Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Revell 1960 Chevy (Refreshed Photos)


David G.

Recommended Posts

Like many people, I had online photos hosted by Photo Bucket and suffered disruptions when they... changed their policy.  Since that happened, I have been going back, as time allows, to refresh those images through various means. So, here is this topic with newly updated photos.

I started this kit back in 2011. When I opened it I found that the roof had been squished and twisted to one side. So i began having problems, literally, right out of the box. As I recall, it took several days to correct. I used scalding water to soften the plastic "A" pillars just enough to allow them to be moved into the proper position and held there and quenched in cool water to fix them into position. This process had to be repeated probably a couple of dozen times to gradually coax the plastic into recalling its rightful place in the universe.

 

60Chevy00.jpg.ed35aec2fd9d7257d81551b2a78fae8b.jpg

 

When Revell issued this kit they used the chassis from the 59 Chevy. One of the differences between the 1959 chassis and the 1960 chassis is that the 59 chassis has a spare tire well in the floor of the trunk behind the right rear wheel. The 1960 chassis does not.

60Chevy01.thumb.jpg.2ad172da6ef8bbac62b40e57fcb81999.jpg

 

I corrected this error by cutting the offending wheel well out of the chassis, and replacing it with a piece of flat styrene. I then used heavy aluminium foil to create an impression and copy the floor ribbing from the left side and glued it to the right side. Sorry for the old blurry photo.

60Chevy02.jpg.7d80f726eacb7f97ba4880981f08ed45.jpg

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look, and feel free to offer comments and critiques.

David G.

Edited by David G.
Refreshed Photos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahhh, the 1960 Chevy! IMO, this kit has the most accurate 1959-60 GM "Bubbletop" rooflines! I liked it so much that I swapped it in place of Revell's '59 Impala build I did a while back. 

So you can bet I'll be following this one to see what you do with it, and I like what I see so far! VERY good job on weathering the chassis! B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahhh, the 1960 Chevy! IMO, this kit has the most accurate 1959-60 GM "Bubbletop" rooflines! I liked it so much that I swapped it in place of Revell's '59 Impala build I did a while back. 

So you can bet I'll be following this one to see what you do with it, and I like what I see so far! VERY good job on weathering the chassis! B)

 

Thanks Bill, I love these big ol' bombers too, 

 Weathering seems to come naturally to me. Laying down good paint, now that's another matter altogether.

David G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm processing the dozens of photos I've taken over the course of this project. As I get more of them finished, I'll post them, so here's a couple more. 

 

The ride height on most model car kits end up being 2 to 6 scale inched too high.

60Chevy04.thumb.jpg.16217a6c12d915f5c17549f82042c996.jpg

 

This one is surprisingly accurate. No adjustments needed.

60Chevy03.thumb.jpg.78782e7786cd749c33f8bc0f4ba856e6.jpg

 

Except that now I'm having some trouble getting the chassis to tuck under the body with the assembled interior in place; it seems that the interior is too high in the front. My next plan is to pop the dashboard loose and see if I can re-mount it in a lower position to allow more room for fit.

Thanks for taking the time to look and feel free to comment and/or critique. I promise not to cry and stomp my feet :)

David G.

Edited by David G.
Refreshed Photos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

David, one very common problem with Revell's '59-'60 Chevy kits is that I believe they modeled the floorpan a bit too tall, allowing the floor to hang below the rockers a bit too much. I had this very issue with my '59 WIP, and I ended up grinding away at the floor with a Dremel Moto-Tool to get rid of the "hanging low" look. It's hard to tell in your pic because of the shadows, but I suspect that's the trouble you're having.

Not to hijack your thread, but here are a couple pics of what I had to do.......................

Before pic of the floor hanging too low.............

P2135532.JPG

..............and now after..............

P2275543.JPG

The hair raising part is that I had to grind at the floor AFTER it was all painted and detailed! :o

Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

David, one very common problem with Revell's '59-'60 Chevy kits is that I believe they modeled the floorpan a bit too tall, allowing the floor to hang below the rockers a bit too much. I had this very issue with my '59 WIP, and I ended up grinding away at the floor with a Dremel Moto-Tool to get rid of the "hanging low" look. It's hard to tell in your pic because of the shadows, but I suspect that's the trouble you're having.

Not to hijack your thread, but here are a couple pics of what I had to do.......................

Before pic of the floor hanging too low.............

P2135532.JPG

..............and now after..............

P2275543.JPG

The hair raising part is that I had to grind at the floor AFTER it was all painted and detailed! :o

Hope this helps!

 

Yeah Bill, that does seem to be the problem. Are you saying that I should see about removing material from the bottom of the floor platform and the top of the chassis plate. It looks to me that if I could settle the dash board lower into the interior it would allow the interior bucket to snuggle higher into the body.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions. 

I'll look into both options and consider a combination of the two.. or three.

Thanks for the tip, I'm glad to know that it wasn't likely an issue that I created.

Nice Impala BTW- they do look good in red, don't they?

David G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice work on this one, David!

Ride height looks good. Maybe it's the photo angle but it appears that the front axle is too far back. Is that a result of the fit issue you're having?

Also, the track width on this kit seems too wide.

Thanks John, I think the front axle issue is mostly due to camera angle and the body alignment, With the interior in place, there seems to be no issue with that. I hadn't noticed a track issue, but if there is one, I'm just going to live with it. :)

David G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yeah Bill, that does seem to be the problem. Are you saying that I should see about removing material from the bottom of the floor platform and the top of the chassis plate. It looks to me that if I could settle the dash board lower into the interior it would allow the interior bucket to snuggle higher into the body.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions. 

I'll look into both options and consider a combination of the two.. or three.

Thanks for the tip, I'm glad to know that it wasn't likely an issue that I created.

Nice Impala BTW- they do look good in red, don't they?

David G.

This is a bit tough to answer as I built mine very differently than the way you're doing yours. As far as the interior, I didn't use the interior bucket at all due to the opening doors. The tub would have made this area too shallow for the door jamb area, so I used only the driveshaft tunnel from the tub, and blended it in to the chassis floor. I guess you could say that I pretty much re-engineered the kit from bumper to bumper. If you'd like, you can go here as I have a TON of pics of when I was building it. You'll see how I did the interior for it.

I can tell you that this is not just a problem with this kit, there are some others that I can think of from Revell that sit too tall due to what I call "stacking" of the different parts of the kit. You've got the chassis floor for one that is more than likely out of scale thickness comparing it to the 1:1. Then throw in the interior tub, glass, and the whole car can end up sitting higher than it should. Real cars don't use tubs for their interiors, and it's something I wish Revell would get away from, and engineer their kits like AMT did during the '90's with their interiors being built on the flip side of the chassis floor--------just like a 1:1.

It's good that you can sort this out before you paint! Nothing's more frustrating to me than to get everything all built up, only to find out there's a severe fit issue at the end. It's one of the reasons that painting is the LAST thing I do before I get 'er all together.

And yes, indeed they DO look good in red! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a bit tough to answer as I built mine very differently than the way you're doing yours. As far as the interior, I didn't use the interior bucket at all due to the opening doors. The tub would have made this area too shallow for the door jamb area, so I used only the driveshaft tunnel from the tub, and blended it in to the chassis floor. I guess you could say that I pretty much re-engineered the kit from bumper to bumper. If you'd like, you can go here as I have a TON of pics of when I was building it. You'll see how I did the interior for it.

I can tell you that this is not just a problem with this kit, there are some others that I can think of from Revell that sit too tall due to what I call "stacking" of the different parts of the kit. You've got the chassis floor for one that is more than likely out of scale thickness comparing it to the 1:1. Then throw in the interior tub, glass, and the whole car can end up sitting higher than it should. Real cars don't use tubs for their interiors, and it's something I wish Revell would get away from, and engineer their kits like AMT did during the '90's with their interiors being built on the flip side of the chassis floor--------just like a 1:1.

It's good that you can sort this out before you paint! Nothing's more frustrating to me than to get everything all built up, only to find out there's a severe fit issue at the end. It's one of the reasons that painting is the LAST thing I do before I get 'er all together.

And yes, indeed they DO look good in red! :D

 

Thanks Bill, I'll have to try to keep this in mind for future Revell projects.

David G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Kevin. I like to think that weathering is one of the things I'm good at.

David G,

Well it looks good to me. Since the majority of any weathering I ever would attempt would be on the chassis area, and I don't particularly care about that area on most of my models, I doubt I'll ever try it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Time for another update. 

 

The interior fit issue is still "pending further investigation."  In the meantime...

I feel that a detailed dashboard is one of those little touches that, though many people may not notice directly, can have a strong over-all impact on the appearance on a model.

Using Tamiya Italian Red straight from the spray-can as the base color, I added detail by painting the gauges with silver enamel then added a thin black wash to bring out the engraved detail. The "Impala" trim bar on the right side I covered with Bare Metal Foil and brushed on some semi-gloss black. I then used a toothpick dipped in lacquer thinner to remove the paint from the letters.

60Chevy10.jpg.f72ce8cca1c20a8b4528b6f5041c5670.jpg

 

Time to add the Alclad-painted and detailed lower dash panels.

60Chevy11.jpg.c82d5d9ec0a8eb36945a56df58789edf.jpg

 

 

As always,thanks for taking the time to look and feel free to comment.

David G.

Edited by David G.
Refreshed Photos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Something is causing problems between Photobucket and the MCM Forum. I've been trying off and on throughout most of today to post a message with four photos and I can only get it to work with two, so here's the rest of the post.

OK, minor setback. The clamp (clothespin) slipped while I was setting it marring the chromey paint on the lower panel. I hope to be able to touch it up. At least I can take small comfort in the fact that once the kit is assembled, this area won't be highly visible.

60Chevy12.thumb.jpg.5c12de367b8d76d58e93c386dd792a77.jpg

 

I dry brushed some Alclad on to the lower dashboard pieces. Though it's not perfect, I think it'll pass inspection when assembled inside the car. I also added some clear acrylic to the gauges to simulate the face covers.

60Chevy12_1.thumb.jpg.0009d59fbf39b586ea5adf410668fa94.jpg

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and feel free to comment.

David G.

Edited by David G.
Refreshed Photos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On to the rest of the interior!

 

The seats are painted, the decals are placed and the floor is flocked. Time to start putting it all together.

60Chevy13.jpg.34c35225cf290668d24ca32367a9fa51.jpg

 

The door panels started with a base coat of white followed with an application of Bare Metal Foil for the bright trim. Then I masked the areas where the decals were to be applied so it would remain white to show the decals better. After painting with Tamiya Italian Red, I cleaned the paint from the foiled bright-work, flocked the lower carpeted portion of the door panels and applied the decals. The window cranks and arm rests are separate pieces that I painted and applied.

60Chevy14.jpg.0acf2e2bf72af0e621470390ddaacbdd.jpg

 

Preparing for assembly. The seats have been dull-coated to remove the high-gloss sheen.

60Chevy15.jpg.437ab025e757938514cd6907d4be61b6.jpg

 

The mostly assembled interior.

60Chevy16.thumb.jpg.5b7211d33be3968c0cc2004dc668eefd.jpg

 

In place and ready for test fitting.

60Chevy17.thumb.jpg.dec062d4092f617371ff4a4c36f4093e.jpg

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and feel free to comment.

David G.

Edited by David G.
Refreshed Photos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...