For those of you who might be skeptical of building a snap tite kit (too easy, not detailed enough, kids toys) this would be the perfect opportunity to put your uncertainty aside and try one out. I had some reservations myself but after watching my 18 year old son bang one of these out in a weekend and it looking purely awesome on the shelf, I though I could do no worse.

I chose to build mine as a representation of the Las Vegas Metro Police Departments Ford F-150. Truthfully they do no currently have any Raptors in inventory but I thought this would make a great fantasy vehicle that is oh so close to the real thing. Included is a picture of the patrol unit I was trying to emulate. Being as such I need to add a few things to the model like light bar, radio, shotgun, push bumper, donuts, etc. The decals I made for the unit where done on the laptop and printed with an HP printer on clear decal stock. Obviously none of these items came from the Revell kit.

Parts Count:

• 1 Black Styrene Chassis
• 2 Red Styrene Cab and Truck Bed
• 9 Chrome Styrene
• 26 Black Styrene on 4 spure
• 2 Clear Styrene Windows
• 1 Clear Smoke Window
• 2 Clear Red Tail lights
• 4 Vinyl Tires with no Logo
• 2 Metal Axles
• 1 2”x5” Sticker Sheet.
• 1 12 Page Instruction Booklet with 11 steps

Construction of the F-150 kit is fairly basic as would be expected. There are 11 steps to the building the model. Some steps have one or two items, some are much more involved. The build can go rather quick if you are not taking your time to paint details or make necessary corrections. For me I built this as any other model with full paint and glue treatment inside and out.

During step one I chose to repaint the brake rotors and calipers with Alclad aluminum and clear red after striping the kit chrome with Purple Power. At this point I also took the time to detail paint the entire chassis multiple shades of grey, metallic and rubber. Part 45, the exhaust tip can also be hollowed out to look more realistic. The remaining chrome parts including the wheels were airbrushed a light coat of Tamiya Clear Smoke to add depth and relief.

Steps 2-4 are all about the interior. Again I made a plan using Ford factory interior photos for detail painting all the inside components. Seats were glued together and seams filled and sanded to further enhance the Raptor. I found that the head rest of the rear seats were hollow and that would be seen thought the rear window so at this point I filled with styrene card stock and putty then shaped to be accurate. Two stickers are use in the dash to replicate the instruments and Navigation/Entertainment system.

At this point many of he additional items (radio, etc) were added to the interior.

By step 5 I have already primed and painted all of the body and bed in the black and white montage. I used Tamiya primer white in a can and Tamiya gloss white and black acrylic with the airbrush. A coat of Future was added with the airbrush to seal the finish. At step 7 the body and chassis come together and at this point I applied the home made decals. In place of the interior bed pieces #3, 4, 5, and 6 I preferred to add a tonneau cover out of styrene sheet.

Final assembly involves adding the tail light, mirrors, bumpers, and grill inserts. At this time I also added the extras; light bar, radio antenna, and spot lights. One item that was noticeably missing from the kit was the third tail light over his center of the rear window. There do appear to be provisions for a push in light but none are provided. I trimmed up a small piece of clear plastic, painted the back silver and front clear red to simulate this oversight.

Revell has done a fantastic job with this kit with molds that accurately represent the 2014/15 Ford F-150 Raptor. Dimensions appear to be spot on to the inch with the only questionable measurement being the ride height. After some further investigation at the Ford dealership I found that some of the Raptors on the lot had there ride height adjusted with after factory addition suspension components. No big deal the finished vehicle looks “right.”

This kit took me 16 hours to complete, 6 of those hours preparing the additional police car accessories and decals. I found the Raptor a pleasure to build and have since purchase myself an additional copy and added these kits to our club make and take inventory.

Thanks to Revell, Dick Montgomery, Dave Morrissette, the rest of the IPMS Reviewer Corp assistants and IPMS/USA for the chance to build and review this subject.