|
|
 Posted - April 12 2010 : 11:49:14 PM
|
Now I remember why I stopped assembling Model Power structure kits ... same reason I used to bang my head with the older Life-Like Build 'Em kits years ago unless I really had to. 
I was looking to put together a small more modern Oil Distribution Facility on a siding. Didin't have the room for full sized Plastruct Petro/Chemical Refinery (Furnace would have to go, but the wife particularly likes the Furnace during the Winter months so ...). And I have a Life-Like Southern Oil Company elsewhwere - didn't want two. So I got a Model Power Tank Filling Station and an Oil Facility Office. (The Filling Station is discontinued and not available anymore except on *Bay and the Oil Facility Building is on Clearance, but is also discontinued.)
Since I haven't assembled Model Power stuff for awhile, I forgot the issue of missing/broken/half-formed pieces in Model Power kits. 
I may have given IHC a little bit of flack over the years for the occasional deformed part (mainly because IHC Customer Service - depending who you got there - was good to very grouchy when you asked for a replacement part). But Model Power kits, I haven't had one yet without problems with multiple parts. Even when you look at their boxed BuiltUps in Hobby Shops ... those have broken parts all over them. It might be because they don't bag the parts sprues - which slide around inside the boxes, catching onto other sprues and breaking parts and tearing up decal sheets.
I'm happy Model Power is still around, just wish their quality control was a little better. Some things I can use Evergreen StripStyrene to make better replacement parts - but it's always the detail parts I can't make that always seem broken/malformed in a Model Power kit.
Now Model Power has always been reasonably quick in the past to get out replacement parts (okay, a couple weeks) when you call them. So here I am ... waiting for railings that were broken when packed, waiting for details that were "blobs" of plastic on the sprues, and a roof that was only half molded (not enough plastic injected).
Oh well, what is Model Railroading without a little "hang time" here and there to force you outside to mow the lawn and raise your neighborhood's property values.
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
Edited by - HOScale Model Railroader on April 12 2010 11:51:11 PM
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 141 ~
Member Since: January 06 2007 ~
Last Visit: February 05 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
 Posted - April 13 2010 : 12:52:13 AM
|
I have never had a Model Power Building kit in my life time and I don't believe I have anything model power at all,
I have had alot of Life-Like Buildems kits in my time. I never thought they were too big of deal to assemble unless you got one of the kits that had pieces missing!! That seemed to be quite common in their day...
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 6279 ~
Member Since: February 18 2009 ~
Last Visit: March 04 2022
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 13 2010 : 11:40:32 PM
|
| That's funny...I don't have a lot of kits, but they're mostly LL or MP. I've never had a problem.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1166 ~
Member Since: October 18 2009 ~
Last Visit: December 23 2018
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 16 2010 : 03:34:37 AM
|
Slowly but surely the replacement parts from Model Power are coming in. :^)
Model Power is a nice bunch of folks. Their real name is "ATI Model Prodcts, Inc." But I believe with the confusion between ATI (the computer video graphics hardware/chip manufacturer) - they mainly do business under the Model Power name.
Yeah - it must just be my luck with MP kits. The parts guy that's there from 9AM to Noon EST said they've had problems with manufacturing recently. Usually they catch the bad mold injected sprues (I supposed they recycle/reuse the plastic) - but lately a lot of kits got out missing pieces/sprues or with plastic blobs as pieces. When you buy their clearance items (kits) - your getting the seconds. Kits with sprues of parts in conditions that are ok for someone to buy as a $9 kit (slightly deformed stuff), but not good enough for a $30 kit of the same structure.
Life-Like is all Walthers now, so those kits should be okay. I heard, can't confirm, that when Walthers took over Life-Like completely - they cleaned house of people and "dead wood" kind of like what Whirlpool did when they acquired Maytag. For awhile, IMHO, Life-Like was real junk before Walthers took them. This stuff goes in phases. For awhile, the model manufacturers make decent stuff (Patal and early AHM was good) ... then they start shoveling out crap (like Bachmann did for years with non-working accessories and cheap looking kits) ... then they go back to good looking/working products again (Woodland Scenics Builtups).
I dunno about the rest of you, but it's always annoying for me to open a kit to start working on it and find sprues of parts missing. Once, yeah - everyone's allowed one goof every now and then. But continuously is a sign there's a Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma project that needs to be undertaken on the manufacturing floor. And especially since a lot of kits start off at $30 and higher.
But I guess this is a sign of the times with just about everything nowadays. People just don't care. From model trains to car manufacturing to software programming to health care. People seem to have gotten into such a lax attitude about things and are sloppy in the ways they do their work. If it's defective ... hey I don't care ... it's not mine ... ship it on down the line anyway. That seems to be the norm.
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
Edited by - HOScale Model Railroader on April 16 2010 03:38:36 AM
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 141 ~
Member Since: January 06 2007 ~
Last Visit: February 05 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 16 2010 : 10:10:13 AM
|
Well my #1 problem is I can't detail or paint So rather have one of you on here do the detailing & I'll do the assembling 
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 14908 ~
Member Since: February 23 2009 ~
Last Visit: June 18 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 16 2010 : 7:22:37 PM
|
quote:Well my #1 problem is I can't detail or paint So rather have one of you on here do the detailing & I'll do the assembling
Originally posted by microbusss - April 16 2010 : 10:10:13 AM
|
I hear you microbusss. :^) As the years wear on, detail work and painting gets a little more ... challenging ... frustrating.
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 141 ~
Member Since: January 06 2007 ~
Last Visit: February 05 2011
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 16 2010 : 7:29:35 PM
|
| only advice i will give you,if you are using brushes is to use acrylics,unlike enamels you can use a damp cloth whilst paint is wet and remove most mistakes,and you can make washes by diluting,but the best tip is to use offcuts to practice on till you achieve the required effect,as they say practice makes perfect,do not put paint on to thickly,its better to paint thinly two or three times,then one thick coat,but your best friend is patience,ken
|
Country:  United Kingdom ~
Posts: 8294 ~
Member Since: September 28 2006 ~
Last Visit: October 20 2021
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - April 17 2010 : 12:40:02 PM
|
All the Model Power kits I built were from the early 90s, so they weren't missing any parts that I could tell when I was a kid. What was confusing to me then was a few with extra parts!
I have to mention Atlas regarding missing parts and customer service...I bought an Atlas passenger station kit at a train show that was old enough to have the original "drawn" pictures on the box, but when I went to assemble it, sometime over the intervening years it had lost its platform. I wrote to them and they sent back a whole new kit, free of charge!  So I assembled the new kit and have the other if I ever feel like scratchbuilding a wooden platform!
--Rio Grande--Thru the Rockies
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 89 ~
Member Since: November 20 2008 ~
Last Visit: November 09 2013
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - June 04 2015 : 10:36:24 PM
|
It's been a long time since I built a Model Power Kit, but I don't recall having any problems with them. As I recall many of their structures were Pola products that were similar to the the items that were sold by Tyco, AHM, and others. The old Life Like kits were another story, I purchased a Mr Freeze Ice Cream establishment and found many of the molded window and door frame parts to be warped and distorted. I never did finish that kit...
Proudly keeping Tyco Pluggers out of landfills since 2016
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 820 ~
Member Since: December 26 2009 ~
Last Visit: February 25 2025
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - June 25 2015 : 6:24:22 PM
|
quote:It's been a long time since I built a Model Power Kit, but I don't recall having any problems with them. As I recall many of their structures were Pola products that were similar to the the items that were sold by Tyco, AHM, and others.
Originally posted by Srenchin - June 04 2015 : 10:36:24 PM
|
I don't know the whole history, but yes there is a lot of sharing between the companies. I was always under the impression that Pola and Model Power were basically the same thing. The Pola kits used to come with a little paper catalog that showed other kits available...lots of "European" looking buildings, if I remember right. I'm sure someone knows more than me....
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1166 ~
Member Since: October 18 2009 ~
Last Visit: December 23 2018
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
