A few 4bbl carburetor reviews

[brodie_83]

Bought a few carbs from Ted's Modeling Marketplace. First one is a Pro-tech Barry Grand Demon carb. Details are amazingly crisp and very nice piece (wish I would have bought a few more). Second is a Pro-Tech metal Holley Dominator. Again, great detail but will be harder to detail since its metal and not resin. Third is a copy of the Holley Dominator casted by VCG Resins. They obviously made a cast of the Pro-Texh unit and made it out of resin. While it's a direct copy, it isnt the greatest quality. Lots of extra flash everywhere and crisp details were lost in the cast. Maybe they should make new molds out of better material? Not sure. This is the 1st piece I've gotten from VCG but since they have a store, I hope they improve their casting. Not trying to bash them, just giving my own review and opinions. I have never cast something but would like to give it a shot sometime for my own personal use, not to copy other's work and sell them.

Anyway, I highly recommend Pro-Tech stuff. VCG wasnt junk by any means...I can clean it up and use it, but I'd rather spend an extra dollar to use something I dont have to clean up to make look better.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Or you can get the really nice stuff from Fireball Modelworks.

 

Steve

 

[vamach1]

The Fireball ones are amazing.

[Force]

Yes the carburetors Fireball does are great.
But it depends on what you are doing, most of the Fireball carbs are good for street and light race and he doesn't have any Dominator style carbs yet.
Most of the kit makers carburetors aren't that good at all and have much to desire detailwise and the best looking Holley Dominators from a kit are the ones in the old Jo-Han Pro Stock kits, another even better looking Dominator carb is the Ultra Detail Dominator kits from Futurattraction, otherwise it's scarse.
From the ones in the pictures above I would only consider the Barry Grant King Demon, the others looks to be copys of the Monogram/Revell blob carbs from their Pro Stock kits and they doesn't come even close to what a real Holley 4500 Series Dominator carb looks like:
So a good detailed carburetor is quite important when they are exposed on the model.

Older style 4500 Series Dominator

 

More recent style

 

Edited December 9, 2018 by Force

[ScottH454]

Thanks for the close ups. The metal carb is probably pretty hard to cast fine details. I wouldn't think VCG copied the Pro Tech but more they both did the same kit carb. That resin VCG carb is absolute garbage, not need to bad mouth with your pictures. I can say that as a caster myself. I don't sell anything with a single void or leave flash.

There is another dominator carb from older kits that I was putting the baseplate from the revell two piece carbs.

I got ahold of some fireball carbs an well they put everyone else to shame.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1) Fireball's carbs are indeed the ones you want if quality means anything in your life. I bought a bunch from a dealer at a show here in November and was blown away by how good they really are.

2) While very similar, the resin carb on the right (below) is not a direct copy of the metal carb on the left. Some details, like the thickness of the rings around the throttle bores, simply would NOT change when a mold was made from the original.

My guess would be that at least some work was done to the original to make it closer to a legitimate master and not a direct ripoff.

[Force]

Both the Pro Tech and VCG carbs are copys of these carbs found in all Revell/Monogram Pro Stock kits, not the best representation of a Holley 4500 Series Dominator.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Force

[StevenGuthmiller]

My suggestion would be to contact Fireball Modelworks if you want a really good carb.

Joseph entertains ideas from people all of the time to add to his line of products.

Chances are, if he gets a few people asking for these carbs, he'll do them.

 

 

Steve

[ScottH454]

Got my(action-modeler) version of a Dominator carb ready after motivation from this post. This one was cast using silver powder. For what it's worth there were two versions of those blocky carbs originally mentioned. The center on them are different, one has an extra step-down.

Edited December 18, 2018 by ScottH454

[mademan]

3d model specialties on Shapeways does an incredible dominator, split dominator, 4500, 4150, etc.