Accurate Miniatures Grand Sport Vette to be reissued........

[Dave Van]

Saw online that a company called GTM Models is releasing a Grand Sport Vette kit. Injection molded, full detail with photo etch parts. This MUST be the old AM kit. Due after Sept and also has a resin driver figure )Penske?). MSRP around $36

My AM build

 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Looking forward to this!

[Mark]

Didn't Academy announce it awhile back?

[Mike 1017]

I hope that they do something with those headers. So that they fit better.

Mike

[magicmustang]

But I still haven't finished the one I got decades ago. It's been out on the work bench and put back up many times

Edited August 13, 2024 by magicmustang

[stavanzer]

1 hour ago, Mike 1017 said:

I hope that they do something with those headers. So that they fit better.

Mike

I suspect that whoever runs the tool, will just run it after cleaning. The cost and trouble of trying to fix the headers, will most likely never happen. Sorry.

[Dave Van]

4 hours ago, Mike 1017 said:

I hope that they do something with those headers. So that they fit better.

Mike

I was freelancing for both AM back in the day. The Vette went through a few tooling updates. I do not recall if headers were part of that.....but in the many builds they do not come to mind. If you get a AM II kit (look for Concord NC addy) it will be the most up to date version. thx

[Justin Porter]

That would be fantastic if the AM Grand Sport has been revived. Hopefully the kit will be available in normal distribution channels because I'd gladly put it on my shelves.

[Fat Brian]

I've been wanting to take a other crack at this kit, I built an early issue 25+ years ago.

[niteowl7710]

11 hours ago, Mark said:

Didn't Academy announce it awhile back?

Academy owns most of, if not all of the old AM tooling. This is nothing more than a private label run of the Corvette. GTM Models ran off several things including the Corvette a few years ago when Ford vs. Ferrari came out.

[deuces wild]

What scale is it???....

[Dave Van]

1/24th

[Dave Darby]

I had a bagged version of that I picked off off ebay back in 2015. Somebody was dumping a bunch off cheap. It's a super nice kit, with really good accurate detail. 

[GarryR]

1 hour ago, Dave Darby said:

I had a bagged version of that I picked off off ebay back in 2015. Somebody was dumping a bunch off cheap. It's a super nice kit, with really good accurate detail. 

Wasn’t that someone Revell? I seem to remember they were shipped bagged, with an unformed box included, but without decals, for $10.00. I purchased about 5, still got a couple.

[Dave Van]

44 minutes ago, GarryR said:

Wasn’t that someone Revell? I seem to remember they were shipped bagged, with an unformed box included, but without decals, for $10.00. I purchased about 5, still got a couple.

I can't say 100% who had those. Someone in the Concord  NC area came in and bought everything left in the AM II warehouse at the very end. It included a bunch of XS Tuning wheels which were a off shot of AM II. They sold off the inventory on ebay out of kannapolis IIRC.  But that stuff is running together in my mind now. Thx

[Ace-Garageguy]

Like several of you, I bought a bunch of unboxed or unassembled-box kits off of feePay...cheap.

Some of them didn't include the PE, but later those frets came up cheap too.

All the fit issues have been addressed by builders on this very board.

What I'd also like to see is a new run of AM's McLaren Can Am cars.

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

IMO- The Star of the Show is the engine with the wild intake manifold and the side draft Weber carbs. Plucking that and placing in a 32 Ford hot rod would be max. 

[Luc Janssens]

8 hours ago, Dave Van said:

I can't say 100% who had those. Someone in the Concord  NC area came in and bought everything left in the AM II warehouse at the very end. It included a bunch of XS Tuning wheels which were a off shot of AM II. They sold off the inventory on ebay out of kannapolis IIRC.  But that stuff is running together in my mind now. Thx

Wonder what happened to the tooling of the tuner wheels, cuz IMHO they're great to put under the '80s econoboxes amt and mpc released in the early '80s, heck even tried a set on an amt Opel GT and looks just right!

[Dave Van]

4 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

Wonder what happened to the tooling of the tuner wheels, cuz IMHO they're great to put under the '80s econoboxes amt and mpc released in the early '80s, heck even tried a set on an amt Opel GT and looks just right!

Last known they were in Korea.....but who knows if they survive or not.  They were well done but never sold big volumes as they hoped. I always thought if the set had a big and little set up they sold better. 

[tim boyd]

16 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Like several of you, I bought a bunch of unboxed or unassembled-box kits off of feePay...cheap.

Some of them didn't include the PE, but later those frets came up cheap too.

All the fit issues have been addressed by builders on this very board.

What I'd also like to see is a new run of AM's McLaren Can Am cars.

 

The A-M McLaren kits were featured in the "Classic Kits" column in Fine Scale magazine a few months ago.  Included info/background that was not previously in the public domain to the best of my knowledge.  LMK if you need the specific issue date/pg #....TB 

[peteski]

2 hours ago, tim boyd said:

The A-M McLaren kits were featured in the "Classic Kits" column in Fine Scale magazine a few months ago.  Included info/background that was not previously in the public domain to the best of my knowledge.  LMK if you need the specific issue date/pg #....TB 

Funny that you mentioned that column Tim. After reading it (and remembering all the bad reputations those kits had), I decided to see if I could find one and take up the challenge of building that kit (which the column mentioned is an excellent and very detailed model).  I went on eBay and was surprised that there were plenty of them up for sale/auction.  Not just one or two, but a whole bunch.  After looking them over I decided to get a shrink wrapped one for $50.  I realize tht it is likely a lot more than their cost when new, but in today's world $50 for a well detailed kit doesn't seem out of place.  When I got it and broke the shrink wrap I saw that this is in fact a very good kit. The instructions also seem to be very well written. Now I'll just have to find time to do it justice. 

So, no need to hope for a possible  reissue - git your A-M McLaren kit today!

[Matt Bacon]

I thought the same a while back and have one in the stash. I picked up a stack of the shortlived (three years) UK “Scale Auto Modeller” which ran from late 98-late 2001 and there are two build articles in separate issues early in the run… one for the original release and one for the Polish-American Racing Team boxing, which is the one I have. The main message is follow the instructions to the letter and test fit everything and fine tune it first before committing to glue and paint! Even so, the rear clip doesn’t fit properly on the first build, and the second one learned from that and still had to do a fair amount of work to get it properly seated, so that’s clearly a potential gotcha…

best,

M.

[Dave Van]

3 hours ago, tim boyd said:

The A-M McLaren kits were featured in the "Classic Kits" column in Fine Scale magazine a few months ago.  Included info/background that was not previously in the public domain to the best of my knowledge.  LMK if you need the specific issue date/pg #....TB 

I don't have access to FSM but I can pretty much guess what it talks about. I built more of these kits than I care to count. AM sent two of them to McLaren in the UK as part of the license agreement.  They were not EASY kits but if you left off the fuel lines (I do so on all the kits I built) that was half the battle. A little fiddley but after one it got easier.  From what I know the deal with BcLaren did not end well and it was said the kit would never be run again by anyone. 

One we sent to UK

 

[Phirewriter]

I hope the re-release sells well but I can't give these away for $15 boxed and $10 bagged at local shows. I had a chance to buy more than a few cases for pennies on the dollar years ago and have been peddling them off ever since. 

Edited August 15, 2024 by Phirewriter

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 8/15/2024 at 12:49 PM, tim boyd said:

The A-M McLaren kits were featured in the "Classic Kits" column in Fine Scale magazine a few months ago.  Included info/background that was not previously in the public domain to the best of my knowledge.  LMK if you need the specific issue date/pg #....TB 

Yes please, sir. I'll find a copy if I have that...and thanks.