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VW Beetle 1968 'Limousine' 1:24 Revell kit


richellis

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VW Beetle 'Limousine' 1968

1:24 Revell model kit.


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The original VW Beetle is recognised the world over, it’s massive production run started in 1938 in Germany with the foundation of a ‘car for the people’ coming from Adolf Hitler. The Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche using a rear mounted flat 4 air cooled engine, production continued during the war years mainly as a military vehicle and also as a car for the Nazi elite. Following the end of the war the factory was passed in the care of the British Army and Major Ivan Hirst, who oversaw the restart of production by re-building the factory and machinery. Production in Germany ceased only to see the classic Beetle production moved to Mexico where its production continued at the VW Puebla Mexico plant until 2003. Over its 65 year production run over 21 million had been made any many continue to be seen on the roads with the Beetle being popular as a standard classic car or as a base car in a massive custom scene.
Revell have released a 1968 year model Beetle in 1:24. The ’68 model had the option of a bigger 1.5l air-cooled flat 4 engine, and the electrical system was up rated to 12 volts, from 6 volts meaning some changes in the electrical and charging systems. Other new features included a passenger side wing mirror, twin speed wipers, and a reversing light!
The kit comes in the standard flimsy Revell box and mine took a battering from the carrier that resulted in some damage to the Beetles body shell. All the sprues came in bags with the chrome and clear packaged separately to save damage to these parts.

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The distinctive Vee Dub shape is a single moulded part, it is nicely cast with the 4 wheel arches moulded in place, there are some mould lines that will need removing some on the rear arches above the lights, and on the front arches, next to the head lights. A careful swipe with a sanding stick will erase these leaving the nicely detailed shell, the shut lines on the doors look a good depth and width to look in scale, with the trim lines and rear engine vents adding to the detail.
The kit is spread over 9 sprues and they are all well done with crisp detail and there is no flash on the review kit.

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The kit has a nice chassis/ floor pan with good detail on the underside, painting this and adding some highlights will give this allot of life, the Beetle had independent suspension all round and this is reproduced faithfully in the parts, careful use of the glue will give your model working steering on the front axle. Inner wings are added to the floor pan along with the rear mounted air-cooled engine. Detail on the engine is nice, I wouldn’t say it’s the best engine I have seen but some care and research should give a nice lump and with the option of a working boot/ hood it would be nice to give the engine bay some life, some carful painting and some extras like HT leads and some wires from the spares box will help here,. I have shown some detail of the engine block parts below,

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The interior can be built as a module that slips inside the shell from the underside before the chassis is glued into place. The Beetle is quite simple inside but the level of detail on the parts is very good. Thank you Revell for the option of Left or Right hand drive and you will need to choose what side the wheel should be as many parts need placing accordingly. The dash, although simple, is well detailed and I have shown it below. Decals are provided for the clocks, and dials on the dashboard, they are very nicely done and can be seen lower down in the review. Also on the decal sheet is the period optional radio for the centre of the dashboard.

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Also included is the optional shelf that sits under the dash, giving extra storage inside the car. I’m sure that this was made from wicker, and the decals for this part show me to be correct! A clock fits to this, and the face is supplied as a decal.

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The shell needs its hood and boot adding, and as I said the rear engine lid can be made to hinge open and close, the front boot/ hood is glued shut and I would add these parts, and paint the shell before final assembly. The glazing can all be done from the outside so take care with the glue to avoid marking the glass. The clear sprue is bagged separately and has some extra parts not required for this version. The windows look thin and to scale with no flaws on the review sample.

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2 chrome sprues carry some of the bright work for the car, including the wheels that have the trims moulded as one part. I would prefer them to be separate as the wheel would be the body colour, and the cap chrome. I’m not sure the chrome is ‘right’ and a bit shiny for a road car so I will strip them and re-paint them.

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4 nice rubber tyres are included, with nice tread detail, there is no detail on the side walls, but there are some ‘white wall’ decals on the sheet for the tyres.

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There is a decal sheet and the majority of decals are registration/ licence plates from various European countries, and although the look good, I couldn’t comment on their period accuracy. The UK plates are a suffix G, and that is correct for a car registered between august 1968, to July 1969 in Luton.

Conclusion
A nice kit from Revell, will be popular with Vee Dub fans, and will be an ideal base for a standard build, or as a base for a custom model. Resto-Cal anyone?

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit logo-revell-2009.gif

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Other new features included a passenger side wing mirror, twin speed wipers, and a reversing light!

I laughed so hard at this, but only because it's so recognizable :D Our little Fiat 500 went through a similar process where each successive model (N, F, D, L) had extra bits and bobs, although it never got a reversing light :P

The Dutch registration 22-11-DM is not a plate that is (currently) registered, but it looks about right for an oldtimer plate.

Thanx for the review, I might put this on the "want" list, even though the Bug isn't really my thing.

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  • 4 months later...

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