Revell 1/56 Sport Fishing Boat Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

It is a bit scary to realize that Revell is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Those of us who grew up on these fantastic kits were forever smitten with the modeling bug. I couldn't wait to get my allowance or earn some money cutting grass so I could venture down to the store and pick up a new subject.

In these early days of Revell, many of their kits were 'box scale' meaning that the kit was scaled to fit inside a standard sized retail box that was retailer friendly. Consequently, you'll see some really odd scales for these subjects, but in many cases, these are still the only kits available of these aircraft.

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, Revell released ten classic kits from its vast archives. This is one of those ten.

This is Revell's classic Sport Fishing Boat - a 42 foot Chris Craft equipped for Marlin fishing.

The kit itself is a classic. Produced in 1960, it is molded in white styrene and is presented on seven parts trees plus the two hull halves and main deck.

A sheet of acetate is provided to replicate the various windows around the main cabin and the bridge. The instructions have a set of templates for Venetian blinds and curtains to blank off the windows so you can't see inside the empty main cabin.

There is no interior in this kit. An AMS modeler could easily build up an interior for this boat from styrene sheet.

The exterior is nicely appointed, and has a bow platform, the classic aft-facing seat for working the captured Marlin, and a variety of pole mounts.

If you're not interested in fishing boats, Revell also released this kit sans the extra fishing parts as the 'Flying Bridge Cruiser' so you can simply build this model as a yacht.

The kit is designed as a full-hull presentation and includes a display stand.

I had heard that Revell was releasing some of its classics and the teasers in their 2006 catalog confirmed their upcoming release. On a recent trip on Hannant's website, I spotted that these kits were now available in the UK. Since these were coming out of Revell/Germany, I wondered if the number of these kits available would dwindle by the time they reached North America. According to my local hobby retailer, precious few of these kits did in fact make it across the pond, so if you see one on the shelf of your local shop, you might want to snag it before you see these join the ranks of the collectables on eBay.