KIT #: | 1301 |
PRICE: | $79.99 SRP |
DECALS: | Two options |
REVIEWER: | Robert Myers |
NOTES: |
HISTORY |
The
International Harvester Company, was a United States agricultural machinery,
construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and
commercial products manufacturer, with roots in the 1830s . International
Harvester sold off its agricultural division in 1985 and renamed itself
Navistar International Corporation in 1986, retaining its truck and engine
divisions. Today Navistar International's subsidiary, International Truck
and Engine Corporation, manufactures and markets trucks and engines under
the International brand name.
The
Prostar was a class 8 heavy
truck. It was introduced in 2006 and was advertised as the most fuel
efficient truck in the Class 8 market. It was still being produced in 2015.
It is available in both sleeper and non-sleeper versions.
THE KIT |
This
1/25th scale kit is huge! There are about 300 parts, including spares of the
small easily lost parts. With
the addition or deletion of the sleeper roof extension (1 part), you can
build two versions. The sprues are all wrapped in plastic, very detailed and
are very well molded without visible injector pin marks or flash. The
engineering of parts and parts placement on the sprues really shows a
modeler was involved with the design on this one. Most of the sprue
attachment points are hidden or very small. Even the chrome is well thought
out so that you don't have major seams or attachment point cuts showing. The
exceptions are the fuel tanks. They have a long seam where the halves join.
The upside is that the seam on the fuel tanks is hidden when you add the
aero skirts. The tires are soft vinyl and appear very realistic. The parts
also include a thin metal, flexible metal mesh grill insert. This is a very
nice touch.
The
decals are bright and in register. They will be used to add woodgrain to the
interior, a nice dashboard, various exterior markings and a trucking company
name. Your choice for company
names are BrandsMart U.S.A., Navistar, along with custom stripes.
The instruction booklet is 15 pages with some color images. It is a huge improvement over the Lonestar instructions. The only thing I don't like about it is the colors for the different parts are on a separate sheet. This is strictly a personal gripe because I like the color call-outs next to the part name and number on the instruction sheet.
CONCLUSIONS |
This looks like a very nice kit with improved instructions. I highly endorse this as a well done kit of a modern truck that is still in production. I bought 6 of these kits because the kit itself will build into two different sleeper versions. I plan to do a daycab, (without a sleeper) and a wrecker version.
July 2015
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