1. What yo will find in this section
I will review REVELL kits here in the following groups:
- Kits issued in the 50´s , known to collectors as "S" or "pre S" kits.
I will give references to their reissues of the 60´s with a change in boxart and their SSP reissues of the mid nineties. The kits will be listed as they appear in the 1959 catalog from REVELL Germany because of its great importance for me in my early modelling days (see What REVELL means means to me, below). Besides aircraft you will find here missiles, too . I will review much more ships than I will do from any other brand, where I only will list the few I remember. And as I have explained here I will have a look at cars"with fins", too , exclusively from Revell.
In forthcoming sections I will review
- 60´s Reissues of the above mentioned 50´s kits.
Regardless of the references I give in the 50´s section I will list them here seperately and will arrange them via the catalog numbers. This is justified, following the scheme adopted above and due to the multitude of reissues from REVELL always being assigned new numbers.
- All kits from the new series of constant 1:72 scale fighters of WW2 and WW1 from the 60´s .
- A personal selection of some other aircraft kits released new from 1960-1969.
2. What REVELL kits mean to me
As you see in the inroduction, my Nostalgic Look at Plastic Kits from the 50´s and 60´s does embrace a lot of different brands. All these kits from different manufacturers have a positive meaning for me and are arousing fond memories. I´m glad to be able to hold in my hands again AIRFIX´s Superfreighter, Belvedere, Anson, Heron ,Friendship and Sunderland, FROG´s Oxford, Master, Rapide and Beaver , AURORA´s Catalina, X-18 and F4-B, Linberg´s Hustler, Crusader and Hunter. But If I had to decide for only one favorite maufacturer of plastic kits, it think it would choose REVELL.
This is certainly due the 1959 catalog of REVELL Germany which I had in my youth. Browsing this catalogue ever and ever again has been one of the key experiences shaping my interest in aviation.
I did not have much kits from this catalog, the XSL-01 manned spaceship, the Nautilus submarine , the USS Essex aircraft carrier and the Bounty historical ship. Not even a plane !
The only aircraft from REVELL that I built in the second phase of modlleing , were the Sikorsky HOAS-1 Helicopter , the Bell X-5 and the Bell P-39 Airacobra Racer all issued in the early sixties.
So, it is mainly the 1959 catalog from REVELL Germany and to a certain extend the US equivalent 1958-59 which I can list here under the motto I remember.
In the German 1959 catalog the kits were arranged in a consistent list format , depicted with a black & white drawing and with a comprehensive description. It was my first type reference and together with the SIKU aircraft models and some books this catalogue had a strong influence on my aviation hobby as a youth and layed the foundations of becoming a fanatic aircraft type collector.
Pictures and text were highly stimulating for my imagination. Though the texts generally seem rather inaccurate and naive from my present level of knowledge they convey a typical atmosphere of how technology has been described and seen in the 50´s. Highly "collectible" for me. It feels sweet like sugar reading and remembering sentences like :
"Its wing edges are so sharp they must be covered with felt to protect ground crews while they work" speaking of the Lockeed F-104 Starfighter H-251 ( version with tip tanks, original text from REVELL USA 1958-59 catalog).
or
"The first ship model to feature outside stabilizers" (speaking of the Moore_McCormack S.S. Brazil, H-346, REVELL USA 1958-59 catalog)
It is significant in this respect that the majority of REVELL´s aircraft kits issued in the 1950´s present real world aircraft and missiles of the same period. Of 35 l aircraft kits offered in the1958-59 USA catalogue , only two are of the WW 1 aera, and four of the WW 2 aera.
What makes collecting REVELL kits so special for me is that I now get step by step all the kits I only have known from this catalog. The imaginative black&white drawings transform into superb boxarts in glossy color............
