Casadio/Revival 1/20 Grand Prix Kits - Pros & Cons

[Plastheniker]

Hi,

I am going to show some Casadio/Revival classic Grand Prix cars as corrected and superdetailed 1/20 models during the next months.
I built two models of each car, i. e. a first one as a superdetailed chassis and a second one as a complete racing car:

• 1907 Fiat F-2 130HP
• 1924 Bugatti 35
• 1937 Auto Union Typ C completed by the 1937 Streamline Avuswagen
• 1939 Mercedes-Benz W154 M163
• 1951 Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 Alfetta
• 1957 Maserati 250F
• 1961 Ferrari 156 Sharknose

Since most modelers are supposedly not familiar with those kits (I found only one OOB built model in this forum), some information might be useful. Instead of repeating the same remarks in each presentation I will simply include a link to this topic here.



A. The Manufacturer(s)

Roughly spoken the kits were released in the seventies originally by Casadio and later re-released by Casadio-Revival. Today the manufacturer is Revival International http://www.revivalin...e.php?pag=35952 . Residents of countries without importer can order directly. The price is approximately € 125,00 plus p&p per kit.
All statements in C. Pros and Cons refer to kits manufactured by Casadio-Revival in the nineties. In the meantime quality may have improved. If you are interested follow the link, view the manufacturer's photos, and judge yourself.


B. The Make Of The Kits

Chassis including drivetrain, coachwork and many further parts are made of cast metal. The rest is plastic, presumably ABS. If an original vehicle has spoke wheels the kit contains ready-made real wire wheels. The coachwork parts come already painted.
For a limited time (in the nineties?) there were considerably cheaper versions with unpainted plastic coachwork and simple plastic spoke wheels.
Many parts must be assembled with tiny screws, the rest has to be glued.


C. Most Important Pros and Cons

C.1. Cons

Authenticity and details of my kits varied extremly from rather good to really annoying. In any case a lot of correcting and detailing had to be done. I will give some relating information about each kit in my presentations. My average sacrifice of time for each pair was approximately between 1000 and 1300 hours.

Fit was generally mediocre to abysmal. Almost every part had to be reworked.

The manufacturer's paintwork of all coachworks was poor and had to be removed. Before the manufacturer's paintwork some of the coachwork parts had been deburred so thoroughly that complete edges of the painted parts were missing. Restoring these edges on metal parts is rather difficult.

The working of metal was very messy and required much more effort and time than plastic. Without that the use of metal for the coachworks makes absolutely no sense to me.

Tightening the tiny self-tapping screws a bit too much makes them break. In this case it is almost impossible to remove the broken screw from the boring.

Since metal bodies are not flexible (as plastic bodies are) they have to be fixed to the chassis in (at least) one upper and one lower half. Therefore a model built OOB would have shown striking gaps where the 1:1 vehicle has a smooth surface. It required some pondering to eliminate this problem.

Estimating the overall OOB quality of the a. m. kits by one star (very poor quality like the ex-Pyro Lindberg kits) to five stars ( excellent quality like Tamiya) would show this result:

1907 Fiat F-2 130HP * *
1924 Bugatti 35 *
1937 Auto Union Typ C * * *
1937 Auto Union Typ C Streamline Avuswagen *
1939 Mercedes-Benz W154 M163 *
1951 Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 Alfetta * *
1957 Maserati 250F * *
1961 Ferrari 156 Sharknose *

C.2. Pros

In the most popular scale 1/20 there are no alternate kits of Grand Prix cars older than the 1963 Lotus 25. Only MFH offers three or four outstanding kits of this (post-war) era, however rather pricey, often temporarily OOP and sometimes including generic(?) wheels of questionable dimensions.

The use of metal for the chassis gives enormous strength. Even such corrections and detailings are possible that plastic would never sustain.

The mostly enclosed real wire wheels are not perfect but superior to any plastic spoke wheel.

These kits offer the almost unique opportunity to display a fully detailed chassis without coachwork showing extremely different, interesting and comprehensible historic racing technology.

Presumably because building these kits is so difficult you see only few finished models (but an enormous number of unbuilt kits on ebay). A pair with and without coachwork, carefully built and displayed on a mirror, is an attraction that most likely none of your fellow-modellers has got.


D. Result

These are kits you can only hate or love.
Are you a most experienced modeller with strong nerves and a special interest in the classic era of GP/F1 racing, who is willing to spend a lot of effort and time? Build them and you will be delighted!
All others should really refrain.

I hope you will be interested in my upcoming presentations.

[F1-Fan]

Hi Jurgen,

Interesting subjects. I have seen those kits for sale but always wondered why I don't see them been build. Those race cars from the early half of the 20th century are a passion of mine and I always wished they would be available as plastic kits.

I will follow your w.i.p. with great interest.

Thanks for take our time and show your models.

Regards,

F1-fan