"Unchopping" the Revell 49 merc

[Mr. Metallic]

Thought I'd bump this since I stumbled across it today. Below is the link to it. I've been "searching" for this post for a long time(by searching I mean sitting wondering if it was really worth the effort to search for it since I had no idea who the OP was, and searching for chopped 49 Merc was probably going to turn up tons of posts)

So, now I've bookmarked it so I can repeat Matt's "unchopping" procedure and actually build one of these. I've accumulated quite a few of these in the 10+ years since it was released, simply for the treasure trove of parts they hold, but never actually built one

Would still love to locate one of those beautifully done resin wagons that are based on this tooling. Here's one built by Tom Kren. Anyone have one they would part with???

 

 

[Sledsel]

Fixing the roof on that is the least of the issues. I ended up cutting out the 1/4 windows from the body of my kit and tossing the rest of the body in the trash.

The immediate issues with the kit are: the squashed looking roof. Not only is the chop pitched wrong, but the roof itself is too flat side to side and front to back. Speaking of flat, the sides are horrible. From the body line that lines up with the top of the fender down, the kits body is flat, where it should have a roof all the way down an the rocker rolls under the car and not squared off.

Then there is the windshield, The shape is off a bit (too square) and it is also too flat. The "V" in the middle should be more defined. This affects the cowl and hood and would be a pain to fix.

This brings me to the body line on the body, too sharp and where it blends to the hood is way off. The rest of the hood is not so great either.

My fix? Get an AMT body and chop it yourself and use the rear quarter windows from the Revell body. You can use the Revell grills interior and frame that all fit very well.  (Scale on both is good, the Revell parts fit with very very minor work)

I was so excited to see this when it came out, and was so disappointed when I opened the box. Otherwise I would have been buying by the case.

Edited January 11, 2018 by Sledsel