Thank you for the reference - I was able to borrow a copy of the Anatomy of the Ship edition on the Queen Mary and it was very useful. Good news is that other than the radar mast and the stabilizers there were few major external changes to the QM post-war. Her major 1946/47 refit was largely oriented to restoring her interiors following the massive changes required to enable her to carry as many as 15,000 soldiers. The only major external repair during the refit was to her bow, so it should be relatively easy to back date the kit to 1938.
Other than the lack of detail below the waterline, Revell's tool makers did a very good job in following the blueprints and there are no major "goofs" that I have found. Like any kit, there seem to be some areas (including the mating of the bridge structure to the rest of the superstructure) that may need some careful work. One of the "throwback" features of the QM compared to the Normandie and the Queen Elizabeth, is the use of external stays on the funnels and my first thought is that stretched sprue may be the way to go here but will glady take any suggestions from folks who have worked in 1:570 and 1:600.
Interestingly, I found a source (The Last Atlantic Liners by William H. Miller, Vanwell Publishing Ltd.) that reports that the Queen Elizabeth (with essentially the same turbines, but with fewer boilers) reached 36.25 knots for a brief time during the war. It makes you wonder if Cunard might have been able to coax a faster passage out of the QM after the war, but I guess they saw no point in competing with their own record and once the SS United States captured the record in 1952, it was out of reach.
Will post some pictures as I get underway (probably next week when it cools off a bit here).