Dave Metzner

Here are some pics of an assembled test shot - This is not quite complete - the clear lenses are missing - back-up light are not installed yet no side mirrors - radio antenna or windshield wipers yet. this still ought to give a good idea of the general appearance of a finished model.. http://dmetzner.smugmug.com/Cars/Hudson-Hornet-test-shot/14975993_Attw4 Dave

Engine is a MaxxForce 15..(as far as I know all IH OTR heavy trucks will have IH power from now on) Early production LoneStars had 15L Cummins power Now only available with MaxxForce power. Center hub of rear wheels is part of the outer wheel ProStar is a very close relative of LoneStar would make good sense for us.... let me get this one done before we get to serious about the next one! I'll try to add some close-ups of wheels and some interior shots in the next couple days I have a second one part way along now -going to use it for instruction sheet illustrations - need to start painting parts in the next day or two.. I'll try to shoot the interior before then.. Dave

For anyone who doesn't know yet.. this is a 1/25 scale injection molded plastic kit. It will be available thru all the major hobby distributors to hobby retailers throughout the United States and most of the rest of the world... For those who've asked where to get one - go to your favorite hobby retailer and ask them to put one on order for you... The schedule for this model today is for shipment from the factory around the end of January that should put kits in country around the end of February and kits on store shelves in early March. This assumes that everything will go according to plan (this is NOT guaranteed!) It's my job to keep it on schedule! Once more please forgive me if I do not respond to personal conversations - I simply do not have time to answer individual conversations Dave

I don't want to offend anyone, I hope that everyone will understand if I don't respond to the personal conversations... Right now.... I'm not trying to be rude or unfriendly I'm just short on time right now... I'm kinda buried with work on test shots for Lonestar, and the Hudson, along with several other projects.. I'll try to answer questions here when I can but I can't find time to carry on several personal conversations right now.... The price for the kit is $69.99... As for parts count on the kit - the tool plan says 309 parts... as for the seams on the ar cleaners- they are made as two parts and the only way that works is to split them into front and rear halves. I'm going to try to get paint on one in the next week or so and photograph it under construction for our instruction sheet... Dave

Ok guys, Here it is the first test shot of our new Lonestar kit. The one shot shows all the test shots as they arrived from the factory - several of each tree bundled in its own bag - there is another shot showing all the parts for a complete kit. These shots are the first one that I've stuck together over the last couple days... It's still missing some small detail parts.... I'll finish it up sometime in the next day or two, I'm sure.... Right now I need to write up a list of fixes for the factory - mostly stuff like missing locator pins and tabs - a few sink marks - almost no fit issues! This first one went together pretty well... I'm pretty satisfied with it... I hope that we can get everything adjusted on the next test shot and on to production somewhere close to our scheduled dates! Dave http://dmetzner.smugmug.com/Trucks/Lonestar-1st-Test-Shot/14912935_EL8S9

Here's a progress report! 1st test shots will be on the way to me in the next day or so - I should have them in about a week or so... Planned ship date is 1/25/2011 if we stay on plan kits ought to be reaching stores sometime around mid march... I'll know a whole lot more in about 10 days after I've had time to put a test shot together.... Dave

Just a quick note. The kit is being tooled now. first test shots are due to be available mid November IF and I emphasize IF everything goes according to plan, kits will be shipping from the factory by end of January that would put product on store shelves in late february or early March.. Baring schedule slippage we'll have Lonestars in stores during the 1st quarter of 2011... Dave

Just a quick note, Our current schedule for this kit has first test shots being available around November 15. If everything stays on schedule we should have kits shipping from the factory around the end of January 2011...that would put kits in stores around the end of February or early March... I won't promise that the schedule won't slip somewhere between now and then, but I'm pretty confident that we'll have C300 kits on shelves in early 2011. Dave

At this time the Hudson is in tooling, and first test shots are due around the end of October....If and I emphasize IF everything goes to plan we should have kits shipping from the factory around the end of December..That would put kits in stores by the end of January or early February... I say IF everything goes to plan because as often as not everything does not go exactly to plan...However I'm sure that we'll have Hudsons here early next year... The C300 is running about 30 days or so behind the Hudson right now and the Lonestar is on the same approximate schedule as the 300.... Dave

Making doors that would open and getting everything to fit right is just more than we wanted to tackle. If you want to open the doors I'm afraid that you'll need a saw. Dave

MSRP is $69.99 Dave

This kit has the sleeper cab, it would require alot of surgery to make a day cab out of it... the sleeper is an integral part of the cab.. Dave

Mock-up was approved yesterday morning for tooling...Should see first test shots here in early November... Dave

For whatever it's worth We approved the mock-up for tooling to start, yesterday morning... First test shots, under best circumstances, wii be in my hot little hands in early November Dave

Based on the mock-up I believe that cab with the side walls of the sleeper will be one piece, that the sleeper roof and aero fairing of the sleeper will be another part. The upper aero fairing is another part and the back wall of the sleeper will be the fourth part of the cab. If you'll look at the Photos in the gallery especially those showing the cab you should be able to see where parts are.. Follow this link to the photo gallery http://dmetzner.smugmug.com/Cars/Lonestar-mock-up/13104922_Shs68#950113463_gXAjk That may change as tooling is made but our tooling plan was for a one piece cab not the same arrangement as the Italeri kits... Thanks, Dave

Hi Mark, The kit will have the new Navistar MaxxForce 15 engine...That's the new International truck engine that is a development of the Cat 15L. This has been one of the items that has added some development time to the kit since we've been developing the kit at the same time that Navistar has been developing the engine package for the truck. Dave

The chassis of our model is for a coupe. I have photos and drawings of the underside of a couple different coupes as well as photos of the bottom of a convertible - under restoration, the structure of the bottoms of the coupe and the convertible are virtually identical. The only visible difference between them is a small square well under the driver's side of the back seat of a convertible for the hydraulic pump to operate the top. I'd have to study some photos to see if it's even visible on the bottom of the car... Dave

Regarding the door handles on the Hornet. The photos in the gallery are a mix of several different stages of work on the mock-up. You may be looking at an old photo of the mock-up. I spent some time yesterday with photos of the real car and photos of the most recently revised mock-up, I even overlaid some photos to check. I cannot find any evidence that the door handles are measurably too low on the mock-up as it exists today. Dave

Yesterday, I spent some time comparing the roof of our mock-up and a number of photos of several different 1955 C300s. And I've overlaid two different sets of real car and mock-up photos. To my eye and according to my own overlays the mock-up roof from the mid point of the roof to the rear does slope a bit to fast. I've shown this to China and I expect that we will make some small revisions in that area.

Transmission is one of the items on the mock-up that still needs to be fixed - the one on the mock-up is about 50% too short... reference material for an Eaton Road Ranger with the autoshift set up along with CAD from Navistar showing location and length for the tranny has been sent for revisions to the mock-up. If you could see the small interior detail the push button selector for the automatic is there.. No big shift lever sticking out of the floor in this truck... The real truck that we photographed - about a year ago happened to be one of their test trucks - and it was an automatic... The aero deflector on the roof should be a separate part in the kit... the way it's done on the mock-up so I'm sure of that.. Tires will be generic we don't have a license to use any brand names.. you can see the tire mock-up now in the gallery...tire and wheel mock-ups are 2 or 2.5 to 1

Wheels will be Alcoa 10 holes and truck will have duals on the rear. I do have a pic of the wheel mock-up, I'll go back and add it to the gallery... Dave

Here's a link to a gallery of Lonestar mock-up pics. These show more details of the mock-up including the MaxxForce 15 engine. There are still some minor detail revisions and additions. The mock-up is back at the factory, I hope that the revisions can be completed in the next 10 days - 2 weeks - then off to tooling! Dave My link

Release date is end of yearish I think.... Like to have it as soon as I can but don't want to rush it. We're trying to get it as right as we can! Dave

Fixed the link on my original post - click on My Gallery to se the pics.. Dave

As promised, here is a link to a photo gallery containing pics of the mock-up for Moebius Models new 1955 Chrysler C 300 model kit. These are photos of the mock-up in it's current form. It is en route back to the factory now for a final round of minor revisions. It should be delivered in about 4 days and revisions should take another two-three weeks, I hope that tooling can start before the end of August. Thanks for looking, Dave MyGallery