Revival Models

[davidfield]

Hi All,

Browsing through ebay i've noticed quite a few Revival kits for sale. About 20 years ago i was determined to buy one of these kits but never got around to it.

There never seems to be threads or WIP's about revival kits on AF. Are they any good or not worth time, effort or money?

[daniel_k]

they are good, but make sure you buy the version with photoectched wheels, not those chunky plastic pieces.

daniel
-germany-

[CrateCruncher]

I've owned a few Revivals. Indeed there are two versions of these kits now: metal and plastic. The metal kits have most body and drivetrain parts cast from die-casting metal and include pre-assembled wire laced wheels. In addition there are quite a few metal machined items. The bodies of the metal kits are pre-painted in enamel but not very well. The plastic kits substitute injection molded plastic for most of these parts.

The metal kits are not all alike in terms of detail or difficulty either. Perhaps the best kits (and most difficult) are the Auto Union and Mercedes. The Bugatti could make a nice model also. Depending upon how picky you are there will be many parts that will have to be replaced with scratch-built items and the die-cast is very hard so expect to dull files, snap drill bits and so on.

A company called Casadio first developed these kits back in the '80s I believe. That company is long gone yet I hear from collectors that these first kits had even more content than the Revivals. Casadio's are pretty rare now.

If you must have an Auto Union V-16 (and who doesn't right?) then Revival are the only game in town. But the Ferrari Sharknose and Lancia D50 for example have since been released in a much better kit by MFH.

Just my $0.02.

[ferraripaul]

Have built some of them - including the Auto Unions and Mercedes. Got rid of everything unrelated to Ferrari and found some pictures of the cars I've built to give an impression:

Alfa P3 - http://guidomoritz.gu.funpic.de/copp...ls.php?album=1
Alfetta 158 - http://guidomoritz.gu.funpic.de/copp...ls.php?album=2
Lancia D50 - http://picasaweb.google.com/Ferrari0Paul/1956D50F1#
Ferrari 156F1 - http://picasaweb.google.com/Ferrari0Paul/1961156F1#

The last is the most extensive one, and please excuse the sometimes poor quality of the images. The real models are much better.

If you can get them, put some work into them and you will get very nice scale models.

Paul

[Matt2012]

Wish I'd seen these posts before I bought the 158 f1 with the clunky plastic wheels. Am about 1/2 way through building this, am having problems with step four. The instructions show screws from bag #2, but it is hard to identify which one goes where.

Suggestions & feedback gladly accepted & many thanks in return!

Matt

[grundski]

Revival is still around. Who knew. I found it the other day and today I found this post. Everybody here is pretty much dead on with their comments. I agree. I was fortunate enough to steer clear of the plastic wheel variety. Currently the only cars not available are the Streamliners. The price is quite a bit higher than originally and there are a few additions. I think they are at least. A couple of yellow Ferrari's. I'm not knowledgeable on their history or Ferrari's.

The only thing I don't like about the kits is the paint and metal. Most of the kit is metal which makes fiddling with it difficult. Its the only reason I haven't built one of my three yet.

I've been watching them on ebay and they tend to go for 130 bucks when the auction starts at 25 USD. Sellers that list them at 145 and up from the get go don't sell.

Enough rambling. Here's the link.

http://www.revivalinternational.com/

[roymattblack]

Take care with the 'guidomoritz' links....
My antivirus blocked both links immediately, warning me of a virus attack.

The other kits look pretty awesome though.

Roy.

[RonCla]

I had the Revival Shark nose Ferrari/Alfa 158 and Mercedes. All 3 started to show signs of the rather poorly applied factory paint jobs bubbling before being built

I stripped the paint only to find it was the metal that was bubbling. After sanding smooth and applying a 2 pack auto primer the metal was bubbling again within 18 months.

I've seen posts in some of the die cast forums of this condition which some refer to as ' die cast cancer '

Its my understanding that there is nothing that can be done about this issue so I sold them.

The metal that Revival uses is very hard and heavy compared to what MFH/ Studio27 uses.

I built the Revival Fiat F2 only to have the white tires distort and collapse over time

The only one I had any success with was this Casadio Auto Union which was from the original company

[RonCla]

Another thing I noticed is my MFH Ferrari Sharknose is noticeably smaller in size to Revivals' example even though both say they are to 1/20 scale.