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Manufacturer: R&R Vacuum Craft Model: 1967 Ford Galaxie Wagon Material: Hand Poured Resin Number of pieces: 9 Kit Type: Conversion Kit
I grew up in the small central NY village of Liverpool. (it's bigger now but back then it was small.) My child hood was right out of "Leave it To Beaver". My Pop went to work, my Mom stayed home. and baked homemade bread and cookies. We had a large back yard with apple and pear trees, and a big double-decker tree fort. My brothers and I spent our summer days riding our bikes around the neighborhood, and our winters sledding down snow covered hills. In this suburban heaven every driveway had a station wagon. Ours had the coolest one. Some may argue that an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser was the sportiest, or a 1957 nomad was the most stylish, but to me The car we had in the driveway for the first 1/4 of my life puts them all to shame. Now I don't believe that just any 1967 Ford Galaxie Wagon is that cool, But ours was a Candy Apple Red with red interior Country Squire Wagon. (no wood paneling) powered by a 390 4bbl big block V8 with a limited slip 9" rear end. The car was a special order that was never picked up. My Pop bought it because my mom liked red and the dealer gave him a great price to move it off the lot. Because I grew up with this car I know this particular model like the back of my hand, Thus I will be pointing out many flaws in this kit. This is not to say it is a bad kit, quite on the contrary the parts fit together well and if you are looking for a simple first resin conversion this would be an excellent one to start with. But if like me you are wanting to build an accurate replica of the full size car there are some changes you will have to make. Follow along the review and decide what flaws you can or cannot live with. Body: This is the best and the worst part about this kit. Best, because the basic dimensions are so correct, but also worst, because the things that need correcting aren't the easiest to fix for a beginner. First, the good news. The casting is smooth there were no air bubbles or other major imperfections that we have all come to expect in hand cast resin models. The body is thin, and comes with almost all flash removed. (the flash was left in the vent widow to protect the window post I would assume.) Now for the bad news...
As you can see in these photos the beltline of
the body slopes down toward the rear to end at the bottom of the taillights. On
the full size prototype, you can see it is supposed to terminate closer to the
middle of the taillight. Also note that the rear door handle is not level with
the front handle. Also note that the rear fender line is not symmetrical on both
sides of the body. (the passenger side is closest to being correct.) If not for
the door handle issue I probably wouldn't have noticed it but it is there none
the less. fixing
Now I'm not one to pick a model apart with out
suggesting solutions on how to fix it. The door handles are an easy fix. these
protrude enough that simply sawing them off with a razor saw, and reattaching
them in the correct location would be easy. Painting them with Alclad chrome
paint and reattaching them after the model is painted and assembled would really
make it look nice. Another option would be to remove them and replace them with
the separate door handles from the Revell 1964 Ford Thunder Bolt kit would look
even better. Depending on how you wish to build this it would also offer other
parts such as a very detailed FE big block motor 9" rear end and correct steel
wheels. You would have to use two T-bolt kits to get enough handles but if you
like building street machines you could build one of the T-bolts with shaved
door handles ala Foose. We now move on to the rear of the car and the
tailgate. Next, we will move on to the window trim.
Here we have good news. There is none. Why is the fact that the window trim is
missing good news? Simple. If it was there and done poorly, we would have to
spend hours removing it and re-doing it, but in this case it is a simple matter
of re-creating it in Evergreen strip. In a perfect world the trim would be
present and accurate. In this case though I'm happy with what is there. The
Country Squire emblem for the rear fender is not present, and there is currently
no easy fix for that. Short of Kieth Marks doing some Decals, Model Car Garage
doing a Photo etch set for it, you are basically on your own. All in all I'm very pleased with the look of the body and even unmodified this would be a decent looking shelf model. If you wish to complete a model of an wood trimmed version Chimneyville Hobbies offers wood grain decals that combined with evergreen strip would make short work of this. If you do choose to do the wood on yours, I would strongly suggest doing the door handle fix, as the addition of the panels would make the flaw that much more noticeable. Chrome Trim:
There isn't much to say here other than, Bravo Belisimo! The Chrome is shiny, smooth with no visible flaws. If you didn't know better you would swear that these were kit parts. The rear bumper even has the correct indention at the top where the tailgate lowers. The only Flaw i see is the "XL" emblem on the grill which wouldn't have been on a wagon. to me it's not significant enough to change, but is incorrect none the less. The wheel covers are not included in this kit, but are available in resin from The Modelhaus Interior:
I can vouch for the accuracy of the dashboard in this kit. Having spent many an hour sitting behind one I can attest that it is correct in every detail. My sample was flawlessly cast. One interior detail that is lacking is the
steering wheel, but is available in resin from
The Modelhaus
Properly detailed and painted this could be a very impressive looking assembly.
The interior tub's most notable flaw is in it's rear
cargo area. The interior should have side panels that go from the back of the
rear seat to the tailgate, as high as the bottom of the side windows and as wide
as the fender wells. These
The rear seat is cast as part of the tub and is cast solid. The separate front seat is also cast solid. This made for an impressive weight even in it's unassembled form. I can only imagine how solid this model will feel when in it's assembled form. The seat pattern is correct for the upscale interior in these reference photos but will be incorrect for my build. (our wagon came with the base level trim package) The door panels also match the reference photos. When assembled and correctly painted the interior should be quite convincing and help complete the look of the model. The windshield is provided in a crystal clear thinly vacu-formed piece. The side and rear windows aren't provided but are easily made from clear sheet plastic.
Chassis: As you can see above the chassis provided is a simple curbside chassis. It represents a sedan chassis and not a wagon. The wagon had a spare tire well beside the passenger side frame rail directly behind the rear fender. I'm not positive about the availability of dual exhaust on wagons, but ours even with the 390 4bbl didn't have it. As it was though, because of aerodynamics the exhaust had to exit just behind the rear wheel, making these rear exit pipes inaccurate anyhow. A proper chassis could be completed with the chassis from the AMT 66 Ford Galaxie, which is currently available. Summery: Every thing that wasn't mentioned here so far, the engine, wheels, tires, steering wheel, are all up to the builder to supply. If you don't currently have a well stocked parts box, this project could easily cost upward of $100.00 to build after paint, glue, and donor kits. But if you are a long time builder there is a fair chance that you already have everything you need to build a show quality model out of this kit. a decent shelf kit could be built with this and the AMT 66 Galaxie alone. While not for everyone, if you just have to have a 1967 Ford Station wagon this kit is the only game in town. this simply illustrates how the resin aftermarket really expands the choices for modelers. This is a subject that the mainstream kit makers wouldn't touch. I ordered my sample through Steve Kohler of Star Models. Over the years I've heard horror stories of people getting the runaround by resin dealers in the past. This was not the case here. I emailed Steve to verify that the item I wanted was in stock, emailed the payment (Star Models accepts PayPal which means you ditch a few models on ebay to fund your purchase if need be) and less than five business days later it was in my hot little hands. Rating: ***
__________________________________ Rating Guide * = Poor. ** = Acceptable. *** = Good. **** = Awesome! ***** = Near Perfect!! |
According to what is cast on the inside of the of the body, this model has been
available since 1994, yet I didn't know it existed. Had I known I would have
bought one in an instant.
the
belt line trim would make this flaw less noticeable too.
I will be going the T-Bolt route myself because I have a couple that I've
already relieved of some major parts, But considering the $48.00 price tag on
this kit, nobody would blame you if you chose not to invest in two brand new
kits just to acquire 4 door handles. 
while it is hard to see on the light tan of the resin, the tailgate is lacking
the drivers side hinge for the sideways opening tailgate. You see, the 1967
Galaxie wagons had a dual action tailgate. It could either open downward in
similar fashion to other wagons, but it could also open to the side. This
allowed easy ingress and egress from the optional side facing jump seats. (Our
car did not have this option as I suspect our wagon was ordered with Super stock
Drag racing in mid.) A small piece of sprue filed to shape or some Evergreen
plastic stock. The hinge on these cars were chrome in every case, so if you
mount it before painting don't forget to chrome it later with either alclad, or
The front clip. which I assume is a direct copy of the AMT 1967 Ford Galaxie
Hardtop, includes a Hood that fits very well, and accurately replicates the
shape and look of the 1:1 prototype. The roof is correct in shape, and is ready
for the modeler to add his or her own roof rack if desired. 
are barely
visible in the picture to the left. Notice also the chromed handle on the inside
tailgate. This could be easily reproduced with a bit of silver paint. Again my
sample arrived in perfect shape with no air bubbles or casting flaws.
