Man it has been a while since I did a post here. Kinda funny how life gets in your way sometimes. I haven't worked on a model in what seems like years. I'm all moved into my new place and decided to get back to the bench. I figured I would ease back into it with the new Revell Stacey David Rat Roaster kit. Here is a quick in the box review of it.
Once
again Revell has come through with a new kit in the Rat Roaster. All the online
buzz around the kit can’t help but be noticed. Most of the buzz though is
people complaining about how the kit doesn’t come with this or that, or we have
to buy another get to get the missing parts. I have news for you; this kit was
meant to be used to build a replica of the 1:1 car. Sure you can use it for
parts with some of your other Revell deuces, but more on that later, let’s get
started with what’s in the box.
Upon
opening the box you would think that this is just a modified reissue of the
earlier Revell 32’s, this is true in a sense. Some of the parts are modified,
and others are all new tooling. Long gone is the Ford 302 with the AOD
transmission, in its place now is a blown small block Chevy with a TKO 5 speed
manual transmission. The chassis itself is now modified and has cut outs in the
frame rails for the exhaust to come out from underneath and mount to the over
the rails headers. The front and rear suspension are carry overs from the
previous releases of the 32, sorry no beam axle and your still stuck with
airbag rear suspension.
From
the suspension we now move on to the wheels and tires. Gone from this issue is
the big and little tires and American Racing Torque Thrust II’s that we have
all grown to love (yeah right, I have enough in my parts box to last a life
time!), these have been replaced with “Firestone” cheater slicks in the rear and
“Firestone” dirt track tires in the front. What good is rubber if you don’t
have anything to wrap them around? To replace the Torque Thrusts Revell tooled
up a set of 15x10 Dragmasters for the rear and 15x5 Dragmasters for the front.
I see this wheel and tire combo ending up on a few different projects around
the bench.
New
to this round of 32’s is an almost stock firewall (something us traditional hot
rod builders have been wanting for a while). While at first look it seems that
the firewall will swap from deuce to deuce, it can, but you will need to modify
either the firewall or the opening in your other body (the opening on this
roadster is a lot larger than say the 5 and 3 window, I don’t have any previous
issue roadster to compare it to). The body itself has been modified to hug the
fuel tank. Instead of full fender or high boy options, you get bobbed rear
fenders and cycle fenders in the front. The hood has molded Buick Portholes
with chrome inserts, there are no hood sides included. The body itself is still
missing the door hinges (something that has bugged me since the original issue
of the roadster kits). The radiator has been modified and now has the electric
fan blades molded to it, but the shroud is a separate item. The grill now comes
molded with a crank hole in it (another thing us traditional guys have wanted).
Let
me see now, this brings us to the interior. This go around we get bomber seats
and diamond tucked panels. I’m not too sure if this interior will swap over to
the other 32’s of the line or not. The dash is of the traditional type, no ac
vents or stereo stuff to clutter it. Most of the diamond tuck is decals if you
chose to take the easy way out (I still like to paint them)
All
in all I truly believe that this kit will be mostly used as a parts kit for
other builds, myself on the other hand plans to build (as close to the box
contents let me) a replica of the real
Rat Roaster. Stay tuned in the future for my actual build up review of this
kit.
Until then, keep on building.
Donnie
