Chuck Kourouklis

Yeah, lemme pile my thanks on with everyone else, Tim. That's a little beaut.

Goody gumdrops. Since I have a standing PW at HLJ, I put in for a back order - hoping it might come with the Mosquito in September and not the Sesto in December. This'n's a mandate for moi, and I was mightily ticked to see an order stop practically soon as it was listed. Maybe shoulda gone with Search this time.

Man. That looks good.

HUH. Well we see now what might justify that finned tranny pan, anyway; and as such, I ain't got a huge problem with Moebius leaving us to file it smooth. Ain't having much problem at all with the street car, actually. Its design, engraving, and execution are more than enough to compensate for that slight windshield crown and those funky vent wings, far as I'm concerned. In fact - possibly excepting Revell's '68/'69 Charger once they corrected it - I think this model easily has the measure of any other Chrysler B-body kit engineered in the last 30 years.

I'd look a little sooner at the P/L Coronet greenhouse than at the Lindberg '64's - that latter is pretty sweet to build, but it has its own pretty obvious accuracy issues (a beltline kink at the C-pillars? Really?) In fairness, even with its quirks, the Moebius kit really appears to be the best recently-tooled stab at a Chrysler B-body of this vintage. There's some nice design and engineering here - really admire the sharpness of the tires, the treatment of the headlights, front grille, and supporting sheetmetal; the general interface between floor pan, interior and body shell - and the inaccuracies are such that they shouldn't take a huge amount of effort to fix. Should we have to? Y'all know where I stand on that. But in relative terms, for the resources Moebius has available to them, their auto kits are definitely trending in the right direction if this Satellite is any indication. Really looking forward to the promised drag versions.

That'd certainly make the the most sense to me - I just thought I heard word 'round the campfire here how difficult GM was being about sharing that stuff.

I'm just STOKED that they're actually going LIDAR now. Can't wait to see how that turns out. They claim on the website that the '14 'Vette body is "computer designed". Wonder if that's what they mean...

General footnote - 'Member the Fujimi and Revell 430s, where the Japanese kit wiped the floor with the German one and then Fujimi's Scuderia trounced them both? Yeah... NO, this time around. One might swipe the wheel and tire package from the Fujimi kit, but Revell's 458 is otherwise far more complete all-'round. If you can find a US version intact, it should come in all-white plastic instead of white & gray as in the RoG. That and some decal variations are probably the chief differences between the two Revell boxings, and maybe price - usually cheaper stateside for the US version, depending on the vendor.

Man, them As look great.

Uh-huh, and maybe Steve is also wondering about cross-compatibility between the wagon's cop car parts and the sedan, 'cause the Model King squad car ain't on every street corner in the UK. Which I would guess means the jist of this thread is, oh, pretty much exactly what he was asking. The MK release has about twice the number of service graphic options, by the way, a few of which overlap with the Del Rio's. The wagon still offers a pretty comprehensive decal selection that'd probably work for the sedan. The red lenses for the siren and strobe are the same, too.

To, uh, answer your question, Steve, the radio is nearly identical, close as it can be for apparently not coming from the same mold. The small chrome tree with the strobe, siren, and other bits is identical.

Thanks, Art! Will take that under advisement on the next one I do.

Thanks, Charlie - It shoots a bit better than it really appears, and I have no idea just how accurate the coloring is, but that's just dry-brushing - Tamiya red-brown over a tan or maybe desert yellow base. Monogram's engraving provided the grain highlights for the dry brush to pick up. Not so bad for tooling from a half century ago...

Yup, heard tell on that myself from someone who contacted Moebius.

Great danm stuff, Cato. Always liked the Ambassador's fenders better, but you might just sell me one of these...

Can't speak with any authority yet, but I believe this kit marks a change in tooling vendors for Moebius, and Chuck Most's shot on the last page seems to show a more polished body mold. Tim does seem to confirm this in his captions, which I'm guessing you can't see if you can't access his review...

Now that's awesome, Dennis! VERY nice. Saw a pretty one in The Rodder's Journal that's had me thinking for a while, but now that Revell's appealing directly to my laziness with a future release, I'm prob'ly gonna wait a bit longer...

Thank you, Lee! I appreciate that.

OH. uh… woops? (Thanks, btw!)

Yup. I managed to work around mine, but Del's way would definitely make body painting easier. In the background of this little group:

We've been warned not to use model body shells as a basis for comparison to gauge a newer release's accuracy. Not to question the authority behind that advice, but as with photo comparisons, my personal experience just differs. The key with body shell comparisons, of course, is that you should establish that the reference body resembles the 1:1 more closely first. It is agreed that the AMT Fairlane has a better resemblance around the wheel arches, so this area is what's compared between it and the Del Rio. Overhead shots: Because the Revell shell flares instead of scalloping in this area, it catches light at the rear of the wheel arch that the AMT body does not. A look from underneath: The shells are comparable enough in overall thickness that it's very plain where the rear of Revell's arch swells relative to AMT's, particularly at the outer surface. From this reference, you might gauge the excess with a piece of masking tape: This was pretty quick and rude, but it gives you a more specific idea of the excess in this area. Viewed strictly in its raw dimension, that's maybe around a millimeter's variation and possibly not worth the filing. Viewed proportionally in scale, there is about an inch's flare out that's not there in the 1:1. Backing out for the big picture, though, the wagon's gross proportions, if anything, look even better than the sedan's in the aggregate.

Just as the sedan's, the area that's supposed to be scalloped in the Del Rio around the wheel arches is a fender flare instead. Where the wagon shows refinement over the sedan is in a crisper crease around that area, front and rear: The shading differs between the two, but you can still see the Del Rio's crease (top) is sharper. Also, in the area on the lower quarters just ahead of the front wheels: which is notably slimmer in the Del Rio - it would seem, because the front arch sweep was pulled a bit forward. This tends to mitigate that somewhat heavy look the sedan has around the front 3/4 view. There's also a proper panel separation line this time.

These shots err on the murky side to keep the white plastic from blowing out in the exposure, but they should provide a general idea. Here is exactly what Matt is talking about: The sedan for comparison: The insert pieces: To get at some other odds and ends, a steering wheel comparison: The AMT Fairlane a '90s issue in gray. The AMT wheel is very similar, but a bit larger in diameter and of course shaped to accommodate the separate horn ring. Wasn't any too keen on breaking chrome bits loose unnecessarily, but I did have an AMT wheel back free. Tried it in a Revell tire and this is how far it went in. It's the inner tire rib that interferes and not so much the rim diameter, so it's not looking too demanding yet to dress up the Del Rio with the Fairlane wheel covers. This of course is the wheel back for the slicks and not the stock tire, so a stock AMT wheel back may fit a bit differently. It was given a go with the Revell tire because it fit pretty neatly in the AMT stock one.

Fwiw, if you're gonna check out Novas of that vintage, I'd go digging for some of the MPC counterparts too - those look a bit closer, at least to my eye.

Yes Sir, Mr Hamilton. MUCH appreciated.