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I recently bought an AMT Rescue Van model, but built it as a (more or less) stock van. Building it brought back lots of memories of back when vans were "the big thing". My parents had a couple over the years, both cargo vans purchased from my Dad's employer, and the later one Dad and I worked on together. I wasn't old enough to have a license yet, but sure enjoyed the time spent with him as we bought a bench seat from the wreckers and installed it at home- measuring, drilling holes in the floor and all. So, I decided to build another van. This time I started with the AMT Police Van, which is more or less the same kit apart from a few accessories. I'd never customized a model other than a few minor details, so I figured why not try a custom van 70s style. Or at least start out in that direction and see where we end up. I started by cutting the body into pieces (gasp!) and removing a section from the middle to make "shorty" van.

Here’s my latest project: The recent release of Revell’s custom Chevy van! I started off by stripping the chrome from the front fascia/grille, scribing the door gaps, gluing together all of the subassemblies and prepping them for primer. This build is going to be box stock with minimal engine and chassis detailing. Partly because there’s not much detail in these areas to begin with, but mostly because these 70s vans are all about the body, paint, and interior. So that’s where I’m going to focus my attention. I glued the hood shut to simplify the painting process and since you can’t really see the engine anyway. After stripping the chrome from the grille, I glued that in place along with the front air dam. I added some scrap sprue behind the air dam, in the corners to help reinforce the front end. Since the roof is removable, I glued the rear doors shut. The body is very flimsy if you don’t do this, plus it will help with my planned two tone paint job. The body will be painted Testors’ Purple-licious with Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf as the secondary tone. My plan is to do the “Stardust Express” graphics, so the top half will be purple and the bottom will be silver. I think I’ll do the fender flares in purple too to accentuate them. The interior is going to be various shades of gray, with the quilted vinyl wall panels and seats in metallic purple. Plus tons of brown wood grain. The bed spread will be orange to tie in with the orange in the graphics. The elephant in the room: this kit has two piece rubber tires. Everyone on this forum has been complaining about these since the kit was announced. In my experience, they’re not *that* bad 😂. I used Gorilla brand super glue and they seem to be holding together. There’s definitely a raised ridge at the seam, so I’ll try sanding them down. They definitely won’t win you an award, but they’re *fine* for a shelf model. I don’t have anything else that fits and I’m not interested in paying for aftermarket tires so they will have to do. Here’s everything in primer so far. I’m using Tamiya’s pink primer under the purple. It’s my first time using it so we'll see how it looks! Once everything cures, I’ll tape off the portions of the interior that will remain gray primer and hit the body and wall panels in pink. The body is definitely going to need some further work to blend the air dam, and the mold separation lines at the fenders and rear corners are pretty bad. Thanks for following along! Feel free to share any tips, suggestions or ideas!

Here’s my finished ‘76 Chevy van custom from Revell! I have a WIP posted under the Workbench if you’re interested. Built box stock with Testors Extreme Lacquer Purple-Licious on the body, with two coats of Wet Look clear and two coats of Pledge Floor Gloss. Interior is the same purple for the upholstery, and Tamiya gray primer and various acrylics for the details. This is a fun kit that goes together well!

Here are content pics of the 1/16 Revell Movin' Out "Big Rig" styled custom Chevy Van, released in 1977: https://modelkitreviews.proboards.com/thread/1627/revell-movin-out-styled-chevy All the requisite custom van touches are present in the van's interior, from the reel-to-reel tape deck, the wood paneling and spindle detail on the pass-through, and the diamond tufted interior panels. Outside, it's a little Peterbilt or Kenworth wannabe, with dual vertical exhaust stacks, air horns, exterior mounted air cleaners, and big-rig style grille and headlights. Yeah, it was a thing back then. 😁

Looks like the 1/25 Revell Chevy custom van is being reissued soon:

HI, Since i was a little kid in the seventies,when i was at 1:1 carshows with my dad i always liked the incredible custom vans. I have thought for many years that I would like to build a tribute to the typical style. Then it will be to cut out the doors of the van and then scratch build the interior. I've started, and realized that it was quite difficult to fit with what you want in the interior. Does anyone have an idea or pictures of interiors in a van model? Fred

Welcome to my first forum on this site. I've built a hand full of model kits in my 32 years of life, from cars to tie fighters and x-wings to vans, vans, and more vans. As an owner of my own custom van, I was thrilled to see the re-releases of the amt vantasy and the revell '77 chevy van, (have two in box). Trying to get them off ebay was getting old. Years ago, I built a custom model version of my real life van based on the 'custom chevy van', model as the platform and the 'brute force' model which was just kinda brutally ugly, I gave it all of the same accessories as my own. The mini me model was then built behind glass-plastic in the dash where the stock radio goes. You can see my whole blog in 'older posts' at pimpmyvan.blogspot.com I cracked open my vantasy kit and have been plugging away at it in the evenings. I havn't built a model in 4 or 5 years and even longer since before that so I didn't want to rush this one. The truth is that I've been really, really enjoying the build and it's been a great winter time thing to do here in the Yukon since it's been -40 and freezing. Having gone through my other van model, the '77 chevy van', I am using the plumbing van decals on my vantasy van and doing it up as an older, well loved contractor's van that is now for sale. There is plenty of surface rust on the underside of the van and some wear and tear generally all over it. I just recently learned of 'opening up your model' where you get the doors to open and decided that this 'old van' would be a great candidate to try it out on. So, this van has an opening driver's door, an opening hood, an opening rear passenger side door and a sliding side door. The hinges are not very suttle but I want to be able to see the inside of the van as I am putting some time in to it and it's interior. I'm also going to leave the engine cover off......it will likely be in the back of the van which I think is fitting as it is 'for sale'. Many old vans that are for sale have the engine cover off as people want to see what's under there in that ever so awkward location. ait for it....................................?..