Moebius 71 Ranger Pickup

[gasman]

There is a small difference in the mounts for the i6 and the v8. But any modeler should have problem changing them, just required drilling a hole in the frame.

Everything else is a direct swap. The side trim can be easily shortened to fit the short bed. The interiors are also a direct swap

[horsepower]

If you want to gouge up the model where it will require several coats of primer and a lot of wet sanding go ahead and hit it with the 400 grit paper. Personally I don't start out with anything coarser than 600 grit wet on anything that doesn't require body work on any of my paint jobs, to me the "frosted" finish is not anything to worry about.

Edited July 8, 2015 by horsepower

[unclescott58]

I got my '71 Ranger XLT tonight. My first look opening the box looks pretty good.

Scott

[dodgefever]

I've found the front suspension needs some re-engineering to match the 1:1. The kit has the radius arms mounted outside, and parallel with, the frame rails. The real thing has the radius arms mounted under the frame rails and angled out to mount on the axle beams under the coil spring. The beams are also wrong; they should mount on brackets under the frame rails, not inside the crossmember and the driver's side isn't cranked like it is in the kit. It makes you wonder what they were looking at?

Here's a photo for reference:

]

[thatz4u]

reality doesn't always convert well to 1/25th scale plastic

[Guest]

I've found the front suspension needs some re-engineering to match the 1:1. The kit has the radius arms mounted outside, and parallel with, the frame rails. The real thing has the radius arms mounted under the frame rails and angled out to mount on the axle beams under the coil spring. The beams are also wrong; they should mount on brackets under the frame rails, not inside the crossmember and the driver's side isn't cranked like it is in the kit. It makes you wonder what they were looking at?

If you have one, grab an AMT '70s F-350 and I think you'll find your answer. I did and it was very surprising at how similar the kits were. But, just a little bit different.

[Guest]

If you have one, grab an AMT '70s F-350 and I think you'll find your answer. I did and it was very surprising at how similar the kits were. But, just a little bit different.

When I made this statement, I had no idea just how true it would turn out to be. There's a reason this kit has '70s engineering. It was obviously based on the AMT F-350s. Don't take my word for it though. Just look at the following photos. In each one, the Moebius parts are on the left, AMT F-350 parts on the right. They did make some refinements on some parts. But, it's pretty evident. I just wonder if the folks at Round2 know how much of a hand they had in developing this kit?

Edited July 13, 2015 by plowboy

[Guest]

More photos

[Guest]

Last ones..

[dodgefever]

Wow. That explains a lot.

[dodgefever]

reality doesn't always convert well to 1/25th scale plastic

LOL. That's no excuse for not getting the basic geometry right. If they can tool up tiny sway bar links, they can do better with the fundamental parts.

[Guest]

Wow. That explains a lot.

It does. Looks like I need to take back my earlier statement of "looks like something Trumpeter molded on a bad day" and change it to "looks like something AMT molded back in '73". My apologies to Trumpeter.

[mike 51]

But the F100s are a big hit...another victory for the "it's good enough" approach to producing models.

No chance of them "fixing" all the errors now with all the $$ they're raking in...it's too bad, it could've been so nice.

[mike 51]

Hey Roger how 'bout dropping that truck back on it's wheels n taking a couple of pics...looks interesting even with all the "issues"..

[Whelen36]

Even if it didn't make a lot of money or didn't sell because of the discrepancies they wouldn't fix it, it would just get discontinued and the future line of them including any other brands like dodge or chevy, etc.... Would never come to be. Something I can fix or change ( I'm a kit badger anyways) is better than nothing new at all. Having something to work with as a base point to cut apart and change that's much cheaper than resin isn't that

bad to me. This is just my opinion and I want to make sure that is out there. And yes, it should've been done right from the start.

[SCI-FI]

Two observations:

1) Is the "parts breakdown" in a kit considered proprietary? Because similar parts breakdown between two different kits (of nearly identical subjects) really doesn't seem that unusual to me.

2) Wherever one kit had superior detail, it was always the Moebius kit.

I'm going through my kit right now ('69 Model King version) and fit and finish look pretty good. Not sure why all the sturm und drang here, but the kit is pretty good so far...

[Platerpants]

With some slight modding and trimming you can do the amt 4x4 front suspension and crossmember. The axle though is from a resin kit

The V8 also goes into the 69 pretty well too.

Now keep in mind hazardous hacking and slashing is my specialty. plus the v8 is pretty much just the trans and block with heads from the 78 kit.

[lanesteele240]

Man I wish I had these problems........

All I have on my plate is a Father in ICU since 6/19/15 asking me to pull the plug on him.....

Sorry about the major bumper issue.......

GET A LIFE.

This was un-called for. ?

The guy simply said he wanted what he thought he was getting.

Ps. Sorry to hear about your father

[lanesteele240]

Two observations:

1) Is the "parts breakdown" in a kit considered proprietary? Because similar parts breakdown between two different kits (of nearly identical subjects) really doesn't seem that unusual to me.

2) Wherever one kit had superior detail, it was always the Moebius kit.

I'm going through my kit right now ('69 Model King version) and fit and finish look pretty good. Not sure why all the sturm und drang here, but the kit is pretty good so far...

To answer your question. All we have heard for the last year and a half is "we dont want to rush it" "when it is released we want it to be correct and a good quality product". So when it is released and stuff is not perfect, it makes one feel that it was not done 100% and we waited for nothing. I put down close to 75 bucks plus 25 bucks in travel to go get my two kits. I want them right. Tamiya gets it right. Why cant we expect it from mobious?

[mk11]

Man I wish I had these problems........

All I have on my plate is a Father in ICU since 6/19/15 asking me to pull the plug on him.....

Sorry about the major bumper issue.......

 

 

GET A LIFE.

This was un-called for.

seemed to me a fairly measured response, considering the poster's situation, after 8+ posts of wailing about that bumper

 

Tamiya gets it right. Why cant we expect it from mobious?

 

 

'Tamiya gets it right... Why can't we expect it from Mobious?'

...or by extension, revell, round2, lindburgh etc ...  legitimate question and worthy of debate; nothing against that. My point is '(people keep a comin' but) de train is gone'; we have it in our hands, let's build it  

 

mike

 

Edited July 17, 2015 by mk11

[von Zipper]

we have it in our hands, let's build it

 

mike

 

That's the way I'm looking at it

And if the Moebus kit is base on the '73-'79 AMT kit that's fine too because I would buy any of those I could find  .

Edited July 17, 2015 by von Zipper

[Guest]

 

All we have heard for the last year and a half is "we dont want to rush it" "when it is released we want it to be correct and a good quality product". So when it is released and stuff is not perfect, it makes one feel that it was not done 100% and we waited for nothing. I put down close to 75 bucks plus 25 bucks in travel to go get my two kits. I want them right. Tamiya gets it right. Why cant we expect it from mobious?

Exactly. Personally, I wasn't expecting this kit to be perfect. Never do. But, I was expecting an "all new" accurate kit. Not one based on tooling from 1973.  I had several build ideas for the '69 and '71 kits. But, when I got the '71 in my hands, they all flew out the window.  I'm just glad I only bought one and not both. Sure, there's people who are happy with this kit as-is. But, there's people who are quite disappointed in it also. Think about how many more of these kits would have sold had Moebius got it right.

[Platerpants]

i myself am just glad there is an offering of this generation of ford.

[maxwell48098]

There have been a lot of comments and insinuations about the Mobius kits being retooled AMT kits.  If they were really based off the same tools, then the parts layout should be on the sprues should be exactly the same between the Mobius and AMT kits.  Think about it, if Mobius were to be using AMT tooling then the same parts should be on the same sprues between kits.  Another point was how similar the parts were.  Shouldn't the parts be nearly identical if they are representing the same subject?  I've also wondered over the years about the amount of detail (and related costs) that goes into some parts that are almost completely hidden by other parts. I would also think that if Mobius was just copying or re-using AMT tooling, there would be no reason to make any changes at all, much less subtle changes to parts on the inside of the part like the air cleaner.  I'm in no way defending Mobius here but insinuating that they copied or use AMT tooling is really nuts.  Look very, very closely at the similar parts shown above and you'll see what I mean. Similar but not the same, then again the subjects and the components involved are similar or in some cases the same between that generation of Ford trucks.  Look at a Hollander interchange manual to see how the same part gets used across decades of the same manufacturer's vehicles.  Things like frames, suspensions, etc. should be nearly identical even on kits from different manufactures because the real ones are..

Again while the Mobius kits may not be perfect, they are certainly better than the alternative at a price point that keeps them within reach of most modelers.  Maybe detail could have been better on some items but then the cost to do that would have surely increased the cost of the kits.  Look at the Meng F350.  Extremely well done, but with shortcomings as well but at a retail price of twice the Mobius kits.  Let's just enjoy these kits, and who knows if they are successful we may see other versions or revised versions of these in the future. Then again, how many complaints have there been about the grille of the Revell '64/'65 Chevy pickups compared to the 1:1, much less the correct one used by AMT on their '64/'65 lwb promos or the grille sold by Modelhaus.

Let's enjoy these kits and be thankful, especially for the 6 cylinder versions!  So far there have been quite a few of these pickups completed and the ones I've seen look great.

A.J.

[SCI-FI]

There have been a lot of comments and insinuations about the Mobius kits being retooled AMT kits.  If they were really based off the same tools, then the parts layout should be on the sprues should be exactly the same between the Mobius and AMT kits.  Think about it, if Mobius were to be using AMT tooling then the same parts should be on the same sprues between kits.  Another point was how similar the parts were.  Shouldn't the parts be nearly identical if they are representing the same subject?  I've also wondered over the years about the amount of detail (and related costs) that goes into some parts that are almost completely hidden by other parts. I would also think that if Mobius was just copying or re-using AMT tooling, there would be no reason to make any changes at all, much less subtle changes to parts on the inside of the part like the air cleaner.  I'm in no way defending Mobius here but insinuating that they copied or use AMT tooling is really nuts.  Look very, very closely at the similar parts shown above and you'll see what I mean. Similar but not the same, then again the subjects and the components involved are similar or in some cases the same between that generation of Ford trucks.  Look at a Hollander interchange manual to see how the same part gets used across decades of the same manufacturer's vehicles.  Things like frames, suspensions, etc. should be nearly identical even on kits from different manufactures because the real ones are.. [...]

+1

Thank you.  

"Look at this kit! It's just like the tooling of the old 1973 AMT kit.  Except it's smaller.  And better detailed. They should be ashamed!"