Manufacturer: Revell, 8601 Waukegan Rd., Morton Grove, IL 60053-2295, 847-966-3500.
Kit: No. 85-1645
Scale: 1/24
Price: $19.50
Comments: Injection-molded, 68 parts (7 vinyl, 6 metal), waterslide decals
Pros: Pre-painted and lettered body, good shapes and fit, straightforward construction
Cons: Some parts a bit thick for the scale
Looking to add some NASCAR color to your race car collection without spending hours painting and polishing those often-complex paint schemes? Then does Revell have a new car kit (actually, several new car kits) for you.
Models of NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Grand National race cars and pre-painted snap kits are not new, of course. What is new is combining a prepainted plastic body with waterslide decals and a glue-together undercarriage that includes an engine, drivetrain, and most interior details.
Revell's concept is that these intermediate level kits will serve as a step-up for beginners, before they move on to "molded in white" upper-level kits that require painting of all the parts. This kit is one of two (both Pontiacs) to be released initially; a Taurus and two Monte Carlos will follow.
Good concept, but how's the kit? Happily, it's pretty nice. Revell resisted the temptation to save money by either adding a few new parts to its snap kit or just painting the main body shell of its standard glue kit. Instead, it tooled a new kit that strikes a good compromise between the two. With 68 parts (versus the 93 of the standard kit), this kit offers most of the detail of its big brother, but some details are a bit more robust (and thus less fragile). In most cases, the extra material is placed so that it's not immediately obvious from normal viewing angles. For example, some of the front suspension parts are too tall, but about right in width.
Most parts feature tabs for positive location, and the only fit problem I found was on the upper radiator hose - you'll need to bend it a bit to clear the engine braces. There was no flash, and most sprue stubs and parting lines cleaned up easily. The chassis parts come molded in black, gray, and metallic silver, and the instructions recommend a bit of detail painting, mainly on the roll cage padding.
I chose to airbrush all the chassis parts, most in Polly Scale gray undercoat (the actual car uses a gloss gray, but glossy frames on models look odd to me) with Polly Scale black and Testor Acryl steel and silver accents. For the headers and exhaust, I airbrushed Testor Metalizer Buffing Titanium over the steel, fading to steel at the rear (and black inside the exhaust box). For references, I used the instruction sheet from the standard Revell-Monogram kit of the #18, the box photo, and photos from the Joe Gibbs Racing website, along with some guesses (most of which are, I fear, wrong).
I did depart from the instructions by adding both the right and left side cage pieces before painting the frame, but I left the center cage pieces and the engine out until afterward. I also painted yellow on the outer edge of each rim, using a Gunze Sangyo Gundam marker, and I airbrushed the underside of the hood gray. Though the kit comes with a driver figure (complete with sponsor decals), I didn't add it, because it's so large that the helmet rubs against the cage.
The body is the highlight of the kit, with three overprinted colors on the green plastic. The green appears to be a bit dark, though I didn't have a paint chip to compare it with. The black edging of the windows had been masked and sprayed from the inside by Revell, too. The shape of the body is very close to that of the most recent Grand Prix race cars, with their straighter back windows and boxier rear bumpers.
My sample was crisply and smoothly painted, with only a few tiny specks of dirt. I did not attempt to polish the finish, but I did use a paint marker to color the bottom of the body and parts of the fender edges black. I also lightly brushed silver on the hood and trunk pins. The decals went on smoothly over the glossy body, but be aware that they release from the paper very, very quickly - hesitate and you'll be fishing them out of the water. The black and white decal on the front air dam should be black only, and it's a challenge to get it over the rivets. My decals were printed slightly out of register, so a number of the sponsor decals have a white line to the left.
I spent approximately 16 hours on my model, and it captures the spirit of a Winston Cup racer. You could build it in about half the time if you painted only those parts that the instructions call out. On the other hand, if you spent a few more hours adding details, thinning some of the thicker parts, and doing some filler work at the roll cage joints, you could have something truly eye-catching - and still not have to break out the polishing kit.
Will prepainted car kits help thousands of new hobbyists make the jump from snap kits to molded-in-white glue kits? I hope so, but I can't say for sure. What I can say with certainty is that building this kit was enjoyable enough that the next time I'm looking for a fun break from longer projects, I'll look for another ProFinish NASCAR kit.