Scale-Master

I wanted a set for my real '73 Camaro back then too, but they were out of my budget. Wonder what a nice set would be worth now?

Yes, that is one of the better info videos. You can see the difference between the first and other season cars in the two photos you shared.

This is the reissue of the older MPC kit. The IMC Avenger got me going on a kit-car kick and while the enamel paint on its body is curing I started on this. The original first season car bodies were inspired by (partially copied from?) the Manta Montage, and while this kit looks more like them than the second season cars (built off DeLoreans), it is not all that accurate. Plus there are not so subtle differences between the various cars. So I'm not too concerned about making an "exact replica" since this kit can't build one without a lot of work. I'll use the same basic curbside approach on this as I did on the Avenger (and the STP Turbine Lotus from a few months ago) due to the type of kits these are. The first step was to repair the defective edges of the engine cover and main body where they fit together. While the two parts looked OK, the edges were very soft and uneven. Filler was required to square up the faces that make the panel lines between them. Next was to get the little piece of the top of the engine cover (over the rear window) cleaned up, with all those annoying sink marks, and then fair it into the main section. Before I cemented the engine cover to the body I built up the basic tub and installed magnets to it and the body. Nothing at this point fit true or square so liquid cement was instrumental to allow adjustment for alignment. Now that I had a solid body to chassis mounting system I glued the engine cover to the front body section to be able to address the uneven issues where the upper and lower meet as well as the inconsistencies of the two upper body sections.

I was thinking of not using the side stripes. I have the decal sheet, but as old and rough as they are I can create cleaner ones if I decide to put them on.

I found an equally vintage bottle of never opened Testors enamel paint (1121 Green) that looks pretty close to Fiberfab Green. It had been sitting for decades and was clearly separated (green/white/carrier) so to really shake it up I put it in my sock for my morning run each day and mixed it for 30 miles. These older Testors paints still work very well. I used the same techniques on this as I used back in the '70s when I was building box art for the model companies with it; reduced with lacquer thinner (I don't claim to have "invented" that) and was pleased to see/smell/feel how well it dried in the first 24 hours. Now to let it cure for a while…

Thanks for the kind words and offer of parts guys! The rear window was missing from my kit so I made a new one from a leftover Monte Carlo stock car back window. (The real car used a '66 Mustang window, but I didn't want to sacrifice one from another kit even if it would fit.)

The headlights are supposed to be cemented to the body, but that makes them stand too proud and the outer ones would have to be moved more inward to compensate for the thickness of the headlight covers. I drilled out buckets/openings and tried to make the angled stagger the real cars have as much as possible to capture one aspect of the personality of the car.

It also came in a Korean War era plane kit, not that it makes it correct for that period.

Probably mid 50's to late 70's.

There are several Hasegawa & Hasegawa/MiniCraft airplane kits that come with these little tug/tractors. This one is 1/72nd scale and is less than 1 & ½ inches long. Built using Tamiya lacquers and basic weathering techniques over the course of a few evenings. I added a couple parts box decals too.

The suspension sits very high if built as it fits together. I lowered the front end almost ¼ of an inch and lowered the rear about 1/8 of an inch. I think I got the camber right on the rear.

The interior is actually pretty nice in this kit especially considering its age. The seats are well done as is the engraving on the door panels and the floor. But the steering wheels included are on the weak side. One is a stock 60's VW wheel and the other is a cheesy "dragster" wheel. Since the real cars use a little bit of Mustang, I swapped in a 1970 Mach I wheel. I made an adaptor to fit it to the stock steering shaft. I added aluminum tips to the exhaust, but left the engine as it builds.

While I was making the decals for the dash I also made Cragar S/S decals for the center caps too.

Turns out the taillights were not molded in clear red but factory painted by IMC and the paint was coming off. This is actually a good thing. A little 91% alcohol did a nice job of removing the paint (from both sides).

After I built up the engine I realized there really was no reason to make the rear hatch operational. But now I can finish the forming the rear panel. I added material to the bottom of the rear end while I blended the brass taillight bezels into the rear panel. I thought it would look better if the lenses were set in deeper so I cut out the openings.

It turned out the spotty chrome on the wheels was deeper than just the plating after I stripped them. I made a mold and cast new copies of the best one after I machined it to work with the 7075 aluminum outer rims I milled to fit the tires. These are the new wheels and tires.

I found a set of Pirelli tires in my stash from some Tamiya kit that looked like a good fit and upgrade. The mags from the kit fit OK in them too. But the plating on the wheels was spotty and splotchy.

Yes, it was based on a VW beetle chassis and engine.

Well, that would be a GT-15 (not a GT-12 as this is) and I believe that would use a Corvair chassis too. I'm not in the mood to CAD up a new engine for it; it's just a curbside.

I found a pair of wipers in the Tamiya Renault Re5 Turbo that looked about right. (Being a VW based car I checked the Tamiya Beetle wipers, but they are way too small. The windshields on the real cars were sourced from Corvairs but the wipers are molded into the body on the AMT kit I have so they weren't an option either.) I made resin copies and dyed them black when I cast them.

The wipers are nicely molded, but I don't like the look of molded in wipers… I'll probably either machine some posts and leave the wipers off or maybe source a set from the leftovers bin. The window frames were scribed in too.

The tires that had been feasting on both sides of the windshield turned out to be only one at this point. There must have been four, but there's only one left at this point. Also in the box there were two AMT tires and two inner walls of the IMC slicks. (I vaguely recall throwing the AMT tires in when I considered building it back in the 90's.) The correct tires for the kit are represented by the one in the upper right.

The taillight bezels are brass. They will be body colored. More dry fitting. The kit taillights will be used, but since they are not molded an even shade of transparent red they will need to be painted.

The kit access door was recontoured (and thinned out) to match the shape of the fabricated rear panel. A lip was added to the top of the opening so it has a hard stop to close. It has new hinges, but now I'm still not sure if there is really anything to see in there as the engine is very simplistic.

I cut out the rear panel to accept the kit access door. I haven't decided if I will make open, but I started tinkering with hinges. The fissure in the deck lid has been filled and smoothed. The basic interior needed to be built up to get an idea of how it was all going to fit and to determine the shape of the lower edge of the rear panel. To further shore up the warp, since I cut the door out of the back, I added a strip of sheet plastic cemented in place while it was twisted to opposite direction of the warp. Tabs were added to the interior tub and I used magnets to make sure it always fits into the body the same.