Kess has announced a number of new releases coming within the next 6 months. Unfortunately, their stated website (kessmodel.com) doesn't work nor does the link at the bottom of Matrix's website. So these all have a watermark from another website.
1987 Rolls Royce Silver Spur Landaulette
1972 Vista Cruiser 442 SW Station Wagon in red, yellow, and green
1929 Duesenberg Model J Berline Clear Vision Sedan by Murphy in blue and black
1932 Duesenberg Model J Torpedo Berline Rollston in three colors
1956 Alfa Romeo 6C 300 Superflow I Pininfarina
1956 Alfa Romeo 6C 300 Superflow II Pininfarina
1956 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith with Perspex Top Saloon Ex Nubar Gulbenkian
They all look good, especially those Duesenbergs. I wonder about the 442 hoods on those Olds station wagons, though....I doubt many left the factory that way, but I suppose it was possible.
Are they GM concepts or replicas of few rare Oldsmobile examples? Anyone know?
They all look good, especially those Duesenbergs. I wonder about the 442 hoods on those Olds station wagons, though....I doubt many left the factory that way, but I suppose it was possible.
Are they GM concepts or replicas of few rare Oldsmobile examples? Anyone know?
A quick browse online confirms that the 4-4-2 option (including hood scoops) was never offered as a factory option on the Vista Cruiser, although you can find lots of pics of aftermarket conversions.
I hope the advance pictures shown by Carmodel are early prototypes, the finish and detailing looks pretty rough. I think I'll stick with my '69 Goldvarg, although I do like the '72 front end better.
Given my experience with P/E falling off on Kess models, I think this one might be a nightmare.
Awesome, glad I could help. Original MSRP was about $129.00, today they seem to be going for $550. - $625. Some resins command astonishing (to me anyway ) secondary values. 🙄 🙄
@100ford2003 There is also a 1933 Pierce Arrow Le Baron Convertible Sedan I already have on order. It is offered in 3 colors and one is green with top down.
Just to keep historic records in order, I present photographs of the car's original owner Nubar Gulbenkian with his wife and the Hooper bodied Silver Wraith (chassis LELW74) in Eden Roc, Cap d’Antibes in 1959. This is how the car was originally delivered in 1956 with silver flanks and front wings and very dark navy top to the body. Which is designed to flow across the dark navy tops of the seats as we see the line pass through the perspex roof. The silver / dark navy were the corporate colours of Gulbenkian's petrol company and his 1947 Rolls Royce was also finished in these colours.
Sadly the Kess model has the scuttle in silver. And also I apologise for the watermark on the pictures but the copyright is still held by the Edward Quinn estate.
@charles-rockett Hi Charles One wonders how a model car manufacturer can get it so wrong especially when the resource material is out there and so accessible.
Autominologist residing in the Robin Hood County
Nottinghamshire England UK
@chris-sweetman Hi Chris, it is a shame as the wings being the same colour as the car's sides is a much more modern statement and quite a departure for the times. It also is important in expressing the singular dark wave through the silver of the sides and perspex roof. Nubar Gulbenkian had a very modern taste and his three notable postwar Rolls Royce are very distinctive (1947 1952 and this) so it's a shame they didn't do a bit more research on this. That said, I've read that the closure of Hooper was sudden and haphazard, with important documents being rescued by chief engineer and stylist, Osmond Rivers personally. Where those are archived now, I don't know.
To update the above post, I found the following on http://www.motoringart.info , locating Osmond Rivers' Hooper files:
Thanks to Klaus-Josef Rossfeldt for the following comments.---------------------Osmond was the chief designer of Hooper & Con (Coachbuilders), London. He saved an enormous amount of material when the coachbuilder closed down in 1959; among that were a considerable number of sketchesd, drawings, paintings by Osmond Rivers. He later lived in Denmark (his wife Inga was Danish) and decided to sell the vast majority of that material to a US collector by the name of Arthur Ripley. In his last will left all that (and much more) to the Museum of Western culture, Denver, Colarado.
One wonders how a model car manufacturer can get it so wrong especially when the resource material is out there and so accessible.
HA! I've said this for decades! We could write books about this....
The requirements to accurately replicate are virtually identical to those when "inaccuracy" is applied. Is there no quality control? ...No commitment to historical accuracy/commonality? If 100,000 examples, for instance, looked the same, why then replicate the ONE (modified by the current owner ) that doesn't?
Why model "obscurity" or inaccurate detail? I just don't get it?
