If you’ve built another version of Revell’s Kenworth W-900, the Revell 1/25 scale Kenworth W-900 dump truck will be familiar (I built the wrecker version a few years ago for Scale Auto magazine). Other than the dump body, the rest of the kit shares its engine, chassis, cab, and interior with other variants of the W-900. In fact, if you want the dump body for another truck, you can still make a long-wheelbase tractor with this kit because the fifth wheel and sliding plate are still on the sprues in this kit (you only get the roof of the sleeper cab, though).
Like many truck kits, construction starts with the frame. While there was some flash to remove, all the frame parts are straight and line up fairly well. The instructions eventually call out the need to remove the sleeper cab mounts. This is much easier to do after you remove the frame rails from the sprue.
I assembled the frame and suspension before painting. The dump body has its own frame, which I glued to the truck frame before painting for the best glue adhesion. The drawback, of course, is the intricate web of crossmembers that make it difficult to get paint on all parts of the chassis. Building the two frames, painting them, and then scraping the paint off where they join is the better choice.
The Caterpillar turbocharged V8 is generally well-detailed, although some details are molded onto larger sections (a pair of filters on the driver’s side of the engine block, for example) that might have looked better had they been separate parts.
Other parts that could have been molded in halves were instead molded as single pieces. This simplifies assembly; the backs of the parts are hollowed out to keep the plastic from sinking into itself as it cools. On the engine, a filter at the top right front is missing its back, and on the chassis, the brake cylinders are hollow. Both are visible, so I recommend filling them with bits of plastic and putty and then carving and filing them to shape.
The tub-style interior has a separate dashboard, seats, steering column, and shift lever. The steering column and shift lever have interesting details that can be weathered to show the wear these often-touched parts commonly have.
The dashboard offers a decal with gauge faces and woodgrain printed on. For the best results, you’re instructed to file and sand the switchgear until it is smooth. I tried to keep the best of both worlds, attempting to get the decals to settle over the switches, including cutting the decals around them. It worked OK, but painting everything might have produced the best result.
Speaking of the decals, the kit comes with quite a few, including several options for trucking company names, cab stripes (white and black), license plates, warning labels for the frame, manufacturer labels for the various filters, the accessory drive belt, engine, and transmission, among others. Most adhere well, and Microscale Micro Sol helps them conform to most surfaces. The only problem I had was that the red and white conspicuity stripes on the dump body seemed inclined to peel off the dump body at the edges.
To get the front end of the dump body to fit, I had to trim the end wall (Part 196). The edge that fits into the slot on the bed sides is too deep, so I cut it back with a sprue cutter. It doesn’t require a careful job because the edge is concealed in the slot.
At the opposite end, the tailgate parts in my sample were a bit warped, which I didn’t realize until after assembling the tailgate. Check your parts before assembly to avoid and correct this.
Despite a few shortcomings, the Revell 1/25 scale Kenworth W-900 dump truck plastic model kit proved fun to build. A modeler with at least a moderate level of scale modeling experience should be able to get a satisfactory result.