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Posted

Never knew this existed till I saw it at the local toy show last month. It seemed to be worth the $10 (used) asking price. Some googling seems to show some kind of relationship between the Castlne name and M2 (perhaps M2 marketed them for a while?), and that in addition to black, this has also been issued in blue and white with different wheels. They retail for about $30.

It's quite heavy—metal chassis. The suspension is all plastic, and by that I mean, not even metal axles. The tires are weird and in trying to get one of them off the wheel, I broke the whole right side of the rear axle (differential) off. If you want to change the wheels/tires on this one, be prepared to re-engineer the suspension at all four corners. I decided to leave these wheels and tires alone (after sanding the treads, of course), especially after having to re-glue the broken rear axle not once but twice.

Overall shape isn't bad. The profile of the roof and upper doors/upper forward rear quarters isn't quite accurate for a HT or convertible, but then again it's not quite right for a sedan, either. It's somewhere in between, maybe slightly more sedan than hardtop. The whole top is plastic! Maybe the original plans were to also issue this basic body with a top with B-pillars and window frames as well as the hardtop. It could have passed. Although it's not accurate, I don't find the profile shape objectionable. To the contrary, I kind of like it.

More offensive to my eye were the chrome trim pieces at the top/rear of the rear fender fins. The trim pieces had a definite upward sweep to them, making the whole back end of the car look almost more like a Plymouth than a Chevy. That would have to be fixed.

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And here it is after the required Snake-Fu. I sanded the tire treads, disassembled it to hit the headlight stems with white paint (which didn't work that well on this one; I ended up having to also put some white pearl acrylic paint right on the face of the lenses to kill the googly-eye look), and filed and sanded the fin-top trim down to run parallel to the fender tops, which IMHO really improved the profile of the whole model. Of course the grille got a black wash, too. That's about it. Didn't notice till I took the pictures that a mirror on the left side seems to be broken off; it wasn't on there when I bought it. (This is why I hardly ever put mirrors on my models—they get broken off and lost far too often anyway. If whoever gets my models after I'm dead wants mirrors on them, he can add them himself.)

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Now, what scale is it? It's touted as 1/24, but as you can see, the wheelbase is exactly the same as the wheelbase of the Revell '55 2DS, and when I built that one, I compared its body to the AMT '55 Bel Air 2DS kit and found it almost identical in dimensions, so AFAIC, this 210 HT is 1/25. It's a little longer than the Revell '55 2DS, but then I believe the real '57 Chevies were a little longer than their '55 counterparts, too. (It's also a little wider than the Revell '55, but not enough to worry about IMHO.)

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The two look pretty good together, don't they?

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Posted

As far as I can figure, Castline and M2 are the same.  The plastic top is probably so they can use the same basic body casting for several configurations - convertible, hardtop, etc.  

and hey, like you, I leave mirrors off and don't sweat it too much if they are missing from a model. 

Sounds like see things very much alike much of the time.    

Nice score.

 

Posted

I have this one as well. I liked it as no one else had done a 210. Plus it also reminds me of a car a 'Shine runner would drive.B):)

Posted

Snake for a cheap diecast, that ain't bad at all! I can see what you're talking about as far as the roofline/door shape. Hardtops had the upper part of the door (beltline) do a subtle dip towards the rear, while the sedans had the door straight across like this diecast.

Also, it seems that the roof itself could stand to be just a teeny bit shorter as the sedan roofs were in fact 'long'. One thing I always noticed about those '55-'57 GM B Body two door sedans is that due to the placement of the wheelwells in relation to the length of the quarter windows, they never really rolled down completely out of sight like the hardtops.

There was always a little bit of it sticking up. :D

Thanks for the pics!

  • 1 year later...
Posted

I'm going to add mine to this thread and Gramps may add his in as well.  Or he may start his own.  We've been ordering similar stuff recently, sometimes by accident, sometimes not.   But he was telling me he got one and I looked this thread up again and decided a 57 with a top would be a nice addition.  That it's a 210 and not ANOTHER BelAir is a bonus.  I really liked the 2 tone green and may do that one someday but here is the cheapie I ended up with. 

 I like it a lot for what it is.  I see it as a guy's back yard beauty that he runs down the strip occasionally.   It's almost harbor blue but has a lot of metal flake in the paint.  So like a 70s repaint.   I want to do some detailing on it - fix the rear wheels - center cap has to go, some paint on the lugs.  Detail the mags too.  It has disc brakes represented on the front.  I might paint the top white - that would be easy to do and set it off a bit more.   Would do the side coves but for the Chevrolet scripts on there.  Do the fin tops like Snake did.  Other standard detailing as well. 

What about a slight dull coat to knock the shine down like an older project car?  Or weathering it more than just dull? What all would a guy do to his car that would be easy to represent on this one?

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Posted (edited)

Thanks Randy for finding and tagging onto Snakes Thread.  He had posted a picture of the black 210 back in March and I was smitten.  It looked like a real sleeper.  A 210, blackwalls, dog dish hubcaps, and most importantly Fuel Injection!  I set about to find one but the prices on the web were higher than I wanted to pay until I found this one last week.

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1957 was the only year Chevrolet offered Fuel Injection in anything other than a Corvette and there were very few sold which makes this one special.

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I agree with all the comments from Randy and Snake and had planned to do something about reducing the size of the rear fender caps before even  reading their comments.

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This makes a really good mate for my other '57 Chevrolets.20200714_100420.jpg.aab2442fd55b1c7a71ff3a99db0ee15d.jpg

 

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Edited by Gramps46
Posted

These black ones are pretty spectacular.  And the wheels/caps are awesome.  Y'all's hoods fit better than mine.   These are all missing any kind of indication of the three little fake vents or depressions where they should be on the front fender.  All photos of 1:1s show that they either have the trim or the depressions.  I can live with it though.  And maybe the front fenders slope down a bit much in the front.   That black is just so sinister.  Serious car.  Should have Men In Black driving it.

I'm going to keep looking for these on the cheap.  Probably try to get the green one at some point and maybe a Bel Air someday.  Stock of course.  Wish they did the 150 with a stock height top.  But I do have a Black Widow built.  

 

Posted

Very gratifying to see this thread resurrected after nearly two years. B)

I'm glad y'all are enjoying these as much as I did mine. 

I'd buy that blue one too if I ever happen to run across one. 

Y'all are going to be SO happy after you trim those tailfin chrome thingies down. I was. B)

Posted

Yep, tailfins are sanded down.   Roof repainted white, rear wheels painted and center caps removed.   I did figure out how the wheels come off.   There is a screw behind the face of the wheel.   You have to figure out a way to pry the center out without damaging it.   And reassembly is reverse - those tires are stiff.   

Posted

If I ever DO get a blue one, I'll prolly paint the top and "spear" Larkspur Blue, as I did on the AMT kit I built about 30 years ago....

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Posted

+2 on good looking.  That was an idea I had if I had a couple extra Chevrolet scripts.  But here's what I ended up with.  I need to add some scrap plastic to top of wind wings.  

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Posted

I have run into that kind of wheel attachment before and it can be tricky.  I see a Fuel Injection script!  Yesterday I filed down the chrome piece on top of the rear fender and it sure does look a lot better.  Thanks for the tips.

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