Built by: Paul Canney / Sharon Center Ohio U.S.A.

Sand Crab Coupe

The Monogram L'il Van is an 'updated' Sand Crab that never should have been updated in my opinion. It's just an awful design. But when Dan Warford recommended this resin replacement body from "Model Martin', the kit took on a whole new persona. Gone was the putrid yellow Van back and in it's place a coupe style body that is just too cool for words

This kit is advertised at 1/24th, but in fact, the wheelbase scales out to 1/20th. It's just too big sitting next to a 1/25th scale buggy. So digging into the vintage kits yielded these 1/20th Hurst mags from the 1970 1/2 MPC Corvette.

The engine also, is dwarfed in the L'il Van, but the pipes are cool, so I resisted the temptation to put an alternative engine in..

The "Sand Crab" headlights are still included in the modified reissue, but not reference in the :'il Van instruction sheet. Which is a good thing as they aren't used on the L'il Van, instead a single chrome rod bumper. No idea why.. like I said.. this is a modified reissue that should have just been left alone.

The paint is Cobra Colors Nissan Suzaka Blue metallic. The metallic is so heavy in this paint it actually could be passed off as 1/24th.. umm.. make that 1/20th, metalflake.

Do I recommend this resin body to others? Most definatly! It certainly turns a stinker of a design into a very cool (realistic) dune buggy.