marbelised plastic kits

[stitchdup]

I stripped some chrome from what i thought was one set of moon discs today. Instead i found one red/pink marbelised plastic and one lime green marbelised plastic under the chrome. I've nevr seen kits done with the plastic this way so am wondering what kits it could be. The moon discs are slightly larger diameter than the other I have so they may be from a 1/24 kit originally but i got them as lot of parts. Under the chrome was a layer of black primer then the plastic under that. I thought they were black plastic until i tried to glue them which is when i found the black base to the chrome, and it looked to be kit chrome rather than rechromed as it has some age to it

[yh70]

ive never removed any chrome with a black primer under it.. it has to be a re-chrome job with the different color plastic. probably something chrome tech had did years ago 

[bill-e-boy]

I have seen it before. The chrome sprue is a separate sprue from the rest of the car as it is further processed. As the sprue is to be covered so it does not matter that the plastic is a different  colour as the rest of the kit. The marbelling is caused by mixing different colour raw plastic beads that go into the hopper that feeds the injection moulder. It is common that a certain percentage of reground waste material is added to virgin material - usually from the runners that feed the sprues

It may have been a visual sign to the plant operators that the sprue was to be set aside for chroming 

[stitchdup]

That makes sense, I was kinda hopeful there would be a kit that was all marbelised, it would be something cool to have on the shelf

[Mark]

The earliest kits (late Fifties into early Sixties) sometimes had separate tooling for the parts intended to be plated.  Most kits after that have everything molded together (except clear and red clear, of course).  After everything is molded, the "plated" tree is separated and sent off for plating, then reunited with the other parts when the kits are boxed. 

Sometimes plated parts were molded in clear plastic, like early Sixties Revell kits.  Aurora molded a lot of their plated parts in black plastic.  For some parts, like the sports car wire wheels, sometimes the plating didn't draw into the recesses which made the wheels look better, as if someone flowed flat black paint into the recessed areas.

[deuces wild]

Monogram was another that did that in the early '60s... I have 1/8 scale parts packs that I took the parts off trees and soaked them in the purple pond... The carbs were molded in an off white with green swirls or a whole tree that was molded in red and then chromed... Those were "Big Drag" parts....

[Mark]

I've got one or two Jo-Han S/C Rambler kits that are molded in swirly dark blue plastic, body and all.  Late production from the original (pre-Seville) company, when they were throwing whatever plastic they could scrounge into the hopper.

[oldscool]

I remember building a Pyro Auburn when I was a kid that was molded in a red marbelized sort of translucent plastic.

[stitchdup]

I wonder if revell could be convinced to do their camper kit in marbelised plastic. Might be a fun special edition for the 75th anniversary thats coming up in 2024. Even just the body parts marbelised would suit me

[Can-Con]

Monogram did this kit like that.  IIRC, it wasn't very popular. The show wasn't either, cancelled after 13 episodes. The original Monkees were having a bit of renewed popularity at the time so I guess this was a cash grab by the TV producers. 

[stitchdup]

2 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Monogram did this kit like that.  IIRC, it wasn't very popular. The show wasn't either, cancelled after 13 episodes. The original Monkees were having a bit of renewed popularity at the time so I guess this was a cash grab by the TV producers. 

that just screams body cracks to me, black and white styrene just doesn't seem like a good combo as I've found the black monogram plastic to be some of the most brittle, while the white seems more forgiving

[jaymcminn]

3 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Monogram did this kit like that.  IIRC, it wasn't very popular. The show wasn't either, cancelled after 13 episodes. The original Monkees were having a bit of renewed popularity at the time so I guess this was a cash grab by the TV producers. 

I think this might be the most 80s thing ever. 

[Oldcarfan27]

I've got a Johan Maverick that was molded in a semi-translucent blue marble. Unintentional I'm sure, but there it is. Johan was known to use whatever color they had on hand.

[Can-Con]

58 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

that just screams body cracks to me, black and white styrene just doesn't seem like a good combo as I've found the black monogram plastic to be some of the most brittle, while the white seems more forgiving

It was white with light blue and a little dark brown/black in it. There's some pics of an unpainted kit on the new if you do a google image search.

Edited September 11, 2022 by Can-Con

[pack rat]

14 hours ago, Mark said:

After everything is molded, the "plated" tree is separated and sent off for plating, then reunited with the other parts when the kits are boxed. 

Based on this promo I picked up, it appears that Johan produced a batch of '70 Javelin promos in "Big Bad" colors and did exactly that.  The unplated parts are  BB orange, the rear bumper and wheels are BB green, and the front bumper/grille is BB blue. 

[Mark]

The promos were done differently from the kits, in that plated parts were all separated from the trees after plating and then grouped separately in bins (front bumper, rear bumper, wheels, shifter, and so on).  So the bumpers that went on a promo could have been molded and plated days before.  There are error promos out there with unintended combinations of different color parts.  Those usually came from people who worked for the company, as they didn't otherwise make it out of the building once discovered.

With the kits, of course the plated tree that went in the box with the other parts was unlikely to be the exact one that was separated from the other parts earlier.  But it was probably molded within a day or so.  The Round 2 "catch the Kat" deals molded in color often had plated trees molded in white.  I think I had the opposite with a Meyers Manx kit...stripping a couple of plated parts, I found transparent purple bare plastic underneath while the rest of the kit was white.

[Vintage AMT]

I have a AMT 59 Chevy that I just stripped the chrome, it's  molded in clear..

[iamsuperdan]

Here's the Monkees Mustang. The entire kit was marbleized, not just the body.

[Can-Con]

30 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

Here's the Monkees Mustang. The entire kit was marbleized, not just the body.

Those are the pics I was referring to above, Dan. 

It doesn't look too bad really but I doubt the swirl pattern on the hood would match up to the pattern on the top of the fenders and cowl panel. 

 

[1972coronet]

That 80's rip-off called The New Monkees featured a car which was Mulletised. The first few hundred issues of the kit included coupons for hair mousse, gel, and Ultra-Hold hair spray.

[Oldcarfan27]

9 hours ago, Mark said:

The promos were done differently from the kits, in that plated parts were all separated from the trees after plating and then grouped separately in bins (front bumper, rear bumper, wheels, shifter, and so on).  So the bumpers that went on a promo could have been molded and plated days before.  There are error promos out there with unintended combinations of different color parts.  Those usually came from people who worked for the company, as they didn't otherwise make it out of the building once discovered.

Not so. End runs could result in some unlikely combinations, gotta finish using whatever parts are left. Once they were boxed up, nobody could tell what they were anyway. I think there was a writer for one of the model car magazines in the 80s who would specifically collect those oddballs. They had to be untampered originals, so they were proven to come from the factory this way. He had a bunch of them.

9 hours ago, Mark said:

With the kits, of course the plated tree that went in the box with the other parts was unlikely to be the exact one that was separated from the other parts earlier.  But it was probably molded within a day or so.  The Round 2 "catch the Kat" deals molded in color often had plated trees molded in white.  I think I had the opposite with a Meyers Manx kit...stripping a couple of plated parts, I found transparent purple bare plastic underneath while the rest of the kit was white.

Those would be fun to see. Strip the chrome and build the kit with purple sparkle trim, engine and wheels. Or an orange sparkle 62 Corvette with white trim!