Revell Mercedes 1628s Truck 1:25

[richellis]

Revell Mercedes 1628s Truck 1:25

The Mercedes 1628s is a 22ton tractor unit manufactured between 1973 and 1988 and was a popular truck worldwide, the Revell kit is a day cab 2 axle tractor unit, with the Mercedes 280bhp V8 engine. The 1628 was available as a tractor or a rigid truck so there are lots of options to convert the base kit.

The kit comes over 4 main sprues cast in a light grey. Being an older kit there is some flash on the parts but nothing that needs more than a quick pass with a knife and a sanding stick. The parts are well done, and have some very nice detail on them. Construction kicks off with the multi part chassis, the 2 rails are joined with a large casting that has 4 cross members cast in place, take care when removing this from the sprue, and cleaning this up as it will help keep your chassis straight and true. 3 more cross members are also added before you can add the springs and the 2 axles to your chassis. Extra parts like the anti-roll bars and shock absorbers are also glued into place. The front axle is a fixed part so the wheels can’t be displaced turned without some work but it does give a stronger part.
The engine is made up from multiple parts and gives a well detailed engine block, of course you can add some wiring and pipes as the cab can be tilted to show it off. Looking at the instructions you should be able to build and paint the chassis and engine separately adding it late in the build.
The wheels look like nice casting, copying the real parts nicely, whereas other kits have a generic wheel, looking at the parts there is a hole in the rear hubs that may need filling but I will see when I build this shortly. There are 6 nice rubber tyres with good sidewall and tread details, some of the nicest truck tyres I have seen.

Once you have a rolling chassis you can move onto the cab, the interior is made from multiple parts and they are well detailed. Paining instructions are referenced back to the Revell paint codes with the colours being very 80’swith various browns over more modern greys. There are decals to give the checked effect on the seats and door cards. The truck is of course Left hand Drive but it would be a simple conversion to swap the parts over both in the cab and on the chassis.

The cab shell come as a single part and captures the shapes of the cab very well, with the various pressings and panel lines being in scale. There is again a little flash but nothing that will cause a headache to even the most novice modeller.

There is a clear sprue that includes most of the cab glazing, only missing the door windows but it wouldn’t take much to create these from some clear plastic sheet. Lenses are included for the lights and some clear red and orange will be needed, the lenses are detailed with engraved lined to separate the red and amber areas. Check you references for the exact layout as it could vary.

There is a decal sheet that contains the seat and door card pattern I mentioned earlier in the build, also included are a set of Mercedes cab stripes as applied in the factory and some model badges for the exterior of the cab. Some decals are also included for the clocks on the dashboard and they look well detailed. A variety of registration plates are also included, the UK ones give a late 1980, early 1981 vehicle that would fit with the era (a Leicester registered truck) the decals are as expected from Revell, well printed with good fine decals.

Conclusion
A welcome re-issue of an older Revell kit. It will be a popular kit as a basis for conversions. Lets hope Revell re-issue some more versions of this (Race Truck PLEASE!!!!!!!!)
A build review will follow shortly as I already have a build in mind!

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit