Revell Big Boy Steam Locomotive - Inside the Box

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Revell's item no. 01265, the Big Boy steam locomotive comes in a soft box. The box itself is very nicely designed. Inside it you will find the 87 parts that need to be put together. They are made of good quality black plastic and they are grouped into 4 units: The main part of the locomotive and the main part of the tender are separated from other components, while all the other parts are in a plastic frame from which they need to be removed.

Inside the box there is also an instruction manual and a safety advice document. Everything in the manual is translated into several (many) languages. It contains general assembly instructions and warnings, information about the required paint colors and 41 very detailed drawings that will guide you through the steps of assembling the Big Boy locomotive. One thing that I was not happy about is that on the outside of the box only 5 colors are listed as required paints (8, 9, 91, 99, 330), but the instruction manual lets you know that you will also need colors 75, 86 and 92.

Otherwise the contents of the box is more than satisfactory. It contains everything a modeler would expect, except the accessories, of course: paint, brushes and glue.

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A Gift from Santa - Revell Big Boy Steam Locomotive

This year Santa really outdid himself. Well, to be precise, it was actually Rudy, the red nosed reindeer, not Santa ;) Anyway, among the lots of very nice presents under the Christmas tree, I was happy to find a model steam locomotive: Revell's item no. 02165, the Big Boy locomotive. Revell is one of the leading companies in modeling and among planes, ships, submarines, cars, engines and other models, it has some really nice steam locomotives. Revell's item no. 02165 is the American Big Boy locomotive on H0 scale (1:87).

Union Pacific's Big Boys were some of the largest, longest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. They were capable of pulling over 4000 tons of weight up on steep mountain grades and they were also quite stable at the speed of 130 km/h. Because of their enormous size, the Big Boys were articulated steam locomotives with 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (no other steamers had this wheel arrangement). They were very reliable and safe. 25 of them have been built between 1941 and 1944, grouped into two classes: class 1 with locomotives X4000 - X4019 and class 2 with locomotives X4020 - X4024.

Assembling Revell's Big Boy requires much time and patience. Rated at difficulty level 3 (out of 5), it is made up of 87 pieces which need to be painted in several colors and glued together. Rudy took care of everything and also brought me the 5 basic paints, two brushes and glue required for assembling the model. Thanks, Rudy!

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Links:

Union Pacific's Big Boy collection video

Revell's official site