I just got this letter from AutoArt...
Explaining the reason of the existence of the Sealed body in their Motorsport line and why they are so expensive for less details such as engine and sealed doors...
Still I don't approve.... does it make sense?....
AUTOART MOTORSPORT SERIES
Our 1:18 Motorsport series, with sealed body panels, raised a lot of queries among the collectors why we are making die cast model cars with no engine, no opening of doors and bonnets but still demanding the same selling price.
Many top racing teams, such as Formula One, WRC and Super GT racing cars, would not allow picture to be taken or conducting any research of the car's interior by model makers due to the team's unique design of their suspension setup and engine arrangement which are their closely guarded secret among their competitors. Because of this, there are no modern Formula One die cast models that are made with engine, even if they do, it is being made with assumption from limited sourcing of pictures of the press and magazine. The dimension will never be accurate and many small details are also incorrectly replicated. We have seen model makers even placed a standard engine into a WRC rally car just to have the model launched into the market that has an engine inside. This is the primary reason for the introduction of Motorsport series offering modern racing model cars with no engine and opening and emphasizing the exterior features rather than the interior. It is meaningless to replicate an incorrect engine in a model just for the sake that the model should have an engine. For model collectors, the most important thing for a die cast model car is to have the body shape replicated as closely as possible to the real car. Interior, such as engine and boot, is secondary. Unlike classic racing cars of which the engines expose all the ram pipes, wiring harnesses and small parts that become nice features on a die cast model car, modern racing car engines are mostly covered with large air intake boxes with little engine detail to review which can hardly be a nice feature in a model car. As a matter of fact, when collectors bought a model car, he or she would open the bonnets or doors once or twice and the rest of the time the model is being displayed with the doors and bonnets closed. Most upmarket 1:43 scale are made with no opening of doors and bonnets, collectors are willing to spend much more money for a well made 1:43 rather than a mass market toy quality 1:18 despite opening of doors and bonnets.
Another reason we are making the subject under Motorsport series is when the car makers or racing teams insisted the die cast model cars must be launched within the same year that the actual cars are still racing, only a model without opening will be possible to realize the project of which the development requires only seven months instead of ten months for model with full openings.
Making the model car without opening of doors and bonnets will save around 10 to 15% of the production cost. However, Motorsport series consist of many special features not seen in previous model making of which the production cost can be 20 to 30% more expansive than our "Racing" series with openings. Therefore, it is not a cost saving approach for introducing Motorsport series without opening.
Modern racing cars are getting more complicated in their shape with a lot of vents, slots, fins, cooling ducts and aerodynamic aids; it is a huge challenge to replicate these features in die cast model making which are 18 times smaller in scale due to the limitation of the injection and casting technology. In order to replicate these features in our Motorsport series closest to the real racing car, a lot of works have to be done manually, such as the opening of the small slots and vents on metal bonnets and fenders using trimming machine painstakingly trimmed away the zinc metal bit by bit in order to make them become through holes. Some racing models require more than 20 areas of such time consuming and labor intensive trimming process which are not found in die cast model retailing for less than a hundred Dollars.
The stance of a racing car is all about ride height, fender flare and clearance of the tires as compared to a standard street car. Replicating the correct ride height and fender clearance of a modern racing car is one of the main challenges for a die cast model maker. Zinc metal casting technology limits the thickness of the fender to a minimum of 1mm, which in real car term, is 18mm under the scale of 1:18. The actual racing car fender is less than 1mm in thickness and the rubber tires are so close to the fenders that they are almost touching each other, in order to make the same appearance on a model car, the metal fender lips have to be trimmed by machine manually to make it as thin as possible so that the rubber tires can be fitted closest to the fenders. This feature can never be achieved in mass market product which the selling price limits the amount of manual work on trimming and polishing.
To achieve the racing livery with sharp and shinny colors, tampon printing is used in Motorsports series. Racing cars with complicated multi colors livery require over two hundreds hits of tampon print because each hit can only consist of one color on one spot not more than two inches in size. Many model makers would use a much simpler cost saving method by applying water transfer color decals to avoid tampon printing. The problem with decal is that the color is dull, it will have a border and it may get damaged or cracked easily. If a clear coating is applied on the decal, the layer is too thick which will blur the fine detail of the body lines.
All the panels, edges and splitting lines are manually polished and filed to the best possible surface fineness. After applying the paint, the surface has to be buffed by wax so that the painting finish is exceptionally smooth and shinny as compared to many other die cast model available in the market. The process is in fact very similar to the making of real car.
Photo etching metal pieces are being used for delicate parts that cannot be replicated by injection plastic/metal such as mesh grill, tow hook and latches. The photo etching metal pieces will give a realistic shape in the scale but they are expansive to produce which will greatly affect the production cost and therefore no mass market product will implement this feature. Motorsport series apply photo etching metal pieces in many areas in order to give the model a realistic feel.
Wheels and brakes are the features that Motorsport series emphasis most. The brake disc rotors are made of photo etching metal, piece by piece placing on a rotating platform and manually sanded to achieve a hairline texture in order to simulate the braking surface found in the real world. Autoart is producing real wheels for use in racing and street, there are wheel experts in the factory responsible for the development of the model car's wheels and they are being replicated in the best possible scale, contour and finishing.
In short, Motorsport series has elevated the quality standard of racing die cast models within a retail price of a hundred dollars despite the facts that the basic labor cost in China has been increased more than 40% plus the material cost, such as zinc metal, paint and solvent have all been increased more than double in the last two years.
So..... :what ..... :feedback ...as I am sure they'll be many :giggle
Explaining the reason of the existence of the Sealed body in their Motorsport line and why they are so expensive for less details such as engine and sealed doors...
Still I don't approve.... does it make sense?....
AUTOART MOTORSPORT SERIES
Our 1:18 Motorsport series, with sealed body panels, raised a lot of queries among the collectors why we are making die cast model cars with no engine, no opening of doors and bonnets but still demanding the same selling price.
Many top racing teams, such as Formula One, WRC and Super GT racing cars, would not allow picture to be taken or conducting any research of the car's interior by model makers due to the team's unique design of their suspension setup and engine arrangement which are their closely guarded secret among their competitors. Because of this, there are no modern Formula One die cast models that are made with engine, even if they do, it is being made with assumption from limited sourcing of pictures of the press and magazine. The dimension will never be accurate and many small details are also incorrectly replicated. We have seen model makers even placed a standard engine into a WRC rally car just to have the model launched into the market that has an engine inside. This is the primary reason for the introduction of Motorsport series offering modern racing model cars with no engine and opening and emphasizing the exterior features rather than the interior. It is meaningless to replicate an incorrect engine in a model just for the sake that the model should have an engine. For model collectors, the most important thing for a die cast model car is to have the body shape replicated as closely as possible to the real car. Interior, such as engine and boot, is secondary. Unlike classic racing cars of which the engines expose all the ram pipes, wiring harnesses and small parts that become nice features on a die cast model car, modern racing car engines are mostly covered with large air intake boxes with little engine detail to review which can hardly be a nice feature in a model car. As a matter of fact, when collectors bought a model car, he or she would open the bonnets or doors once or twice and the rest of the time the model is being displayed with the doors and bonnets closed. Most upmarket 1:43 scale are made with no opening of doors and bonnets, collectors are willing to spend much more money for a well made 1:43 rather than a mass market toy quality 1:18 despite opening of doors and bonnets.
Another reason we are making the subject under Motorsport series is when the car makers or racing teams insisted the die cast model cars must be launched within the same year that the actual cars are still racing, only a model without opening will be possible to realize the project of which the development requires only seven months instead of ten months for model with full openings.
Making the model car without opening of doors and bonnets will save around 10 to 15% of the production cost. However, Motorsport series consist of many special features not seen in previous model making of which the production cost can be 20 to 30% more expansive than our "Racing" series with openings. Therefore, it is not a cost saving approach for introducing Motorsport series without opening.
Modern racing cars are getting more complicated in their shape with a lot of vents, slots, fins, cooling ducts and aerodynamic aids; it is a huge challenge to replicate these features in die cast model making which are 18 times smaller in scale due to the limitation of the injection and casting technology. In order to replicate these features in our Motorsport series closest to the real racing car, a lot of works have to be done manually, such as the opening of the small slots and vents on metal bonnets and fenders using trimming machine painstakingly trimmed away the zinc metal bit by bit in order to make them become through holes. Some racing models require more than 20 areas of such time consuming and labor intensive trimming process which are not found in die cast model retailing for less than a hundred Dollars.
The stance of a racing car is all about ride height, fender flare and clearance of the tires as compared to a standard street car. Replicating the correct ride height and fender clearance of a modern racing car is one of the main challenges for a die cast model maker. Zinc metal casting technology limits the thickness of the fender to a minimum of 1mm, which in real car term, is 18mm under the scale of 1:18. The actual racing car fender is less than 1mm in thickness and the rubber tires are so close to the fenders that they are almost touching each other, in order to make the same appearance on a model car, the metal fender lips have to be trimmed by machine manually to make it as thin as possible so that the rubber tires can be fitted closest to the fenders. This feature can never be achieved in mass market product which the selling price limits the amount of manual work on trimming and polishing.
To achieve the racing livery with sharp and shinny colors, tampon printing is used in Motorsports series. Racing cars with complicated multi colors livery require over two hundreds hits of tampon print because each hit can only consist of one color on one spot not more than two inches in size. Many model makers would use a much simpler cost saving method by applying water transfer color decals to avoid tampon printing. The problem with decal is that the color is dull, it will have a border and it may get damaged or cracked easily. If a clear coating is applied on the decal, the layer is too thick which will blur the fine detail of the body lines.
All the panels, edges and splitting lines are manually polished and filed to the best possible surface fineness. After applying the paint, the surface has to be buffed by wax so that the painting finish is exceptionally smooth and shinny as compared to many other die cast model available in the market. The process is in fact very similar to the making of real car.
Photo etching metal pieces are being used for delicate parts that cannot be replicated by injection plastic/metal such as mesh grill, tow hook and latches. The photo etching metal pieces will give a realistic shape in the scale but they are expansive to produce which will greatly affect the production cost and therefore no mass market product will implement this feature. Motorsport series apply photo etching metal pieces in many areas in order to give the model a realistic feel.
Wheels and brakes are the features that Motorsport series emphasis most. The brake disc rotors are made of photo etching metal, piece by piece placing on a rotating platform and manually sanded to achieve a hairline texture in order to simulate the braking surface found in the real world. Autoart is producing real wheels for use in racing and street, there are wheel experts in the factory responsible for the development of the model car's wheels and they are being replicated in the best possible scale, contour and finishing.
In short, Motorsport series has elevated the quality standard of racing die cast models within a retail price of a hundred dollars despite the facts that the basic labor cost in China has been increased more than 40% plus the material cost, such as zinc metal, paint and solvent have all been increased more than double in the last two years.
So..... :what ..... :feedback ...as I am sure they'll be many :giggle
ullhair On the surface, their reasoning makes perfect sense, but I'm left with more questions than answers
