Double kit/Double Trouble
Sept 16, 2021 13:42:52 GMT -6
BUCKY, dogfish7 (R.I.P.), and 3 more like this
Post by gloobombking on Sept 16, 2021 13:42:52 GMT -6
I posted a thread about this kit----or a rant, which ever you choose, a few years ago on another forum. Some of you may have seen it and for those that didn't here it is again. For those of you that don't care for Formula cars, best take your popcorn somewhere else. These two kits may not interest you at all.
Back in late '69-'70 AMT repackaged two Heller model kits----The Matra F2 and Brabham F3 Cosworth powered racers. These are 1/24 scale kits but the real cars are so small these almost appear as 1/32 scale. Here is the box art of the kit I am working with.
Now back in the day, I bought and tried to build these and failed in a horrible way. I was not really familiar with Heller kits and had no where near the skill level needed to build one. For those of you that have worked with a Heller kit, you understand what I mean. As for these kits, there are no tabs or location holes for anything. You just have to assume or guess where something goes and hope it lines up later down the assembly. My blood pressure went up some during this build and I even invented some new words to add to my vocabulary of words I am not supposed to say.
The little Brabham is a tube chassis and unless your example is warped like mine was it may not be to much of a hassle. The instructions do not give you much instruction and the drawings do not clearly show you where things locate but take deep breaths and you will come through.
The Matra is of the monocoque chassis design and assembly goes a little quicker but the suspension is fiddley and hard to mess with. The parts are small and fragile so you really have to be on your game when cutting them from the sprue. The coilover shocks on both of these kits are multi-piece and you get to make the spring from a piece of wire. Instructions tell you which piece of sprue to use to wrap the wire around to make a spring. This is where I invented some new words while making them.
Once you finish these are some nice looking kits. I was determined to finish these since I had such a horrible experience years ago. One problem I had was the decals in this kit did not age well and they exploded when they hit water. I even tried the decal saver and shot some of them with clear but it was no use. So....no decals for these guys.
Now don't let my ranting keep you from trying these kits. These have been released many times by Heller and Union. As far as I know, AMT only did this once but Heller released these as individual kits a number of times and I know I have seen them under the Union brand. I guess if you try these and really get bent, the guy that designed these two kits at Heller was Phillippe de Lespinay. You could always throw rocks at him I guess.
Back in late '69-'70 AMT repackaged two Heller model kits----The Matra F2 and Brabham F3 Cosworth powered racers. These are 1/24 scale kits but the real cars are so small these almost appear as 1/32 scale. Here is the box art of the kit I am working with.
Now back in the day, I bought and tried to build these and failed in a horrible way. I was not really familiar with Heller kits and had no where near the skill level needed to build one. For those of you that have worked with a Heller kit, you understand what I mean. As for these kits, there are no tabs or location holes for anything. You just have to assume or guess where something goes and hope it lines up later down the assembly. My blood pressure went up some during this build and I even invented some new words to add to my vocabulary of words I am not supposed to say.
The little Brabham is a tube chassis and unless your example is warped like mine was it may not be to much of a hassle. The instructions do not give you much instruction and the drawings do not clearly show you where things locate but take deep breaths and you will come through.
The Matra is of the monocoque chassis design and assembly goes a little quicker but the suspension is fiddley and hard to mess with. The parts are small and fragile so you really have to be on your game when cutting them from the sprue. The coilover shocks on both of these kits are multi-piece and you get to make the spring from a piece of wire. Instructions tell you which piece of sprue to use to wrap the wire around to make a spring. This is where I invented some new words while making them.
Once you finish these are some nice looking kits. I was determined to finish these since I had such a horrible experience years ago. One problem I had was the decals in this kit did not age well and they exploded when they hit water. I even tried the decal saver and shot some of them with clear but it was no use. So....no decals for these guys.
Now don't let my ranting keep you from trying these kits. These have been released many times by Heller and Union. As far as I know, AMT only did this once but Heller released these as individual kits a number of times and I know I have seen them under the Union brand. I guess if you try these and really get bent, the guy that designed these two kits at Heller was Phillippe de Lespinay. You could always throw rocks at him I guess.