Dave Metzner

Just to make it clear Moebius Models has abandoned the 59 Dodge, Chrysler Turbine, and Rambler Wagon projects now and for the foreseeable future. These projects have been dead for over 2 years, and there is no sign that they will be revived any time soon! Thanks, Dave

I'm not sure that this thread is the place to discuss big rigs, However since it's been brought up here again, here goes! Vintage tractors are a great idea, if you don't have to produce one. There are no factory cad files and may not even be a good set of factory drawings SO that means good ole Dave gets to grab his camera and measuring stick an hope like hell that he gets enough good photos for the guys at our factory to make a set of 3D files from.. A class 8 tractor is a whole lot bigger than a 65 F100 so photographing and measuring one will be a giant problem. Lone Star and ProStar were monsters to get done even though Navistar gave us CAD files for them we still spent a day on each one photographing and measuring the real items and another day photographing and measuring an engine in one. An old truck is an enormous undertaking and we don't have a large enough staff to take it on and do everything else we are committed to. Not saying never - just saying not anytime in the foreseeable future!

I believe that the earliest Nova flip top funnies were the next generation body - Jungle Jim's Novas certainly were the 66/later body, I could be wrong but I am unaware of any 62-65 Nova bodied floppers. The "gasser" was suggested to us, because there are a ton of 1st generation ChevyII race cars out there that are set up like that. Our car is a generic version, but is patterned after a number of real cars.. I'm pretty sure that the first real funny cars were 1966 Comets - Our 64 & 65 cars are one generation too early.. After looking around a bit I do see a number of AWB first generation Novas , most of them built in that 1965/1966 time frame, those are more like the old AMT "Rat Packer" kit, we made a conscious choice not to do anything that was too much like that kit, thus the decision to stick with the stock wheel base "gasser" idea. Also we decided to stay with the blown small block because we didn't want to spend extra dollars tooling a rat motor. There were also some economic reasons to limit the number of different versions when you add an AWB car then maybe a Rat motor for it, you add a lot more tooling dollars. I hope this explanation makes sense.

Give me break here! We show future project mock ups and there are critiques? As I tried to explain in the other thread, Mock ups are product development tools - we have already sent several lists of corrections to be made based on our reviews of the mock-ups to the factories. 3D files that will actually be used to make tooling have been revised based on those comments. the mock-ups on the table yesterday ARE NOT FINAL items. the items we showed yesterday are NOT test shots! Test shots are produced from tooling that exists at this date there is NO tooling started for any of those items yet. There are NO release dates. I would not expect release dates for any of those Items for several months! We don't even know which kit will be produced first. There will be NO six cylinder engine for the Chevy II kits .just the small block. If that 65 "gasser" were a street legal "gasser" style vehicle it would have WINDSHIELD WIPERS! When the "gasser" kit actually exists - the wipers will be separate parts! if they offend you, you'll be able to leave them on the parts tree! It might be good to wait for us to actually have something beyond 3D files and mock-ups before you start passing judgement on the shape of the drip rails! I'm glad that some of you have wish lists and suggestions for our next project, at this date I'd just like to get these finished before I start something else.

Comet B/FX car is possible from our tooling. There is NO B/FX kit under development today. Will there be one in the foreseeable future? I don't know, yet. What I do know, is that we have an Arnie Beswick A/FX car in the works for Model King. That kit is planned for a 1st quarter 2018 release. PLEASE NOTE that I used the word PLANNED there. Not the words guaranteed for arrival on a certain date. I'm sure that Model King will be able to keep everyone informed as the actual date for arrival approaches.

The markings in the kit are correct and accurate! The decals were developed using photos of the actual car provided to us by Golden Commandos. This car had a very short career - it only ran one event then Chrysler took it back and made an AWB car out of it!

Just a quick note on the Big Rig side of things. We have not forgotten that segment of the hobby, We are pursuing some future items for that part of the hobby, and will announce some new items in coming months. One thing that everyone needs to remember is that a new Class 8 tractor, regardless of the name plate on it, is an ENORMOUS investment for a small company like Moebius. We feel like we were extremely fortunate in our choice to do LoneStar and ProStar we are very thankful for the great co operation and support we had from Navistar for those projects. We try to keep an eye on new Trucks and have discussed a new Tractor several times, unfortunately we haven't seen anything like LoneStar yet. SO in summary, I'll say that a new trailer is in the works, its at the very earliest development stage now, and this is not a high priority item yet as we have some big commitments to other projects that need to be finished first (so don't start asking when it'll be in stores) However, at this date, there is no new over the road tractor on the horizon for us.

For those of you who are commenting on the body contours of the mock-ups of the Nova and Chevy II Please NOTE those mock-ups have been reviewed and a list of corrections have been sent to the factory. We don't, normally, grow a second full set of mock-ups for corrections to be made after we see them. Usually we review mock-ups and send a list of corrections that are made to 3D files. On occasion we may do grow parts a second time. In the case of the nova / Chevy II we just made corrections in 3D files. We chose to show the mock-ups because it's pretty difficult to display the 3D file I appreciate the critiques but think you all should know that those mock-ups are NOT the final product. For us a mock up is more like an intermediate step to a final item. As for the stake pocket on the step side bed we know it doesn't belong there - once again these are product development mock-ups not finished items. THESE ARE MOCK-UPS the whole purpose of mock ups is for us to see the model in a form we can pick up in a 1/25 size and see in an actual 3 dimensional form. We have sent notes with numerous corrections to all the mock-ups we showed yesterday to our factories. In the case of the Chevy II kits corrections have been made and they are ready to tool In the case of the F100's we are waiting for a revised mock-up cab to arrive for a final review as there are some shape issues we wanted to see corrected in the actual part before we move ahead. Those of you who are commenting on these things as if they are the final product are barking up the wrong tree and need to just chill for a while. For those of you who want a delivery date, I have some disappointing news there are no release dates for any of those items. Tooling has not started on any of them yet. We will announce release dates when we have something much closer to finished.. As I explained to everybody who asked that question yesterday - best possible scenario IF we started tooling tomorrow would be a minimum of 9 months before we had something we could put in a kit box.SO best case for any of those items would be late 3rd quarter 2018. We don't even know which version of the Chevy II or 65/66 F100 will be released first at this date the whole purpose of showing them yesterday was to give a little peek at FUTURE products to our end customers.

Contact Model King

For those of you who are commenting on the body contours of the mock-ups of the Nova and Chevy II Please NOTE those mock-ups have been reviewed and a list of corrections have been sent to the factory. We don't grow a second full set of mock-ups for corrections to be made after we see them. Ususally we review mock-ups and send a list of corrections that are made to 3D files. On occasion we may do grow parts a second time. In the case of the nova / Chevy II we just made corrections in 3D files. We chose to show the mock-ups becaus it's pretty difficult to display the 3D file I appreciate the critiques but think you all should know that those mock-ups are NOT the final product. more like an intermediate step to a final item.

For those of you who are commenting on the body contours of the mock-ups of the Nova and Chevy II Please NOTE those mock-ups have been reviewed and a list of corrections have been sent to the factory. We don't grow a second full set of mock-ups for corrections to be made after we see them. Ususally we review mock-ups and send a list of corrections that are made to 3D files. On occasion we may do grow parts a second time. In the case of the nova / Chevy II we just made corrections in 3D files. We chose to show the mock-ups becaus it's pretty difficult to display the 3D file I appreciate the critiques but think you all should know that those mock-ups are NOT the final product. more like an intermediate step to a final item.

I will have some future product mock-ups at the DAAM show November 12. Emphasis on the word FUTURE No production or release dates to give at this time..

65 Comet is basically a Falcon -Thunderbolts were Fairlanes - not same chassis. Falcon/ comet / Mustang are all very similar - Fairlane - not so much Thunderbolts were wedge motor cars - Beswick and Nicholson cars had 427 SOHC engines . Cammer will NOT fit same space as wedge - Nicholson and Beswick cars had substantial front suspension mods to move shock towers for Cammer to fit - Mustangs with Cammer had similar modifications.. You can shove a 427 wedge into a stock 65-66 Falcon / Mustang engine compartment but a Cammer will NOT fit! (it's just too wide) I believe Thunderbolts had pretty much stock Fairlane front suspensions as 426 wedge can be shoehorned into Fairlane without front suspension mods.

This kit will represent the Arnie Beswick A/FX car as it appeared in 1965, NOT the so called "restored" car as it exists today with fuel Injection and a straight axle, neither one of which were on the car in 1965 when Beswick drove it. The box art is correct no injection stacks and no straight axle front suspension

Next will be a 52 Hudson Hornet "Mel's Drive In" - a 52 Club coupe - first time for the 52 coupe as a street car - kit will include wire wheels as well as hub caps - then the 61 Pontiac Catalina street car - this is a 421 SD car - will have steel wheels W/ dog dish hubcaps as well as 8 lugs and a set of 5 spoke mags too followed by a 1970 F100 4x4 then a 1965/66 F100 - not sure on details of that one yet, not likely to get here before 2018 Model King's Joe Weatherly 62 Catalina will ship next month - had been scheduled for end of April but we need more goods to fill the container so it'll be delayed a bit. Dave Burket says his next Moebius / Model King project will be the 1965 California Flash Plymouth A990 sedan.. No date for that one yet.. No dates for Plymouth AWB car or Comet B/FX or A/FX none of those kits are in the schedule at this date although tooling is complete or nearly complete for all three. Now you know almost as much as I do!

Warms my heart to see that this kit is appreciated. Not a perfect kit but one I've always been proud of - that was the first of the pre-finished "snap" kits we did.. Considering the design compromises made to do it as a snapper while trying to keep it from being too toy-like, I was pretty happy with the result. John Mueller did the design work on all three of the Snap kits There was a Hemi engine in the tooling but it never saw light of day..Plans were to do a Hemi version with the Hemi hood scoop There was also a "Big Chief" engine and modern style wheel option tooled for the '64 GTO - I don't think those ever saw production either..

Missing Link's 4 door Belvedere body is beautiful - I have one and it really does look like styrene! Top notch workmanship!

Regarding the shallow door and trunk lines. After tooling is finished and test shots approved - the practice is to polish the tool - since engraved lines in a body are actually raised in the tool - too much polishing can result in shallow engraved lines in the finished item. This is the case with the Belvedere body.The production bodies have much shallower door and trunk lines than the final test shot.. At this point in time there is nothing we can do to resolve that issue. The factory has been made aware of the problem, they have gone back and made revisions to the tool and I have samples of the corrected body. Next time we run that body the engraved lines will be like those on the Satellite.

Regarding stance, here are photos of a Caliente we photographed at the Auburn Auction back in 2010! That car stood pretty tall.. and seemed to be fairly much factory stock.. Probably had 15 inch wheels and larger than factory rubber on it... still - ride height is not low.. These photos were used as reference along with many others to determine ride height for kit..

They are on the Caliente convertibles as well.. I have photos. I don't think that there were Hardtops available with trim levels below Caliente, and I don't think that Cyclones were available as convertibles..

NICE!

Just a quick note, the notion that the cost of oil has any impact on the cost of model kits is just not founded in fact. The cost of raw material in a kit is insignificant, for car kits it's literally pennies per kit In most cases the packaging costs more than the plastic! The really significant costs are in the tooling. In a few of our kit the decal sheet is a lot more expensive than the raw plastic! Even though modern machines cycle shots pretty quickly, for us, machine time is a significant contributor to cost - our kits can have 5,6 or 7 tools and energy costs in Guangdong Province are quite a bit higher than in Indiana! So it's conceivable that the cost of running the machines will be as great or even greater than the cost of the styrene pellets that go into the machines! Dave

Cyclone wheels did NOT have Cragar center caps they had Cyclone center caps. Generic centers allow us to use wheels in other applications down the road..

Jack Clifford, ran Clifford Engineering - he specialized in racing and performance parts for 6 cylinder engines - Clifford had a catalog full of Hudson 6 cylinder engine performance parts. Clifford ran a 54 Hudson Coupe in the NHRA - mainly on the West coast... Matthew Winspur also ran a Super Stock Hudson Jet - that car had the big 304 cu. in. 6 - I think it probably had a bunch of Clifford Engineering go fast parts on it!

The slicks are just that - drag slicks, not cheater slicks - even after the fender skirts are removed you can barely see that they're not street tires. Photos of the real car show slicks of some variety on the rear wheels - impossible from the few photos we have to determine if they were cheater slicks or not The tires in the kit are slicks that we did for other kits that fit into the wheel wells of the Hudson, we were not going to tool new tires just for this kit. These tires are probably too wide for NHRA Q stock legal tires in 1967, but nobody will be able to see that unless you display the model upside down!