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AMT/Ertl 2006 Chevy Camaro


Mr. Metallic

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AMT/Ertl 2006 Chevy Camaro

Let me begin by saying this. This review is based on just what's in the box. I am planning on building this kit right away, so stay tuned for a buildup review. I have not seen the actual car in person, so any judgements of accuracy are solely based on the pictures I've seen of the concept car. That being said, lets get to it.

Well, lets start off with the first thing you see, the box. The layout is pretty nice, and the photography is well done. Unlike most of their offering the last few years, this box has multiple pictures of different areas of the car so you can see what you are getting(instead of the same picture repeated on every panel)

The body is very nice. While the pictures I've seen seem to show front fenders that are more pronounced than the ones in the kit, they still look good. The body itself is one peice except for the rear valence panel where the exhaust exits. Chrome body parts include the mirrors, wipers, exhaust tips, head and taillight bezels, gas cap and chevy bowtie for the grille. The two front grilles are seperate, but are molded in body color. Taillight lenses are clear red, and there are clear headlight bulbs hidden behind clear covers.

The engine builds up a bit differently than your average kit. The bottom of the transmission and oil pan are molded together. The top of the tranny and engine block/cylinder heads, and front cover all mount to the oil pan peice. Seperate fan belt, fan, chrome valve covers and chrome exhaust headers come next. Last of all is the intake plenum/cover. It looks a little flat, but I will reserve judgement until it is installed on the engine.

The interior builds up platform style with the center console molded onto the floorpan. Front buckets seats and the rear bench are all 2 peice units. The side panels seem kind of bland style-wise, but I have not seen pics of the real cars door panels, so for now they look pretty good. The dash has odd looking molded guage faces, but that's OK because there are decals to cover them. There is a sperate column and steering wheel, pedal assembly and stick shifter.

Wheels and tires are really nice looking. Kudos to AMT for tooling the attchment points for the wheels on the back instead of the front so the rims wont need to be touched up. Big diameter 5 spoke wheels mount into very low profile tires with an agressive tread pattern.

The chassis is very well engraved, but most of the parts that attatch to it seem kind of rounded off or soft in detail. That may be prototypical. The front wheels look like they could be poseable with minimal work. Disc brakes with molded in calipers mount on all four corners. The interior attaches positivly to the chassis, very similar to the way Revell did with their '05 Mustang. It very nice to have the positve location feature, lets hope it locates as well in the body as the Mustangs did. The one peice exhaust system looks OK.

The underhood area is a seperate peice that mounts to the body. The engraved detail on the 2 peice radiator is VERY nice! The shock tower brace and windsheild washer bottle are the only seperate peices under the hood. The side glass is seperate parts, giving the builder the option of windows up or down. The front and rear glass are attached together and mount inside the body ala old school tooling techniques. I'm not sure if the real car has flush fitting glass like most new cars do, so before I start my buildup I'll have to research this some more and see if it is feesible on the model if accuracy necessitates it. The decal sheet is very small and not very clearly registered however.

Overall I am pretty impressed with this kit, which I haven't been with an AMT/Ertl kit in quite some time. Most of the parts are pretty well engraved, and the detail level and parts breakdown ranges from acceptable to pretty good. I'm gonna start working on a buildup right away, so hopefully within a couple weeks I'll have it finished. Stay tuned.

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Thanks for the review Craig!

This is turning out to be one of my favorite cars/concepts of the decade so far....................can't wait till the real deal shows up for '09!

I have a ton 'o pics of the interior if you need them (also some super secret CAD drawings of the chassis ...........SHHHHH!!). If you need them PM me and I'll send them to you. :)

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I guess the front fenders are correct. Rest of the body looks pretty spot on too.

06-07camaro-17.jpg

Engine cover looks right too, although there doesn't seem to be anything to fill the gap between the radiator and the plenum in the kit. I guess I will find out during assembly.

06-07camaro-13.jpg

06-07camaro-18.jpg

I might change my grille to this setup

topban.jpg

Follow this link to nice pics of the 2 concept cars

http://www.fastcoolcars.com/06-07camaro.htm

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Thanks for the review and pics of the parts! I need to get one of these soon, one of my favorite new concepts in a long time.

I live about an hour and a half from Dyersville, thats why my LHS got theirs yesterday. Everyone else should have them next week, depending on their distributor

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Kit looks great. The engine block looks like the genero setup in the Chrysler 300 and Escalade. The heads and induction are changed as the others. As in the others, the block is lost in the engine bay wiith the induction covers and everything, but think really hard if you want to use the engine in something else that is visible.

I'll research it some later.

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I just picked up my kit today at our club meeting. Very nice kit overall............my only complaint is that in my kit, the spokes on the wheels have those annoying sink marks in them! :)

Oh well, guess it's time to get out the putty or Mr. Surfacer.......:wink:

The body is spot on as Craig described, but the rest of the details are okay..................not Tamiya like in definition, but should build up into a very nice replica of the show car.

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  • 2 weeks later...

in a couple of years 1:1 examples of this car will be up on blocks in front of the towns finest shacks and meth houses just like its predecessors currently are.

is there a gas station anywhere in the usa without a battered camaro somewhere in the vicinity? ive yet to see one.

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Santa brought me a Camaro kit today... Me and my 13y/o daughter will try to build up this and her planned Yenko camaro in the next week or so.

First impression... nice kit overall, with what looks to be good engineering for parts fit and such. What really dissappoints me, though, are the sink mark all over the body and hood. Its gonna take some time and putty to fill those in! I also realized those side marker lights aren't bad panel lines, just bad side markers!

I'll keep everybody filled in on the buildup... Plan is Tamiya bright orange, black stripes, Nellis Rallyes, (if I have time) grill change like the concept drawing shown earlier... We'll see how it works out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got my Camaro kit a few days ago. I did the subassemblies on the road, and now that I'm home, I'm trying to get the thing built.

I had a couple of very small sink holes on the hood, so small I was able to block sand them off without filler. The rest of the body seemed fine, just a couple faint mold lines and a tiny bit of flash. Everything fit like it was supposed to throughout the build!

Even though it's probably incorrect, I painted the engine orange, for a nostalgic touch, and to give the engine compartment a little color.

I dullcoated all the chrome, it was just too shiny for my taste. The plating was nice, though, if a person wanted to leave it that way.

My biggest complaint was the instruction sheet. They give you a big color key on the front page, but there isn't a single color call out in the sequence! Also, there are parts that shouldn't be glued, like the ball joints and the inside sleeve on the spindles. But the instruction sheet shows nothing indicating this. Neither is a big thing to an experienced modeler, but it could be discouraging to a novice!

I'm painting mine with Testor's Model Master lacquer, Hugger Orange, I plan to put the stripes on it, but haven't decided whether black or white.

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  • 1 month later...

The lines on the front fenders (the body separation lines) should go from the side marker light to the front fender opening, no big thang tho'. Kinda disappointed with all of the sink marks in the body, some are in bad spots, like the ones along the bottom of the rear spoiler. Also where does the trunk lid end? at the top of the tail lights or what? I haven't seen a rear picture that showed this, so I have yet to scribe it in.

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  • 2 weeks later...

VEHICLE: 2006 Chevrolet Camaro concept

KIT MANUFACTURER: AMT

PRICE PAID: $8.99

KIT #: 38467

SCALE: 1/25

YEAR PRODUCED: 2007

CURBSIDE OR FULL DETAIL: Full detail

OVERALL RATING 1-5: 3

(1 being lowest, 5 being highest):

The kit comes with gray styrene, clear, red, and chrome sprues. One decal sheet is included with car emblems and licence plates. The stripes on mine were robbed from one of my '69 Camaro kits. Initial inspection of the kit shows a pretty clean new mold that I only needed my "fine" (600-800 grit) sanding stick to remove mold lines. There is flash on a couple small parts (easily removed), and sink marks in the tire rim spokes which was a bit disappointing. The seat halves didn't fit well either, but it's nothing a spot of putty and a little sanding can’t fix. The body did have a couple mold lines at the bottom rear corner of the side windows that are not in a convenient spot, but not impossible to remove either. Overall fit of the kit is great. The only trouble spots came when I went to mount the motor in the chassis. The headers were too long and caused the engine not to sit flush. Cutting the end of the headers back slightly cured this problem. The other issue with fit comes with the chassis and body on final assembly. The chassis does not fit tight, and slides front to back, but can be set in place. Again, not a huge issue, but something one wouldn't expect from a new tool kit. The engine/engine bay are very simplistic, but it’s a concept car and 1:1 photos showed the same and is accurate. The interior is simplistic also, but with some paint, can be dressed up without issue.

Overall, I would recommend this kit as something for a beginner or experienced builder. The kit does have a ton of potential. AMT could include a set of rally stripes for the kit, seeing's that many builds I've seen of this kit have them.

DSC02282.jpg

06Camaro1.jpg

06Camaro3.jpg

06Camaro4.jpg

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Nice clean build there Mike... what was your last name?

Please refer to the forum rules and post your name in the signature box found in your profile section.

Other than that you build very nice and have a good sense of color. I suggest you might take better pictures with more light and a steadier hand. Try a tripod or... set your camera on closeup mode. Either way, sharper pictures will better show off your very clean building style.

Welcome to MCM Forums.

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Nice clean build there Mike... what was your last name?

Please refer to the forum rules and post your name in the signature box found in your profile section.

Other than that you build very nice and have a good sense of color. I suggest you might take better pictures with more light and a steadier hand. Try a tripod or... set your camera on closeup mode. Either way, sharper pictures will better show off your very clean building style.

Welcome to MCM Forums.

Last name is added. :D I do plan on building a photo box where I can get clean photos and lighting consistently. That is something on the top priority list for sure.

Thank you for the kind comments on the build also. It is much appreciated.

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