So I was at the LHS today, and saw the new CMW 1955 Fords had arrived, displayed neatly on the counter in their red & silver blister packs. I took a look, since if they were as nice as the 1/87 Vehicles club new product image made them out to be, I would consider buying one (the very definition of consumer discretionary spending). But looking at serveral models up close (clearly visible thru the clear plastic), the paint job on all of them was sloppy and poorly applied - kind of an rough orange peel effect. Now, I have a number of prior CMW vehicle releases (like the 59 Ford Fairline, the 36 Ford Fordor, the Scenicruiser Bus and so on), and the paint jobs are very good, smooth and neat. Heck, even the Model Power cars I have like the El Camino and the Olds 442 had better paint jobs than the new CMW 55 Fords, and they were about a quarter of the price.
Well, I passed on the Ford models, the main reason being the quality control was so poor on the paint and detailing (one vehicle, in an unopened package, was missing a headlight insert). I hope this is just an abberation for CMW, as I would like to get the 1960 Ford F-100 when it comes out, but not if it looks like it was painted with an old rattle can of Testors on a very cold day…
chutton01:
That’s disappointing to hear. I hope the ones you saw are the exception.
I am bidding on three of them as I write, but I have been outbid on all three. I think I will let them go. Even with combined shipping they work out to $20+ ea. For that price I don’t want poor quality. I will wait until I can see them ‘in person’.
Thanks for the heads up.
Dave
I hope these are an exception too. I was very surprised, as CMW models usually have really good paint finishes (the '59 Ford Fairlane I have has a supremely smooth finish, but even the Caprices and Galaxies they made were fine). However, I think that all models in this shipment were made in one run, so the likelyhood is high that the finish is sub-par on all the models in the lot. I looked at about 10-12 different models; what first caught my eye was sloppy paintwork on the hubcaps (it was raggedly slopped over the tire), then I noticed one had a missing headlight, then another had a poorly painted taillight, then I noticed the rough paint finish on the body - at that point I was picking one model after another up and inspecting them, and was rather disappointed with what I saw.
Look, when you think about it these are somewhat pricey ornaments that will be on display, and therefore should have a good finish. Definitely try to take a first-hand look at them, and judge for yourself.
Chutton01,
Do You happen to know, if the bodies are plastic and the chassis is metal, held inplace with a phillips head screw? I have been thinking about purchasing a couple and painting them my colors. A lot of their offerings are riveted. Not to put CMM down, but over the past couple months I have purchased quite a few of their trucks and found quite a few short comings, which to me seem’s like they could have been avoided, if more care was involved when assembling them, but overall not bad. It did not really matter to me though, they all had to be stripped and repainted anyway. all 15 of them. LOL.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
The CMW Facebook page states the bodies are plastic. I did not look at the bottom, so I can’t state if they are rivets (which are buggers to drill out so I can remove the body) or screws.
I collect HO vehicles and have alot of cmw vehicles. I have noticed a few quality issues over the years. Mostly rough or bumpy paint in the older cars. Also a 53 Ford Shell tanker had part it’s headlight bezel missing, and a 41-46 Chevy pickup had a miss formed cab.(installed a visor to cover it) I’d say that for the most part, my 50 or so CMW vehicles are very nice. I just wish M. L. Klein had the latest offerings. Somehow they missed the tow trucks and don’t have the 55 Fords yet…
I lived the same situation a few weeks back in a LHS while looking to buy a GMC TDH3610 Bus. The three I looked at had bad painting that could be seen through the plastic case. I left without buying one.
I have many CMW vehicles on my layout and I really like CMW products. I hope this is not the beginning of a new era.
What I can’t figure out is their penchant for painting the side window frames with silver paint don’t they look at what they are modeling.
By the way these guys are supposedly N scalers but you would never know with the crap they pass off as N scale.
The early metal models were a lot nicer & I never had a quality issue with them, not so with the new plastic ones. The pickup trucks have 2 small notches by the rear wheels & I almost bought a '53 Ford with no “glass”. My advise is to buy them from a brick & mortar Hobby Shop after looking them over, if you can.
Received mine yesterday and boy has the quality gone down! I ordered two of each color and everyone has alt least one tire half peeled off!!! The green roof cars are so oversprayed on the chrome window frames it looks as if they just held a spray can to them. I also ordered two of the new Shell Tow trucks and both beds are bowed up at the cab. My prior tow trucks where not like this. CMW really needs to get a hand on this manufacturer. I may have to buy the next run in person and not mail order.Pretty sad a Hot Wheel car is all metal and cost .97 at Walmart, why plastic and $10.00 min. a car?? Did they change manufactures again?
Okay Guys:
If you looked but didn’t buy because of guality, or won’t because of what you saw here, the write\email the company.
Dave
Obviously a lot of us have a wealth of experience with CMW and hold a bunch of their FINE models in our collections. These new '55 Fords were the “Fine Car of Their Field” as retro-advertised in the CMW ads, but I am shocked at the poor execution. I understand using more plastic, but their better recent offerings at least used metal for some of the chasis. These are all plastic, poorly assembled, and painted to match. The three I picked up all have paint issues including long dust strands embedded in the paint; all sported severely deformed tires that I had to trim and re-fit, and two have ill fitting headlights that don’t want to pop-in place properly. Even after purchasing these in a discount HS, I’m feeling fleeced. They will sure hear from me - I want them to find another Mfr that knows what QC is !
I would like to mention that after emailing CMW about my issues, they were very quick to offer a replacement vehicle. Also, in their latest news update they mention a delay in shipment because they want to assure quality. Sounds like there aware of the problem and are trying to make things better.
Looks like there will be a second run, as the 1/87 Vehicle club new product page shows there will be several new paint scheme for these 55 Fords. If they resolve the Quality Control issues, then I’ll have to buy one (probably the police car - who doesn’t need an old school black and white mid-50s cruiser for their collection) as atonement, since I started this thread in the first place.
Some one should send them a pic of a real 55 Ford and point out the fact that there is no silver trim around the side windows.They should also pay more attention to their colour schemes.That white over yellow was first offered in 1956.
Yeah, that is sort of lame. If they had just did around the edges of the doors and windows, to mimic the chrome inserts along the window tracks, it would have been cool.
Heh, I just noticed something - in most images of the 1955 Ford Fairlane & Mainlines I googled searched, there is a chrome strip along the beltline. Perhaps it’s only a pre-production model, but the CMW 1955 Ford Mainline (solid black) doesn’t have it, but does have the chrome roof pillars. Oops.
Looks like they left that chrome strip off the Ford Police Car too, however looks like with the help of a silver sharpie to add it back in, and some thin wire, you can get a fairly close match to the prototype (lots of chrome on that baby - maybe they retro-restored a regular sedan into a police car scheme).
