The Revell 1955 Chevy 2 ton truck kits have a lot going for them.
They are true 1/48 scale, have good detail, and are very flexible in how they can be used. Revell must have made a zillion of these, as you can regularly find un-built, even un-opened kits, on eBay. The prices go up and down. Right now they seem to be high. But my guess is they will drop soon.
These kits have a couple of drawbacks as well. One is the kit does not include a windshield or rear window. The other is the cab is made of many components, and it’s hard to square everything up. The locator pins do not adequately constrain the relative angles between the door sections, front section and main body section and you don’t find out things are off until you try to install the rear section and roof. Further complicating things is you have to assemble the cab on the frame, rather than as a separate assembly. Even further complicating things is the parts are attached to the sprues with rather thick sections, so it’s tough to separate the parts cleanly. Revell recommends “painting the parts before assembly” which you have to do because the parts are so intertwined, the cab on frame contruction, and because you can’t get at interior sections afterwards. But that makes applying putty to gaps and a proper paint job challenging. In other words, these are not as easy as your usual plastic kit. Maybe that’s why there are so many un-built kits out there!
The first thing I did was to separate all the cab parts from the sprues, and then clean up all the sprue attachment points. I had to use putty in a few places. I then primed and painted everything. I used Tamiya Luftwaffe Light Green. “Everything” included that nifty grille detail (More on that later). Priming is essential, as I found the Tamiya paint did not stick well to the sixty year old plastic. This was even though I thoroughly washed everything first. I used Testors gray primer. To get around the “hard to square everything up” aspect, I “tack welded” the cab parts together using Gorrilla Super Glue gel. Make sure you use the gel variety, and use a toothpick to apply just small drops. The glue will hold the parts together solidly without flexing. But the parts can be easily and cleanly broken apart by inserting a #11 blade at the joint line and twisting it. A few scrapes with the blade will clear up any glue residue. This enables you to repeatedly test fit the pieces. Do not use a Styrene Glue (such as Tenax 7R or Plastruct Weld) as it will permanently mar the surface and is tough to break apart cleanly. After you are happy with the fit, then you can wick in styrene cement into the joints. I used Tenax 7R
When the whole cab was together, I applied Tamiya putty to the gap that appeared between the five sections that comprised the front fenders. I carefully sanded the putty smooth, masked everything with Tamiya tape, and resprayed. I placed the tape at natural panel gaps to avoid having any kind of a paint line.
The truck bed is molded to look like wood boards inlaid between metal sections. To get this effect, I used a new paint offered by Rustoleum called “Weathered Wood”. This is the answer to a lot of my modeling needs. It is a grayish brown color, and will be my future “go to” paint for tree trunks and flat car decks. I sprayed the entire deck with this color, followed by light uneven mists of Rustoleum Khaki. I then drybrushed on Polly Scale Reefer White, and followed with the standard india ink alcohol wash. I then masked off the “boards” and painted with the truck body color. The gear load you see in this photo is a printer gear. I drilled holes in it, and painted it with Tamiya and Polly Scale Acryil paints. The pallet is made from stained scale lumber, and the straps are automotive pin striping tape colored with a Black Sharpie. The ink from the Sharpie has a bluish hue, which makes the tape look just like a metal strapping.
The rear lights are MV lenses, held on with Goriila Gel Glue. As per all my vehicles, it is sporting a 1956 New Jersey License Plate:
Now for the grille. As I noted earlier, I did all this before assembly. The entire front section is in one piece. This includes the grille, headlights, bumper, front body section and lower half of the front fenders. After painting the entire piece with the body color, I masked off everything but the grille and painted the thing with Tamiya Insignia White. I then masked off everything but the bumper and again painted with Insignia White. I painted the headlight surround and headlights by hand. To make the black insets in the grille, I painted Tamiya masking tape with Polly Scale Steam Power Black, then cut the tape to the proper width and stuck it in place. I touched up the gaps with Steam Power Black. The yellow tape you see is to hold the stakes in place while the glue dries
The rear window is cut from .010” clear styrene. That was easy.
For the windshield, I spent about three hours trying to cut and heat form something suitable. All were failures.
I then decided I needed to get on with my life and took a walk. A suitable solution soon came to me. I simply used a piece of clear packing tape. I struck it on the outside perimeter of the window opening (which by the way is made of four separate pieces!) trimmed it to fit, and then carefully wicked in Tenax 7R around the edge. It has held for over a week. I am sure the inside of the windshield will attract dust. So what, most windshields have a layer of dirt on them anyway.
Here it is on the layout. Note I added the “Chevrolet” decal to the grille bar. Those decals were still good after 60 years!
Thank you, for posting
