I’m currently doing custom-builds on 6 different structure kits, from 4 different manufacturers. In all of these kits, I have found serious part shortages, poor quality castings, missing instruction sheets and instructions that are incorrect or totally indecipherable. All kits were in factory-sealed boxes! Now, these particular manufacturers have provided replacements, some happily and with apologies, others begrudgingly, but it does take time to find contact info, describe the situation and wait for shipment. Some small parts like NBW’s and stripwood, it’s not worth the effort, but why should the hobbyist have to make up for the shortfalls? Then again, not all modelers would have the items on hand. Perhaps most kit manufacturers assume their kits will never be built and sit forever in a sealed box on hobbyists shelves?
A pre-release test-build of new kits by a third party modeler would certainly help, to ensure there are sufficient materials provided and that the instructions are clear and concise. And there are many ways to ensure that everything is included when the kits are packed, i.e. lists of parts, etc.
That is frustrating. Really the whole point in buying a kit is so you have all the parts needed to build the model.
I have a diesel locomotive kit that I bought many years ago new. For various reasons I didn’t try to build it for a few years. That’s when I found out the truck side frames had been left out of the kit. Unfortunately both the manufacturer and the dealer had gone out of business.
In my case I got very lucky and was able to later buy the needed parts on eBay. But I wouldn’t expect that to happen very often.
I was just got an Athearn bi level autorack…beautiful model but it’s missing the bridge plates. I’m not knocking Athearn, it isn’t necessarily their fault…I’ve seen people ‘sneaking’ spare parts out of other boxes at home improvement stores to make up for their lost parts, without consideration that they are passing the same problem on to the next guy. Not cool. Either way, I hope Athearn has a few extra bridge plates somewhere!
having worked for a kit manufacturer for a number of years, I know A/ how much it costs to send replacement/missing parts B/ the bad rap a manufacturer can get, and C/ know there are many ways to ensure kits are packed completely …
I got word from Athearn that the parts aren’t missing, their research showed these specific cars didn’t have bridge plates. My search of online photos confirm that the N&W cars don’t show bridge plates. I don’t know how they unloaded them, but that’s beside the point.
My apologies to Athearn for assuming the parts were missing…they did a good job of researching these cars on an individual basis! I hope other manufacturers follow their example.
The first thing when I saw your earlier message was that I wondered if that autorack actually had bridge plates built on? As it happens, I bought the N&W also, along with a couple others. Checking a prototype photo can often answer questions of course, if you can find one!
As for not knowing how they unloaded those autorack without the bridge plates, the answer is easy, they used temporary bridge plates, put in-place for loading and the removing them. Those were probably stored in a trailer or the back of a truck and then brought over when the cars were pulled in for unloading.
