Chris in Berwyn Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 I bought this kit about a year ago. I was relocating from San Francisco back east, and figured I could get everything painted, then assemble it while I was in temporary housing. Well, this was not the right kit for that type of build. Turns out, unlike Revell’s funny cars of the era, the front and rear ends of the body contain parts of the front and rear fenders – sort of like someone took a sawzall to the body about 10 real-life inches from the front and rear ends. So you have to glue them on (it’s a butt-joint, so I had to make my own locating tabs) then putty and sand to blend things in. The kit is interesting in several ways. It appears to have been designed based on someone’s memory of what a Mustang II funny car looks like, as opposed to the real thing. The body proportions are a bit off, and the chassis rides too high off the ground. Several parts are undersized. The header tubes are too small a diameter, the fuel tank is too small, the driveshaft is about the same diameter as a piece of thin spaghetti, and the fire extinguishers are tiny. It struck me as a little odd that at the same time Revell was tooling up some really accurate funny cars, AMT was tooling this car and some others in the same series. The model is missing a few key parts that I suspect Larry Fullerton would have found useful. There is no gas pedal, no shifter, no clutch, and just a hand brake. Larry would also be surprised to see a Donovan 417 up front, as he used a 426 Chrysler. I am glad I built it. It is nice to have a Mustang II even if it isn’t quite right. A couple tips a about building it: 1) it will be easiest to decal if you fill in the back window with plastic flush to the rest of the body as the pink decals are part on the body and part on the window. I didn’t do this, so had some gaps to fill where there was no pink. Fortunately I had a bottle of Model Master Acryl Hot Pink Pearl (4640.) It is about a perfect match for the decals. The decals are not pearl, but given how little paint I had to use it doesn’t matter. Also, the dark decals are shown as black on the box, but when you use them, they are really a very dark blue. I had already painted the rear of the car black, so I left it that way. But for touchup work, Model Master Black and Blue Pearl (decanted from a spray can in my case) was the perfect touchup color (again, not enough was used that the pearl makes a difference.) If I build this again, I’d drill locating holes for the spoiler in the body and insert some pins in the spoiler before painting it. I had to trim the tinwork where it butts against the windshield to get it to fit, so be sure to test fit this piece. Lastly, I used a Johan injector scoop as the one in the kit is a bit strangely designed. By the way, for the silver paint, I used Testor’s One Coat Diamond Dust, with one coat clear over the paint and decals. I'd have taken a few more pictures, but as you can see a cat invaded the space where I was taking the pix! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragin70s Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Very nice, and thanks for the helpful info and tips regarding this kit. I just recently picked it up thinking I might use the body for a Blue Max build, but after your review on it I'll probably just get a CR body. I hadn't done a parts check, so very interesting to hear the omissions. Heck, not sure what I'll do with this thing now haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Model looks good. Love the cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintagercr Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Turned out great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr mopar Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Chris nice build ........... but the real car is purple not dark blue .cute kitty what's it's name ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'70 Grande Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Considering the faults with this kit, your build looks excellent! I'm intrigued by the tailights on this build; were those on the decal sheet? (Apparently all cats think they need to be the center-of-attention; i know mine does!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PARTSMARTY Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Looks great !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in Berwyn Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 12 hours ago, Mr mopar said: Chris nice build ........... but the real car is purple not dark blue .cute kitty what's it's name ? I think the kits decals are based on the car shown in the first TH pic from this post: That car has the US Navy decals that are on the kit sheet, along with the black patches on the wheel bumps, which are also on the kit sheet. It looks like it has dark blue paint, but I’ve not seen another picture of that version of the TH, so AMT picked a seemingly obscure version to replicate. Why they show black paint on the box art is a good question! I think the purple would look cooler, but I wasn’t trying to build the perfect replica. The cat is named Andy, after Andy Williams, as the cat loves to sing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in Berwyn Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, '70 Grande said: Considering the faults with this kit, your build looks excellent! I'm intrigued by the tailights on this build; were those on the decal sheet? (Apparently all cats think they need to be the center-of-attention; i know mine does!) Thanks for the compliment. Yes, the taillight decals are on the kit sheet. And he is a good cat! Edited January 13, 2018 by Chris in Berwyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hmann68 Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Nice work and great paint work too! Cool cat! I've got one who helps me a lot at the model bench. I trim, sand and paints the parts, and she knocks them off the table onto the floor. It's a good system ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Van Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Nice clean work......but forgive me if I like your helper better!!!! I have a few of those!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyfink Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 That is one cool cat and you did one great build of a rather clunky kit. I remember building Revell funny cars at the time and then doing the AMT kits, I was quite amused at how clunky and far off they where from the Revell kits. But, I was glad, and still am, to have them in my collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Caballo Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 (edited) I love the model; Andy seems less enthusiastic. Edited January 18, 2018 by El Caballo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicmustang Posted January 18, 2018 Share Posted January 18, 2018 (edited) On 1/13/2018 at 8:05 AM, Chris in Berwyn said: I think the kits decals are based on the car shown in the first TH pic from this post: That car has the US Navy decals that are on the kit sheet, along with the black patches on the wheel bumps, which are also on the kit sheet. It looks like it has dark blue paint, but I’ve not seen another picture of that version of the TH, so AMT picked a seemingly obscure version to replicate. Why they show black paint on the box art is a good question! I think the purple would look cooler, but I wasn’t trying to build the perfect replica. The cat is named Andy, after Andy Williams, as the cat loves to sing! This is why I scan these threads daily. To get helpful info on how to improve a kit. As per your suggestions and iBorg I have been hard at work trying to improve the AMT Trojan Horse kit I have. I have fitted in a rear window flush, same with the front windshield (my idea and a lot of sanding), sanded down some the front wheel bumps, straighten some the lower side panels (iBorg suggestion), raised the rear axle mounting point to lower the stance (my idea), added a '70's Revell funny car drive shaft, added 426 heads and valve covers, added thicker headers, widened the fuel cell, found a gas pedal, cluch pedal, shift lever and better fire extinguisher from the parts box. Now if it will warm up some (9 degrees yesterday morning in Plano,Tx), I can start to paint. Thanks guys for the helpful advise. Edited January 19, 2018 by magicmustang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fun_E_Car Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 On 1/12/2018 at 7:46 PM, Mr mopar said: Chris nice build ........... but the real car is purple not dark blue .cute kitty what's it's name ? The original Trojan Horse Mustang II was black and silver. It had burnt top the ground and the one that replaced it was Purple and Silver. This kit was based off of the original car. --Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoopdog Posted January 19, 2018 Share Posted January 19, 2018 Great looking model. Cat's giving us the eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Very very sharp! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedly Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 I agree with your comments about this kit. I bought it a few years ago thinking it would be a nice kit. You did a good job with a difficult kit. I used the chassis and made an altered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in Berwyn Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 I looked pretty hard for reference pics of the version of The Trojan Horse AMT used for its decals and only found the one I linked to above. Now that I have finished the kit, I found two more pics on Bangshift. One shows this car rides really low. I could have lowered mine at least some had I found these pics. Anyway, they may be helpful to others. This is the link where the pics came from: https://bangshift.com/bangshift-galleries/gallery/more-epic-historical-photos-from-new-england-dragway-more-jungle-more-awesome-floppers-etc/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoparMark Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Great job and fantastic build! I to ran into the same underwhelment of the AMT kit. I absolutely loved the car so I decided to do a remake for myself. I did the box stock version and what I saw as a truer version which AMT could of saved me the trouble many years ago. Again great job on a tough kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in Berwyn Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 (edited) I looked at these when I was getting ready to build mine. The one you did looks really good - especially your approach to your own "gelcoat" finish! I used Revell front tires which to my eye looked better than the kit fronts, although they ended up really dropping the front spoiler low! Edited January 24, 2018 by Chris in Berwyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3men2s Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 OUTSTANDING!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooOld Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 I think it turned out just fine Chris , especially with that Diamond dust paint ! Even with all of the kits faults it still builds into a decent model and it's got really nice wheels and tires . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragcarz Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Could you show a more detailed pic of the front axle/suspension on the modified version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Coyote Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Absolutely stunning build Chris. Your work is amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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