Isn't it time....

[SfanGoch]

Given the inability of present-day "engineers" to render accurate body dimensions with their fancy-schmancy CAD programs, how about laser scanning an actual vehicle? Reedoak does it to create the most accurate and detailed figures and accessories you ever laid eyes on. Big deal if that would increase the kit price by ten bucks. We all scream about accuracy and getting it right. If you want quality, you're gonna pony up the dough. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

  On 6/15/2018 at 7:01 PM, SfanGoch said:

Given the inability of present-day "engineers" to render accurate body dimensions with their fancy-schmancy CAD programs, how about laser scanning an actual vehicle? ...

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The recent Revell Foose Caddy and Ford pickup were indeed scanned. Though I haven't measured the actual vehicles, the results look good to me (I have both kits). If the proportions were off by much, the subtlety of Foose's alterations (which are in fact extensive on both) would most likely fail to come through. The accurate scans, and easy reduction to scale, pretty well put paid to the oft-repeated and foolish idea that hard data obtained from measuring 1:1 vehicles needed to be "interpreted" for a model to look like the actual subject, too. Far, far too subjective, and pure baloney.

The last-generation scanning tech required large reflective surfaces to be "powdered" so the computer would be able to accurately interpret what it was seeing, and a lot of whiners seemed to feel this would preclude owners of expensive vehicles from submitting them to be scanned.

But the current tech has overcome the need for dulling the surface, so accurate scans of existing vehicles have every reason to become mainstream. 

[Matt Bacon]

  On 6/18/2018 at 3:13 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

But the current tech has overcome the need for dulling the surface, so accurate scans of existing vehicles have every reason to become mainstream. 

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Plus for a lot of desirable cars, the 3D scan already exists... quite a few owners are doing it in case their vehicle is damaged, so it can be returned to pristine condition; restorers are doing it to match their re-build to a known-good existing vehicle; and Jaguar, for example, has built up definitive 3D models of D-Type, XKSS and E-Type by combining data from scans of multiple cars, averaging and making them symmetric and evenly panel-gapped. If only Tamiya (or even Airfix) would license those models and give us the definitive 1/24 E-Type...

best,

M.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Nah, nah, nah, RULE BRITANNIA!

Been deeply admiring Airfix's new-tool aircraft for a few years now, and I finally got hold of one of their recent 1/32 XK-Rs and liked it very much, found it nearly measures up to the warbirds. 

I'd VERY MUCH like to see a new riff from Airfix on a proper 1/24 D or E.