diecast model car ?

[shafer]

If i purchased a lets say #99 nascar Carl Edwards ford fusion, disaseembled it,stripped off all of the paint and painted and redecaled it to look like an aric amerorola smithfield foods car , and then reasembled it, would this be considered a model car that I built? most of the newer cars are not available in model kits so, i am trying to find ways to build cars to add to my petty collection without buying , resins , decals, donor kits ect because that can be really expensive.

what are your thoughts ?

[Longbox55]

I beleive that it should be considered a model, just a different medium.

[shafer]

thanks any more thoughts?

[MAGNUM4342]

Yes it is a model car as Jacen outlined. It is NOT a model car YOU BUILT. It was pre-built by a factory. It IS however a model you re-painted. Now if you had torn it completely down to where it started you could say you re-built it. I know, I know...just call me captain technicality.

[george 53]

I got two Die Casts, that came as un-assembled kits. I ASSEMBLED them, so to me, yes, they ARE model kits. As mentioned earlier, they are just a different medium.

Edited October 3, 2012 by george 53

[shafer]

my first idea at diecast bashing will be a #400 racing champions 57 olds convertable, I will strip it and recreate a richard petty's first race car.

[Art Anderson]

By most folks definition, a diecast is a "model car" prior to your having done anything to it at all. Technically it is what would be referred to as a "Display model" as it is pre-assembled at a factory. However, prior to that factory packaging and sending it out, it is a pile of pieces and unpainted, and so therefore while not a kit, it is in kit form. If it were to be considered a kit, then anything that's ever been assembled by a factory would be considered a kit by virtue of it's constituent components. In other words, lamps, refrigerators and moss covered- three handled- family credunza's would all be considered a kit at one point in time, and quite rightly, yet they aren't "models". They are only not considered models because they are what they are meant to be while a model is meant to represent whatever it is made to look like.

In other words a lamp is a lamp and a fridge is a fridge, but a dollhouse miniature of a fridge is a model of a fridge. SOoooo...when you ask is a diecast a model? Yessir! In every sense of the word and that includes Hot Wheels, Micro Machines and slot cars. Are they kits? No. Only when they come unassembled. It's kind of like the difference in an engine and a motor. While folks in other parts of the world might argue the point, we generally think of an engine as operating on some form of fuel, a motor is operated by electricity of some sort.

There has been much debate here before about this very thing as many members do not think any pre-assembled and painted cars should even be allowed on the site. The problem with that kind of thinking is that there are alot of cars represented in scale by diecast only. Let's say for a moment that you LOVE the Tucker. The family of Tucker signs a contract stating that company X can have license to create Tucker diecasts in 1/25th scale but that it can never be made into a kit. If you won't buy one because it isn't a kit, who are you hurting?

Think of it this way: If one takes a pre-built diecast metal model car apart, down to the point of taking it back to kit form, for the purpose of modfiying, or just merely repainting it, what the Sam Hill is the difference between that and taking a plastic kit, painting and assembling it? Does a model being done in diecast metal make it any less a model? If so, what does that make all those Hubley diecast metal model car kits (Model A and T Fords, '32 Chevies, '30 Packards, Duesenberg Model SJ's) any less a model car kit than the same subjects in plastic? I think not.

Art

[shafer]

I see no problem with Jacen's post, I do not feel he (or anyone else) should get slamed for posting opinions, this is an opinion based thread.

thanks for all of your imput.

[shafer]

I own a diecast 1996 cummunins dodge truck that rich bickel drove, after years of setting on a shelf, I noticed some paint and potmetal issues, I also noticed that the truck lacks in detail. I took that truck last night and drilled out the ribits that hold the body to the chassis and disasembled it. 1st I touched up the paint, then I added a few other contigincy decals. This diecast was very primatitve, window net was primer color , wheels that are supposed to be blue are black, seat was gray and underside lacked no color details,headlights were silver paint ,winshield bars are not painted, and the grille lacked the black insers. currently I am correcting what shortcommings are with this kit. I will say that Racing champions built the truck, but I will post pix this weekend that show ,I made the truck. I am finding out that rebuilding is just as hard as building. When I post the pictures I will let you be the judge.

[Harry P.]

Of course a diecast model is a model! Most come fully assembled by the manufacturer, to be bought and displayed by the consumer, some come in unassembled form that the buyer has to put together...a diecast model kit.

But regardless of whether you buy a pre-assembled diecast, or an uanssembled diecast, they are both models.

And yes, if you take a diecast, disassemble it, repaint it, detail it, modify it... whatever... and then reassemble it, you can say that you built that model! The material the parts are made of don't have any bearing on whether or not a scale representation of a car is a model. All scale representations of cars, no matter their material, are models. Not all of them are model kits... but they are certainly all models!

[shafer]

I own a diecast 1996 cummunins dodge truck that rich bickel drove, after years of setting on a shelf, I noticed some paint and potmetal issues, I also noticed that the truck lacks in detail. I took that truck last night and drilled out the ribits that hold the body to the chassis and disasembled it. 1st I touched up the paint, then I added a few other contigincy decals. This diecast was very primatitve, window net was primer color , wheels that are supposed to be blue are black, seat was gray and underside lacked no color details,headlights were silver paint ,winshield bars are not painted, and the grille lacked the black insers. currently I am correcting what shortcommings are with this kit. I will say that Racing champions built the truck, but I will post pix this weekend that show ,I made the truck. I am finding out that rebuilding is just as hard as building. When I post the pictures I will let you be the judge.

here are the before and after results

[shafer]

after