MPC kits

[gtx6970]

On 8/19/2025 at 2:55 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

The most beneficial attitude for you to have in order for you to minimize fit issues, whether or not you should decide to buy a kit that is badly reviewed, ( a lot of good kits have fit issues on occasion) is to take the time to address any problems immediately after opening the kit, before you start throwing paint on everything and gluing stuff together.

Most of the time when I see people losing their patience and their temper and throwing the kit against the wall out of fit frustrations, it could have been completely avoided if the time was taken to test fit, mock-up and correct.

I’ve said it before, and yes, I’ve gotten flack for it, but my opinion still remains that there are no bad kits. Just bad modelers.

It’s only plastic.

Every issue can be overcome.

 

 

 

Steve

Agreed 100%

 

When ever I take a kit out of the box , ANY kit , old or new - newer I lay everything out on the counter and make sure its flat

Then really look the body and related components to make sure there's not warpage 

I'll do a very basic dry assembly of major components , Body , hood , glass , chassis etc etc 

 

Nothing worse than finding out AFTER its all painted the car doesn't sit flat and square to the surface

 

 

 

[Donny]

7 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

Agreed 100%

 

When ever I take a kit out of the box , ANY kit , old or new - newer I lay everything out on the counter and make sure its flat

Then really look the body and related components to make sure there's not warpage 

I'll do a very basic dry assembly of major components , Body , hood , glass , chassis etc etc 

 

Nothing worse than finding out AFTER its all painted the car doesn't sit flat and square to the surface

 

 

 

Thanks Bill, good tip. I sort of look things over, but didn't consider warpage.

Don 

[TonyK]

On 8/19/2025 at 2:55 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

I’ve said it before, and yes, I’ve gotten flack for it, but my opinion still remains that there are no bad kits. Just bad modelers.

I never considered myself a bad modeler until I tried to build Salvino's Modified kit. I kept at it and set it aside and got it back out and tried some more but finally gave up.

Back to the MPC kits.......I've had my problems with some of their kits but nothing that couldn't be solved eventually. They have a long history of many nice models that I can't pass on and happy to have a 2nd chance to build the reissues.

[StevenGuthmiller]

5 hours ago, TonyK said:

I never considered myself a bad modeler until I tried to build Salvino's Modified kit. I kept at it and set it aside and got it back out and tried some more but finally gave up.

Back to the MPC kits.......I've had my problems with some of their kits but nothing that couldn't be solved eventually. They have a long history of many nice models that I can't pass on and happy to have a 2nd chance to build the reissues.

My only point with the “bad modeler” thing is that with persistence and an attitude of success, even a tough subject can turn out to be a thing of beauty if you’re willing to put in the  effort.

Nothing pisses me off more than people that put forth a half hearted attempt into a project and then spend all of their effort on moaning about how terrible the kit was.

 

 

Steve

Edited 21 hours ago by StevenGuthmiller

[oldcarfan]

In my opinion, there is no way to say which company's kits are best as a whole. You can really only say good or bad on a kit by kit or decade by decade basis. All three have been around for a long time and all three have had some good kits and some real stinkers in that time. AMT put out good kits in the 60s but by the 70s they were kind of 'Meh.' MPC's kits were good for their time but now they can be a tough build by today's standards. According to my dad, Revell had a reputation for being good but fiddly to put together. By the early 90s MPC was kind of out and AMT and Revell were starting to enter a renaissance.

[oldcarfan]

On 8/23/2025 at 5:36 PM, TonyK said:

I never considered myself a bad modeler until I tried to build Salvino's Modified kit. I kept at it and set it aside and got it back out and tried some more but finally gave up.

Back to the MPC kits.......I've had my problems with some of their kits but nothing that couldn't be solved eventually. They have a long history of many nice models that I can't pass on and happy to have a 2nd chance to build the reissues.

I haven't built a Salvino's kit but they use old Monogram tooling don't they? I used to build what were called garage resin kits, mostly ships and sci-fi. They had lots of flash needing plenty of clean up work. They generally had few locating pins and you had to use some improvisation get a good result. When I build an MPC kit I often think of it in similar terms.