Revell Snaptite Ford Expedition

Susan Carter and Dominique Sanmarco

I'm grandma Susan and I decided to help my 7-year-old grandson, Dominique, build his first model.

First we reviewed the directions, rounded up a sprue cutter, Phillips screwdriver, some scissors for cutting the plastic bag, and a pair of tweezers.

Steps one through twelve went fairly quickly with me supervising where to put the sprue cutter to cut off the parts but we just wiggled some of them off in areas where it was too difficult to cut. Dominique really got good at doing that, even suggesting wiggling them off instead. He was just dexterous enough to be able, with some guidance, to snip off a lot of the parts.

In step one the seats did not fit together very well, showing some gaps at the headrest, but all parts were good enough to fit together collectively. In step four the side panels did not want to stay against the floor but went in OK when you put the tabs at the front by the lip of the interior floor.

We put the dashboard sticker in together; I held it with tweezers while my grandson held the steering column down, so that I could lay it in that area. The dashboard fitting was easy once we tilted it the correct way, and it snapped in with no trouble.

Step seven saw us putting the rear taillights in; they fit much better when you make sure that if you wiggle the parts from the sprue, you also take the sprue cutters and straighten the edges so that they just pop in place.

It was really fun to pop in the windows; Dominique had no difficulty lining up the large holes to the tabs. Step nine was snapping the completed interior into the body; again no problem.

Step ten was the fun assembly of taking the chrome hubcaps off the sprue and putting them in the rubber tires; some care must be taken to get them all the way in the tire, and then the metal axle followed. He had no problem with fitting the axle through the chassis and putting the opposite tire on the axle. Whee! It's now on wheels!

Step eleven was putting the front bumper on; having to look at the shape and not putting it on upside down, and the fun of lining it up and on the guide holes. At this point, when you turned the instructions over to go to step thirteen, it goes back to step ten!

This is where you need an adult; we figured out where the screws went in, and talked about how the center screw held the floor and the chassis together, and the two front screws held the body and the chassis together.
Finishing was the rear bumper, front grille, and the side mirrors; after demonstrating the shape of the tab to the slot, Dommy had no problem fitting them in. The roof racks were a cinch after that (however, Grandma Susan did cut them off the sprue as Dom got a little excited about having only two more parts, and I was afraid he might snip right through the rack supports).