1968 Corvette Astrovette Concept

[ea0863]

I did not find a lot on the internet regarding the MPC Astrovette, so I decided to do a write-up here on my experiences with this model. I began with an open box kit which I bought at auction. It had all the pieces still on sprues and had not been started.

 

The first thing I noticed was how well crafted the body was given the timeframe when it was molded. The shut lines were crisp, the front and rear belly pans went in nicely, and the color was a perfect white - with no translucence. I liked this body so well that I decided to leave it unpainted. Having seen the actual car at the Corvette Automotive Museum in Bowling Green KY, the shade of white and sheen were just about perfect already.

As I began to build the model as stock, item one was the "Turbo 427" engine. It was fairly accurate, except for one glaring error; the air cleaner with the kit was round, whereas the actual concept has a triangular chrome air cleaner.

I grabbed the appropriate air cleaner from a Revell 1967 Corvette 427 Roadster kit (#85-2968) which solved the problem.

A perfectionist would have found just the right decal for the air cleaner, and perhaps reworked the chrome distributor cover, but I did not take the build that far. Next came the interior, which I painted black as with the actual concept. It would not have been my first choice for color since it made the interior look like a dark hole, but I stuck with it for the sake of accuracy. It went together easily enough, although there was a clutch pedal molded into the floorboard, and the shifter was for a manual - whereas the concept has an automatic transmission. I reworked the shifter to look as much like an auto shifter as possible and called it a day. Again, a next level builder might choose to address these, and maybe even redo the top of the dashboard which is actually split along the top.

I wish I had the steady hands and keen eyes I once had so I could have done the dash justice, but at 1/25th scale, it didn't come out looking totally awful. Perhaps a gauge set from The Model Car Garage or someone else might help the interior look more finished. It was right about this time that I noticed a peculiar problem; my paints were not drying - even after a week, and even after use of a dehydrator. To be more accurate, they were not sticking to the plastic, even though I had used primer. After much consternation and research, I came to the realization that there was some kind of substance on the raw red plastic. I'm not sure if it was a 50 year old releasing agent or oils that had come out of the plastic itself, but a good scrubbing of all parts in the sink with dishwashing detergent did the trick and the paint held just fine thereafter.

Once I moved on to the chassis, things started getting truly wonky. The front suspension was to be a fully functional one with actual springs and wheels that steered. The problem was that the springs caused the front end to sit way too high and ruined the stance of the car (here is a picture of another build that illustrates the point):

To get the ride height right, I wound up cutting coils out of the springs until the stance issue was closer to the actual car. 

The rear end  presented problems all its own as the stock positioning of the wheels would not allow them to fit inside the rear wheels spats. To address the problem, I had to cut the axles down and move the tires to within a millimeter of the frame rails. Even then, they still rubbed on the spats, but at least they were now able to fit. 

Some other misc. issues that had to be dealt with were axles, lower control arms, sway bars, etc. that were chrome and needed to be stripped and painted. Also, exhaust pipes were warped and did not fit properly, and thus were replaced with fabricated ones. Finally, the stock full moon hubcaps were replaced with ones from Arrowhead Aluminum Accessories (#AVW-01) as they were closer to the actual diameter needed and had the right brushed aluminum finish. They were slightly thicker than the ones from the kit, but added a lot to the overall look of the model.  (BTW; it turns out our forum member Ismael Gonzalez designed these aluminum hubcaps to begin with!)

Final assembly presented a new problem in that the interior, when placed perfectly in the body opening, did not allow the frame to sit flush to the rocker panels. As a result, I had to sand down the interior floorboard until it was paper thin, and also dremel the mating surfaces on the undercarriage to minimize the distance from the bottom of the frame rails to the top of the dash. The cut down windshield went on with no problems, although it seemed a bit thick when compared to the actual car. 

And finally, to finish the model, I sourced a crossed flag emblem from a Revell 1:6 Corvette 327 engine (#85-1594). I was only able to get one, and some day will find a second one to place on the rear deck as well.

And now we come to the editorial part of this WIP post; what would I do if I were going to build this model again? As Ismael Gonzalez mentioned in an earlier post, Jimmy Flintstone makes an Astrovette body in resin to be fitted to a Revell 1968 Corvette kit (#2544). I would definitely consider this approach as the price of the MPC kits have become prohibitive, and the fit is not that great between body and frame. As an added benefit, the Flintstone kit comes with a vacuum formed windshield which is much thinner than the MPC one. Alternatively, I might consider a partial MPC kit or built model bought on the cheap just to source the body and place it on a Revell frame.

I hope this information is helpful for anyone wanting to build the Astrovette, and I will be posting photos of the finished model soon.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by ea0863

[GMCMAN52]

nice u don't see this kit to often