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Help! PT-76 accuracy by Glencoe ??
pierrepear
Joined: August 25, 2007
KitMaker: 40 posts
Armorama: 39 posts
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2007 - 05:24 PM UTC
I need help to see how accurate is the PT-76 by Glencoe.
This tank's main hatch
seems to have a reversed set-up & the driver hatch is missing as well
as the vane & different lights. Can anybody id this ? Could it be just a early
prototype of PT-76 ? It is made by a vintage US model company called
Glencoe some 35 years ago! Thanks in advance

please copy & paste to see my photo of this tank ,

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/photopierre/pt-76002.jpg
landshark2
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Texas, United States
Joined: March 25, 2004
KitMaker: 78 posts
Armorama: 45 posts
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:58 PM UTC
It is an awful kit. There is nothing that can be salvaged from it. Of course, I should have known not to buy it when Glencoe basically wrote on their boxes that you're buying their models at your own risk.

Speaking of PT-76s, why isn't there one in 1/35th scale? This is a glaring gap in modern AFVs given their use around the world.
zululand66
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New Jersey, United States
Joined: August 07, 2002
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 01:02 AM UTC
Pierre,
I think you might be better served if you tried using a more accurate starting point: like a model Stegosaurus! Honestly, the Glencoe kit has tons of problems and probably isn't worth the work. I'd say scrap it and get an Eastern Express kit. They may be hard to find, but are infinitely better.
Regards,
Georg
Jacques
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Minnesota, United States
Joined: March 04, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 02:32 AM UTC
Eastern Express did the PT-76B. It is a good model that needs the Eduard PE set (Or a lot of scratchbuilding) to get it to look really nice. It is hard to find now as EE seems to have been bought out by Alanger. Maybe they will re-release it?

Trumpeter has also quietly announced a 1/35 PT-76 kit. We will see if it sees the light of day... (before 2012).
pierrepear
Joined: August 25, 2007
KitMaker: 40 posts
Armorama: 39 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 06:14 AM UTC
I just couldn't believe a once huge model company like Glencoe can put out a ' model ' that came from thin air, from imagination, from guessing work, & not even from a single photo? Thanks gentlemen, you have confirmed my worst fear

However, Jacque, the Trumpeter's PT-76 might come out sooner than you think :
http://e-hobbyland.com/tr379ruptmo1.html
Jacques
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Minnesota, United States
Joined: March 04, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 10:40 AM UTC
Not to burst your bubble but here is my evidence against those dates holding water:

http://e-hobbyland.com/trrubmifv1sc.html
junglejim
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Alberta, Canada
Joined: February 18, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 05:19 PM UTC
If someone is looking for the EE PT-76 kit, when I was in Finland last month, Martti had 3 on his shelves at T:mi Kuivalainen hobby shop:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/martti.kuivalainen/engindex.html
Only two left now because I bought one then and there! Might be worth it to e-mail him.

Jim

I'm sure the Trumpeter one will be right out after the MAZ, and the BMP-3, and the T-62...
I'm still waiting for the Academy M-728 How many people fell for that one...
jjumbo
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British Columbia, Canada
Joined: August 27, 2006
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 05:55 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I just couldn't believe a once huge model company like Glencoe can put out a ' model ' that came from thin air, from imagination, from guessing work, & not even from a single photo? Thanks gentlemen, you have confirmed my worst fear

However, Jacque, the Trumpeter's PT-76 might come out sooner than you think :
http://e-hobbyland.com/tr379ruptmo1.html


Hey Pierre,
Glencoe could never be called a "huge" model kit manufacturer, not like Tamiya, Revell-Monogram, Dragon, etc, etc.......
I've read that Glencoe was a small family business that originally made plastic injection dinnerware.
When the company was inherited by a younger family member, the new owner (who was a model builder) decided to buy up some old aircraft model molds from bankrupted manufacturers and/or lease discontinued model molds from other manufacturers.
Hence the weird variety of scales and quality of kits they manufactured and sold.
I bought the Glencoe PT-76 and the BTR-50 APC when they first came out and in a word, they were JUNK!!!
On the other hand, I built their Grumman Duck and SE-5 biplane kits for a friend and quite liked them.
I'm not sure if Glencoe is still around or is still making model kits, you do see the odd kit in the LHS.
Glencoe is/was a minnow compared to some companies like the big T, Hasagawa, R-M, DML et al.
Cheers

jjumbo

update: I just Googled their website, it's "temporarily unavailable"

http://www.glencoe-models.com/
Grumpyoldman
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Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 11:47 PM UTC
I hate to say it, but I wouldn't waste a perfectly good fire cracker on most Glencoe kits.
jjumbo
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British Columbia, Canada
Joined: August 27, 2006
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Posted: Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 07:54 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I hate to say it, but I wouldn't waste a perfectly good fire cracker on most Glencoe kits.


Hey Dave,
Back in the day, when ever kid got rid of his old kits with firecrackers (yellow and red Atoms IIRC), I remember using a can of lighter fluid and a match.
Ronson lighter fluid made for a great flame, a'la the Wasp or Crocodile flamethrowers.
Nowadays I wouldn't waste the time and effort on a Glencoe kit, straight in the trash can will do.

jjumbo
Grumpyoldman
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Florida, United States
Joined: October 17, 2003
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Posted: Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 11:31 PM UTC
LMAO, Johm besides fire cracker and lighter fluid, I would pack the insides with cotton balls, then use the lighter fluid, the plane, ship, tank on fire effect lasted longer.
alanmac
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United Kingdom
Joined: February 25, 2007
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Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007 - 12:37 AM UTC
Hi

I thought it was only my friends and I who sneaked off to do this stuff as kids.

We'd sometimes placed the fireworks into the model as we built it !!

I remember taking a friends Airfix Sunderland Flying Boat with rockets strapped to the wings down the river. It floated fine. Trouble was one rocket started before the other and was more powerful. It went in faster and faster circles till it exploded and sank.

The hypocritical thing is we'd go mad if we caught our own kids messing with matches and lighter fuel !!

Luckily we survived without injury to tell the tale. My wife working in intensive care at the local hospital knows others not so lucky when it comes to burn injuries.

Alan
Reiter960
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California, United States
Joined: June 24, 2007
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Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 11:46 AM UTC
I know nothing of this manufacturer or this particular kit, but judging by picture supplied this barely looks like something similar to actual PT-76.
You might want to wait until December-January 2008 for Trumpter's PT-76 kit. News here
SJPONeill
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Hamilton, New Zealand
Joined: April 26, 2007
KitMaker: 24 posts
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Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 12:25 PM UTC
In defence of companies like Glencoe and Polar Lights, they have brought us kits that would otherwise be extinct. True they are more toys than accurate representations in many cases but it's all a matter of taste: if you don't like them, don't buy them, just as i am unlikely to ever buy one of the constant stream of new F16, F15, Spitfire, Me-109, Sherman etc kits that keep coming out. I drive a modern car too but still aspire to have a clunker like a Austin 10, Mk1 Prefect or Zephyr...I also like building these older (ancient kits) warts and all, often instead of the new beaut wunderkits on the market...
jjumbo
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Joined: August 27, 2006
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Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 06:57 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi

I thought it was only my friends and I who sneaked off to do this stuff as kids.

We'd sometimes placed the fireworks into the model as we built it !!

I remember taking a friends Airfix Sunderland Flying Boat with rockets strapped to the wings down the river. It floated fine. Trouble was one rocket started before the other and was more powerful. It went in faster and faster circles till it exploded and sank.

The hypocritical thing is we'd go mad if we caught our own kids messing with matches and lighter fuel !!

Luckily we survived without injury to tell the tale. My wife working in intensive care at the local hospital knows others not so lucky when it comes to burn injuries.

Alan

Ah, memories.......
To paraphrase Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now,

" I love the smell of burning styrene in the morning, it smells like satisfaction"

Yeah, it's amazing that more of us old timers aren't missing fingers, eyes or covered in burn scars considering what we did as kids. LOL

jjumbo
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