Revell

1/25 "California Wheels" 1966 Chevy El Camino 2 'n 1

Kit Number: 85-2045

Reviewed by  Joe Staudt, IPMS# 39453

MSRP: $16.95 Chevy's El Camino had a long run, with production beginning in 1959 and ending in the mid-1980's. Along the way it gained a lot of fans, and has also become a popular subject for model kits. Revell's 1966 El Camino kit has been released several times before. This time, as part of the "California Wheels" series, it comes with a set of modern, large-diameter custom wheels and tires, disc brakes (visible through the wheels), and some nice flame decals. Let's start with the basics. This kit is molded in the standard white plastic, with chrome, clear, and clear red parts as needed, plus two sets of tires: the aforementioned custom set, and a stock set. The stock wheel covers look quite nice, but the tires look a bit wide for a mid-60's vehicle. In addition, the name "Michelin" is engraved on the sidewalls: I highly doubt that any El Camino ever came with Michelins. The body is molded as a single piece except for the hood, and feels quite substantial and sturdy. Detail engraving is crisp, and mold parting lines and flash are minimal. No sink marks were evident on my sample. The windshield wipers and door handles are separate chrome pieces, as are the two-piece rear-view mirror, the lower body trim pieces, and the hood edge trim. All the insignias are provided as decals. The interior is built up on a platform, with separate door panels. The dashboard is a two-piece assembly. Decals are provided for the gauges, radio, and heater controls. The sun visors are molded into the windshield, and a chrome dome light is also provided. The engine goes together quite nicely, with separate pieces for the carburetor, starter, fuel pump, and even the fan clutch, among others. Decals were also provided for the air cleaner and right side valve cover. The only problem I had was with the fan: it doesn't attach to the fan belt and engine the way it shows in the instructions. The rest of the engine compartment is nicely detailed, with separate pieces for firewall details, the windshield washer bottle, steering shaft, radiator hoses, brake master cylinder, and heater hoses. The chassis is nicely detailed, with separate exhaust pipes and simple but effective front and rear suspension assemblies. It fits snugly into the body, and does a good job of pinning the interior in place. The decal sheet is quite nice. I have already mentioned the engine, dashboard, and exterior trim decals, as well as the flames. There are also three sets of license plates and emblems for the steering wheel hub and stock wheel centers. Also included are decals for the custom disc brake rotors that make it look like the rotors have been drilled out. They aren't too convincing at first, but when viewed through the wheel openings they serve the purpose pretty well, and with very little work. The decals are quite sturdy and a bit on the thick side, but they go on nicely. They didn't appear to be affected by the setting solution I used, but after it had tried I could tell that they had, in fact, snuggled down quite nicely. The only down side to the decals was a bit of red that was missing on one of the two rear fender insignias. All in all, everything goes together quite well in this kit. I had a little trouble getting the grill to stay in place long enough for the glue to set, and the engine fan problem I mentioned earlier. Also, when using the custom wheels and tires, be aware that each tire has a separate part number to indicate where it belongs on the car, and also the outer and inner wheels have faint but definite alignment tabs, and these tabs are different on the rear wheels than on the front. As I mentioned before, this kit is a re-release. The parts trees make it obvious that this kit has seen several variations over its lifetime, as there are numerous "extra" parts not mentioned in the instructions that are slightly different from the ones used. There are also two extra holes near the rear of the chassis that would probably be used by a set of exhaust pipes that exited out the rear of the car instead of just behind the back wheels; these exhaust pipes are nowhere to be found in this issue of the kit. At first glance, it looked like a few of the parts trees had quite a bit of flash, but the others appeared to be okay. As I started working on the kit, however, I discovered that almost every part had small amounts of flash all the way around - enough to be noticeable, but not enough to make it easy to remove. This kit is beginning to show its age, I think. Revell calls this kit a "2 in1", but I think that's stretching the definition a bit. The only optional parts are the wheels and tires and the decals. While I suppose a fancy paint job and a set of custom wheels may qualify as some peoples' definition of a custom car, it falls far short of mine. While I have bought multiple copies of numerous 2-in-1 kits in order to build both versions, there is nothing here that would temp me to do likewise. Given the limited building options, I decided to build this kit with the fancy wheels and the flame decals, since these are the newest parts of the kit. I thought I would try to make it a "custom car on a budget", with a nice paint job, custom wheels, and slightly updated interior color scheme. I chose Krylon metallic black for the body, sealing it with Future floor wax after the decals had been applied. I used light tan and black for the interior, with a brown wash to bring out the door panel details. I foiled the window moldings and truck bed trim, and then decided to also foil the raised ribs inside the truck bed to give it more of a custom look. For everything else I followed the paint suggestions in the instructions. Despite the flash problems, this kit goes together nicely. There are no serious flaws, and only a couple of minor disappointments, which any good modeler can deal with. All in all, it's not a bad kit. My thanks to Revell for providing this sample for review.

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