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Provence Moulage kits have always enjoyed a good reputation particularly for their easy build qualities. There have in the past been complaints about poor quality of wheels, poor roll cages, instructions and fragile wing construction. At times it seemed they had a pattern of producing a kit and change was not considered.
Under the new ownership we are now beginning to see major changes and nearly all are good. These three latest kits show many of these changes and PM deserve praise for listening and making these changes.
The kits
The 2002 Bentley is very similar to last years kit but does feature a white metal wing with a new much more rigid mounting system shown clearly in the pictures. It also now features brake discs and calipers.
The Ferrari 550 and Morgan are new kits completely and in these two we see the most improvement. Both now feature white metal parts to a much greater extent. The Morgan has a cast dash and the very distinctive mirrors are beautifully cast in metal. They both have cast cages and rear wings but the Ferrari goes one stage further with cast spoke inserts for the wheels. The PM wheels are now of a quality to match most available. Great thought has gone into the Morgan, The two-tone colour could have been a builder's worst nightmare but they have produced the main body in two parts. Painting now could not be more simple, paint one part black and the other yellow, no masking no pain, absolutely brilliant. Also included in the Morgan kit is a press to form the Radiator grill. The Ferrari also has a separate seat and now has clear rear lights to replace the decals used
before. The Morgan has a supplementary decal sheet as one decal was missed out, again in the past this would have gone unchanged. The Morgan and Ferrari now use printed flat windows packed in their own bag to prevent scratching and the picture of the Ferrari Screen pillar shows the discreet recess to fit the new screens to. Where vac forms are provided these are very thin and clear and PM provide two in case you make an error. Please more manufacturers do the same. The instructions are the now much improved and clear version which came in about 12 months ago.
The only slight worry is that now with the extra parts, the large sheet of instructions the boxes are becoming a little small and there is some evidence of vacforms being crushed in packing. New larger boxes will be needed in the future for some kits.
There have been problems in the amalgamation of Starter and PM but these are slowly being resolved, Orders have been slow and incomplete but that is improving. My contact at PM Marie deserves a special note of praise, her good English has rescued me on several occasions when my French has let me down not only in my dealings with PM but also on one or two occasions when I have been in difficulty dealing with other French companies. PM and the people in the company deserve great praise for the changes they have made and the changes that they are continuing to work on.
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