Reviews : Revell-Monogram Kenworth W900 Dump Truck

First the good: the detail is AMAZING. The decal sheet is something I dream of when opening a new kit - the level of detail these add are incredible. The molded-in detail of many parts, including the interior - ESPECIALLY the dash! You can use decals, or if you have the patience (read stubbornness) you can paint it yourself. Decals are easy to work with; they're surprisingly robust - but don't go Magilla Gorilla on them.. Even the long hi-viz tape on the side of the bed was easy to put on. I had zero troubles with decals breaking or falling apart. Engine - a Cat 3408B!! A old school trucker's DREAM! And all the Cat decals!! Awesome!!! The body and bed detail are fantastic. The truck really comes out well!! Now, the bad: I had to clean up every single piece. EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. And the box says 265 pieces. (And there's only a half-dozen you don't use...) Mold lines were prominent everywhere, as are ejector pin marks and flashing. At least with my kit, I spent probably half of the build time scraping and sanding. This is why I can't give this kit 5 stars.. Some tips - 1) early on, while building the frame, you'll find you need to remove the sleeper mounts - this shows up after much of the frame is together. It'll be easier to do BEFORE assembling the frame. 2) air cleaner mounts - one would think it would be easier to put the mounts on the air cleaners before painting. One would be sorely mistaken. I fell victim to this error; the instructions are clear on this part.... The air cleaners and ducting just didn't line up quite right, causing several minor headaches. 3) the bed hoist - be sure and clean out the insides of the tubes ...... there's ejector thingies in them that won't allow the tubes to properly move. I also had issues with the paint jamming them - so I decided to display the truck with the bed down. All in all, it comes out to an incredible rendition of a classic W900A; it really would be a Level 5. I would recommend; just be aware that there's lots of tiny fiddly parts - and be prepared to do a LOT of scraping. Now I gotta go vacuum the Carpet Monster....

Great to see Revell producing more heavy-duty truck kits. This one goes together perfectly, with clearly marked mounting points for the parts - no guessing! The instructions are awesome. Almost reminds me of a Revell of Germany kit. The bed of the dump truck goes together perfectly and is very easy to keep square. I glued the entire bed together before painting with Tamiya thin which made for a very ridged structure. The only thing I did not glue in place was the tail gate in order to simplify painting the inside of the bed. The gate just snaps in place on a couple of pins so no worries about getting glue on the paint. I have found in some other kits that it's hard to mount the tilting hood to the frame and have it fit flush with the cab. No problems with this kit! The hood clears the highly detailed engine with no problem and sits flush with the front cowl of the cab. I did not use the stripe decals on the hood. Rather, I masked and painted them with no problem. The long decal that goes along the bottom of the bed as a reflective stripe is very easy to apply and did not rip or split when moving into place. Wish they would release more of these types of kits.