# Pocher



## jingle (Jun 22, 2007)

Anyone ever hear of Pocher models? Any comments about these are greatly appreciated.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

I know they make some exceptional odd-scale mostly metal kits, rather expensive though. Here's a brief look at some of their stuff. 

http://www.carmodel.net/start.php?UE9DSEVSPDs+UFJELS1hbGwtMC0zMC0xLTE8Oj48Oz48Oj48Oj48Oj4tMS08Oj4w

I saw a 1/8th scale Bugatti sell for $800 once, that was probably 20 years ago. Here's another decent link. 

http://www.tcn.net/~severn/pocher.html


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## jingle (Jun 22, 2007)

Thanks Pete that was very helpful.


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

Built a few,the 500K and the alfa romeo.Not a weekend build......but beautiful when done.


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## jingle (Jun 22, 2007)

From what I have read so far building these are not easy. I am also hearing the instructions are very difficult to decipher. I personally am interested in doing a rebuild of one of these.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I have had several of these kits. Pocher is out of business now. Most of their classic car kits date back to the mid 1960s although they came out with some sports car and semi truck kits in the late 80s or so. Those kits are not as complex as the old kits.

The Mercedes 500K is one I got to work on. The kits are CRUDE by modern standards. The plastic parts are very roughly molded with so so detail but a lot of flash, mold marks, rough spots, and just lumps of plastic to remove. Most of the parts screw or snap together. The large plastic body parts were rather warpey and its not uncommon to have problems getting the doors closed or the hoods on tightly. A lot of the metal fittings, while they look like thick photo etch, are actually stamped metal and must be bent to shape. They are all pretty crude. The older issues of this kit and others had very indricate wire spoked wheels which look awesome but are hard to build. Later issues replaced the good wheels with crude plastic chromed wheels like you would find in a 1/24 Revell car. On eBay one of the old 500K kits with the wire parts will bring $1000 but the plastic wheel kits bring half that. There are some aftermarket companies that make new metal parts and detail parts for these kits, and also offer building guides on DVD.

They do make really nice models when finished but at the same time they are pretty rough and crude and take a lot of work to get together just OOTB.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

The car I saw was a 1/8th scale Bugatti, not sure which version but it was a museum quality build. The assembled car was for sale for $950, he had another one unbuilt for $800. At the time it was way beyound my building skill, heck it could still be but it was an absolutely beautiful car.


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## jingle (Jun 22, 2007)

Thanks for that information, I am seeing some Pocher kits and already builts selling on E-Bay in the $100's. What I am looking for is a very detailed 1/8 kit comparable to a pocher. I am into exotics and American muscle so any nice looking car will do. If you have any suggestions where I can find any large scale plastic models with this kind of detail I would really appreciate it. Thanks Howard


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## Rondo (Jul 23, 2010)

In many (most?) respects, the Pocher classic kits were not that much more advanced than the 1/8 Revell/Monogram kits. Some areas like the wire wheels, working mechanical brakes and a few nice machined metal parts went beyond the American kits, but if you built both straight from the box, I don't think the difference would be "night and day". Different choice of subjects of course. 

I've got an old Pocher Alfa touring car about half built and the Volvo diesel engine in the same state. While either one would be impressive OOTB, they could use a lot of improving. Someday I'll get back to them.

The Pocher kits have their own thing going on. The wire wheels are a good example. They have a huge parts count by themselves and that wows the troops. But the rims are made up of several parts (chrome steel and silver plastic) and the fact is...they don't really look right.

Depending on your taste in cars, the big Monogram kits could be just as satisfying with fewer headaches.


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## jingle (Jun 22, 2007)

Cool, great advice I am really gratefull!!


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