Revell models

[flapjack]

I remember having this large scale Revell model of a Mickey Thompson funny
car ("quality, not quantity" is forever stuck in my head because of that model
of Mickey's car).

I don't see models of funny cars or dragsters on the shelf when I go to the
local hobby store. Is Revell still selling this stuff?

I'd like to see pics if anyone has models still in the box (or assembled).

Interestingly enough, Tamiya is still making b****ing models of F1 cars. I have a 1:12 scale model of a Williams/Renault FW14B car. I am afraid of opening it because of damage my cats will inevitably cause.

 

[BF]

I remember having this large scale Revell model of a Mickey Thompson funny
car ("quality, not quantity" is forever stuck in my head because of that model
of Mickey's car).

I don't see models of funny cars or dragsters on the shelf when I go to the
local hobby store. Is Revell still selling this stuff?

I'd like to see pics if anyone has models still in the box (or assembled).

Interestingly enough, Tamiya is still making b****ing models of F1 cars. I have a 1:12 scale model of a Williams/Renault FW14B car. I am afraid of opening it because of damage my cats will inevitably cause.

I believe Revell got out of modern drag racing. (model kits and diecast) There are plenty of them listed on EBAY.

 

[yoda]

Revell 1/16 scale stuff is on ebay every once in a while, mostly on F.E.D. and the occasional flopper. Going prices are $75-$125 for Mint In Box kits.

There is a company doing repops of some of the 1/25 scale kits (which were one R.E.D. and one FC with a few different body styles and injectors that were sometimes correct). I just saw one of 'Goose's Navy Duster, and I have a great ACE Hardware store that stocks them. But the price on the shelves of a kit that I used to buy for $7 is now in the $18-22 range...

 

[The Swegian]

I must've built every kit Revell offered in the 70's. What an era it was for modeling. There were so many FC's and TF'ers. They have started releasing some remakes of those kits. Just check out their website, they have an online catalog.

 

[cdag]

Hey Tom!

As Barry mentioned, you may have luck on ebay. most of those kits are late '90's-era, but with some ingenuity and some polystyrene sheets, you can update wings, etc. A good site for parts is compresins.com . They offer current replica engine components and an array of f/c bodies, both current and nostalgia. Hope this can help!

 

[FC138fan]

2nd row from top: Lori Johns, Joe Amato, Cory Mac, Scott Kalitta, Mike Dunn, Ramchargers Front Engine
3rd row: Ed McCollough, Cruz Pedregon, Jerry Tolliver, KC Spurlock, Kenji Okazaki, Chuck Etchells, and an Al Hofmann custom from a firebird body.
4th row: Jerry Eckman re-paint, Warren Johnson, Blue Max, Gene Snow, Don Prudhomme. All of those were Revell.

Not shown were two kits that I bought recently: Eddie Hill

and the only AMT funnycar I've ever seen, the Chi Town Hustler:

The AMT one was very shotty. The front wheels were something off an old 50's car, the blower was way out of scale (I replaced it with a spare one from a Revell model). The parts were difficult to put together, and it took some skill to paint that thing.

I can't build models now after our daughter was born (maybe Ill pick it up again when they're in high school) but for those last few models Ive built they all came from Ebay. Priced very reasonable (I got a couple revell models for under $10) you can just about find any model you want. Only the Force Oldsmobile by Revell is unreasonably priced, the others are at least under $20. I remember when they cost $8 at my local drug store.

 

[FC138fan]

One more of the AMT one.. Oh yeah, the rear slicks were plastic, with a seam right down the middle. That sucked, no matter how much you try the seam will always show... and do you believe each exhaust pipe was individually cast. I can't imagine a little kid trying to assemble this one, it would be impossible.

 

[The Swegian]

2nd row from top: Lori Johns, Joe Amato, Cory Mac, Scott Kalitta, Mike Dunn, Ramchargers Front Engine
3rd row: Ed McCollough, Cruz Pedregon, Jerry Tolliver, KC Spurlock, Kenji Okazaki, Chuck Etchells, and an Al Hofmann custom from a firebird body.
4th row: Jerry Eckman re-paint, Warren Johnson, Blue Max, Gene Snow, Don Prudhomme. All of those were Revell.

Nick, on that MAD funny car, did you paint the body one solid color before applying the decals? As I recall, the real car had a dark shade of blue/purple that had some "swirls" of a lighter color. I have the model and never built it, mainly because I wsn't quite sure how to deal with that. Then, as always happens with kids, I just never took the time to build it.

 

[FC138fan]

Nick, on that MAD funny car, did you paint the body one solid color before applying the decals? As I recall, the real car had a dark shade of blue/purple that had some "swirls" of a lighter color. I have the model and never built it, mainly because I wsn't quite sure how to deal with that. Then, as always happens with kids, I just never took the time to build it.

The mad one was moulded in purple, like the KC Spurlock car. I just clear coated it before the decals went on. I guess I never got close enough to the real car to notice there were even swirls in the paint, there was no mention of it in the instructions. The problem with that one was that the Alfred E Newman flame decal is so huge that it was impossible to put on and keep smooth with all the embossed shapes on the hood. I had to cut slits in the decal and paint orange in the hole left in order to cover it. Revell is pretty cool about moulding the cars in the right color (yellow mooneyes, red Cory Mac etc.). Only the Pedregon Oldsmobile was moulded in white and had to be painted.

 

[The Swegian]

The mad one was moulded in purple, like the KC Spurlock car. I just clear coated it before the decals went on. I guess I never got close enough to the real car to notice there were even swirls in the paint, there was no mention of it in the instructions. The problem with that one was that the Alfred E Newman flame decal is so huge that it was impossible to put on and keep smooth with all the embossed shapes on the hood. I had to cut slits in the decal and paint orange in the hole left in order to cover it. Revell is pretty cool about moulding the cars in the right color (yellow mooneyes, red Cory Mac etc.). Only the Pedregon Oldsmobile was moulded in white and had to be painted.

I went and dug out the unbuilt MAD car I have. I forgot it was molded in purple. I can see how that decal could cause a few headaches.

The last two models I built were in late '98. The Densham kit was molded in white and had to be painted. I think the C-Ped car was molded in red and the white front had to be painted.

 

[FC138fan]

The two tones are tough, I can see both yours you'd have to make a curved mask line. I wish I had time to build models again, what used to be the model room is now my daughters room. Oh well, someday Ill pick it up again. Your two cars look nice by the way, good job!

 

[The Swegian]

The two tones are tough, I can see both yours you'd have to make a curved mask line. I wish I had time to build models again, what used to be the model room is now my daughters room. Oh well, someday Ill pick it up again. Your two cars look nice by the way, good job!

Thanks Nick. I totally appreciate how kids affect your spare time. I miss the model-building and since I grew up in the mid 70's, I really miss the awesome kits from that era.
Did you ever build any of the 1/12 scale kits of Formula 1 cars produced by Tamiya? Those kits were so detailed and the plastic was top-notch. I built 4 or 5 of them back in the early 80's and I thought those were the most fun kits I ever built. I always felt a little sad when I'd finish one.

 

[flapjack]

Thanks Nick. I totally appreciate how kids affect your spare time. I miss the model-building and since I grew up in the mid 70's, I really miss the awesome kits from that era.
Did you ever build any of the 1/12 scale kits of Formula 1 cars produced by Tamiya? Those kits were so detailed and the plastic was top-notch. I built 4 or 5 of them back in the early 80's and I thought those were the most fun kits I ever built. I always felt a little sad when I'd finish one.

Nick & Mark,

I envy your model building skills. I never had enough dexterity or patience to do an excellent job of building models. As for the Tamiya models, I have one but I won't build it. Perhaps when one of my younger nephews is old enough o have the skill to build one and will appreciate it, the kit will go to him.

What I recall fondly was what I now believe to be 1/12 kit from Revell. It was detailed enough to contain the hoses for the puke lines and fuel pump, maybe even the mag wires. I never finished that and it got lost when I moved from Kansas to Missouri may years ago...

 

[The Swegian]

Nick & Mark,

I envy your model building skills. I never had enough dexterity or patience to do an excellent job of building models. As for the Tamiya models, I have one but I won't build it. Perhaps when one of my younger nephews is old enough o have the skill to build one and will appreciate it, the kit will go to him.

What I recall fondly was what I now believe to be 1/12 kit from Revell. It was detailed enough to contain the hoses for the puke lines and fuel pump, maybe even the mag wires. I never finished that and it got lost when I moved from Kansas to Missouri may years ago...

Tom, thanks for the kind words. Nick, I don't know if you're old enough or lived in the Twin Cities long enough to remember this hobby store that was in Fridley called University Hobbies. In the mid 80's, my brother and I became pretty good friends with the guy that owned it and he was instrumental in getting us some cool stuff to enhance our model kits, things that nowadays is readily available with the internet. He got us stuff like plug wires, braided hose, etc. We used to have a pin vise and very small drill bit that we would drill holes in the engine so we could do fuel lines, plug wires, oil lines, brake lines, etc. Pretty detailed stuff for a 1/25 scale kit. Alas, I have none of those models anymore. I had given them to a young neighbor when I lost interest in them and dearly regret doing so now.

 

[FC138fan]

Mark, I grew up in Pittsburgh and only moved here in 1999. I've seen people build models where they went so far into that level of detail that you did that it just blew me away. The most creative thing I've ever done is what you see covering the blower of the Eddie Hill car (just a 1 inch piece of hockey tape). Everything I've ever done has been in the box.

I picked up model building from my dad. He built models when he was a kid. He was an AMT guy, so of course my first models to be built were all AMT (this was probably from when I was 7 till I was about 10 or 11). All the models I built then were glue only, no paint and took about 4 days to assemble. I got my first paint set when I turned 11, and that was a revolution in modeling, getting used to the fact that paint has to dry was difficult. It took me probably another 4 or 5 years till I got the hang of it, the models still looking crude. Around 1995 Drag Racing started to be on TV more so I got into it. Turns out Revell made the cool NHRA cars, so I started building Revell models. I think when I got to high school (I was and still am a nerd who spent most free time on nights and weekends at home) I started getting pretty good at it.

I have never build anything other then AMT or Revell, and 2 Monograms I guess that were bought for me as a gift. All cars were 1/24th scale too.

Patience and attention to detail are the two things I got out of growing up building these things. Those skills helped me through college and even today at my job as an engineer. Plus it brought me closer to my dad. I highly recommend this to your kid if you have one.

If I only had the money, I would go do this kinda stuff to real cars. My dad does that now, he went and bought a classic Pontiac and spends weekends now cleaning and detailing it, when he's not out with his car buddies at car cruises. What a life!

My last model I built was an AMT bought on ebay for $10. 1970 Coronet.

And now I gotta go because in the time it took me to write this that 18month old daughter has scattered junk all over the room.

 

[The Swegian]

Wow Nick, that Coronet is quite impressive. I have two teenage boys that have never expressed interest in models, mostly due to the fact that I haven't done anything with models in 12 years. However, this thread has rekindled some of the desire. A few years ago, Revell came out with a basic all-white 70's charger funny car that was the basis for the Chi-Town Hustler. I bought decals to make it into Tom Hoover's White Bear Dodge FC but just haven't taken the time to start working on it.

 

[FC138fan]

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. It would be tough getting teen-aged boys involved in modeling, the closer they get to 16 they probably will become more interested in girls and real cars. My dad introduced it to me by buying a working 1/8 scale "Visable V8" engine. We worked on it step by step and for whatever reason I kept it up. I remember my first model I did all alone, it was a total disaster - I finished it in one day and half the parts were missing. It just took time to develop the patience and manual dexterity to do it.

The desire to build those things comes and goes. From about 1999 thru 2007 I didn't build any models. One day for some reason I just thought it would be fun to get back into it. I was right, I built a couple models that were laying around and bought 5 or 6 more and built them. On my budget its the closest thing I can get to being a car collecter. I guess it felt good to be able to build a car however you wanted it, the only thing you can't do with it is drive it.

So get back into it if you have the time, it was just as fun the second time around as it was when I was a kid.