Classic Metal Works 1976 Buick Estate Wagons and IH R-190 Cement Mixers/Concrete

[cfritschle]

I have not seen any "official" announcement for these, but Walthers has CMW 1976 Buick Estate Wagons and IH R-190 Cement Mixers listed on their website with an April 30, 2021 expected date.

This link lets you see the Liberty White and Potomac Blue Poly paint scheme.  https://www.walthers.com/76-buick-est-wagon-white-e52e05

This link takes you to the Independence Red Poly version.  https://www.walthers.com/76-buick-est-wagon-red-be9319

The Buicks still have the bulky roof rack, but of course that can be removed if they don't use a lot of glue on it.

These two links take you to the IH R-190 cement mixers.  https://www.walthers.com/54-inter-r-190-tr-red-wh and https://www.walthers.com/54-inter-r-190-tr-red-wh-a597a4

The mixer beds appear to be 3D printed.

[wazzou]

Hard pass.   

[Philip H]

I may grab some wagon sets to dirty up and put in the background somewhere.

It sure would be nice if someone would do a quality cement rig not attached to an overprices Athearn truck. This, sadly, ain't it.

[bbussey]

No faux wood paneling this time. I like the blue, it will be passable with new wheels and rack.

[peteski]

No faux wood paneling this time. I like the blue, it will be passable with new wheels and rack.

Those things are so poorly engineered and assembled that I fail to understand how someone would consider them "scale models" and actually pay money for them.  Especially for a new model produced in the second decade of 21st Century.   Yes, I bought a package so these are not just empty words.  Crap, crap!

[wazzou]

What's going on with the red wagon in the Walthers photo?
It looks like the hood is sitting well proud of the fenders.
Are those bodies multiple piece assemblies?

[peteski]

Are those bodies multiple piece assemblies?

Yes they are, and the split is in a very odd place.  One of these days I will post a detailed review just to show how bad this model is.  There are no excuses for how poorly it was designed and assembled. 

[cfritschle]

Round 2 has a short video specific to their model railroading products for 2021.

The HO scale "square body" Chevy pickups would be nice to have in N scale.

[cfritschle]

What's going on with the red wagon in the Walthers photo?
It looks like the hood is sitting well proud of the fenders.
Are those bodies multiple piece assemblies?

Bryan,

I hate to disagree with Peter, but when I had one of the Buick wagons disassembled to replace the wheels, it certainly appeared to have a one piece body.  However, the mold registration (I think that is the way to describe it) is a bit off for both the front and back.  It sort of reminds me of the old Bachmann auto sets where the mold parting lines were very noticeable.

[wazzou]

@cfritschle You should take a closer look at the two red Buick wagons in the Walthers link you posted.
https://www.walthers.com/76-buick-est-wagon-red-be9319 and compare the one in the foreground to the one in the back.
It is pretty apparent that the one closest to the camera has the hood well jacked above the fenders compared to the one behind it.

Not a great sales tool.

[cfritschle]

@cfritschle You should take a closer look at the two red Buick wagons in the Walthers link you posted.
https://www.walthers.com/76-buick-est-wagon-red-be9319 and compare the one in the foreground to the one in the back.
It is pretty apparent that the one closest to the camera has the hood well jacked above the fenders compared to the one behind it.

Not a great sales tool.

Bryan,

I agree it is not a great sales tool.  The problem appears to be with the alignment of the sliding molds, and not the assembly of multiple model parts.  If it were just the assembly of parts, one could take it apart and fix it!   

The Bachmann 1963 Mercury Marauder had similar issues with the alignment of the molds.  Some were worse than others, but I don't think any of them had "perfect" alignment.

[peteski]

Bryan,

I hate to disagree with Peter, but when I had one of the Buick wagons disassembled to replace the wheels, it certainly appeared to have a one piece body.  However, the mold registration (I think that is the way to describe it) is a bit off for both the front and back.  It sort of reminds me of the old Bachmann auto sets where the mold parting lines were very noticeable.

I guess you just didn't work hard enough in disassembling it Carter. Persistence and careful examination pays off.  At first I also thought those were very wide mold partying lines, but those were gaps between ill-fitting parts.    But no, part of the hood and nose are separate, very tightly press-fit into the body.

As I see it, the reason they made it that way was to be able to install the "flush fitting" windshield.  And I use that term loosely.  One would have hoped that the designers woudl have follwo the natural hood outline or maybe even some body line for the separate part, but no - they just arbitrarily cut through the hood area.  I really have nothign good to say about this model.  To me it isn't even of toy-quality.  The entire design and the quality of its assembly is terrible, especially comparing it to other N scale vehicles (including the American companies like Atlas or Tranworx, that manage to produce very good quality models).  The make, model and year of this vehicle is highly desired, but why is it so poorly executed?  There is really no excuse, except for incompetence of the designers and managment people that approved this  model.


As far as fixing the problem, the only way to do that is to fill the voids with putty and repaint the model. Remember, those gaps are not anywhere close to where the hood outline would be. 

[cfritschle]

Peter,

Thank you for the "exploded" view of the model parts.  When I had my model disassembled, I was looking at the parting line between the hood and the grille thinking that might be where one could separate the grille from the fenders.  Obviously I needed to work on it a little harder!   

I am now wondering if some careful sanding might result in a better fit between the hood/grille molding and the front fenders?

[peteski]

I am now wondering if some careful sanding might result in a better fit between the hood/grille molding and the front fenders?

Not as I see it.  First of all, since  the hood piece is wedge shaped, the way to tighten the gap would be to move the hood forward in relation to the body.  But that woudl also make the nose piece stick out.  You could cut the nose off, and the kerf woudl let the nose to reconnect with the relocated hood, but then you have that joint to worry about. Then the edges of the hood piece are slightly rounded, so even if they fit tightly against the fenders, there will still be out of scale depression (which is nowhere near where the real hood outline would be.  This model is just so bad - other than a full rebuild, there doesn't seem much hope to make it presentable. At least going by my model standards.

[Chris333]

I wonder if something like the station wagon wouldn't look better with painted filled in windows.