Reviews : Moebius 1963 Chevrolet Nova SS Convertible

What you need to know is that this is a very old kit. It was originally produced by Trumpeter, and you probably realize that this means the kit was either a poor seller, or the mold was too old and they did not want to retool it. Well, Moebius is joining the brotherhood of companies including Atlantis and Italeri, by investing in an old kit and rereleasing it, without enough of an investment in time/money to fix the parts of the kit that made it a failure in the first place. I'm not saying that all of the kit was worn out. They did make an effort to clean up most of the parts, but just enough corners were cut to allow Moebius to turn a profit on a kit that already had a high pricetag. There was some wear though, and that was a real shame. The holes and matching pins were nicely cleaned up, but in most instances, the pins were too short, making the whole concept a fail. The instructions were nice, but missed key information. For example, a better description about where the firewall should be placed. Also, the line drawings were nice and clean but so jumbled up that you really had to search to find a critical key to which way the part was being presented to you. I had to dry-fit the front wheel hardware orientation several times before I figured out how to install them. Otherwise, they would have pointed the wheels up at an angle or was it down at an angle? Altogether, this front end was way too fragile, and sure enough, at final assembly, with all the flexing that entailed, it fell off! A critical error was made in the carpet area. There were 4 noticeable sink holes, but the real errors were 4 holes drilled completely through the floor right where your feet should go, with no parts to use the holes! Floor mats would have been nice, but they obviously did not make the cut. They would have covered the ugly sink holes, too! The windshield looked to be a real winner because of the extension on the bottom that was ample for gluing, but also with holes matching pins. In reality, once you've allowed the glue to dry, upon returning to the kit, you will probably find that the top of the windshield has pulled away from the surrounding frame, and there was no glue extension up there. So, how do you cleanly glue a clear piece of plastic to the edge of a frame and keep them together, all the while keeping them free from glue? My solution was not exactly ideal, but hey, I build kits because I can't scratchbuild my own! I really mucked up what should have been a glass so clean it disappears type of moment. Furthermore, I have a feeling that Moebius dedided to hide the gap by including 2 visors, which would then have to be glued to the top of the clear windshield. Oh joy... Because there was a lack of clarity in the areas of the chassis and under the body, I was forced to remove the front wheel housings, the radiator, and the 2 parts that made up the hood latch, in order to get the kit to go together at all. Needless to say, the hood became a permanent fixture and I decided to do the same to the trunk lid. Sigh...

The box is very sturdy and well packed inside with extra care taken to protect the parts trees. The kit includes both plastic and photo-etch hood hinges, plus photo-etch scripts and badges. The decal sheet also includes scripts, badges and gash guages. The kits' narrow whitewalls are assembled using both a white ring and a black inner ring placed between it and the hubcap. Virtually all of the chrome on the car, except for the windshield frame, is a separate part on the chrome tree. The hood and trunk bracing are also molded separate. The straight six engine is nicely detailed. No flash was observed on examining the sprues. The plastic gives a feel similar to that of Revell. This is a very clean, highly detailed, factory stock Nova SS kit.