Showcase Miniatures - 156 - Truck, GMC Topkick - Undecorated

Specific Item Information: This kit is a remake of kit #14 Tanker and can be built as a Chevy Kodiak or GMC Topkick. Updated parts include more detail on the cab and tank. This kit also includes a "Fire Dept." decal and vacuum formed windshield. The front wheels can be positioned at any angle and the kit rounds out with beautiful photo-etched details.

Prototype History: The Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick are a range of medium duty trucks that were produced by the Chevrolet and GMC divisions of General Motors from 1980 to 2009. Introduced as a variant of the medium-duty C/K truck line, three generations were produced. Slotted between the C/K trucks and the GMC Brigadier Class 8 conventional, the Kodiak/TopKick were developed as a basis for vocationally-oriented trucks, including cargo haulers, dump trucks, and similar vehicles; on later generations, both cutaway and cowled-chassis variants were produced for bus use.

Following years of declining market share, General Motors (in line with Ford Motor Company) sought to exit heavy-truck manufacturing. After struggling to enter joint ventures or sell the rights to its product line, the company ended production of the Kodiak and TopKick in 2009. The final medium-duty truck, a GMC TopKick 5500, rolled out of Flint Truck Assembly on July 31, 2009.

For the 2019 model year, after a ten-year hiatus, General Motors re-entered the conventional medium-duty truck segment. Developed in a joint venture with Navistar International, the Chevrolet Silverado 4500/5500 is a Class 4-6 vehicle. Slightly smaller than the Kodiak/Topkick, the Silverado 4500/5500 is marketed exclusively as a Chevrolet (with no GMC counterpart).

Road Name History: Although they may be molded in color, unpainted and unlettered, undecorated products are marketed to modelers who seek to custom decorate their models for private roads and/or road and/or company names that were not commercially produced by any of the major manufacturers.

Undecorated models are frequently also unassembled or only partially assembled and required modelers to be comfortable with glue, paint and sometimes solder in order to prepare their models for display. Materials for these models can vary but often include plastic, pewter and resin. Models may or may not come with decals or other decorations such as plastic signage, railings and ladders to enhance the appearance of the final product.

Brand/Importer Information: Founded by Joe Warren, in Cherry Valley, California, in 1995, Showcase Miniatures manufactures high quality cast pewter metal, etched brass, and/or laser cut wood model railroad structures, vehicles, and accessories in HO, N, and Z Scale. Moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 2012, Walter Vail is Showcase Miniatures current owner and product designer. In developing new products, Walter employs different methods such as hand sculpting and the use of 3D computer software. Crafted by a master modeler, who has had his scratch-built science fiction models featured in Kalmbach Publishing's FineScale Modeler magazine, and previously designed products for businesses such as C-in-C Soft Metal Castings, FASA, GHQ, and Ral-Partha Enterprises, the high quality detail exhibited in every Showcase Miniatures product is certainly not a coincidence.