Created as a joint project between corporate partners Porsche and Volkswagen, the 914-6 hit the US market badged as a Porsche. It could have been called a Volkswagen, and in Europe, it was!!!! Produced in two mid-engine versions; a woefully underpowered four cylinder (-4) and six cylinder (-6). Each manufacturer had reservations about both versions. Designed to replace the entry level 912, it became the leading seller in the Porsche stable, the -6 version costing nearly as much as the 911!! The 914 was highly visible both on the road and on the track. I chose to build my sample as the stock version.

Molded in White Plastic, with one sprue of chrome plated parts, some clear parts and four vinyl tires the kit consists of 70 parts. Parts for both the street stock and racing version are included. Instructions and a sheet of decals complete the kit.

Most parts on my sample had a small amount of flash that needed to be cleanup. The molding of the parts is good despite the flash. The details are crisp, but I found a few ejector pin marks that needed attention. Most were in out of the way places, but a few proved to be pesky. Some scraping and sanding pretty much cleaned everything, and as there were no craters from the dreaded sink marks, I didn’t use any putty to fill anything in.

The Chrome parts are nicely plated, and I used a wash of Tamiya Smoke on the chrome to show some depth. There were a few places where the plating needed to be removed to clean up the flash issue. I repainted those areas with Chrome silver, and then did the Smoke wash to make those areas blend better.

I followed the assembly sequence as laid out in the instructions for construction. I took a few liberties in completing some of the painting callouts out of order so I would have a smooth flow during construction. Assembly was straightforward, and following the instructions sequence worked well. The only trouble I encountered during construction was figuring out how the front and rear valance attached to the body. The instructions are somewhat vague in showing placement, and it took me a bit of head scratching to get them to look right. But when correctly assembled they look great and capture the front and rear look of the car nicely.

I finished my sample in Boyd’s Grape Pearl I had sitting around the bench forever. I figured I’d better use it before it dried out on me!! The decal sheet has three color options for the Porsche racing stripes on the sides. I used the white ones with the Grape Pearl, and painted the interior in shades of gray. I painted the rocker panels a Dark Anthracite Gray. All in all, I like how the gray sits next to the purple, and looks pretty sharp. The door handles are silver decals that are included on the sheet, as are the marker lights, instrument faces, and Porsche lettering on the engine cover. The rear deck lid and engine cover are posable either open or closed. I didn’t cement either one on my model. Neither stay open without some sort of prop. I cut a small toothpick down to the correct length to facilitate keeping them open.

While this is an older kit rereleased for our building pleasure, it was a fun build. The parts fit well, and looks like a Porsche 914 when complete. I like the two version option and would consider using this kit as the basis for a reworked race version. The race parts that come with the kit would make a good starting point for a pure racer. The windscreen is a low cut affair that would reduce drag significantly on the track and the race seat cries out for a racing harness!! The other race parts include headers, a different steering wheel and a fire extinguisher.

All in all, this is a decent kit. The most troublesome part, for me anyway, was attaching the front and rear valances. Every other aspect of the build was straight forward and no problem. The model scales well with vehicle stats I found on line. I enjoyed building this kit and would recommend it to anyone. My thanks to Revell and IPMS/USA for providing this sample for review.