Revell Hemi - Hydro

[Hi-Po]

When I am not building cars or aircraft, I tend to stray into other areas of the hobby.  Case in point is this Revell Hemi-Hydro speed boat.  I build this a couple of years back after buying an estate collection.  The kit was complete minus the trailer.  Not wanting to scratch build a trailer, I decided to mount it on a pedestal.  The benefit of this is that the work that I did under the boat is now plainly visible.  Some of the modifications that I did to the kit include:  scratch building a cover for the V-drive, angled the mountings for the gauges, added moldings around the seats, open storage area in dash and made new header pipes using solder and plastic tube.  The headers were chromed using Alclad ll as were the valve covers, fuel tank and other items.  The motor has been detailed with spark plug wires, fuel lines, alternator, oil line, coolant tank and lines and heat exchanger.  I also scratch built the skag, prop shaft and mounting, along with the adjusters for the cavitation plate at the rear of the boat.  I even built a "floatie" for the key chain.  Look to the left of the steering wheel and you will see it.  

The boat was painted using Model Masters paint.  I don't remember the exact color names other than one was a purple and the other was an orange.  A reference to the colors is in the boats name, " NEHI", as in NEHI soda.  The "bubbles" are yellow decals that I cut from a solid sheet of decal paper.  Yes, that is a lot of bubbles, 127 to be exact.  I then added 3-D effects to the bubbles using acrylic paints.  The orange stripe was made using orange decal paper.  The model was then clear coated using MM clear from the spray can.

Enjoy the photos.

 

[fordlover632]

I like your build i made one to I planing to make another one for a chevy step side that I I'm making right now

[BigTallDad]

Nice work! Too bad about the trailer.

I have a silly question: shouldn't the steering wheel be on the right hand side of the boat? I can't recall ever seeing the wheel on the left side (maybe it's that way in England).

[unclescott58]

Very nice ?. I like it. 

[High octane]

Very nice build on that flat bottomed boat as it's not a hydro. Like your color choices as well.

[cobraman]

That is wild ! I like it.

[Hi-Po]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

 To BigTallDad, in regards to the steering wheel, I have seen boats steered from either the left or right side.  I am not sure if that has something to do with the manufacture or not.  Anyway, the kit came with left side steering and I just left it that way.

[afx]

Very nice work Terry.

[Gramps46]

I am impressed with your work.

[shoopdog]

Very impressive build, I really like your display stand as I've always thought the trailer was somewhat goofy looking.

Great detailing and paint!

[crazyjim]

Very nice. I really like the way you covered the V drive unit.

[Snake45]

Absolutely fantastic work! You are making me want to dig mine out and go to work on it. 

Is the "flying" stand in the kit, or is that left over from an airplane model? 

[peteski]

That stand (except for the holes in the vertical part) looks just like the stands included with model airliners made by VEB Plasticart (East German model company) back in the '70s.  Growing up in Poland at that time I've build bunch of those.

[Tom Louis]

cool!

[Hi-Po]

The stand is left over from some long ago and forgotten airplane kit.  All I did was drill some holes in the vertical part and then added lead shot to the underneath of the base, which I then covered with sheet styrene.  I did this to prevent the model from tipping over.  Thanks again for all of the nice comments.

[peteski]

On 8/24/2018 at 4:43 PM, Hi-Po said:

The stand is left over from some long ago and forgotten airplane kit.  All I did was drill some holes in the vertical part and then added lead shot to the underneath of the base, which I then covered with sheet styrene.  I did this to prevent the model from tipping over.  Thanks again for all of the nice comments.

So it likely is from one of those old East German airplane kits.  The boat does look great!

Edited August 27, 2018 by peteski

[ChrisR]

Very nice!!

[spike morelli]

Absolutely one of the best jobs I've seen on this kit.  To answer the OP's question, yes, the steering wheel IS on the correct side for a traditional inboard flatbottom ( although some owners have put the wheel on the right....why. I don't know ).  The kit is called "Hemi Hydro" in reference to a Hemi in water,....not that the hull is a Hydro ( hydroplane ). The kit's name has always struck me as wrong. It is a re-boxing of an earlier offering which, I think anyway, they should have left the box art as-is.

[spike morelli]

Although...…...Revell was considering new box art before the last re-issue,...then they decided not to go ahead with it. New decals were also part of the proposal. Here is what was proposed. Nice.

[peteski]

Um, the unreleased artwork looks a bit cheesy. Looks like a mix of Photoshop copied/pasted graphics, not done very well.  Looks like some of the early Model King boxarts. Is that a Jairus signature there?  His work is usually top-notch.  Unless this is just a concept rendering?

[spike morelli]

Yes, that is Jairus' signature.  It is probably a concept rendering, and not a finished deal, but I like where he took it. Jairus posted this concept on a boating website where we were talking about scale boat kits, and he posted that Revell was considering new box art....this being something he was working on. Still, to my tastes, I think the "Varooom" and "Miss Behavin" box art hits home better than the "Hemi Hydro" illustration.

[peteski]

49 minutes ago, spike morelli said:

 Still, to my tastes, I think the "Varooom" and "Miss Behavin" box art hits home better than the "Hemi Hydro" illustration.

With that I agree.

[John Verkerk]

SURBERB!!! BUILD!! Nice touch on the details!!!

[Mike C]

You did a really nice job on that!