Dave Metzner

Well, I got to sleep in my own bed last night, I put 1900 miles on my faithful Mercury Grand Marquis between last Thursday morning and yesterday evening. Had a great time in New Jersey at the NNL East! First of all, Thanks to the guys at the NNL East for inviting us to show our wares. Secondly, Thanks to everyone who stopped by our tables, thank you in particular for your patience while we work to get long- delayed kits on store shelves. Now, for a quick summary of the car kit schedule; before we go too far, PLEASE REMEMBER that most of the dates given here are my best estimates. As always these schedules are subject to slippage we are dealing in test shots to be reviewed and to licensor approvals, beyond the first item none of these have finished packaging etc. This is a general summary of the schedule as I see it today. The Tim Flock 1956 Chrysler 300 B is in production now – it will ship from the factory on 5/30 – should be on store shelves by end of June. I may have said it was on the water – I miss-spoke. That kit is completed and in production now and will be on the way 5/30 The 1969 short bed and 1971 Standard bed Ford Pick-ups are in second test shots – the one example we had at the show arrived in New Jersey the day before I did. I am expecting a box with more test shots from the factory, yet this week – I’ll be sending samples to Ford for their approval and will be building test shots in the next few days and reviewing them to make sure that all needed corrections have been made. If there are no surprises – we’ll be able to start production. Package design and instruction sheets as well as decals still need to be designed for those kits – so earliest shipping will be end of summer 1954 Hudson Hornet Club Coupe and Hornet Special Club Sedan – We showed 1st test shots of those kits at the NNL. Again that test shot arrived at the hotel a day before I did. I am waiting for a box of test shots from the factory so I can send samples to the licensor and build examples for review. These look really good and I could only find minor details that need to be corrected when I looked at them during the show. We need to do box art and instructions etc. – I’d say that they’ll come along 30-45 days after the Pickup trucks – 1961 Pontiacs – I have a final tooling mock-up that arrived here two days before I needed to be on the road to New Jersey – I hope to review it as soon as I get caught up from the week-end. If there are no nasty surprises there, we’ll be able to start tooling on those kits – I’d like to think we could see kits ready to ship by late October 1965 Comets – I’m waiting for a replacement for a final tooling Mock-up that arrived here two weeks ago as a crushed pile of parts – Like the Pontiac, if there are no nasty surprises in the mock-up we could start tooling – best guess there is that it might be possible to ship kits in December 1965 Plymouth Satellites – this project is with a new factory – they seem to move at a much faster pace than or other factory – If they can keep to their schedule I could have test shots at the end of August or beginning of September and finished kits by the end of the year. Thanks again for your support and for your patience. Dave Metzner New Product Manager Moebius Models

Just a quick note: there is no German engineering firm, We are working with a factory in China that has done design for high end collectibles sold by a German firm. Thanks, Dave

I've been through the test shots for the first two kits - all the notes, and photos of parts that need revision went off to the factory last Friday afternoon. Most of the revisions are details, just lots of details to look at on two trucks. I hope to hear sometheing from the factory before too long. Keep in mind that they go on about a two week break for Chinese New Year next week. Actually the 4 inch wide chrome trim for the Ranger XLT will be separate parts designed to fit over the bump - pretty much like the real truck. Dave

The item shown at Toledo was not a test shot, it was a tooling mock-up. Tooling has not started yet. Still making adjustments to details of the cab. Hope to start tooling before the end of this month - it's down to moving a body line by about 1mm in a 3D file. Waiting for the 3D file with that correction - if it looks right then we'll start tooling. If I can get tooling started before end of October I'd hope to see 1st test shots before end of the year. Maybe production kits by February. Given the dificulties of getting this far I won't make any promises - just telling you what the best case scenario could look like! Dave

Hope to have tooling underway by early July- expecting final mock-up before end of June. Hope to have kits on shelves end of 3rd quarter - early 4th quarter.. Sorry it's taking so long - just lots of details to make right. Dave

Moebius ProStars are here and shipping to distributors now.

Sorry it's taken so long - sometimes things need to be fixed and it takes time to get them right - Had issues with frame length and hood / front bumper hinge arrangement - then issues with rear axle spacing - took three test shots to work out all the bugs - by 4th test shot I'm pretty satisfied that we got it right - Instruction book was another major undertaking - that work is basically done by one guy - not a staff of several graphics artists. The hard part is done now, so all we have to do is get them here and on store shelves.. We have several new kits in various stages of development beyond the Ford Pick-up trucks- Mostly car kits. look for announcements later this year.

ProStars should be on the water in the next few days - we just need to schedule getting them into a container and on the boat!

Latest news - Packaging and instructions are done - waiting for licensor approval for instruction sheet - If all goes well, kits should ship from Orient around 4/30 - If nothing comes along to screw up the schedule, kits ought to be in stores before the end of May. Dave

The days of hand made mock-ups are gone. These are generated from 3D files on CNC machines.. Dave

Test shots have been reviewed , tooling is approved, instruction sheets are being completed now. I'd like to think that kits should ship at end of April. If that schedule holds then they ought to be available around third week of May.. Now for the disclaimer!- this is the schedule as it should happen, something can always come along to cause delays.. but I'd like to think that kits will be in stores not later than early June. Dave

When it comes to our choice of injected plastic color - gray is a neutral color - the operating assumption is that these kits will be painted. White makes it difficult to see any small imperfections that the builder may want to deal with while gray does that less. We are not foolish enough to believe that every piece of every kit will be perfect so we've tried to choose a neutral color that does not make imperfections too hard to see. Basic neutral colors have no impact on molding costs. We can shoot the kits in white, gray, tan, light blue - makes no cost difference. Unless someone can present a strong case for white plastic, my inclination is to stay with the gray. The mock-ups are gray because they have a nice coat of gray primer - the color of the raw material is a light cream / tan..

These are one-off pre-tooling mock-up models - In the old days these would be hand made - today they are generated from computer files and cut on CNC machines. These are done to provide a piece that mocks up the kit parts so that we can see how pieces fit together and look at the model as it will appear when it comes out of the steel tool. After we review these mock-ups the factory will make a number of corrections and we'll review and approve them before we start cutting steel for tooling. Pre-production - or test shots are produced from the same steel tooling that will produce the finished kit - ususally I'll get 6-8 sets of test shot parts - we use them to check fit of parts - to make sure that everything fits togther and that details are correct - most time there will be corrections made to the first and second sets of test shots usua;lly we'll go through 2-3 sets of test shots before we approve the tooling for mass production.

73/ later frame is either 2 inches narrower of 2 inches wider -I can't remeber which - not something you'd see very well @ 1/25 scale and the big difference is that the later model trucks have gas tanks bnder the rear of the box not behind seat as in 69-72.. mechanically the two generations are pretty much the same - Pretty sure that 73-later all have front disc brakes while 69-72 F-100 had drums on the front while F-250 had discs...I know that some guys actualy have built bump sides on 73 / later chassis without major problems.

The ProStar at Jabbeke as well as the partially finished loneStar day cab wrecker and the silver& blue LoneStar ( also a test shot) are all the work of Guido Kehder in Germany. Here is the link to his site - his work is some of the best I've seen. There are several shots of the finished ProStar on his site as well as in progress shots of the big wrecker.http://www.die-leitplanke.de/

Working on instructions for our Tumbler kit now - that should be coming along, we hope, in May as well..I know, it's not a truck - but then it's not a car either !! It is 1/25 scale though!

Big Blocks in these trucks are FE series - 360/390 -

Decal sheet will be similar to LoneStar in that the interiors are very similar - Decals for exterior are different.. Includes some stripes for two tone paint scheme..

Ok, here are a few "sneak peek" photos of the new Ford pick-ups. These are tooling mock-ups NOT test shots. There are several corrections to be made and I'm expecting a new set of 3D files in about a week. If all the corrections have been made we may be able to start tooling sometime early in April. I could have test shots in hand mid - late June.. If all goes well kits could be here in August / September.. I'd like to see them earlier than that but won't make any promises.. Too many opportunities for schedule to slip!

We sent instruction sheet, Paint chart and decal sheet files to the factory onThursday - If all goes well kits ought to ship around 4/25 - that puts them on store shelves in May - maybe around May 15th - 20th.

I'll be working on For Pick-up mock-ups for the next few days - will try to post some photos before I pack eveything up and send it back to China.

Tooling mock-ups for the Ford Pick-ups are to be in my hands tomorrow. After we see them, we'll have a better idea of a time line - If they don't require many changes tooling could start around March 1 and kits might be shipping as early as the end of May... If the mock-ups need major corrections we could be adding 45-60 days..Please remember these are estimates of possible production time. I'll know alot more in a few days after we've had time to study the mock-ups.. Dave

Our old car kiits are not produced from factory drawings - We go out and measure cars and photograph them with size references in the photos. The factory develops 3D files and tooling mock-ups from photos. Our two big trucks were develooped from CAD files provided by Navistar. Finding and measuring an old Truck is a lot more complicated than sending a set of CAD files over the internet. I'm not ruling out old truck kits - just explaining that it's not a simple or fast process. We have some more big truck projects in mind. Let us get ProStar done and on store shelves and then we'll see where we're going.. ProStar tooling is finished - we're in process of finishing packaging, Instructions and decals now. I'd like to think that kits will be in stores Before the end of April. I'd like to say that they'll be avaialble earlier but I don't want to over-promise.. Dave

I'm expecting to have tooling mock-ups in my hands by 1st full week of February. If there are no major problems tooling could start in April. I'll know alot more once I have the Mock-ups in hand.. Dave

Here are a series of photos of the third test shot of the new ProStar. I just finished it yesterday - the paint is House of Kolor Cinnamon Pearl - I should have a "final" preproduction shot in my hands within the next two or three days. There are two or three small items to be revised yet - nothing that will cause any problems. Now we need to get instruction and decals done.. Hope to be able to start production by Mid January. Thanks for looking Dave