Great Ford van kit.
So here is a great re-pop of the original 77 Ford Cruising Van. This was molded in a metallic silver color, clear, and red plastic. It also came with a great chrome tree featuring the, what I believe, are the original hub caps to this year of truck/van. It also comes with 4 great pad printed tires and a very colorful decal sheet with 2 options of striping for this van. The instruction sheet is minimalistic and would be, I feel, pretty tough for a beginner modeler to follow with no number call outs. One nice thing about the instruction sheet is that it does list the factory colors for this year of van, if you don't want to build the cruising van. Build up was uneventful and required the usual clean up. My copy didn't have much flash to worry about and built pretty quick. I did build the motor and use it, but glued the hood down and treated it like a shelf model as there is not a lot of space under the hood. I suppose if one was so inclined, they could cut the doghouse, and doors open for added detail. The model was painted with rustoleum primer with Tamiya Chrome Silver, and Black for the base coat, and followed by rustoleum rattle can clear coat. The decals were applied with a lot of decal setting solution and solvent before the clear coat. The decals...are not for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. In my research, I found the paint option I chose on the brochure picture only, and couldn't find any factory example of the paint scheme I choose online. Every one I found online was like the box art. So I decided to challenge myself. To get those black panels on the side of the van, you need to cut out the pinstripe decal to make a mask and pray you got it right. After that the 3 colored stripe decals where next and really didn't like to be worked a whole lot. However, I did get it done but just not as good as I would have liked. After all the decal work, the clear was sprayed and some of the decals didn't react well to the clear. At this point I was just happy to have it done and didn't polish it like I normally do.
Pros to this kit are, 1. Pad printed tires and stock hub caps. 2. A fantastic model when finished. 3. One piece mirrors.
Cons of this kit are, 1. Decals not for the inexperienced. 2. A short shot passenger window. 3. Bottom of front window hitting dash and required extensive sanding in final stages.
I would recommend getting one of these for your stash. Even if you didn't want to build the cruising van, it builds into a great cargo/delivery machine.
Cool Van!
Nice overall kit to build with very little fit issues and minimal flash. Extra parts such as luggage rack and CB radio included. My issues stemmed from the decal sheet, several decals split or chipped when I was putting them on. I suppose they should be coated with some type decal sealer before use.