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Archive for the ‘AMT’ Category
Star Trek Model Kit: Vulcan Shuttle Surprise
Sorry to be away for so long. We’ve finally gotten through our yearly sales summit. It seems that our ideas for new model kit product for next year went over pretty well. Full steam ahead!
I’m heading out for a week’s vacation so it’ll be while before I get back on my regular blog schedule. In the meantime, I’ve prepared a couple more quick hits. The post following this one will be mysterious but probably incredibly exciting to some (hopefully most) of you out there.
Before I go, though here’s a pretty exciting little tidbit itself. When we release our Vulcan Shuttle Star Trek model kit later this year, it will feature brand new box art. We are very proud to announce that we have had the ship’s designer, Andy Probert, do a brand new illustration of the ship! We are pretty stoked. We will feature an interview with Andy on our website when the release date gets closer. So here is a sneak peak at the illo. Of course we will add the licensor’s mandated background elements and a few extra bells and whistles to tie the look into our other boxes. Hope you enjoy.
Model Kit: Tidbits shmidbits Vol.3
Bob posted a “special features” post awhile back about the Star Trek Enterprise E box art meant for the mass market. These would be larger stores to make sure the model kit offers a point of difference from the hobby shop version.
As he stated in that post, I was fortunate enough to do the hobby version box art. The Star Trek licensor has established a style guide to ensure the look of their brand that calls for us to use one of their supplied backgrounds. So I had a dilemma, do I just paint the ship or the ship on a background. I wanted a finished piece when I was done so I went ahead and did a full background too in hopes that someday the whole piece could be used somehow. The piece was a bear to do. 80% of it was a struggle just because I hadn’t picked up an airbrush in years. I didn’t start feeling good about it until about the last day or so as I worked on it. Looking back now, there are some things I wish I had done differently but overall it turned out pretty well. Here is a look at the entire piece with background and the lettering overlaid in photoshop.
Model Kits: Tidbits shmidbits Vol.1
Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I’ve been super busy reviewing test shots for Forever Fun (Take a look foreverfunblog.com to check out new product coming down the pike later this year.), upcoming model kits and jumping in on some packaging to meet a deadline that managed to sneak up on us.
In the meantime, I’m gonna churn out a few quick hit blog entries. I’ve got lot’s of stuff to write about but not enough time. I still want to keep folks interested and coming back so even though my next few blogs may be short, they’ll be worthwhile. So here we go.
The first test shot buildup of the backdated Mr. Spock model kit. You’ll see a nice little detail we have added but may also find the little detail we missed. (It should make its way back into the model kit… hopefully… eek!)
Model Kits… Larger than life!
Hi all, I’m Mike and this’ll be my first post to the Round 2 models blog! I’m the guy who lays out the box art for most of the mass vehicle model kits. I get the pleasure of photographing the professional buildups of our model kits for the photos you see on our kits. Being a shutterbug in my personal life as well, it’s a real joy to be able to present these amazing kits to the world through photography for Round 2.
Most of our model kits use the standard 1:25 scale box size. However, AMT-632 is huge, so we needed to enlarge the box! Though still 1:25 scale, this truck crushes any other scale models in its path. The 1988 TNT Motorsports National Points Champion was Everett Jasmer driving his USA-1 Chevy Monster Truck. I love the details on this truck that make it look larger than life. The realistic tires, the detailed suspension, and the USA-1 decals all come together to create the ultimate model kit. It’ll be as much fun to assemble as it was to photograph this monster!
Sci-fi Model Kit Supplemental: UFO Mystery Ship and AMT Mr. Spock.
I’ve got lots of ideas in mind to write about, but occasionally I’ll have to deviate from my plan every now and then to talk about current developments. This is one of those.
Late last week and just this week I received test shots of two long lost kits, the old AMT Spock (with snakes) model kit and the UFO Mystery Ship. Many speculated whether the tools still existed and what shape they were in. We were excited to hear about six months ago that the tools had been found. (We knew they existed but their location in the Dyersville warehouse was not documented) We received photos of the molds themselves about three months ago and went through the task of having them shipped to our factory in China.
UFO Mystery Ship
So the great mystery was “will we find the clear engine parts intact? Or possibly as an insert?” Unfortunately, the answers were “no” and “no”. However we did find the other long lost parts like the nose cone, scout ship landing gear and the opaque parts that were to go between the clear parts. The tool showed no signs that there was a place to put an insert for clear parts. Also missing was any remnant of the original base. The only trace of the previous base is two holes in the bottom of the ship where the base may have been connected. (My best guess having never had the chance to study the underside of a Leif kit)
One significant revelation was seeing how the forward neck section had been divided from the back section. I wondered why the break was made right in the middle rather than at the more logical seem where the neck connects to the body of the ship. The reason for having the break at all was just to fit in the smaller square box style. We’ve speculated why these kinds of decisions were made. We figure it was to make all packages a smaller standard size to fit on retailers shelves or to purely to remove the air from inside the box. Anyway, the split is very even and we can see that this may be a simple thing to reconnect the neck. We haven’t decided whether we should do that at this point or not. If we find any demand at big box hobby retailers, they want everything in standard size model kit boxes. The kit will fit that style as is but definitely wouldn’t if we restore the neck. Whether or not we do it for this release or for the (hopefully) eventual back dating needed to make it a genuine Leif Ericson remains to be seen.
The test shots arrived in fine shape and a quick buildup went smoothly. All of the shots did have a few issues with the 4-pronged nose cone. One of the prongs was bent and the cone had a pretty significant sinkhole in it. The timing of the arrival of the kit was perfect as we are planning our Wonderfest presence. We’ll have a professionally built copy of the kit there. I have to admit as I was building the kit, my attitude towards it went from really like to LOVE. It is such an elegant, believable design. Although it would be great to have engines filling their spots, the ship looks great from every angle. The scout ship is a great design as well. It is prime to be upsized and detailed out into a kit of its own. Even the flimsy base did its job adequately without taking anything away from the design.
AMT Spock
We were really biting our lip on this one. What would be in the tool and what wouldn’t be? Everyone can see that the re-release done for the motion picture was a half-ass job. It had butchered the kit and who knows why such a significant change was made. Sure it made the character the same style as the movie. Why cut the base and eliminate the snakes? Just because they weren’t in the film or maybe they were perceived as hokey? We thought that maybe it was done to fit the standard square style box but found that the kit would have fit that box anyway.
One day we received a DVD full of documentation. We had someone onsite in the warehouse, researching, documenting, photographing the test shots on record and cracking open tools to find kits to potentially re-release whether it be Trek or other possible licenses. I started thumbing through it and with baited breath double clicked the folder named “Mr. Spock”… And what to my wondering eyes should appear but the snake sprue completely intact on the photo of the test shot on record. Hooray! However the base was still the butchered half… Bumpum badum. (like the Price Is Right)
So a couple months pass and we received photos of the actual tool and saw that a section of the original base was ground out and replaced by an insert cutting the base as we know it today. The good news about this was that we can create a new insert to put in its place. That saves us a considerable cost to backdate the kit. Work on the backdating is underway. I’ll post an update once I get revised test shots.
The parts as they exist fit fine. I was heartbroken not to be able to put the snake heads on their spot on the base though. Strangely enough, it would make a great kitbash to have the snakes growing out of the top of Spock’s head…
