Revell '29 Ford Model A Roadster 2 in 1
Revell has been treating modelers to a few off-the-wall subjects the last few years. Well, by "off the wall" I mean "something that isn't a muscle car or some type of reissue". What I mean is, Revell has been putting out some subject matter that, even a few years ago, nobody ever would have dreamed would be available in a full-detail mainstream kit. First there was the duo of Kurtis Midget kits in Offy or V8-60 form, each with an included trailer. Then there were those two Charger funny cars, which shared practically no tooling apart from the basic body. Now, Revell brings us an all-new '29 Roadster kit, which can be built as a highboy on a narrowed Deuce chassis or as a lowboy.
Let's dig in...
The body is nicely rendered and cleanly molded. Unlike the old AMT kit, the inner fender pieces are done separately.
The underbody and one of the dashboards is to the left, along with some of the exhaust components. To the right is the floor and another dash choice, as well as more exhaust piping.
On the left are the interior pieces, firewall, and radiator for the "highboy" variant, while the corresponding components for the channeled version are to the right.
Yes... two frames! On top is the highboy unit, which represents a modified Deuce ('32 Ford) unit. The lower chassis is for the channeled roadster, and it resembles a modified stock Model A chassis. The two exhaust choices, as the others shown earlier, are unique to each version. The 9" Ford ale is a pretty detailed casting in its own right.
The Buick brake rotors are nicely done, but Revell did drop the ball on the front wheels... only one vent slot is engraved into them, where there should be four. If something like that will drive you crazy, go with some full wheel covers, or swap out the wheels.
The Buick Nailhead is nicely done. I suppose I could nit-pick about the sides of the block being a bit plain-looking, but I haven't seen this engine fully built and detailed, so I suppose I should just keep my mouth shut about appearance until such time as I see one in that form.
The chrome plating is nicely done, and doesn't plug up the fine engraved detail. Yes, those are six Stromberg carbs with "acorn" air cleaners on the right, and Hilborn-style injection stacks to the left. I'm not really feeling the style of headers Revell included here, but that's a personal thing.
But wait! There's more! My only real gripe here is with the radiator grille... I wish the radiator insert had been done separately from the plated shell, like on the old AMT '29. Again, more of a personal thing. Again, the chrome plating is fantastic.
The clear parts are... well, relatively few for this kit. The metal rivets for the wheels come bagged with the clear parts... oddly, Revell does not supply a set of turned metal exhaust tips with this kit.
The tires remind me of the rollers you'd find on an old dirt-track jalopy. No surprise, as a lot of early rodders used those very same tires on their street-driven cars. No sidewall lettering, as is Revell's current custom, but just LOOK at the sidewall detail on those front tires. In a lot of ways, these look like taller versions of the tires in the Kurtis Midget kits.
The decal sheet provides the customary (some may say sterotypical) hot rod cues- stripes, numbers, the "Eat At Joe's" logo, a couple of club plaques... but what really got me were the graphics along the bottom of the sheet... simulated rust patterns! Imagine that....
And finally, the instruction sheet, which shows a built-up example of either version . I have to say I'm not fond of the headlight setup- the lights shown on the highboy are a bit too big, too high, ,and too far away from the radiator shell for my tastes. But again, that's a personal thing, and it's easily fixed if it bothers you, too.
So basically, you have all you need here to build a bad little A-Bone. There are literally dozens of ways to build it and still keep it box stock, utilizing different color combos and mix/matching parts from the two variants onto one car. And of course, kitbashing and aftermarket sources bring in all sorts of other possibilites. Revell's new kit looks to be every bit as versatile as the 1:1. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a ton of these at shows in the coming years, and no two will look exactly alike. I've been out of hot rod modeling for a bit now, but this may well be the kit to drag me back in. I've already got a soild plan for the first one in mind...
