*Revell 1951 Henry J Gasser*

[espo]

There are stories of the Sears Catalog being a cherished item in outhouses throughout rural America at one time. 

[TarheelRick]

4 hours ago, espo said:

There are stories of the Sears Catalog being a cherished item in outhouses throughout rural America at one time. 

Those are not necessarily stories.  I remember visiting my grandmother and thumbing through the "female unmentionables" section while taking care of business.  Once found a Spiegel catalog that my aunt had ordered on a whim; felt like I was unworthy to use that one. 

[Zippi]

Haha....I remember my grandparents had the top of the line outhouse that had 2 different size holes.  There was always a Sears and JC Whitney catalog on hand but we used this toilet paper that was rough as sandpaper.  

[Dave Darby]

On 12/20/2021 at 3:29 PM, tim boyd said:

John....sorry for the delay in responding.  Given that the model was built about 53 years ago and my sometimes-questionable memory, pretty sure those windows were cut from the yellow sheet in the Revell Thames kit that was issued about two years prior.   

Best...TIM l

Hi Tim. I had a Revell Henry J in the early mid 70s (molded in maroon) , and I recall mine having that same color of window tint. 

[tim boyd]

1 hour ago, Dave Darby said:

Hi Tim. I had a Revell Henry J in the early mid 70s (molded in maroon) , and I recall mine having that same color of window tint. 

Thanks Dave....and with the benefit of your jog to my memory, I think you are right that those windows came from the Henry J kit itself  (though it was the same material/color that was in the Thames panel kit).    Best....TIM 

[Brian Austin]

One could order complete houses through Sears.  The ultimate wood kit.  🙂

[espo]

13 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

One could order complete houses through Sears.  The ultimate wood kit.  🙂

Hi Brian, Just wanted to add something on the subject of a mail order house. There is a tourist attraction near here that is the remains of a Steam Ship that sank many years ago. A local family along with a friend dug this up and created a museum with to ship's cargo on display and photos of them unearthing the Steam Ship. Part of that cargo was at least one complete prefab house. The museum is just called The Steam Ship Arabia. Should you be a follower of the History Chanel on TV you may know of their Oak Island series. The brothers are going to have a new series that follows other treasure hunters' projects, and they are going to do a profile of The Steam Sip Arabia in one of the installments if that would be of interest.  

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Remember the football Saints version of the kit?  Why??? Or was Revell referring to other Saints? -RRR

 

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

On 12/21/2021 at 11:16 PM, Brian Austin said:

One could order complete houses through Sears.  The ultimate wood kit.  🙂

They were called a Craftsman Bungalow. I owned one in the Pac NW. Cool house built in 1918 that had lots of nice touches including amazing woodwork, built-in dining room hutch, leaded glass. I put a lot of sweat equity into that house. I bought it in 1985 for $45,000.00. Sold it in 1999 when the family grew (only had one bathroom). It's now worth over $625,000.00!!! -RRR

[1972coronet]

8 minutes ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Why??? Or was Revell referring to other Saints? -RRR

They were referring to the sainthood of those with enough patience to complete one of these ancient kits -- especially the iterations with two-piece tyres , and 100 cubic inches of chrome plating.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

3 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

They were referring to the sainthood of those with enough patience to complete one of these ancient kits -- especially the iterations with two-piece tyres , and 100 cubic inches of chrome plating.

Nice! Thanks for the laugh.... -RRR

[showrods]

3 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

They were referring to the sainthood of those with enough patience to complete one of these ancient kits -- especially the iterations with two-piece tyres , and 100 cubic inches of chrome plating.

Even if you completed the kit you were not a Saint - there was a lot of cursing and swearing whether you completed it or not LOL

[larman]

4 hours ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Remember the football Saints version of the kit?  Why??? Or was Revell referring to other Saints? -RRR

 

 

[larman]

The Saints was a Revell series of kits in the 1980's. A rehash of stuff they had for years with new decals and box art. It was the Henry J, their crappy '34 Ford roadster and '57 Ranchero. There may have been others. There was also a Street Demon series. That was the '41 Willys, '26 T sedan delivery, '56 Ford pick up and '53 Chevy panel, again there may have been others.....pretty much all lousy and unbuildable kits, especially for kids, but I do remember thinking some of them looked cool on the box.

[Robberbaron]

3 hours ago, larman said:

The Saints was a Revell series of kits in the 1980's. A rehash of stuff they had for years with new decals and box art. It was the Henry J, their crappy '34 Ford roadster and '57 Ranchero. There may have been others. There was also a Street Demon series. That was the '41 Willys, '26 T sedan delivery, '56 Ford pick up and '53 Chevy panel, again there may have been others.....pretty much all lousy and unbuildable kits, especially for kids, but I do remember thinking some of them looked cool on the box.

Ha!  I knew about both the Saints and Street Demon series of kits, but I never put it together that Revell was doing a yin-yang thing with the themes.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

This still begs the question, what was the "Saints" reference to? I always thought it had to do with the football team from N.O. I'm pretty sure we can rule out that it had anything to do with the early punk band The Saints, from Australia, as cool as that band is/was... -RRR

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by Rocking Rodney Rat

[GarryR]

"The Saints", as is of combined with a community title has been a popular name for car clubs. I always assumed that was the reference.

[Casey]

 

On 12/27/2021 at 8:21 PM, GarryR said:

"The Saints", as is of combined with a community title has been a popular name for car clubs. I always assumed that was the reference.

 

Yes, any car enthusiast picked up on that back in 1985 when Revell released a few kits under the "Saints", "Street Demons", and "Lightning Rods" sub-brands. Just another way of making old kits appears new and exciting to the general buying public.

 

Has anyone answered the earlier question regarding the quality of the plastic in this reissue?

Edited March 2, 2022 by Casey

[GarryR]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

Has anyone answered the earlier question regarding the quality of the plastic in this reissue?

Is there a specific test to evaluate the material quality?

To my eyes and touch, I find no difference between this kit and the recent '30 Ford Coupe. A thumbnail applied with some force did not dent an edge. It has very little flash. Unfortunately, the mold lines on the chrome are more pronounced. Hpiguy Chris didn't seem to have any problems with liquid glue, CA glue, or Rustoleum paint.

Edited December 28, 2021 by GarryR
Grammatical error

[Casey]

39 minutes ago, GarryR said:

Is there a specific test to evaluate the material quality?

Doubt it, but I recall the 2020 reissue of the 1/24 Chevy LUV seemed to be molded in a brittle(?) plastic which broke easily. Just a bit disappointing Peter asked a legit question about the kit, and couldn't get an answer:

On 12/18/2021 at 6:37 PM, showrods said:

How's the styrene quality in this version? 

 

[1972coronet]

2 hours ago, Casey said:

I recall the 2020 reissue of the 1/24 Chevy LUV seemed to be molded in a brittle(?) plastic which broke easily.

It would seem , unfortunately , that Revell's et al. kits which are moulded in the USA have that issue with the plastic. The Dodge Ramcharger seems to have similar issues ; I cannot attest to that specific kit. I do have the LUV , but didn't get far with it: the cab's rear section --a separate piece-- is ill-fitting ; the backlight doesn't want to fit very well. 

Back in the box it went.

[Casey]

1 hour ago, 1972coronet said:

It would seem , unfortunately , that Revell's et al. kits which are moulded in the USA have that issue with the plastic.

This release wasn't molded in the U.S., so I don't think that past issue applies here. Hopefully Garry's info answer's Peter question.

[showrods]

On 12/28/2021 at 2:10 PM, GarryR said:

Is there a specific test to evaluate the material quality?

To my eyes and touch, I find no difference between this kit and the recent '30 Ford Coupe. A thumbnail applied with some force did not dent an edge. It has very little flash. Unfortunately, the mold lines on the chrome are more pronounced. Hpiguy Chris didn't seem to have any problems with liquid glue, CA glue, or Rustoleum paint.

There's no specific test but it's exactly as you say - it's an eyes and touch test.

I don't know if anyone remembers but some time ago, a series of reissues, in particular showrods, were made with what seemed to be almost PVC like plastic.  It was awful.  You'd try and sand it and it started to melt.  It felt almost oily.

Casey mentioned brittleness.  These are the types of characteristics I'm looking out for - essentially, is the styrene of good quality or is it substandard?

Gary - I don't know what the '30 Ford Coupe plastic is like but I'll assume by your response that you find it pretty good.

Edited December 30, 2021 by showrods

[ChrisBcritter]

On 12/19/2021 at 5:39 AM, Mark said:

The wheels are supposed to represent Ansen Sprints, same wheel that Revell put in the early issue Anglia and Thames kits.  Those wheels did have larger center caps, and didn't look as good as other wheels of that era so they didn't sell that well. 

Do you mean Ansen Top Eliminators? Those were spoked; Sprints were slotted. Even then, Revell made the centers too large and flat:

(source: http://vintagewheelcatalogs.com/ansen/)

[alan barton]

On 12/20/2021 at 11:29 PM, tim boyd said:

Very nice detective work here, Robert.   

Although I can't locate my original release Henry J box art right now, my recollection is that it used the same wheels that first appeared in the Revell Anglia kit when that was first released in 1966.  I did locate my original issue Anglia box, and on the side panel it calls out "Ansen Apollo" wheels among the kit features.  And they do include lug nuts, albeit a little on the shallow side for depth.   The Revell wheels do not include the engraving onthe 1/1 scale hub covers, however, just a slightly domed, smooth surface.  

Here's a photo of those wheels.  

I always assumed those mags were Revell generics, not a specific 1/1 scale aftermarket offering, in spite of the box art claims.  Now, very cool to know what they are, after all.  TB 

You and me both!  I thought they were a misguided attempt at a Cragar S/S but turns out I was wrong!  Still might put Cragars on a proposed new build for 2022.

And yes, that first issue definitely had the small sheet of blue tinted acetate.  I got mine for my 13th birthday in 1970 and thought it was the coolest thing ever!

I need to dig out the SAE with your build in it so that I can get the details correct and do it justice this time around, over fifty years later! You wouldn't know the date of that issue by chance, Tim?

Cheers

Alan