printing) to make it a more competitively priced product to match the accuracy and detailing that the modeler in the end has to fix up using spare parts or resin bits, or should they have cranked it all up a notch, kind of group effort resin caster-styled focus on high quality and accuracy but equally high purchase price? I mean, not that it makes a friggin' difference given the Olds seems to sell like hotcakes anyway making half my point moot... Cartograf makes nice decals, but they're not expensive when you're printing in a 3k piece bulk order. Revell did, and Round2 does use them, and there wasn't a subjective increase in price of their kits. I don't think a couple of hundred bucks was gonna save this disaster in the making. NASCAR itself isn't hard to market. The 80s & 90s kits were just run at rates of something like 25k pieces PER kit, and when you're releasing 5-7 of them YEARLY that adds up to a glut of models over flowing out your earholes. This kit was done on a run of 3k kits, most of which were sold in direct pre-sale and then in supplying a few larger dealers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 15 minutes ago, MrObsessive said: Well, in all fairness the AMT one (particularly the '75 Laguna) is not right to me either........especially in the quarter window area. It's not so much the entire roof is off, I'm looking at particularly the shape of the side window profile-------right at the upper window line. Just doesn't look right to me, but nothing that some sanding and reshaping couldn't fix. Yeah, the Johan '75 Cutlass will be my go to source as far as doing any kind of '76-'77 Cutlass at this point. The roofline is dead on correct for that-------I was hoping that the NASCAR body would have gotten some other areas right. The bodysides are a real killer for me looking at it further. As was mentioned, there should be a distinct crease right above the rockers, as this was one of the changes for '76. Gone was the Oldsmobile "bulges" on the fenders. Also, the C pillar kink or bulge on the beltline is absent------yet something else I'd have to add. It was mentioned in another part of this thread that some raced with smooth sides. That very well may be, but it's just something more I'd have to correct. For what this kit is costing, IMO it should be a lot more accurate, even for a NASCAR runner. There shouldn't be multiple things one has to "fix" at this price point sadly. Frankly, the only thing I can see usable on this NASCAR body would be the hood! At least the creases and whatnot are correct on that-------------I think. Those Seventies cars are built from body panels as opposed to being gutted showroom cars. I heard somewhere that Bobby Allison's early Seventies Monte Carlo (the one AMT made the kit of) was the last car to win a race, that was built from an actual car as opposed to body panels. The templates used to check the cars' profile mostly went down the center of the car, so the builders would pull the roof down at the sides to chip away at the number of square feet the car pushed into the wind. That would explain why the side window shapes differ so much from stock. Years ago, I mastered and cast a couple of bodies. Before I got out of that, my "next" one was going to be a stock mid-Seventies Malibu fastback. I was going to start with the AMT body and splice in the Jo-Han Cutlass roof. That's the opposite of the '67 4-4-2 body I did, by cutting down a Monogram Hairy Olds body and splicing in a Revell '67 Chevelle roof. I sold off the Malibu body I had way back when, and hadn't started cutting on a Jo-Han Cutlass. Since then, I have found another AMT Malibu body as well as a Jo-Han Cutlass that someone hot-knifed an opening trunk into...so both of those are on the pile... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Janssens Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 They should've read the 250k question 'Nuff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloozalot Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 When I first heard about this kit I stuck some cash back to get one. Then, when I looked at what was in the box, I used the money to buy a new Mr. Coffee. When and if their second kit comes out, I'll buy a new toaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMP440 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I was on the Salvinos website and it's strange to see nothing but positive reviews on the 442 Nascar kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Wrench Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 57 minutes ago, GMP440 said: I was on the Salvinos website and it's strange to see nothing but positive reviews on the 442 Nascar kit. Do you really think any negative ones would remain up for long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'70 Grande Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) Quote Worse still is that the "meh, good enough for me" crowd may have been their target audience from the get-go. And that being the case, this kit might sell well enough and become a "profitable, business-success' for the Salvino's JR Model Company. I honestly do hope this kit is a sales-success for the company. Maybe the feedback on this kit will lead the company to invest more $ into the proper research for more-accurately producing any future kits. I know I bought one, and will build it. I guess that might make me part of the "meh, good enough for me" target audience, but my real reason for making the purchase was to support a start-up, American kit manufacturer. For me, that was reason enough. Edited July 12, 2018 by '70 Grande Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niteowl7710 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Understand that this mess is going to be lurking under all of their kits for the foreseeable future. The entire purpose of making the chassis 2 part and "adjustable" is so that it can be modular and fit under whatever project they plan in the future, so it's going into the Monte Carlo as well albeit with a more nominally better rear suspension set up, and I believe a different front suspension work up as well. The idea is to make the entire thing plug and play so you can kit bash whatever you need to get whatever version of the running gear you need for a given project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Wrench Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 11 minutes ago, niteowl7710 said: Understand that this mess is going to be lurking under all of their kits for the foreseeable future. The entire purpose of making the chassis 2 part and "adjustable" is so that it can be modular and fit under whatever project they plan in the future, so it's going into the Monte Carlo as well albeit with a more nominally better rear suspension set up, and I believe a different front suspension work up as well. The idea is to make the entire thing plug and play so you can kit bash whatever you need to get whatever version of the running gear you need for a given project. Different suspension setups won't do anything to fix that mess of an engine, unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Hamilton Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I know nothing about NASCAR, so they will not get my money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicmustang Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 After seeing the pics of the box contents I am glad I have a Franklin Mint Petty Nascar Olds. It's a shame they didn't use one of these for their master. I'll pass on this new kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinfan5 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 11 minutes ago, magicmustang said: After seeing the pics of the box contents I am glad I have a Franklin Mint Petty Nascar Olds. It's a shame they didn't use one of these for their master. I'll pass on this new kit. Gerald , are you a Plano native? I was born in Plano , but spent my first 6 years of life living in Wiley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTPlastic&Paint Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 thanks for posting the pictures, at the price to buy the kit in my area I'll pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTPlastic&Paint Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 (edited) So I left a comment on their Facebook page, simply saying I was disappointed in the quality and lack of detail, and it has disappeared in under 10 mins haha, I will never support a company like that. Edited July 13, 2018 by JTPlastic&Paint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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