Revell 1/24 Tom McEwen Rail Dragster
By Chellie Lynn
Overview
The reissued McEwen Rail Dragster is part of the Revell Motor Sports Series of car kits. I was instantly transported back to High School when I opened the box: the kit originally came out in my Senior year. The good was followed quickly by the bad. The frame was a bit of a pretzel and it would need serious straightening. This may result in some frame fractures, which will be dealt with during the build. The rest of the parts were straight and relatively blemish free. The highpoint of the kit was and still is the "Christmas Tree" starting lamp set.
The Kit
It is now molded in white and chrome plastic, and black vinyl, which still suffers all the weird warpage issues I remember. The vinyl tree includes 2 different styles of front tires, spark and fuel lines. The detail of many parts is soft, and a quick dry fit shows some misalignment from wear and tear on the molds. The main body parts do fit together with little effort on the dry run and we shall see how the fit holds at final assembly. The "Fly Navy" decal sheet is somewhat well designed and it is reasonably complete, but I would have liked to see options for the markings to allow the blue areas to be painted, but this is a minor niggle.
Accuracy
Revell produced many Top Fuel dragster kits in the early/mid seventies. This kit was reasonably well detailed for its time, but somewhat suspect in overall accuracy for a specific driver's car.
Conclusion
Thirty-eight years later, this kit is still the only game in town for the Top Fuel dragsters of that era. There are construction pitfalls lurking throughout, but with some serious and careful work it builds into a presentable representation of the Top Fuel cars of the era. I would like to thank Revell for providing the review sample.
