¹⁄24

1968 Volkswagen 1500 Beetle

Building idea

Although normally I am a military modeler with preference for soft skins, I also have a weak spot for classic European models. There is nothing special about that, of course. I also have a dear friend who owns a beautiful VW Beetle 2. I wanted to offer her a gift so I picked up this Revell model from 2013 (according to the stamp on the sprue). One may say that this is not a Beetle 2. No, it is not the same car but I didn’t want to gift her with a vehicle she already has. I wanted something different but in the same close circle. I have chosen the same color scheme of the real one: orange exterior, black leather and grey fabric interior, just to see how different would be the model and the original upon model’s completion. Also I wanted to break the monotony a little of military modeling (too much panzergrau), and a change of scale seemed welcome (1/35 to 1/24).

The kit

Boxing
Unlike other Revell productions, the VW 1500 comes in a rather cubic shaped box, to accommodate the one-piece body. The sprues are packed separately, also the clear parts and the vinyl tires are in sealed plastic bags.

Sprues
At the first look, I was more than happy because the plastic looked so crisp and of good quality. Upon closer inspection, I found some ugly sink marks next to the headlamps and a deformation on the floor board, both are awful positions to fix. The last one is actually interfering with the building process and has to be fixed in order to align the parts properly. Also the plastic used feels a little soapy and the vinyl tires have a consistency similar to uncured silicone. Besides, the ejection pin marks are quite obvious. There is no flash whatsoever and the chromed parts have a better finish than most of the other models I came across. The clear parts are of decent quality.

Decals
Decals are looking good and are provided generously for this model: It has even a decal that can be applied on the alternator belt to replicate a factory stamp! Personally, I’m not a big fan and I prefer to replace decals with paint jobs whenever possible.