the other Mike S.

Well, you can probably just assemble it "as is" since it's basically a snap kit molded in an off-white color I've been told. Then, if you want to add paint and detail it later, you can take it apart and do it that way. That's what I'm going to do when I get mine. It'll still look good built up from what you get in the box. At least, I hope so.

They do look much better when detailed up like that. Back in the day, I thought about converting the MPC '82--'84 Camaro Z28 wheels to the '85-'87 IROC style by modifying them. Unfortunately, I never got around to it. The MPC kit wheels would be a better choice because they would scale out to what a 16" rim would look like. Why do I say this? If you look at the "custom" wire mesh wheel option in the early MPC Firebird kits, they were used for the "stock" wheel option in the '87-'92 Firebird GTA kits. The '82-'84 Camaro Z28 wheels and the custom/GTA style wheels are the same diameter when you place them back to back on each other. So, the stock Z28 wheels in the '82-'84 Camaro MPC kits were actually what a 16" wheel would look like, not a 15" wheel. Another thing that bothered me back in the day, but that's another story for another day. lol!. However, if they were modified to the IROC style rim, they would look almost exactly perfect for a 16" wheel. Actually, I'm surprised no resin caster has ever offered a '85-'87 IROC style wheel based on the old '82-'84 Z28 wheels.

Don't worry, they're making money on it. Whether or not they choose to use some of those profits to bring out another "refurbished" new/old tool remains to be seen.

It's not really being a 1/25 scale snob, it's just what I prefer. 1/24 is fully catered to by Tamiya and others. What we need is more new tooling in 1/25. Revell was making serious inroads into that scale before the Hobbico implosion and then the consolidation of operations back to Germany. Hopefully, their U.S. arm will offer more 1/25 scale subjects, but the decisions will have to come from Germany.

I thought it was a new tool. Thanks.

It's too bad Johan never did that generation of DeVille.

Nice Monte's! I like the Cowl Induction hood on the copper one!

It's a shame MPC never did those Iroc-Z wheels correctly. The promo was even worse because they just used the old Z28 style wheels from '86-'90 on those models. The kit and promo were unique for '85. They had those style wheels on them. They were fairly accurate except for the way too thick rim bead/edge near the tire. If they made that thinner, they would look pretty decent. Except for the Pegasus "IROC's", which are a little too large in diameter for a stock size, no one has made a decent looking "factory sized" wheel for those cars.

I wish that '70 Firebird was 1/25th scale. Considering that is an American subject, I'm surprised they went with 1/24th scale instead of 1/25.

So, elements from the original 153 cid I4 were used in it's design. It's a common mistake to make unless you read the hemmings article. However, the second half of the statement is correct so I'm half right. Actually, to be honest with you, I wasn't necessarily thinking that the Iron Duke was in the '68-'70 Nova, just a 4cyl engine of similar displacement that was available in the Chevy II back then. I guess it came out different when I wrote it.

Even when those so-called mom and pop hobby shops were around, I usually didn't buy anything from them due to their extreme price mark up on models kits. There were only about 2, in the whole area, that had competitive prices. Most of the time, I went to Kmart, WoolWorths, Kaybee, and a few other big box stores to buy my kits. Their prices were much more reasonable and affordable.

Yeah, it's a hodge podge because of the parts they were able to put back in and others that were forever changed when they updated the annual tooling. The rear bumper is the '82-'83 annual updated in '84 with the "Knight" script molded to the license plate area. The original PMD seats and the '82-'83 style dashboard/steering wheel were saved fortunately. The original flat hood in the early annuals and the original issue Knight Rider kit was converted to the Trans Am style hood in '85. The two glass shots, both tinted and clear, in the lastest reissue is great though. The featureless blank red tail light panel in original Knight Rider kit must have been converted over to the convex style tail light panel in the '85 annual because that's all we get in the Knight Rider reissues that followed.

Well..the Knight Rider Kitt reissue is basically the AMT Firebird GTA. In '88 or so, the body was modified with body side moldings added to the sides. GTA emblems were added to the C-pillar and the front fenders. The Trans Am style lower fender vents were eliminated. Other than those things, the body was basically the same from '82 to '92, except of course for the T-tops that were added in '83, and the one year only "notchback" hardtop GTA kit for '89. Also, in '87 or so, a small triangle piece was added to the lower A-pillar between the pillar and the door. That's the nice thing about these kits. They're very modular. You can change the front rear bumpers, hood, GFX, rear wing and wheel/tires and you can make several different model years out of the same kit. You can't do that with the MPC Camaro Z28/Iroc-Z kit because the ground effects and the front bumper was molded to the body. For the interior, the center console, door panels and the rear seat pattern were updated to the GTA style in '88. Since the early style front seats and dash/steering wheel are separate items, I guess the tooling for those items were saved because we saw them come back in the Knight Rider Kitt reissue along with the early style '82-'84 rear bumper.

Those 1/8 scale kits were pretty good. Would love to see Revell do a limited run of the '85 Iroc-z again someday. Ebay prices are getting expensive. The only thing I didn't like about them was the area in the middle of the front bumper between the headlights where the emblem is located . The middle part didn't have as much of a pronounced V-shape as the real car did. You could somewhat fix it by pressing the area behind the bumper outward with your fingers, but the shape would flatten back out again as soon as you released pressure. The only way to permanently fix it is to use the boiling water trick to get it to stay in shape while pressing it outward with your fingers from behind.

Don't forget the '68-'70 Nova. Also, it was the base engine for '82-'85 Camaro/Firebird and of course the Fiero.

I know this generation has received a lot of flak about being too big, but they sure had some beautiful smooth lines on them. The designers did a great job. It looks much better than the Pinto-Stang that came out for '74 IMO.

Round 2 probably got a good deal on some neon green plastic pellets for their tooling operation. First it was the Jolly "Green" Gasser '65 Galaxie and now this car. lol!

Yes, I like that kit. They also made a "notchback" version that year too. The body cavity was filled in under the rear hatch area and the sail panels were molded to the C-pillar on the body. On the real car, the notchback was incorporated into the rear hatch lid where the rear window glass would normally be. It's interestng that AMT/ERTL would spend the money to modify the MPC body tooling for a one year only model kit. Perhaps they were hoping GM would continue the notchback option for several more years. As it was, it was a one year only option in '89.

Even with no interior, I wish this one could've been built stock.

Wow... I guess we can return to hope again that it might include the correct smaller '71 style front bumper. I can't wait.

Good grief! I'd hate to be part of the recovery team who had to stack that mess back up again. lol!

Thanks for sharing. Not too bad. It still doesn't look like it arcs down as much (after the front wheelwell opening) as the MPC kit or the real car pic a few posts up.

Are the supply chains coming from China still a factor?

How's the front fender curve on that one?

I'd have to go with MPC for 1/25th and Monogram for 1/24th scale. Several problems with the MPC kit though. They had a very crude engine compartment and a non flushfront window glass. The chassis was fairly good, but it had no torque arm or panhard bar for the rear axle. The dashboard sat at an odd angle when assembled inside the interior. So, it takes a bit of effort to fix it up to look more realistic. The wheels are good and the 60 series style BFG's looked similar to the Eagle GT's the real cars had in the early years. By '89, AMT/Ertl finally tooled up a set of 50 series Goodyear "gatorback" tires which looked much better than the now incorrect "skinny" BFG's. The tread detailing on the wide Goodyears was excellent, but the sidewall detailing left a lot to be desired. Still, they look a lot better than the BFG's on the later Iroc-Z and GTA model kits. My biggest pet peeve with the MPC based kits was the way the interior glass fit inside the body cavity. When you assemble the glass inside the body, it creates a 1-2" scale gap between the surface of the glass and the surface of the front windshield header surround on the body. The Monogram 1/24th kit looks much better in this area because the glass is mounted to be more flush compared to the MPC kit. However, the side window profile curve looked a little too flat near the roof line compared to the real car. The MPC kit wasn't much better, but the T-top roof style on the '83-'92 kits hid a lot of the problems they had in this area. Back in the day, I was hoping AMT/Ertl would finally retool the interior glass to fit more flush like the Monogram kit. Instead, they retooled the promo hardtop glass with a single large runner inside so it wouldn't sag down like the dual runner glass did on the promo models. I believe the interior glass in the kits still used the old dual runner setup since the runners were usually separated for the T-tops when assembled.