Bronco Model Kit

[Pflyboy]

Anybody know where I can find an early Bronco model kit? There are second-gen bronco kits, but I've had no success finding a first-gen.

Nick

 

[4G5]

Been looking for years man and I haven't found any.

 

[berg bronco]

Ive been looking for one to. No luck.

 

[Pflyboy]

Too bad I don't know sculpting or mould making. Sounds like an opportunity. wink wink to anybody on here who knows how haha

 

[SWFLABRONCO]

Here's the only one I've ever seen. I placed an order for one back in '06 and never recieved it. Apparently they sold the business and no way to contact them right now. Shame because it looks fairly nice. They are about half way down on this page.

http://www.afxnscaleresin.150m.com/resin_bodies.htm

 

[77bronco_ed]

I have never seen one... Once in a while you can find a similar resin body come up on ebay. I believe the individual must make limit runs. They are not as nice as the one shown in the link... The price still gets pretty high when they are available.

 

[Broncitis]

When my partner and I had the 40th Anniversary die cast Broncos made I spoke to our manufactuers rep about an injected molded kit as well. He said he used to work in that industry, but to tool up for a true injected molded kit was in the $125K+ range, so we never pursued it.

I wanted to do a kit that could be built cut or uncut (molded cut lines guides on the backside) with add on flares. Ranger and Special decore stripe kits as well as Stroppe Baja decals. There's already a company that makes super realistic rubber swampers and other cool scale tires.

 

[tasker]

Drew, sign me up!!!

 

[Broncitis]

Drew, sign me up!!!

For spotting us the $125K? Sounds great! ;D

 

[tasker]

ummmm, let me reprhase that.

 

[msweb]

to tool up for a true injected molded kit was in the $125K+ range

That's freakin nuts! You'd have to sell a ton to just break even let alone make any money. No wonder they make the glue smell so good..... %)

 

[borg]

This might get you started:
http://www.tamiyausa.com/search.php?q=bronco&image.x=31&image.y=10

Full-on rc or just the body to start

Steve

 

[Skiddy]

Been looking for years man and I haven't found any.

same here and the wife was tying to find one for my christmas

 

[Skiddy]

This might get you started:
http://www.tamiyausa.com/search.php?q=bronco&image.x=31&image.y=10

Full-on rc or just the body to start

Steve

there was a thread a while back where you could get them cheaper but i can't find it, wife may end up getting me one for christmas

 

[Pflyboy]

That Tamiya Bronco is pretty sweet. Too big for a modeler's purposes, but I might just have to get one anyway haha

 

[Pflyboy]

Welp, looks like I might be doing it from scratch. The plans are already drawn out in 1/24th scale. Don't expect too much, I tend to get halfway through a project then find something else to do.

If, however, it does turn out okay, I might seek out somebody who can do some vacuum bagging with plastic. The body looks easy enough to carve out, but the underside is pretty intimidating-maybe a donor kit could be used for the underside. It would be a difficult model to assemble-the tub would be a right side, left side, and a floor. The fenders would be moulded into the tub, and the doors would be seperate.

What would the interest level be for something like this? I need a decent amount of motivation and push from you all to get going. Just speculating on all this, so don't be getting excited.

Is there anybody on the board who is familiar with vaccuum bagging?

Nick

 

[msweb]

Is there anybody on the board who is familiar with vaccuum bagging?

Nick

I can change the bag on our Kirby in under a minute ;D

 

[Pflyboy]

If I make a plug/mould, do I need to take into consideration the thickness of the plastic, or is it too small to really matter?

 

[Broncitis]

The problem with vacuforming is that you generally will not get a great level of detail, especially in that scale. Any detail you do include (i.e. door seams, hood vents, tailgate letters, grille detais, etc.) will be on the plug side and will be distorted or lost when transfered though the sheet thickness. Too thick and you will loose all the fine details, too thin and it wil be too flimsy.

The Tamiya RC body is vacufomed, and is one of the nicest I've seen. They did manage to capture a lot of detail, but they are working to a larger scale and likely had some pretty expensive tooling. The Tamiya body looks to be made from some type of multi-part mold as evidenced form an apparant parting line across the middle of the body. This indicated to me that this was not the usual once piece plug commonly associated with this process (at least in the context of model car bodies).

Resin cast is typically the prefered method for small volume. It has drawbacks compared to a "real' injected molded model, but the cost is a fraction of injection molding and the resin cast process is capable of delivering much greater detail than the vacuform process.

I think the mold used for the resin cast model that's been sold was derived from the injection molded soft plastic, beach toy-like toy push car made by the Gay toy company.

This would have been much simpliar to use that toy as a patern to cast the mold from insted of startng from scratch. You could probably do the same to develop your vacuum mold.

 

[Pflyboy]

Good points. I wasn't too worried about seam detail, etc because you can bring all those details out if you prime the model correctly (taping one section off at a time). I can't afford to make moulds for a resin model, so that's why I chose vaccuum bagging. The material will probably be lightweight ABS plastic. It is rather flimsy but easier to form than the heavy stuff. Right now, both the left and right sides have been made in laminated balsa. Soon, I'll get those sides primed and sanded smooth.

If everything goes well, resin parts (aside from body panels) might be in the future. I'm looking to use the Revell 2n1 Bronco kit as a donor for now.

Nick