tim boyd

The "hangers" in this case were like coat hangers, and each one held a sleeve of clear plastic with all the parts runners for a given mold inside. Round 2 had apparently contracted for an extremely well qualified individual to go through the tooling bank and run test shots of everything there. 

(Reportedly this same exercise revealed all the parts of the original AMT California Hauler kit, which were welded off in the Peterbilt 352 cabover tool (e.g., it was actually a shared tool incorporating individual parts for the 359, individual parts for the 352, and parts common to both kits.  As most of you know well, the California Hauler 359 was rumored to have been scrapped decades ago.) 

 The pictures I saw clearly showed most of the components of the funny car version of the '64 Olds.    TIM

I can't even begin to imagine putting this kit together in under one day and having it turn out like this.  Amazing!   TIM

 

PART 4: HEADER PANEL and GRILLE SURROUND AREA

 

This one takes a little more skill and time than the first three but really pays off in appearance.

 

Take a look at the body with the grille in it. Notice how the grill is surrounded on top and both sides by a flat area that would be almost an inch thick in real life. The real First Gen Camaros have nothing like this--the fenders and the header panel (the sheetmetal between the front fenders) taper down to almost a knife-edge in this area. The original AMT '67 and MPC '68 Camaro annual kits did NOT have this flaw, they were shaped correctly here, as is the Revell '69 Camaro, both glue and snap kits (trivia fact: all First Gen Camaros, '67 through '69, used the same header panel--exactly the same sheetmetal here). If you have the Revell '69 Camaro kit, take a look at it and you'll see what this edge SHOULD look like.

 

Here's how the flat spot looks on the finished original model, and in case it's not clear enough what I mean, I've also marked this ugly "flat face" area on a nekkid body with my trusty Sharpie. See it now? That whole area needs to be sharpened up.

 

 

 

What needs to be done, of course, is simple and obvious, but does require a good eye and some carefull skill. The affected areas can be tapered down MUCH easier if you aren't interested in saving the header panel Camaro emblem or the emblems at the front of the fenders (if you're using PE emblems or decals, or just cleaning them off completely), but just to see what could be done, I elected on this one to try to work around and save the emblems. This means I had to get all my taper into the most forward .060" or so, where it really should be spread out over the whole length of the header panel and corresponding area on the fender tips (about a quarter inch). If you're willing to lose the emblems, yours will look even better than mine.

 

I removed plastic by scraping with an Xacto knife (which gave me better control than sanding, especially on the fender sides), and then finished up with a foam-backed fingernail sanding stick, which turned out to be a simply wonderful tool for the job. These two pics will show where I removed and tapered the plastic around the grille. Study pics of the real car and/or the Revell '69 body to see what you're going for--and as I said, if you're losing the emblems, this job will be not only much easier and quicker but will look even better.

 

 

 

And here's the finished, "sharpened" front end, repainted and reassembled. Doesn't show up all that well in the primer gray, but it will really "pop" with a finished shiny paint job--and it will really make your model stand out on the club or contest table from all the unmodified AMT Camaros around it. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

 

Now, doesn't that look much more like a REAL '67-'68 Camaro than the kit body you started with?

 

 

 

Four most excellent upgrades...errr....corrections, Richard!  Thanks for sharing....TIM 

Lotsa truth in your post, Chris!  TIM

PS - If AMT/Ertl had done it when they announced their version, it would have been done extremely well to the 95% level and then stopped there, as it always seemed to me that many of the kits of the late AMT/Ertl/early RC era were excellent efforts that were taken out of the oven before they were quite done.....TB

Harry...I don't know the history of this kit, but is it one that saw life previously under the Entex label in the mid 1970's?  If so, I can only imagine what you had to do to make it look this sharp....and it does looks terrific.  Congratulations!    TIM