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| Revell's '57 Country Squire kit was a real milestone in the model car world when it was first produced. It featured an amazing degree of detail for the time and was one of the first (if not the first) 1/25th scale model that included an opening hood and engine. Over the years it has become one of the real legendary kits, primarily because around 1959 Revell altered the original tooling to produce their custom '57 Ranchero kit. Because of that it became impossible for the kit to be reissued in its original form, which makes it extremely rare and valuable. To make matters worse, from a scale fidelity standpoint, the Ranchero kit was pretty awful. Full size Rancheros were two door vehicles, but in re-engineering the tooling, Revell simply eliminated the rear doors of the Squire, but didn't alter the front or the length of the Ranchero bed, which means that the whole thing is totally incorrect. These kits are very hard to come by; I was lucky to find a restorable one online. |
 4/4/02 - Here's what I started with. The kit had previously been assembled and needed help! Fortunately it was complete, down to the smallest parts. On the downside, it had been painted with some kind of paint that was incompatible with styrene, so the was light crazing over the whole body. Luckily, it wasn't severe enough to damage the delicate scripts and other details. |
 12/30/04 - The multiple piece body was typical of Revell kits of the period. I deviated from the normal construction and assembled the body. |
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 4/23/08 - I wanted to take some extra effort on the woodgrain for the sides to make it as authentic as possible. I searched online and found a photo of a full-size Squire. I imported that into my graphics program, added darker panel lines and printed the whole thing out on decal paper. |
 4/24/08 - I chose '57 Ford Inca Gold for the body. |
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 6/9/08 - Here's a test fit of the chassis/interior assembly, with the side panel decals in place and trim areas painted. |
