When it comes to making some of the racing versions of die-cast model cars, such as BMW M3 racing car above, the clearance between the tires and fenders cannot be made true-to-scale. That’s because the real car fender is made of sheet metal only 1mm thick, while the die-cast model’s fenders, rendered in zinc, are also 1mm thick. If the model’s scale is 1:18, the fender thickness of the model car is 18 times thicker than the real car fender, and thus the tires of the model cannot be fitted as close to the fenders. They will always force a large clearance in between. Because of this reason, many racing die-cast models are often out of scale in the area of tires and fenders clearances. In order to make die cast model car looks closest to the real car, AUTOart trims the zinc metal fenders manually as thin as possible, so that the tire can be fitted realistically close to the fender with minimal clearance. Trimming a zinc metal fender is labor intensive and time consuming because of the material’s hardness. It also requires precision workmanship to achieve even thickness all around the contour of the fender. If there is a slight over-trimming, the whole car body must be scrapped. Most model makers will not consider such a process of trimming the fenders because it only increases the production cost and lengthens the production time, for what is a minimal visual difference. They believe it is not worth the cost just to have the tires fitted 0.8mm closer to the fender of the model car. From the perspective of AUTOart, however, it is a major issue because a difference of 0.8mm in 1:18 scale equates to a 14mm difference in terms of the real car term. AUTOart will never compromise such a feature and will always make the models as close to the original scale as possible.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 09:50:13 +0000