1/25 MPC '33 Willys Panel Van - Paddy Wagon

[Casey]

The 1/25 MPC '33 WIllys Panel Van is being reissued in 2020:

MPC-924

1/25 1933 Willys Panel Paddy Wagon

 

This kit:

Edited November 5, 2019 by Casey

[stavanzer]

I need one, just for the rims. (Well two actually. I need 2 sets of the front rims for a project)

[Casey]

[Mr mopar]

What's up with the Monopoly ?

[Fabrux]

Round2 has the monopoly on brand tie-in kits? ?

[stavanzer]

What Ever Works! I'll wind up buying these decals from some guy on eBay who parts kits out.

[Jon Cole]

3 hours ago, Fabrux said:

Round2 has the monopoly on brand tie-in kits? ?

 

[Dave Darby]

The MPC snap kit. It has a nice stock grille. 

[Snake45]

10 hours ago, Dave Darby said:

The MPC snap kit. It has a nice stock grille. 

Yeah, but it also has the trimmed front fenders and nonstock side hood bulges of the Ohio George car. I've noticed that very few modelers ever fix those when they build these kits as something else. 

[thatz4u]

On 11/18/2019 at 12:28 PM, Fabrux said:

Round2 has the monopoly on brand tie-in kits? ?

nah, Coke didn't like the Willys kit......LOL

[alan barton]

On 11/20/2019 at 9:48 PM, Snake45 said:

Yeah, but it also has the trimmed front fenders and nonstock side hood bulges of the Ohio George car. I've noticed that very few modelers ever fix those when they build these kits as something else. 

Patience, Grasshopper!

[alan barton]

Here's a before and after shot. One I did as a slammer many years ago, alongside a snap bomb (well, it couldn't be a glue bomb, could it?).  A valuable lesson to be learnt here, don't display your models at an open air car show in the Australian summer .....sigh.  It's a nice tight body shell. it has different hood louvers to the AMT kits and the running boards fit pretty nice, not included in the AMTs. I picked up the cheap Paddy Wagon as I figured it would be quicker to prep and paint than try to repair the sunken roof on my first one.  A set of AMT headlights would help it out as well.

Does anyone know the story of how the three MPC snap kits (40 coupe, Willys panel and 50 Merc) got away with being such obvious knock-offs of the AMT kits?  Or did they change just enough to dodge lawsuits?

Cheers

Alan

[Casey]

[Joe Handley]

I got this kit for Christmas, it’s not the greatest when compared to the more modern Revell snappers, but an interesting subject.

I kinda want make it a shop truck, but not sure what might work best for a starting point.

[espo]

Sometimes the box art can put you off when you're looking for a curtain type of body style. 

[bisc63]

2 hours ago, espo said:

Sometimes the box art can put you off when you're looking for a curtain type of body style. 

Agreed! That model has lots of potential; the body looks nice. Should be great kit-bashing fodder.

[Snake45]

It's the old MPC snapper. Very disappointing that it still has the trimmed front fenders and bulged hood of the AMT Ohio George car. If you want to build anything else, those really need to go. 

[Joe Handley]

I'll be honest, I dig the box art.........The kit itself however would have to be frustrating to just get to this point for a kid, took some sanding and reaming with an X-Acto to get some of the parts to go together.

[ChrisBcritter]

Wonder what sort of chassis would work under it to make a stock-ish driver? Maybe MPC '32 Chevy, with a Jeep flathead four-banger? At least it has a grille and horizontal ('34) hood louvers that the full-detail kit doesn't have.

ETA: Just went down a Willys rabbit hole on the H.A.M.B. - there's considerable doubt as to whether ANY '33-'34 panels were made - apparently all the existing "early" ones are actually '35-'36s with earlier front end sheetmetal.

Edited January 7, 2022 by ChrisBcritter

[Joe Handley]

7 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

Wonder what sort of chassis would work under it to make a stock-ish driver? Maybe MPC '32 Chevy, with a Jeep flathead four-banger? At least it has a grille and horizontal ('34) hood louvers that the full-detail kit doesn't have.

ETA: Just went down a Willys rabbit hole on the H.A.M.B. - there's considerable doubt as to whether ANY '33-'34 panels were made - apparently all the existing "early" ones are actually '35-'36s with earlier front end sheetmetal.

I grabbed one of the Revell '34 Ford snap kits I had laying around and even an AMT/ERTL '34 Ford glue kit with IFS to will try and use that for some of what I want to do.  The Willys chassis appears to be serviceable, if I want to leave it a curb side, but I may need to rework the parts to see what will work.

[Joe Handley]

Well, the separate chassis center area for that Revell '34 Ford Snapper appear to be adaptable to the Willys chassis!  I'll get pics after work or tomorrow.

[Joe Handley]

I just started a thread in the Truck and Van WIP section.

 

[stavanzer]

Cool, Joe.

Excited to see where this goes.

[Joe Handley]

Since it appears that there are no pics of just the parts for this kit, I bought a second kit to build closer to box stock and took pics of all but the roof cherry tree.

[Brian Austin]

A Willys-shaped Monopoly game token would have been fun...