Revell’s entirely new mold of an American icon, the Chevy K5 Blazer, makes its debut as the 1/25 scale Stranger Things Jim Hopper’s ‘85 Chevy K5 Blazer plastic model kit. Licensed for the hit streaming horror/sci-fi streaming franchise, it could also serve as an excellent base for the police Blazer from the first two Jaws movies. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
As with most car and truck kits, you start by building the K5’s small-block Chevy V8 engine, followed by the frame and drivetrain. The engine details are great. The crisply molded parts and smart engineering retain the engine’s features and keep the assembly easy. Built as designed, you can’t position the front wheels. But it wouldn’t take much modification to make them turn. The frame and drivetrain build up quickly. I kept the frame and axles as a single assembly and the engine and differential as a separate assembly for easy painting.
The interior continues to delight with ease of assembly. Each seat consists of two parts: the main seat and the seat back. These are the only parts I used any filler on for this model. It may not have been necessary, but the seam was a little more noticeable than I liked. The remaining parts, including the body, required minimal cleanup in preparation for paint.
When it came to paint, I stuck with my airbrushing favorites, Tamiya and Mr. Hobby. For the seats and interior, I found the closest match for that ‘80s vinyl blue was Mr. Color Gundam Color Titans Blue 2 (No. UG-17). It is the perfect blue, in my opinion, for the real seat color.
The next color I struggled to find a suitable match for was the primary body color. The kit calls for a light beige, which might be the closest color. But I found this to be too light and not metallic. Although iconic to the show, there aren’t many great scenes to use as a reference for color. The best episodes for this are the first episode of season two and the second episode of season three. I experimented with a few different colors and mixes, but ultimately settled on Tamiya Dark Copper (No. XF-28) for the main body and Tamiya Racing White (No. LP-39) with a few drops of Dark Yellow (No. XF-60) for a slightly darker tone.
After applying the Chevrolet decal to the back hatch, I noticed the show car has no badging. Therefore, to be more accurate, leave off Decal 44. In the color call-outs, the bottom of the light bar is shown painted red and blue to match the top. To replicate Hopper’s Blazer, leave it clear.
I used building and painting the Revell 1/25 scale Stranger Things Jim Hopper’s 1985 Chevy K5 Blazer plastic model kit as an excuse to rewatch the Netflix show before the final season comes out later this year. Building the model only took about the first season, but painting and final assembly took me into season three. Overall, I spent about 30 enjoyable hours on this build. If you are a fan of Stranger Things or the K5 blazer, this kit is a true winner, and I’d recommend it to any modeler.