Separate door panels

[hedotwo]

Roughly when did separate interior door panels/floors start to appear in kits instead of using tubs?

[Mark]

The mid-Fifties Revell 1/32 scale car kits had separate side panels.  You could say that those were replaced by the interior tub with the SMP/AMT '58 car kits.

[hedotwo]

And now they seem to have gone back from tubs to separate pieces in some cases in 1/25?

[Mark]

The tub is actually harder to tool up.  It was done to simplify promotional models; fewer parts, easier to assemble.  The down side is limited detail on the sides, and the taper (draft) from top to bottom.  The separate parts eliminate all of that.

[sidcharles]

1 hour ago, Mark said:

The mid-Fifties Revell 1/32 scale car kits had separate side panels.  You could say that those were replaced by the interior tub with the SMP/AMT '58 car kits.

i remember a Revell Buick from that time which had separate body panels too

i think it was a small scale, though

Edited August 17 by sidcharles

[mr moto]

The first one with separate panels that I experienced was the Ertl International Transtar 4270 in about 1973. Been building since 1959.

I'm now aware that some were made much earlier but they were usually in low quality kits so the tubs caught on.

Edited August 17 by mr moto