amt 1202 1/25 AMT 1963 Chevy II Nova Station Wagon - Craftsman Plus

[Danno]

Oh, be still my heart!  Can a '58 Buick Roadmaster be far behind?!!?

?

[Motor City]

1 hour ago, Danno said:

Oh, be still my heart!  Can a '58 Buick Roadmaster be far behind?!!?

?

no, a '57! ?

[Danno]

That wouldn't be bad, but AMT didn't do any '57 Buicks, so that would be a totally new tool.

The original AMT 3n1 annual kits began in '58 and the Buick Roadmaster hardtop was one of the first releases, and one of the very first model cars I ever built! They were beautiful! They took the lion's share of a bottle of Testors chrome silver paint to do all the "chrome" on those beasts. I'd love the challenge of Bare Metal Foiling one now!! 

Alas, wishful dreaming. I'm sure the molds were long, long ago destroyed. 

?

[Motor City]

AMT did make a '54-57 Buick promos.  It's too bad most (or all) of their tooling from the 1950s was probably recycled decades ago.

[Danno]

The town I grew up in had a Buick dealer but they did not distribute promos. Would have been gold! 

Thanks for updating my data bank; I didn't know.  Unfortunately, they were probably all acetate and any survivors probably look like pretzels now.

?

 

[Motor City]

Danno,

No, they actually all look quite presentable and yes, they are acetate.  The ''54 and '55 convertibles are quite straight.  The '54 has a slight distortion where the front fenders warped upward slightly.  The '56 Roadmaster has a slightly "dented" roof, and is the worst of the bunch (except for my '60 Invicta hardtop).  The '57 is another convertible and is quite straight.  My '58 hardtop has a slight buckle in the cowl area, while other '58s tend to buckle between the rear window and trunk lid.    

What AMT made prior to the '58 were:

'54 Skylark, Roadmaster 4-door

'55 Century convertible, Roadmaster 4-door

'56 Century convertible, Roadmaster 4-door hardtop

'57 Roadmaster convertible, 2-door hardtop

Edited October 14, 2020 by Motor City
.

[ChrisBcritter]

 

On 10/12/2020 at 6:38 PM, Motor City said:

no, a '57! ?

 

23 hours ago, Motor City said:

AMT did make a '54-57 Buick promos.  It's too bad most (or all) of their tooling from the 1950s was probably recycled decades ago.

There's one other '57 Buick: A toy company from Argentina named "Bichi" made a very good knockoff of the AMT '57 Roadmaster hardtop - but in non-warping styrene. They sold it in many versions with accessories glued to the body; the one I got from Tom Piagari's widow came in a Man from U.N.C.L.E. version. I got a warped promo which supplied better chrome and it all fits the Bichi body well. I've scrounged Modelhaus wheelcovers and a '58 Buick kit chassis; just need a '58 Buick kit interior to start putting it together.

[Motor City]

thanks for posting that, Chris; it's pretty cool!

[Tom Geiger]

Here’s my  54, 56 and 57..

[ranma]

Anyone know if the hood is molded in or actually removeable on this kit. I seen an Original Craftsman's '63 Nova wagon which the hood is not molded on.

[slusher]

2 minutes ago, ranma said:

Anyone know if the hood is molded in or actually removeable on this kit. I seen an Original Craftsman's '63 Nova wagon which the hood is not molded on.

What does the chassis look like?  I am looking forward to it...

[ranma]

1 hour ago, slusher said:

What does the chassis look like?

This one is on ebay at this time, so it's an original issued kit. If round2 indeed issues the "craftsman" that comes as this one did , it would be easy to add a engine. I wonder if the amt '60 chevy pickup's inline six could be made to work (fit) in one?

[espo]

That's encouraging looking looking. Most of the old Craftsman line were curb side style with little or no chassis detail and a hood molded shut. This looks like a lot of the basic hard work is done and the chassis is sort of what they offered at the time. A good 6 cyl. or small block would be the easy part of this build.  Based on this I'll now be interested in buying one. 

[pack rat]

5 hours ago, ranma said:

Anyone know if the hood is molded in or actually removeable on this kit. I seen an Original Craftsman's '63 Nova wagon which the hood is not molded on.

The hood and engine insert are separate pieces. Here's a peak at a test shot.          

[Luc Janssens]

17 minutes ago, pack rat said:

The hood and engine insert are separate pieces. Here's a peak at a test shot.          

Very interesting, put in an engine of your choice, and vroom vroom!

I'm buying!

[sfhess]

If you want more detail, the 66 Nova engine compartment and chassis fit really well.  A little work needs to be done on the rear wheel tubs but that's about all.

 

[oldcarfan]

Coming in late to this conversation, but I'm so glad to see this coming out. My dad had one on his shelf when I was little and I've wanted one ever since. For years I would stalk eBay, but never managed to get one. Now if they ever redo the 1958 and 1963 Ford trucks I'll be happy!

[ranma]

Well I'm glad that this car will have that option. I bought a resin copy before TM Resin closed. I got two on pre order with Tower hobbies, and so hopefully in the next few months I'll get them.

[Rodent]

2 hours ago, sfhess said:

If you want more detail, the 66 Nova engine compartment and chassis fit really well.  A little work needs to be done on the rear wheel tubs but that's about all.

Good to know. A "restomodded" version with the L-79, 4-speed, and maybe a set of rally wheels could be fun.

[charlie8575]

I, for one, am very excited by what I'm reading.

That Round 2 is now seeing fit to essentially re-create tooling, and not just a few pieces, but actually re-create one of the classic, highly-desirable kits, and then make a few improvements, is very encouraging.

There are literally dozens of kits or promos they could do this with, and probably have tremendous success. I suspect that many of the drawings for the moulds still exist, and while it might require some re-engineering to work with modern injection-moulding machines, with a large part of the most difficult work done, and even with some revision to make parts, better, the design is still better than half-done.

The other thing to remember is that the costs of designing and tooling are starting to plummet. Between 3D printing and other new design and production methods, in a short time, this could become a very inexpensive, and possibly regular, occurrence.

Imagine that within the next few years, many of the lost tools from not just AMT/MPC, but many of the other manufacturers like Jo-Han, Aurora or Hawk, among others. Right now, 3D printing with a blend of sintered A2 tool steel and liquid urethane is beginning to become more common. You can cut, grind and polish it, everything except weld. And the 3D-printed tool steel can produce and almost production-ready mould, needing only some final polishing, saving tens of thousands of dollars in labor, and having virtually identical durability to a conventional mould, per Startasys. The printer is a hefty investment- about $175,000, and the material isn't cheap, and at least now, the print area is small, but it represents huge promise for a tomorrow not that far away.

In the meantime, buy this kit. This is, in many respects, a very risky experiment by Round 2, and we want to see more like it, it needs to be successful.

Charlie Larkin

 

[64Comet404]

3 hours ago, pack rat said:

The hood and engine insert are separate pieces. Here's a peak at a test shot.          

One change I can see right off the bat is the removal of the moulded-in battery. Definitely a worthwhile change!

[ChrisBcritter]

Let's do an A/B comparison:

This bodes well for a full detail kit! Note the mounting points for a separate radiator, battery, master cylinder, and possibly heater blower motor, and (Nova experts please chime in) what looks like a more accurate treatment on the shape of the inner fenders and shock towers.

Chassis:

(Sorry about the red clay - it was a dam for making a mold of the crossmember)

This sure looks like they scanned an original chassis; it's a very close match. Those front stabilizer arms shouldn't have an S-curve, though, and the lower control arms are as simplified as they always were. The front motor mounts are a bit more substantial.

Bravo, Round2 - Looking forward to more! 

[GMP440]

36 minutes ago, charlie8575 said:

I, for one, am very excited by what I'm reading.

That Round 2 is now seeing fit to essentially re-create tooling, and not just a few pieces, but actually re-create one of the classic, highly-desirable kits, and then make a few improvements, is very encouraging.

There are literally dozens of kits or promos they could do this with, and probably have tremendous success. I suspect that many of the drawings for the moulds still exist, and while it might require some re-engineering to work with modern injection-moulding machines, with a large part of the most difficult work done, and even with some revision to make parts, better, the design is still better than half-done.

The other thing to remember is that the costs of designing and tooling are starting to plummet. Between 3D printing and other new design and production methods, in a short time, this could become a very inexpensive, and possibly regular, occurrence.

Imagine that within the next few years, many of the lost tools from not just AMT/MPC, but many of the other manufacturers like Jo-Han, Aurora or Hawk, among others. Right now, 3D printing with a blend of sintered A2 tool steel and liquid urethane is beginning to become more common. You can cut, grind and polish it, everything except weld. And the 3D-printed tool steel can produce and almost production-ready mould, needing only some final polishing, saving tens of thousands of dollars in labor, and having virtually identical durability to a conventional mould, per Startasys. The printer is a hefty investment- about $175,000, and the material isn't cheap, and at least now, the print area is small, but it represents huge promise for a tomorrow not that far away.

In the meantime, buy this kit. This is, in many respects, a very risky experiment by Round 2, and we want to see more like it, it needs to be successful.

Charlie Larkin

 

To add , this is great news .  For years the naysayers in the model car hobby have been saying " no ,we will never see that subject come out again because the model car companies will not invest monies to fix damaged tooling or even do whole new tooling for that matter."  Well, after all these years, they were wrong.  We are now seeing new tooling done of old subjects from back in the day.

[pack rat]

33 minutes ago, 64Comet404 said:

One change I can see right off the bat is the removal of the moulded-in battery. Definitely a worthwhile change!

I was wondering if anyone would catch that....didn't take long!

[niteowl7710]

16 minutes ago, GMP440 said:

To add , this is great news .  For years the naysayers in the model car hobby have been saying " no ,we will never see that subject come out again because the model car companies will not invest monies to fix damaged tooling or even do whole new tooling for that matter."  Well, after all these years, they were wrong.  We are now seeing new tooling done of old subjects from back in the day.

But in all fairness if AMT/Ertl doesn't nearly get run under by the mismanagement of Racing Champions putting it's tooling at Tomy who didn't have an idea what to with it either and finally find itself under the umbrella of Round2 would we see any of this happening?

Because if none of that happened and AMT had continued forward to be a direct competitor to Revell and Moebius wouldn't they putting their money into new kits just like everyone else?

For better or worse they've all but officially attached their wagon entirely to the idea of catering to a customer base old enough to remember this stuff when it was new. I wonder how long an end game it can really be. Seems like every month this forum gets a post or two from people having to hang up their sprue cutters because of various health concerns. One thing is for sure Father Time is undefeated and it'll come for us sassy-mouthed Gen Xers before too long as well.