In certain cases over the years, the team at Revell has sent me advance samples of their new street rod and custom kits, so that I can share them with you prior to them showing up on the shelves of local hobby stores.
Today, my porch was graced by a box containing their new '48 Ford Custom Chopped Coupe. This was not a test shot, it was pulled right off the shelves at Revell's distributor who is shipping the kits to local hobby stores as we speak.
Let's start off with a look at the box art
Upon removing the wrapping and opening the lid, the box is full to the lid with parts trees and the like. About 1/2 the kit contents appear new, the remainder carrying over from the original '48 Ford ProModeler convertible that was introduced about ten years ago.
New elements include the body, the interior seats and door panels (engraved with an all-new tuck and roll pattern), key elements of the front and rear suspension, the hot rod parts for the flathead engine (the new cylinder heads are engraved with the Navarro logo - yes!), two all new hoods, and two of the three chrome trees appear all-new.
The suspension has been dropped in the front by a scale 3" or so (see photo comparing the new vs. the original front axle drop). I have not compared the rear suspension with the original kit yet, but it appears to have been dropped as well. With these new parts, you'll no longer have to go through the suspension modifications I detailed in my article on the earlier converitble version of this kit a couple of years ago in SA.
The new, chopped body appears very nicely done to my eyes. All the chrome trim engraved on the convertible body has been elimated for this body, and the hoods lose the bullnose ridge that runs back across the stock version. Each of the grilles has its own body color surround, the grilles being a '47 Olds, '48 Cadillac, stock '48 Ford, and a custom horizontal bar grille. Tailamp options include a '49 Lincoln and a Tombstone design.
After taking these photos, I cut out the new fender fadeaway parts and did a test fit on the body. My guess is that Revell did a lot of work on the tooling to refine these parts; they fit really well and can be glued in place without modifications. Of course, for a contest model you'll need to add filler and smooth the seams, but for a shelf model you might get away with just glue alone, if you paint the car a dark color and don't look to closely. This was an ambitiious addition to the kit and I would have to say. "nicely done".
I must admit that although I admired Revell for pursuing this approach with their '48 Ford Coupe (rather than just an unchopped, restored stock Coupe kit), I my exectations for the kit were not that high. I can't really explain why. However, based on this evening's perusal of the unbuilt kit (remember, I always reserve final judgement until a kit is actually built), I would have to say that the actual kit surpasses my expectations by a wide margin. It shows the same attention to detail as the Sedan and Five Window versions of the '32 Ford kit, and has that feel of a kit designed by "car guys" and supported by a management team that didn't compromise on the budget and did the kit right.
I'm really looking forward to building this kit and seeing if my initial impressions hold. Within just a few weeks, you should have the same opportuinity.
Let me know if you have any further questions about the kit and I will attempt to answer them tomorrow or Saturday. And thanks for looking. TIM
PS - many more pictures are at the link, including multiple shots of the new body and of key new sections of the instruction sheet. http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/new-first-look-reve/new-first-look-reve/ TB
TB
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/976739.aspx
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