ChrisBcritter Posted March 13, 2018 Posted March 13, 2018 3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said: The impossible-to-actually-use Revell interior pack...(image thanks to K&R Kustoms & Rods on Fotki: https://public.fotki.com/jferren/revell-parts-packs/ ) Four pieces of textured vinyl, a piece of black felt, and a piece of "chrome" paper. Neat idea, but impossible to do anything cool with unless you had the skills of a brain surgeon, and always the last parts-pack hanging when every other one was gone. Probably 90% just got thrown out. I have a couple of these. The black "felt" is actually the peel-and-stick flocked paper like AMT put into several of their kits in the mid-'60s; I just used it to carpet my '64 Cadillac. I had to use some canopy cement to get the stuff to wrap around the trans tunnel. The vinyl is very very thin but I can't imagine using it on anything but a flat surface, like a simple door panel or possibly a headliner, with spray glue or foil cement to attach it (the vinyl isn't peel-and-stick).
Renegade Posted March 13, 2018 Posted March 13, 2018 2 hours ago, highway said: Yes, especially if you get any of the Lindberg Dodge Charger police cars from maybe around 2010 or in that general timeframe. Every kit, though the "plain" car was the only one to actually advertise it, they all come with 8 different lightbars. Did not know that. The late model Chargers weren't really on my radar. Now I will have to keep an eye out for them. Especially a Texas DPS car to chase down my street cars. Just what I need, another kit on my want list.
Renegade Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 Chargers still show in my AW catalogue, anybody know if the Crown Vics also come with multiple light bars and if so, how many?
niteowl7710 Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 4 minutes ago, Renegade said: Chargers still show in my AW catalogue, anybody know if the Crown Vics also come with multiple light bars and if so, how many? No all of them only come with the one MX-7000ish looking light bar.
highway Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 7 hours ago, Renegade said: Chargers still show in my AW catalogue, anybody know if the Crown Vics also come with multiple light bars and if so, how many? 7 hours ago, niteowl7710 said: No all of them only come with the one MX-7000ish looking light bar. Terry, the newer issue Crown Vics also have pre painted lightbars as well, so it depends on the color the box art shows as to how the lightbar is in the kit unless you would strip the pre painted color. The two on the right in the pic are the more recent and commonly found on Ollie's store shelves, and as you can see on the GSP car, it is pre painted blue and though the undecorated car is still sealed inside and why its bar is not out, it is red on both ends. The only kit with a totally clear version of that lightbar is the older Orange Co. Fire car. Also, James was MOSTLY right that all the commonly available the MX-7000 looking bar, BUT the original release OHP had the Vector V-Bar and is the only issue to include it and also the only issue to include a shotgun.
Renegade Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 Thanks Matthew, will probably just order a couple of the Chargers just for the light bar options.
Renegade Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 Wish I had Ollies down here. Sounds like they have really great deals on kits.
Ace-Garageguy Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 On 3/13/2018 at 5:25 PM, ChrisBcritter said: ...The black "felt" is actually the peel-and-stick flocked paper like AMT put into several of their kits in the mid-'60s... You are correct sir. I hadn't actually looked carefully at one of those kits in some years. I don't see any way to get that stuff to stick to anything like a compound curve. How you covered a tunnel and floors with the stuff without cutting it into multiple sections is beyond my comprehension.
Richard Bartrop Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 Thanks for pointing out the technical problems. I saw an item about Mercedes-Benz bringing back the tartan seat fabric they used on the 300SL and was thinking model upholstery like that would actually be useful, but if it isn't actually feasible....
Mike999 Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 A two-fer! Lindberg tried combining the parts-pack idea with police gear in its "Emergency 911 Accessory Kits." I'm surprised nobody has mentioned them, but maybe they were REALLY obscure. Kit #72716 contained a Vector light-bar, kit #72717 had an MX-7000 light-bar. Both sets also included a shotgun. All parts were taken from the Crown Vic kits. You can see the price on one kit: $5.75. I have another one with a $5.99 price tag. (I didn't pay that for either one. Last year I bought a huge lot of random model junk and 2 sets each of these were in it.) These were probably not great sellers, either, and they seem to have disappeared. I couldn't find a single one on eBay, or even with a general Google search. No wonder, when these days you can buy a whole Crown Vic kit at Ollie's for about 8 bucks.
Art Anderson Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 I'll add my 2-cents worth here. Allow me, if you will, to reiterate my experiences, both in the hobby (almost 66 years), and in the industry (7yrs with semesters out for college--had to pay my own way for my last two years worth of classes--with the last three years as assistant manager of what was, in the 60's and most of the 70's, probably the largest, most complete hobby shop in Indiana), followed by several years as a prolific builder of box-art and trade show models for AMT Corporation, then owning my own hobby shop 1984-92, owner of a resin casting company 1988-1999, and since the beginnings of Moebius Models car & truck kits--fairly deeply involved: When Revell (also Aurora's) parts packs were released, beginning in early 1962, the excitement on the part of model car builders (back then, the principal age group was from about age 10 to age 15 or so (those early model car builders saw their enthusiasm wane about the time they got their first driver's licenses) was at best "lukewarm". At 75-cents to perhaps a dollar, most kids looked longingly at those parts packs, and decided to save up the extra dollar or so, get that next complete 3in1 kit, well you should be able to figure out why not many of those kids back then would spring for such offerings. In addition, where engines were concerned, to mount a Revell parts pack engine (any of them) in an AMT or Johan model kit was way beyond the level of the average model car builder back in those days. Wheels? Uh, those Revell kits had wheels which mounted on a plastic spindle, that was just enough oversized, compared to the wire axles that AMT, Johan and the fledgling MPC kit lines--and no easy way for a young teenager back then, to solve that problem. Revell's gorgeous US Royal Master tires? Those were the go-to tires used on many famous custom cars of the early-mid 1960's, but Revell did them oversized for 1:25 scale--a standard AMT, JoHan or MPC wheel would literally "fall right though" Revell's tires of the time. AMT's Bumpers & Grilles parts pack was gorgeous, but again, only a very small percentage of that much younger-age market had even the slightest clue as to how to work even the simplest items in that parts pack into any custom. Custom upholstery? Another dog, perhaps the worst sales dog of the entire bunch. Pretty much the only parts pack I can remember ever having to reorder in was Revell's parts pack decal set. (when I was opening up my own hobby shop in 1984, I could have laid in still-sealed, 20-yr old cartons of all those parts packs--but opted to (and I believe correctly) walk right past them. I did lay in an assortment of R&D Unique's excellent white metal accessories, along with the full assortment of Putty Thrower PE script sets, thinking that the adult modelers who were coming back to the hobby might bite on those, but I still have virtually all of the ones I laid in in 1984-86. Enter into the end of the 80's, when I got into resin casting on a commercial basis: I could make a full set of molds for a complete engine, and did perhaps half a dozen different ones--for starters, my total cost for making the masters and the 2-piece molds? Perhaps about $20 tops, most of that going into the RTV rubber used. In today's world, to design, develop, tool up a parts pack anything at all comparable in scope to those parts packs of the 1960's would probably cost upwards of $20,000 at minimum, likely more than that actually, and in order to make back that initial cost, in a reasonable time frame--very "iffy", considering the pretty large numbers of each pack. I would suspect that in order to come out ahead on such parts packs as were being done now almost 55 yrs ago, and keeping the MSRP down to what most modelers would expect, would mean upwards of 50,000 units sold, in the first two years--that's an incredible gamble--and apparently one that no model company seems willing to take those chances. Wheel and tire sets? I think Pegasus shows that those can be done, and they must be successful, as they keep pumping those out, as it all appears at Round2--but then, wheel & tire sets do have a much wider appeal, as apparently Round2 has seen. With the apparent reluctance on the part of local, brick & mortar hobby shops to stock even those. Mail or online selling of traditional parts packs, would seem to me to be difficult at best, with the reluctance on the part of the majority of today's model car builders to buy such off a photo or two. In this, scale model railroading began, literally, around the availability of molded (first in metal, then in plastic,anywhere from small detail parts, up to and including parts to scratchbuild one's desired freight or passenger car. In military modeling, that's truly a World-wide market, and with much of the "Parts Pack" concept, done for aircraft, armor and ships -- by smaller startup companies centered today largely in Eastern Europe--but catering to an international audience--which parts packs for model cars (particularly American cars) being miniscule by comparison. Art
Ace-Garageguy Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 (edited) I think people, more "serious" and "experienced" modelers, who REALLY want the stuff will either buy the vintage parts-packs (as I do), buy the excellent resin offerings already available (as I do), or go to the next level and cast their own replicas of kit parts not otherwise available (as I'm about to). Expecting major model companies to design and tool entirely new parts-pack kits for a market that probably gets smaller every day (as the geezers fall off their perches), when the concept has already been shown to be not-as-profitable as would be nice (if it was ever profitable at all), is just as much delusional wishful thinking as the guy who's certain that a full-detail 1954 Borgward Isabella kit would be the next million seller. Re-releasing existing packs, as R2 has been doing with the fine old AMT engines, or releasing already-tooled bits from existing kits (though the chrome seats was probably a mistake) makes a LOT more sense economically. Sometimes, it's just not as much fun to think like an adult. Edited March 15, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy
ChrisBcritter Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 11 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said: I don't see any way to get that stuff to stick to anything like a compound curve. How you covered a tunnel and floors with the stuff without cutting it into multiple sections is beyond my comprehension. I did cut it - made masking tape templates and cut two flat pieces for the L/R floorboards, then used the piece left over between the two to do the trans tunnel with a few relief cuts. I used canopy glue to make the edges stay down, after trying Bare-Metal foil cement. Glad this car has a front bench seat!
bobthehobbyguy Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 Art thanks for sharing your insight into the parts packs.
regular guy Posted March 15, 2018 Author Posted March 15, 2018 (edited) ' beginning in early 1962, the excitement on the part of model car builders (back then, the principal age group was from about age 10 to age 15 or so ' Nothing has changed. I want my parts packs! Gimmy! Gimmy! Gimmy! More like the '57 Fantasy ones. Keep 'em coming AMT! Custom front ends and rear caps.Fender skirts, Tonneau tops and hoods. Full speed ahead! Custom carpet sets and upholstery in leopard, tiger and zebra patterns. Don't forget the Custom Car Show set with little ropes and stands to put around your car and maybe a little mirror to put under it. If I don't see more Parts Packs come out of AMT I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue! Edited March 15, 2018 by regular guy
bobthehobbyguy Posted March 15, 2018 Posted March 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said: I think people, more "serious" and "experienced" modelers, who REALLY want the stuff will either buy the vintage parts-packs (as I do), buy the excellent resin offerings already available (as I do), or go to the next level and cast their own replicas of kit parts not otherwise available (as I'm about to). Expecting major model companies to design and tool entirely new parts-pack kits for a market that probably gets smaller every day (as the geezers fall off their perches), when the concept has already been shown to be not-as-profitable as would be nice (if it was ever profitable at all), is just as much delusional wishful thinking as the guy who's certain that a full-detail 1954 Borgward Isabella kit would be the next million seller. Re-releasing existing packs, as R2 has been doing with the fine old AMT engines, or releasing already-tooled bits from existing kits (though the chrome seats was probably a mistake) makes a LOT more sense economically. Sometimes, it's just not as much fun to think like an adult. I agree Ace. And yes its sometimes fun to hope for things that reality tells us won't happen.
OldNYJim Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 On 3/10/2018 at 12:04 AM, regular guy said: Thank you. No, thank YOU for a most entertaining thread
OldNYJim Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 On 3/11/2018 at 5:56 PM, Ace-Garageguy said: I can hardly wait. Your replies make me chuckle so much, Ace ?
regular guy Posted April 2, 2018 Author Posted April 2, 2018 ' No, thank YOU for a most entertaining thread ' You're welcome Cabdriver/James/JIm. Yes.We strive to entertain. Yet there is an underlying principle at work here. To get modelers to let the current regime putting out AMT kits what they want. Need to scourge the modeling community of the 'taking it and liking it' attitude of gushing over anything Round2 puts out. Everybody has opinions about what AMT IS putting out and SHOULD come out with and I think they ought to be heard.
MrObsessive Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 On 3/15/2018 at 10:28 AM, Ace-Garageguy said: I think people, more "serious" and "experienced" modelers, who REALLY want the stuff will either buy the vintage parts-packs (as I do), buy the excellent resin offerings already available (as I do), or go to the next level and cast their own replicas of kit parts not otherwise available (as I'm about to). Expecting major model companies to design and tool entirely new parts-pack kits for a market that probably gets smaller every day (as the geezers fall off their perches), when the concept has already been shown to be not-as-profitable as would be nice (if it was ever profitable at all), is just as much delusional wishful thinking as the guy who's certain that a full-detail 1954 Borgward Isabella kit would be the next million seller. Re-releasing existing packs, as R2 has been doing with the fine old AMT engines, or releasing already-tooled bits from existing kits (though the chrome seats was probably a mistake) makes a LOT more sense economically. Sometimes, it's just not as much fun to think like an adult. Bill, you just pretty much nailed the reason I build the way I do. At this late date, and with the shape a certain model company is in, I've pretty much ruled out any more hopes of "wish kits" that might have been. This is one of the reasons I've jumped on the 3D printing bandwagon in the last year or so. There's no limits as to what can be created with that, and I can only see that tech getting bigger as the years wear on.
stavanzer Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 What!?! The Borgward '54 Isabella will not be kitted! I had such High Hopes for that one too. I had a diorama all planned with the Messerschmitt 'Kabinroller' Dang. Now I'm bummed!
Spex84 Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) Funny you should mention the Isabella, just last week I was thinking it could make a cool custom. '54 Merc taillights, '52 and '55 packard side trim, shaved hood, a healthy chop and lowering. Boom, done! Had to guess at the scale of the taillights; I think it's a pretty small car compared to the Mercury. Edited April 2, 2018 by Spex84 forgot text
Ace-Garageguy Posted April 2, 2018 Posted April 2, 2018 34 minutes ago, Spex84 said: Funny you should mention the Isabella, just last week I was thinking it could make a cool custom. '54 Merc taillights, '52 and '55 packard side trim, shaved hood, a healthy chop and lowering. Boom, done! If somebody isn't paying you a LOT of money to design cars, there's no justice in the world.
SSNJim Posted April 3, 2018 Posted April 3, 2018 5 hours ago, Spex84 said: Funny you should mention the Isabella, just last week I was thinking it could make a cool custom. '54 Merc taillights, '52 and '55 packard side trim, shaved hood, a healthy chop and lowering. Boom, done! Had to guess at the scale of the taillights; I think it's a pretty small car compared to the Mercury. You know, you could probably get a good start on that with a Karmann Ghia. Look between the hood and trunk lines, and above the tops of the wheel wells. Lengthen the roof a bit, rework the c-pillar/rear window some, and there's the basic structure.
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