Revell Convair Tradewind – Restoration
Since I am not as young as some hobby friends, I have many recordings of the good times of Revell in Brazil, between the ages of 60’s and 70’s. I intend to build some models that make me return in time, as a rescue of the memory of important moments when I was greatly influenced by my older brother, as well as out of pure nostalgia, so I did a simple restoration job of Revell’s old Convair Tradewind R3Y-2 kit, on the 1/166 scale, of the famous 1 / box scales series. This kit was awarded to me already assembled by my friend and historian Frederico Nicolau.
Soaking in a strong caustic soda solution, in addition to the paint also released much of the glue. So it was almost a complete new build, going through gluing, putting, making one of the entire propellers and missing several blades. The decals were printed on the inkjet printer from the original internet decal image on the white decal sheet. Antennas were made with my daughter’s hair and windows with Testors glue for this purpose.
Otherwise everything were normal without difficulties:
Primer polyester ACS
Tamiya Putty White
Main blue in common enamel and others colors in Dry Color polyester.
Tamiya Panel Line Accent.
Glossy and matt Acrilex varnish.
Anyway a great memory for me and my brother Pedrinho, and also another flashy model in my collection.
Some help:
http://www.ratomodeling.com/finished/tradewind/
My friend Jose Reinaldo (GPP-JG400) with good ideas.
9 additional images. Click to enlarge.
Greg Kittinger said on November 15, 2019
Fantastic renovation project! Well done.
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Greg.
neil foster said on November 15, 2019
Fantastic job on bringing this ancient beast into the present day, I also love building kits that are 40 years or more in age so I know how much work has gone into this.
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Neil. Nice to hear.
Rob Anderson said on November 15, 2019
Wonderful!
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Rob.
Robert Royes said on November 15, 2019
A great restoration, nice to see it!
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Robert.
bob mack said on November 16, 2019
gorgeous…those kits were rough and tough…no walk in the park
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Bob.
Paul Wilsford said on November 16, 2019
Excellently done.,
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Paul.
Jeff Carle said on November 16, 2019
I wish I had lived in San Diego when they were flying and being built. Great restoration, a very interesting aircraft!
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you, Jeff. Really a very interesting aircraft.
David Hansen said on November 16, 2019
Thats an admirable restoration. I too found Rato Marczak’s Tradewind build very inspirational. If you can get past the odd “fit the box” scales and the molding limitations of the 1960s and early 60’s many of the Revell kits were remarkably accurate in terms of outline and proportions.
Roberto Lúcio - Boblucio said on November 16, 2019
Thank you David.
I do agree about many of the Revell kits were really remarkably accurate in terms of outline and proportions, besides some have no substitutes to this day.