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Revell's 1/25 '65 Chevy Stepside Pickup

 

By Al Superczynski

 

History

Vintage pickup trucks are more popular than ever these days as auto enthusiasts everywhere are rediscovering their appeal. Tired old farm trucks and forgotten workhorses that were let to rot behind the barn or garage are now being rescued and lovingly restored, or even customized. It's not hard to see why - pickup trucks went through styling changes very similar to their passenger car brethren over the years and now those old trucks have nostalgia value in addition to their utility. In short, they're great for work AND great for play. With a '65 Chevy Stepside pickup like this one, you've got a vehicle that will stand out at any car show and attract plenty of attention on cruise night, but can still carry that engine block back from the machine shop or haul the latest load of used parts back from the junkyard or swap meet.

The Kit

This kit was first released in a set containing a sport boat and trailer, and is identical to that issue except for the decals. One hundred and twenty-one (121) crisp flash-free parts greet the modeler upon opening the box. There are five bagged sprues molded in white, along with the usual plated, clear, and clear red parts. Also included are five vinyl tires with separate press-in white wall inserts - I especially appreciate having a spare that's identical to the rest of the tires instead of a plastic part that would be difficult to make look the same as the others, or worse yet, a spare molded on to the chassis.

The clear tree contains the windows and headlight lenses but is packed loose in the box. Luckily, mine are only slightly scuffed. The "chrome" parts are shiny and smooth but are also packed loose in the box. Mine are in perfect condition despite this.

The decal sheet is the only really new thing about this kit and includes a few underhood details along with a pair of Ohio license plates that correctly show the difference between the front and rear tags.

The instructions are presented in nine clear steps. Typically, these use the usual international symbols rather than text, but the parts are named! A welcome return of a feature that used to be common in Monogram and Revell kits.

Revell gives this kit a '2' skill level which should be well within the capabilities of a beginning modeler. I recommend that this kit be built quickly since it, like all other current R-M kits, is packaged in the new style one piece box. This doesn't provide much protection to the contents nor does it lend itself to stacking very well - in fact mine virtually collapsed once I removed the shrink wrap. That said, the simulated pavement on the box bottom is a nice little bonus

Thanks to Revell-Monogram for the review sample.




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