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Revell's New Midget Kits


mike 51

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I rarely buy small kits these days......but I will buy these! Chances are I'll eye ball 'em and never build them, but I'm really fond of the old roundy rounds.

If I live long enough I'd like to build one in 1/8th, Hmmmmmmmmm......a TDR Offy and I think the Madd Fabricator has a mold for a body stashed away somewhere.

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I went looking and found these on the other forum. I'm looking forward to these. May even drive down the price of the Etzel's resin kits. Nahhhh.

Mike

post-416-1278213094937_thumb.jpg

With over 600 Kurtis Midgets built (as complete cars, and in kit form--Kurtis-Kraft did make up all the chassis parts in kit form, in case you wanted to weld up your own) from late 1945 into the late 1950's, just about every Indianapolis driver from about 1950 until well into the early 70's drove one at some point in his career, and that includes at least two F1 World Champions (Jack Brabham and Mario Andretti -- legend has it that Phil Hill also drove one early in his racing career as well). Those cars dominated just about every Midget racing circuit in the US as well, coast-to-coast and border to border. The cars were bought, sold and traded for all those years, so a single car might have run under a dozen or more names, in that many color schemes & graphics.

It's little known now, but even Nascar, in their early years, had a Midget openwheel class, which supplemented their larger open wheel series (pretty much older Indy cars using factory stock engines), back in the early to mid 1950's.

A bit of searching into racing activities in your area (wherever you live) likely will turn up at least something about midget racing back in the day--in the racing-starved world postwar, midgets could be seen racing 5-nights a week in a lot of places, plus Saturday and Sunday events as well. From about 1947, until about 1961 or so, the runup to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race was "The Night Before The 500" midget racing event at "16th Street Speedway", which was right across 16th Street from the South Short Chute of IMS, in Speedway Indiana. It was not uncommon for drivers running each year's 500 to show up the night before, race Midgets, then grab a couple hours of sleep, run the 500 Mile race.

Midgets ran all over the Midwest, the East Coast, New England, even in the Far West, Southwest, the Rocky Mountain states, anywhere where there was a 1/4 mile race track. They even ran 1/8 milers indoors! Places like the Chicago Stadium (the show arena at the old Chicago Stockyards, where the Blackhawks used to play hockey!), State Fair Coliseums in places like Indianapolis, Columbus OH, Springfield IL, and in civic venues in Ft Wayne IN, St Louis MO, Des Moines, all in the winter (1/8 mile ovals and LOW rear end ratios). They ran on dirt, asphalt, even revivals in miniature of the legendary 1920's era wooden, or "board tracks". Back in those days, nearly every county seat town in the Midwest had at least a half mile dirt track, holdovers from the days when harness-racing (horses pulling lightweight 2-wheel sulkies) was big, every local horse breeder looking to raise the next Dan Patch (legendary Pacer from Oxford IN, all-time harness racing recordholder).

So, these kits really have potential, especially for racing fans wanting something beyond Nascar or drag racing. I can't wait!

Art

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The place you referred to as the Chicago Stadium actually was the International Amphitheater at 43rd and Halsted. The hawks played at Stadium on the west side.

You are right! My bad! The Ampitheater of course. Now, in case you wanna know who promoted the Midgets at Soldier Field: None other than Mr. Grancor himself (who also made a ton of speed equipment for the V8-60--Anthony (Andy) Granitelli!

Art

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Yeah, the regular-sized flattie would not have fit in one of those little cars. I'm really looking forward to have the V8-60 available in scale for the first time!

While the V-85 would fit, it would have needed bulges in the side panels to clear the wider block and heads. But, it's moot of course, as the limit for production-based engines (stock blocks) was 144cid. The Offy midget engine started out at 91.5cid in the late 30's, grew to 110cid by about 1950, later was allowed 120cid in the mid-late 60's.

Art

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  • 2 months later...

I was recently invited to take a sneak peak at the finished test shots of the new Revell Midget Series. As I understand it, the first of the two Midgets, the Edelbrock V8-60, goes into production within a few weeks, which means it could be here, I'm guessing, maybe mid November to early December. Here are my initial impresssions:

1. I expected this to be around a Skill 2 type of kit - a relatively quick and fun build, but setting no new standards for kit fidelity. To the contrary, my Revell sources had suggested it would be a very detailed, perhaps even challenging kit to build. Having looked over the parts trees, I now understand why they said this.

2. Perhaps the most surprising attribute of the kits is the scale fidelity. We are going to need to be very careful assembling these kits - the thin (and thus, highly accurate) sections of parts like the nerf bars, radius rods, etc., go beyond even the newly tooled parts in the '32 Five Window.

3. While the Offy and V860 kits share the majority of the parts, there are significant differences beyond the engines. The entire front sheet metal (grille insert, grille shell, hood, hood sides) are different as well.

3. Revell has apparently pulled out the stops on accuracy. Beyond the scale fidelity mentioned above, each kit will contain a photo-etched fret with hood retention belts, steering wheel arms, and a killer instrument cluster panel. These photo etched parts are comprised of chrome plating over a copper base and provide quite a distinctive finish as a result. In the Offy kit, there will apparently be both a tree of chrome plated parts and a tree of satin plated parts. Both the Midget and trailer tires appear newly tooled, and they are all hollow style castings. There are scale fuel lines for both the injectors on the Offy and the carbs on the V860.

4. These kits will be a treasure trove of kitbashing parts sources for those of us who like to build traditional hot rods and track style street rods. Between the first-ever V860 in 1/25th scale (that I know of) to the track style grille shells and hairpin radius rods alone, I can see these kits becoming the de-facto soure of hot rodding accessory parts. I can see buying ten of them just for that reason alone.

5. These kits will have what appears to be the most detailed trailer ever to be included in bi-scale kit. Even to the point of including restraining straps for the ramps when they are folded up, the parts here will become a "must" for adding detail to any trailer project you might be contemplating. Interestingly enough, and perhaps subtly hinting at Revell's ambitions for the kit, the trailer has a discreet support rod to be used when the Midget is on the trailer, because as with some of the best Model Airplane kits, without forward ballast it will tip the completed model rearward. As was reported previously, the trailer will include made-to-fit hitches for both Revell's '48 Ford Woody and '50 Ford F1 Pickup.

6. I have not seen the decals, but I am told that in addition to having decals for the Midgets, each kit will also include matching "tow vehicles" decals, sized to fit the kits noted above.

That's about the extent of what I can remember; if I think of anything else I will post it here as an update.

Bottom line, I think Revell is trying to make a statement here. I see virtually no short cuts with this Revell model; in fact, quite the opposite (the only thing I see that might be criticized is that the V860 engine block casting, if I recall correctly, includes the oil pan, rather than casting the oil as a seperate part, thus requiring the file and sand treatment along the joints). Revell is clearly pushing the envelope of 1/25th scale kit fidelity here, and I'm guessing that their product development team really enjoyed doing so, to boot.

Of course, as I always remind myself, you can't properly evaluate a kit until it's built. But based on what I've seen so far, I do know that these kits just jumped into the very top tier of my personal "What's Next" build list.

Thanks for looking and best regards....TIM BOYD

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2 questions..... do they use a quick change style rear end??

How high of a price tag for all those goodies??:o

Mike...yes they use a Quick Change. IIRC, it is multi-piece in construction (two sides and an end plate), nicely engraved, and may be on the Satin Plated chrome tree.

I don't have any idea of the price at this point. TIM

Edited by tim boyd
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Tim,

Thanks for passing the information along. This is such a shot in the arm for the hobby! I think Revell finally 'gets it' when it comes to subject matter. I found some great shots of the Edelbrock midget here:

http://public.fotki.com/wackydave/car_museums/vics-garage/

Makes me think Revell may have copied this trailer and car for the model! Clear the bench!

Jim Kampmann

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Revell's saying November for the Edelbrock version and December for the Offy, which means the RPP retailers should get them mid-month then reaching full distribution by the end of the month. Revell's been pretty good with staying on schedule, more kits have been bumped up a month this year than kits that were delayed.

I can't wait for these little boogers! Making the hitch to fit specific kits is a great idea!

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