Lousy kits?

[Old Fart]

I've recently started building car kits after a long lay off (really long), and started an old kit of the AMT 53 corvette which I think is really BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH and wanted to know if the terrible fit issues are typical of AMT or is it because this is a old issue.  The body is OK but everything else from the interior to the bumpers is awful.  I guess I could make everything work but I don't have the patience.

[waynehulsey]

Not one of their better offering. Got to remember it came out in about 1975. May I recommend one of the newer Revell to get started again since most of them seem to go together pretty well. Or if you want to spend the bucks a Tamiya kit. They can be a bit complicated but usually go together well.

[Jantrix]

AMT, MPC, Monogram, Revell, they all had their stinkers. A vast majority are very doable and don't let one kit get you down on a particular brand. If you want to, tell us you interests and folks can recommend kits that will put a smile on your face.

[modelercarl]

I would recommend any of the Moebius car or pickup truck kits.  Another recent build I did and would recommend was the Revell Ford Bronco.  These kits are well done and the Moebius kits in particular are innovative and enjoyable to build up.

[426-Hemi]

Yeah that was not one of MPC years that the mold went over onto the AMT line up, and being an old kit, that mold sounds like its showing some serious age..... BUT thats what happens when the company doesn't want to retool the mold.... 

 

I agree with those who mentioned the new Revell kits. yeah theres a little $$$$ involved from many years ago, BUT those kits do in fact go together VERY well in most cases, the '32 Ford 2n1 kit that I think was stated a "Limited Edition" kit from Revell would be a GREAT replacement for the one you got, just a tad older in era, but a real good kit, AND can be built out of box, 2 way, stock ford set up, and or hyped up stock ford parts, or totally custom, with a 392 Hemi as a power plant...... Being then full custom. I had that kit, and traded it but it looked great! Others I've heard that built one says it goes together just as good as the parts look out of box....

[Ace-Garageguy]

I've found that the vast majority of kits out there (with the notable exception of Palmer and Premier...though some people lump Pyro in there to make a devilish 3P-kit triumvirate, I kinda like old Pyro kits) will build up into something presentable with enough talent, skill and patience. 

Some are most definitely better than others, and some are pretty bad at representing correct proportions or fitting together...but if you enjoy jabbing yourself in the eye with a sharp stick, you can have a blast with just about any of them.  

[Old Fart]

I have built a couple of recent Revell kits and they are pretty nice. I'll come and ask advice next time I'm tempted to buy a AMT kit.

The price of the Revell kits isn't a problem,  I've been building pretty pricey aircraft and armor kits for the last few years, and some of them are now verging on unaffordable. 

Thanks for the replies guys. 

[dlh]

I just finished an MPC '60 Corvette.  While it does have 6 different build options, I found that very little of it fit well. I'm still a beginner (after a 50 year hiatus) so it was good practice on modifications.  I'll have to have a long think before I buy another MPC.  Before that one, I built a Monogram Shelby Cobra 427 S/C.  It was better fit than the MPC, but not as good as the Revell BMW 320i that was my first build.  I'm now finishing a Revell 1962 Corvette and am extremely impressed with the fit.  Every single part fit perfectly.  I bought an AMT 53 Corvette and decided not to build it in favor of the Revell version.  I bought some PE parts for it assuming it will go together as well as the '62.  The cleanest molds I've seen are on the Revell Germany models (next one to build will be a BMW Isetta).  Can't wait to start that one. I'm in the middle of a Hasegawa Samba bus.  Just finishing the body, but the other parts look very cleanly molded.  Just a beginner's $.02.

[Snake45]

 I'll come and ask advice next time I'm tempted to buy a AMT kit.

 

Feel free to. MOST AMT kits are quite buildable, and many of us have been building them for 50 years or more.

I've never built the kit you're talking about, so can't speak to it, but I just started work on AMT's Snapper '53 Vette--essentially, an unassembled promo--and don't foresee any problems with it. By coincidence, I just found what seems to be the up-top from the kit you're working on in a bag of random parts I bought at a show, and I'm going to try to make that work with it, though it looks like it will need some minor "tweaking" to fit.

Model on!

[MrObsessive]

To date, this was THE MOST DIFFICULT model I've ever tackled, and it was SUPPOSED to be just box stock!

Don't let the manufacturer name fool ya! This is actually a Revell of Germany kit in disguise, and fiddly it certainly was! Some folks complain about the Fujimi "Enthusiast Model" series and how tough those can be. Johan's Turbine Car comes to mind too. Well, I've built both of those models in the past, and they don't hold a candle to the absolute annoyance that this kit gave me. 

Beautiful car...........terrible kit!

[Snake45]

Well, it came out gorgeous!

[MrObsessive]

Well, it came out gorgeous!

Thanks Snake, and thank goodness I have no kids in the house, 'cuz there was LOTS of cursing at this thing!

[426-Hemi]

I'll mention here, I have found years ago that the company MPC done a lousy job on a LOT of kits..... THEN MPC was taken over by AMT or "MPC" became part of Ertl..... WHEN that happened I noticed that the AMT stuff that Ertl actually made was pretty good fitting kits!!!! At least from the late '80's into the '90's the AMT stuff was pretty good quality stuff, NOW granted, I'm NOT talking about the AMT stuff that was merely "re-branded" stuff that came from MPC...... Make sense? I'm talking about the actual AMT stuff that Ertl tooled to be made, that stuff was pretty good! -I just replaced a few of those kits I had way back when that I lost in a fire, and they seemed then to go together well, as the same kits under "Round 2" do today..... I've got the '70 Coronet Super Bee from AMT, that was a RETOOLed kit from MPC and then the MPC kit as well (original) and then the '70 Coronet Super Bee Pro-Street kit that was a AMT design, ALL based off MPC '70 Coronet Super Bee tooling that AMT under Ertl cleaned up or simply retooled the molds, and made the AMT version I'm referring to here as well as the '70 Coronet Super Bee Pro-Street kit and those AMT kits go together like a dream.....  The MPC kit thats a repop from Round 2 thats of the '70 Coronet Super Bee, those old molds need cleaned up again! (I don't however got the newest release from Round 2), of the '70 Coronet thats plum crazy purple on the box..... I have over 10 of this car right now (It is afterall my FAVORITE car!)

[Can-Con]

I'll mention here, I have found years ago that the company MPC done a lousy job on a LOT of kits..... THEN MPC was taken over by AMT or "MPC" became part of Ertl..... WHEN that happened I noticed that the AMT stuff that Ertl actually made was pretty good fitting kits!!!! At least from the late '80's into the '90's the AMT stuff was pretty good quality stuff, NOW granted, I'm NOT talking about the AMT stuff that was merely "re-branded" stuff that came from MPC...... Make sense? I'm talking about the actual AMT stuff that Ertl tooled to be made, that stuff was pretty good! -I just replaced a few of those kits I had way back when that I lost in a fire, and they seemed then to go together well, as the same kits under "Round 2" do today..... I've got the '70 Coronet Super Bee from AMT, that was a RETOOLed kit from MPC and then the MPC kit as well (original) and then the '70 Coronet Super Bee Pro-Street kit that was a AMT design, ALL based off MPC '70 Coronet Super Bee tooling that AMT under Ertl cleaned up or simply retooled the molds, and made the AMT version I'm referring to here as well as the '70 Coronet Super Bee Pro-Street kit and those AMT kits go together like a dream.....  The MPC kit thats a repop from Round 2 thats of the '70 Coronet Super Bee, those old molds need cleaned up again! (I don't however got the newest release from Round 2), of the '70 Coronet thats plum crazy purple on the box..... I have over 10 of this car right now (It is afterall my FAVORITE car!)

John. You seem to be talking about all the same kit. and it's all rebranded stuff from MPC.

There is only one '70 Coronet body, it was originally from the MPC annual.

The chassis now under those Coronet kits was originally MPC, not AMT. They were designed years before Ertl bought out MPC and the first issue of the '68 Road Runner kit that the chassis came from was one of the last kits MPC designed before Ertl took them over. Nothing AMT there except the name.

[FordRodnKustom]

I built one of those back in 76 or so and the parts fit was bad then.

[426-Hemi]

John. You seem to be talking about all the same kit. and it's all rebranded stuff from MPC.

There is only one '70 Coronet body, it was originally from the MPC annual.

The chassis now under those Coronet kits was originally MPC, not AMT. They were designed years before Ertl bought out MPC and the first issue of the '68 Road Runner kit that the chassis came from was one of the last kits MPC designed before Ertl took them over. Nothing AMT there except the name.

Yes the MPC version was thee only body and kit for it. but when AMT came about to Ertl, they did a lot of clean up molds to make the older MPC kits better.. HOWEVER theres something a lot doesn't know.. the MPC '70 Coronet Super Bee, was repop, with a cleaned up MPC mold, and had NEW molds made by AMT-Ertl to make the '70 Coronet Super Bee "Pro-Street" easy way to tell? the NEW parts are in BROWN/Tan plastic..... Those ARE AMT's designs added to the existing GRAY plastic, that were from MPC 'smolds that AMT cleaned up! -Then reissued as a AMT-Ertl kit, that was BOTH companies molds old ones from MPC and new ones made by AMT!

Today, its ALL reissued by Round2. not the Pro-Street kit that I know of, most of the '70 Coronet stuff, is repops from the old MPC molds and by the ones I have (blue car on the box with MPC as well), needs cleaned up again as the flash is horrible! BUT, so far on one of them (I have 4 of those kits one unopened) The molds needing cleaned up to remove all the flash, BUT the parts fit together pretty well otherwise just like those did back in the '90's from AMT from when they cleaned up the molds from MPC!!!!

Those MPC molds have to be pushing 40 years old!!!! -If not I bet there close!

[Can-Con]

No John, they are all MPC designed parts even though they were labled AMT. Ertl bought out the company at about that same time. it takes years to get a kit from design to production.  They had to be designed long before the buyout.

The pro street parts were in the first issue of the '69 GTX hardtop. Exact same parts. Designed by MPC at the same time they designed the stock kit. The first kit in the series was the '68 Road Runner, it came out about late '88/ early '89. and the pro street GTX came out somewhere around '92/'93.I remember because I had to build a model of my brother-in-law's real '69 GTX and I had to buy both kits to get the parts to build a non-pro street GTX.

The '70 Coronet came out a few years later. it was just the body and interior mated to the other kits chassis. The windshield is also from the '68 Road Runner kit, that's why it has to be cut to fit right.

 

BTW, you can't tell anything about these kits from the color of the plastic. The first issue of the "new" '70 Coronet I have is molded in the brown plastic as well as at least 2 '68 Road Runners I have.

 

 

[Buffs Fan]

The last few AMT kits I have built I was less than pleased with tons of flash, Poorly fitted parts ETC.

I Built the Baldwin 70 Camaro and the roof had a monster size ripple in it that I was surprised I was able to fix with body putty and sand paper

The worst AMT kit I built was their 57 Chevy hard top after building that stinker I almost swore off of their product but have recently purchased the 68 ELCO to give it a try

 

Just my 2 cents

    Mike

[Snake45]

 

I Built the Baldwin 70 Camaro and the roof had a monster size ripple in it that I was surprised I was able to fix with body putty and sand paper

    Mike

I know exactly what you mean. I want to do one of those in polished green plastic, so I got one and it had that booger in it. Figgered I just got a bad one, so I bought another one, and THAT booger was ever WORSE! So I went to work on the first one. It took a LOT of VERY CAREFUL work, but I was eventually able to get it all evened out and straight--in bare plastic! There's no way to fix the "dent" along the right (passenger) side of the hood line on the top of the fender, though. At least none I can think of.

[redneckrigger]

Worst kit that I remember is the first 1969 Camaro that Monogram came out with. I can remember awaiting that kit with high hopes, as the original MPC '69 Camaros were hard to find. When I saw it, I was tempted to use it for target practice. It had the worst rendition of the beautiful '69 lines that I have ever seen. It almost looked like a caricature. Horrendous. If I remember correctly, I actually used it to start a campfire, still unbuilt in it's box, and I don't think it even burned very well.

Edited June 5, 2017 by redneckrigger

[Snake45]

Worst kit that I remember is the first 1969 Camaro that Monogram came out with. I can remember awaiting that kit with high hopes, as the original MPC '69 Camaros were hard to find. When I saw it, I was tempted to use it for target practice. It had the worst rendition of the beautiful '69 lines that I have ever seen. It almost looked like a caricature. Horrendous. If I remember correctly, I actually used it to start a campfire, still unbuilt in it's box, and I don't think it even burned very well.

I built three of them, each a little less wretched than the last. And then Revell came out with theirs, finally. (I've also built five of the MPCs.)

[redneckrigger]

I built three of them, each a little less wretched than the last. And then Revell came out with theirs, finally. (I've also built five of the MPCs.)

I have since, thankfully, gotten a few original MPC ones, as well as the Revell one. That Monogram POS really butchered it. It looked pregnant...............with the spawn of the devil!

[jeffdeoranut]

by far the worst kits ive built were 67 amt mustang and polar lights pety torino...as someone else said all mfg's have some lousy kits

[Buffs Fan]

I know exactly what you mean. I want to do one of those in polished green plastic, so I got one and it had that booger in it. Figgered I just got a bad one, so I bought another one, and THAT booger was ever WORSE! So I went to work on the first one. It took a LOT of VERY CAREFUL work, but I was eventually able to get it all evened out and straight--in bare plastic! There's no way to fix the "dent" along the right (passenger) side of the hood line on the top of the fender, though. At least none I can think of.

Oh yeah I forgot about that dent in the fender... I did mine in the GM Citrus Green it came out pretty good considering