Wow! There are some very cool models on this thread. I’ve put together a few 1/25th scale 60-63’s over the years. The 1st was built from part of a Modelhaus kit and the others were 1960 AMT cabs and chassis with Revell stepside beds from the Revell truck/boat kits.
GMC #1 started life as a partial Modelhaus resin kit because there was nothing else on the market at the time. I started this build before Revell produced either the fleetside or stepside/boat kit, and before AMT produced the 1960 Chevy Fleetside kit. Here’s what the cab/frame looked like as received:
And this is how much got used. The rest came from a Revell fleetside kit:
(This was actually the beginning of a 2nd build, a 1963 Chevy I did for my son. I’m showing these as I don’t have any before photos of the first build). My original intention was to use the bed from the 1957 Chevy stepside kit, again because nothing else was available.
Right after I started, Revell released the short Fleetside kit. The roof casting on the resin kit was rather poor and the back wall was flat, so I used the back wall of the cab, the roof, and the complete chassis from the Revell kit. The resin side trim was scraped off the cab and sanded smooth.
About this time, Revell released the stepside/boat model. The stepside bed was much more accurate than the 57 Chevy bed so the 57 was scrapped and the Revell bed used instead.
For the back window, I filled the back of the cab with sheet styrene, cut a hole, and installed the small back window from the 1950 Chevy kit on the outside to simulate the 1960 body stamping. It’s not perfect but it’s what I had available:
And this is the finished truck painted with acrylic enamel car paint. It took over a year to complete and nearly went in the garbage numerous times:
The next build was the 1963 Chevy for one of my sons (using the same process), who owned one at the time:
The next truck was built using the 1960 AMT fleetside kit and with the Revell stepside bed. This was my first paint job with Tamiya lacquer. I was not disappointed. This stuff is just like automotive lacquer. It was done up to represent what my real truck was suppose to look like when I got the money to chrome the front end:
This is a 1960 Chevy my kid threw together as a simulation of something a kid would build back in the 60’s:
The last build was a test mule for my real truck. It’s painted with Blitz Black and Rustoleum white just like the real truck. When the real truck had spotlights, foglights, and bed rails the model got them too. At the time I wanted a 1960 Chevy hood, so that was added as well:
The model on the right is the same truck with the Buick grille and stainless windshield trim added. It sits alongside the original 1960 build for comparison. This was the first time working on a model changed the outcome of the real truck. I liked the model so much better without the foglights, they were removed from the big one in the garage:
The last in the collection is an original 1961 Chevy long bed fleetside. It took almost 10 years to find one I could afford in immaculate condition. The only modifications were adding bare foil, 56 Chevy wheel covers, and replacing the brown wall tires:
