Luc Janssens

I knew you would come through

Very understandable reaction Dave. But if you would take a photo, you're fully in control and can make one, which does the kit justice. Just my 2 cents. Best regards Luc

Question for the model kit engineers on board, would it be helpful in kit design, using a wire mesh panel (painted black for a light car, white or yellow for a dark one) when shooting a body of a vintage car. Or would it interfere with the camera lens, just wondering... Edit; The wire mesh panel can be custom made in aluminum and coated with some sort of soft plastic, so one can't damage the vehicle, one is getting data from. or

I'm content when you don't notice the mistakes or tooling/design compromises, without taking a caliper, ruler, making templates or use some other measuring device. I still remember as a early teen; un-boxing the Airfix/Mpc General Lee kit, and noticing the wrong backlite and hoping Monogram would release a '69 Charger as the next kit in their 1/24th scale Muscle car series....

Please see link for details...http://www.plastik-modellbau.org/blog/testshots-vorgestellt-vw-golf-gti-von-revell-im-massstab-124/2014/ Photo courtesy of DPMV

Totally unnecessary, because the curb spot is the best spot, you can park with the wheels a few inches from the curb and have wide area to open the passenger door, or the driver-side door from the car in the second spot. Unless it's grass, full of dog feces, then I back in (letting the passenger out before I park) ;^)

Seems Tamiya has a better customer service in the US then in Europe, tried to obtain the clear parts for their BMW 635 CSI kit and both the Belgian as the German distributors, were unable to help me.

Didn't know that they had several Masters, which is not likely cuz they cost a ton of money. But I doubt we will ever know the reason why it happened...internal kitchen...

Think Revell in the Venice years had some great Ideas, but where was their tooling done? 'Bout the second statement you make, well if the weekend modelers were not so discriminative palmer and that other brand still would be current model kit makers. ;^)

Dunno, maybe sometimes the tooling model is so much off, that they don't have the budget and time-frame to fix all the errors, let alone start from scratch?! For instance when the wheelbase is off, not only the body needs to be retooled, but also the chassis, suspension parts, exhaust, interference with other parts need to be checked, interior, firewall, etc.. Then the translation form tooling model to first shot can also go bad for reasons Murphy only knows, remember the B-pillar from the Moebius Ford P/U? Maybe we should call it the Walmart legacy.. Cutting costs so much that decisions were made which now seem irreversible due to laying the eggs in just one basket, so that there's no turning back without a major investment in technology, human capital and production slots. Think the complaining of board members is like poring salt in an already open wound. just my opinion...and open for debate...

Masters and tooling are also done overseas, dunno if the production is done by the same vendor(s) as the one who's contracted to do the tooling-model and cutting the dies.

I remember a conversation I had with friends; who almost 10 years ago, owned a large mail-order/distributor/aftermarket company in MO, in which they said, that when calling Revell-Monogram for orders etc, one could hear the machines and handing of tools in the tool-shop, later when tooling went Orient the phone line was static free. With that I wish to say, that it's much easier to follow up on something that's done in house, then when sending a box stuffed with drawings and photographs to a vendor a few thousand miles away, Sidenote: If i would sent the recipe to make Belgian chocolate to a Chinese food factory, will they be able to create those delicious Belgian Chocolates and sell them in Belgium by the truckloads?) Maybe in time with raising labor costs in China, plus the shipping factor (cost and lost time) and also the advancement of 3D scanning and rapid prototyping technology, this part of R&D could be ready for in-sourcing again, but the question then is do we still have craftsmen who can do the job and if so, can a small niche the hobby industry is, attract such people, when there's much more earnings to be found, in industrial applications, so who knows maybe some Chinese craftsmen will have to come stateside and be part of the American dream, just as the Chinese railroad-workers many generations ago... I have a dream...Ha! R&D nothing as exiting but also nerve-wrecking ;^)

Could it be that that exploded view is from the old Monogram days, I see that the tires are named by brand and there are no chrome headlight buckets, something not seen from Monogram since the '83 Mustang IIRC

I'd say, write to Italeri, to let them know your grieves, but in a polite way, maybe just maybe, there's money in parts packs engines, dunno just thinking out loud... ;^) Anyway here's a link to a page on their website, with a email addy for suggestions: http://italeri.com/news_scheda.asp?idNews=473

You beat me to it, was thinking the same....easy to spot when looking inside of the body, IIRC Japanese model manufacturers do it the same way for ages now..

Thanks for the pics, this kit takes me back to the '70s, when they were all over the place, in my neck of the woods...

The nose is too flat too, like it hit a wall, IMHO the only right thing to do is,to recycling that tool.

They carefully dismantlement the building and raised it again in the Belgian open museum called Bokrijk http://www.bokrijk.be/en/for-kids/default.php On weekends they produce plastic model kits of from the 60s... ;^)

Don't think it's a big deal, just stupid on his part, cuz he doesn't know what the company short list is and the ranking of his car, which can go up, or down depending on what sells on the hobby market. When something is in tooling, then one can be fairly sure, you can have a copy of it within a year or so... I'm hoping to see a '80s Cutlass kit and guess like most of us here, will find out, when it's on some quarterly flyer. 'till then I've got plenty to build already ;^)

They must be new to the car biz

Wonder how these more aero trucks do on the hobby market vs the classic designs.

It's a kit aimed to please kids and novice builders, so....

Saw that diecast with my own eyes, many moons ago, and believe me, you don't want that as a plastic kit, unless your hobby is bashing Revell. I also have seen comments like, why don't they retool, well...maybe it's much more cost effective, to start from scrach, or by baseing it on older Monogram tools (Monte Carlo/Buick GNX) Anyway, we don't know if the boys in Elk Grove are working on one, could be, could be not, sometimes what is concidred hot today, will tank big time tomorrow, (one of the reasons it's a bad idea, to leak info and certainly in the data gathering stage) Remember that Monogram Dodge Diplomat police car, it was canceled in a pre-tooling stage....

No pain no gain

Hey guys... I always wondered why model kit manufacturers, tool and retool the same (basic) engine over and over again, whenever a new subject needs that power plant, thinking it's a waste of valuable resources, which could've been spend in other feasible projects. So my question for you (cuz I'm not that knowledgeable on the matter) is not only, what engines need to be tooled as a stand alone tool, which can either can be used in a kit, or as a parts pack, but also the parts breakdown (please list) including optional (aftermarket) parts to dress it up, or making it not street legal (motor sports) And last but not least please list the cars/trucks they were used in and what color they are..... Let the creativity begin... Thanks!