AMT Mako Shark

[Snake45]

I'm getting an urge to build the AMT snapper Mako Shark (the original, not the more famous MPC Mako Shark II). Anyone built this and have any particular thoughts on it, good or bad?

Only reason I haven't built it before is I don't like the panel lines. They're too wide to respond well to my standard scribing treatment. I've decided to just live with them as is. Or maybe I'll run flat black into them just since the body will be dark blue and the black won't look all that "stark" against it.

My plan is to strip the pre-sprayed silver (silver? Really?) off the lower body, then polish the rather nice metallic blue body, then airbrush the lower body in Floquil Reefer White.

My research shows what seems to be two different paint jobs on the real one--first, a lighter blue with the white coming up almost to the centerline, then later, a darker blue like the kit plastic with much less white. I'll be going the second way.

[espo]

I remember a story going around when the 1:1 first hit the show circuit, that the reason for the paint scheme was based on a shark that someone had gotten while fishing in Florida.     

[kustomkat1]

Story is Bill Mitchell caught a Mako Shark while fishing in Florida & had it mounted. When the car was built, he wanted the paint to reflect the color scales of the Mako Shark. After numerous times all rejected by Mitchell, the painters stole the fish from his office & painted it to match the car. He was ecstatic that they finally got the color of the car correct. 

Edited July 9, 2016 by kustomkat1

[MrObsessive]

I wonder if the color change of the paint was made when they put in the newer engine (427)? I had that kit years ago Richard, and somewhere along the line it got lost in a move.

I'll be watching as I've always liked this car! Call me weird, but to me the car looked absolutely sharp with that clear bubbletop that was on the original! Too bad AMT didn't include that with their rendition.

[Snake45]

I wonder if the color change of the paint was made when they put in the newer engine (427)? I had that kit years ago Richard, and somewhere along the line it got lost in a move.

I'll be watching as I've always liked this car! Call me weird, but to me the car looked absolutely sharp with that clear bubbletop that was on the original! Too bad AMT didn't include that with their rendition.

They didn't, but I think Franklin or Danbury Mint did one that did. I'm thinking of trying to fit a top to it--dunno if a '57 or '62 top might work, and I might even see if the tops from the Cobra or '57 T-Bird might be adapted. Won't be able to perfectly match the kit's sparkly blue plastic, but it might look okay in black "vinyl." It'll be removable, anyway, so if I don't like how it works out, no harm, no foul.

Was playing around with the body last night next to a Revell '63 snapper roadster I'm also working on. It's so much longer that at first I thought they might be different scales (the Mako in 1/24?), but the widths and wheelbases are almost the same--the extra length is all in the nose of the Mako.

I'd eventually like to do a display I'd call The Sting Ray Story. It would start with a '62, then the Mako I, then all the '63-'67 Sting Rays, then the Mako II, and then a '68. Yes, I know the Mako II came in '65 and thus actually predates the '66 and '67 Corvettes, but my sequence flows better visually.

[MrObsessive]

Yup, I had the Franklin Mint one too once upon a time. Don't know what happened to that one---I believe I traded it for something, but don't remember for what!  

Interesting that the first Mako Shark was a "hybrid" of sorts. It previewed the upcoming styling for the '63 Stingray, but it still had ties to the old C1 gen with its chassis frame and basic architecture. I think an uptop would look pretty cool on it! I don't know if the original had a folding top, but if I were building it I'd have one for it to be "different". 

[Pete L.]

Fellas,

 I'd love to see the MPC Mako Shark reissued, I never had the kit as a kid and would like to get a shot at it before I get tooooooo old.  The auction site Mako Sharks are a bit out of range for me...

[Snake45]

Fellas,

 I'd love to see the MPC Mako Shark reissued, I never had the kit as a kid and would like to get a shot at it before I get tooooooo old.  The auction site Mako Sharks are a bit out of range for me...

It's been reissued several times as "Custom Street Corvette" or something of the sort. Unfortunately, they made some changes so it can't be built as an accurate replica of the real Mako Shark II. If the general shape will satisfy you, you should be able to score one of these reasonably.

If you MUST have an accurate MSII, look for a restorable glue bomb. All you really need from it is a good front clip, and the chrome trim associated with it. I don't think they made any changes to the main body, and the chassis and other parts should be the same as the Custom Street Vette, which can be used as a parts donor. I have exactly such a project sitting my Get To It Someday shelf. I think I can even use what's left over to do a phantom custom Mako, though it might be curbside or even slam.

[keyser]

The original had etched flush gas cap in same spot later issues had a raised hump for a non-flush gas cap. Also, the original issue had Mark IV on either side of hood bulge. The exhausts were full, all the way out the back, square tips. Later issues had side pipes. Seats didn't have molded in seatbelts. Wheels were the turbines with knockoffs. 

I agree a builder works. Wheels and exhaust most noticeable, sanding the gascap and scribing new flush one is easy. Great looking car. The snap Mako 1 was cool too.  The Mint car was the bubbletop shown. The silver car is the 59 Stingray concept that has never been done. THe Mako I was the non-bubble top open car. THen the Mako II is obviously last pic. 

[MrObsessive]

Sigh..............why oh why this car has been ignored by almost everyone confounds me still. True there's been some neat diecasts of this car, but you would think that since this is the car that was responsible for the production Stingray we've all come to know and love, you'd THINK that there'd be at least a kit made of it.

But no...............

 

[Snake45]

Sigh..............why oh why this car has been ignored by almost everyone confounds me still. True there's been some neat diecasts of this car, but you would think that since this is the car that was responsible for the production Stingray we've all come to know and love, you'd THINK that there'd be at least a kit made of it.

But no...............

 

I can't see sales justifying tooling up a mainstream kit of it, but I can definitely see someone doing a nice kit of it in resin.

On the other hand, many less significant and less important show cars and one-offs have been done in mainstream kits, so who knows?

Would I buy one? Maybe, maybe not, depending on its price and my mood on any given day. (It might fit nicely into my The Sting Ray Story collection.)

[Ace-Garageguy]

I recently bought a snapper Mako specifically to do a backdate to the silver XP-87 configuration. I picked up several  Accurate Miniatures Grand Sport kits missing the PE and details a ways back, cheap, so I'll probably use that chassis, and I really don't care if it's exactly correct underneath. The real car was built on a '57 SS development mule chassis, but I think the GS guts will make a fine stand-in. The minor scale differences aren't too bothersome, just a little tweaking here and there.

There's a '57 SS conversion in the works too. My Challenger I conversion a couple years back was the dry run for these two...lots of experimenting with techniques of scaling from photographs...and I was so pleased with the way that one came out, I figure why not go ahead with the two Corvette prototypes as well.

                                                            

Edited July 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Can-Con]

Speaking of photo etch, MCG makes a small set for the AMT snapper.

[MrObsessive]

Snake, MANY years ago (early '80's?) I did in fact have a resin '59 Stingray racer. I have no idea who made it, and by today's standards it would be a bit crude. It was strictly a curbside with no chassis detail whatsoever. The body shape IIRC, was dead on accurate------even to my somewhat new eyes to the hobby back in those days. 

I have no idea whatever happened to it. I know I never built it, and like a number of oddball items I had from years gone by, it may indeed have been traded for something.

[MrObsessive]

There's a '57 SS conversion in the works too. My Challenger I conversion a couple years back was the dry run for these two...lots of experimenting with techniques of scaling from photographs...and I was so pleased with the way that one came out, I figure why not go ahead with the two Corvette prototypes as well.

                                                            

OOOOH! That one is another one of my favorite '50's racers from GM! IIRC, Aardvark Models did a resin one way back when. I think it even had the bubble top like your pic shows. Except for Andy's version, I've never seen one built up for display, so I'd be more than interested to see how yours comes out!

 

[keyser]

Yessir, the Stingray, the 57 SS, and the Buick Y-job have been completely ignored by resin casters. Andy did the SS way back in the infancy of resin IIRC, and the built up I've seen was gorgeous. I have some other stuff of his, and it's always nice. 

I have a Mako I set aside as well Bill. Expect you're closer than I to doing something with it, and it's the closest we have. It was painted red and in an Elvis movie too, so double hit. Curbside would be great, or even a resin brick at this point. 

I've got that P/E set, it should help with both I and II. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

... I'd be more than interested to see how yours comes out!

 

At the rate I've been building, it shouldn't be more than another 20 years or so.

The XP-87 is a lot easier, obviously, than the '57 SS. Lotsa sculpting to do for the SS, and even though it's unmistakably a C1 Corvette, every panel is really entirely different.

          

Edited July 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Mark]

Sigh..............why oh why this car has been ignored by almost everyone confounds me still. True there's been some neat diecasts of this car, but you would think that since this is the car that was responsible for the production Stingray we've all come to know and love, you'd THINK that there'd be at least a kit made of it.

But no...............

 

A company called Scuderia Scale did this body in the early Sixties...in two pieces of vacuum-formed styrene!  It was sold as a slot car body, but I remember seeing an article on their products that mentioned using them for shelf-model builds like any other slot car body.  The two pieces join right where you'd expect them to, at the styling crease above the wheel openings that goes all the way around the car.  It's pretty well done for what it is (it was done with a "reverse mold" similar to the way I did some hoods years ago).  Still, I'd like to see how long an assembled one lasted as a slot car.  Mine is still in the package, but has one split in the lower body half at the top of the wheel opening...

[Snake45]

At the rate I've been building, it shouldn't be more than another 20 years or so.

The XP-87 is a lot easier, obviously, than the '57 SS. Lotsa sculpting to do for the SS, and even though it's unmistakably a C1 Corvette, every panel is really entirely different.

A lot of what I've been hacking on over the last several years have been skill and technique builders for trying to tackle making masters of some of the strikingly gorgeous cars that never got kitted. I didn't want to just jump into trying to do one of these until I had a pretty good idea I could actually pull it off, and I wanted to make sure whatever I built would be tough enough to not disintegrate during molding. I also didn't want to waste a lot of effort experimenting and have nothing to show for it, so several things I've scratchbashed have been leading up to building some of my real favorites from zip.

Two more, literally on my drawing board, are the old Redhead streamliner and one of the Chrysler-Ghia concepts from the early '50s

                

Aren't you the guy who usually complains about thread hijacking?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Aren't you the guy who usually complains about thread hijacking?

I deleted the apparently offensive material. Happy now? Feel free to delete it from the quote above as well.

This thread wasn't about any particular model being built at the moment, I didn't see any WIP shots, it's not in the WIP section (as far as I can tell), so I guess I didn't understand the etiquette regarding what seemed to me to be a reasonable digression, segueing into references to other "never kitted" vehicles.

The thread had already veered away from the Mako snapper to include references to the XP-87 and Mako II before I got here.

Digression has always seemed to me to be a part of just about any conversation I've ever participated in, and this conversation seemed to be including some digression. Digression in a thread I've started has never particularly bothered me, and I don't recall ever complaining about it...unless, once, said digression had been to go off on a tangent about some other modeler's work in a thread specifically about my own in-progress model.

My sincere and profound apologies for any discomfort or anxiety I may have caused. 

Edited July 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Pete L.]

Fellas,

 Here's where the paint scheme for the Mako Shark(s) came from...

Edited July 18, 2016 by Pete L.

[Snake45]

This thread wasn't about any particular model being built at the moment, I didn't see any WIP shots, it's not in the WIP section (as far as I can tell), so I guess I didn't understand the etiquette regarding what seemed to me to be a reasonable digression, segueing into references to other "never kitted" vehicles.

The thread had already veered away from the Mako snapper to include references to the XP-87 and Mako II before I got here.

. 

The thread was intended to be about one particular kit, and the opinions and observations of those who had built or at least examined it. I suppose a certain digression to the MSII and XP-whatever could be expected and semi-relevant, but that other stuff was just a digression too far, it seemed.

If we need yet another "Why Is There No Kit Of....?" thread, maybe someone will start one up in General.

We're good.

[Snake45]

Fellas,

 Here's where the paint scheme for the Mako Shark(s) came from...

Thanks for sharing.

[robertw]

Snake, MANY years ago (early '80's?) I did in fact have a resin '59 Stingray racer. I have no idea who made it, and by today's standards it would be a bit crude. It was strictly a curbside with no chassis detail whatsoever. The body shape IIRC, was dead on accurate------even to my somewhat new eyes to the hobby back in those days. 

I have no idea whatever happened to it. I know I never built it, and like a number of oddball items I had from years gone by, it may indeed have been traded for something.

There was also a vacuform kit of the Stingray Racer by a company called Scudaria Scale, I believe it was meant to be used over a slot car chassis. I suspect that the resin kit was based on the vacuform.

[unclescott58]

Yessir, the Stingray, the 57 SS, and the Buick Y-job have been completely ignored by resin casters. Andy did the SS way back in the infancy of resin IIRC, and the built up I've seen was gorgeous. I have some other stuff of his, and it's always nice. 

I have a Mako I set aside as well Bill. Expect you're closer than I to doing something with it, and it's the closest we have. It was painted red and in an Elvis movie too, so double hit. Curbside would be great, or even a resin brick at this point. 

I've got that P/E set, it should help with both I and II. 

What Elvis movie did the Mako Shark appear in, painted red?