1/25 MPC 1980 Camaro Z28

['70 Grande]

With Round-2's announcement of releasing the 1/25 1981 Camaro Z28 kit, I thought I'd go into my kit vault and pull out this MPC-version of what I believe is essentially a previous issue of the same kit. 

I thought I'd restart my build of this kit and pass along my thoughts as I go through the process, thinking some of the things that I point out here might be useful to others that purchase the upcoming Round-2 reissue.

First, some reference pics.

['70 Grande]

If you spotted the #7 handwritten over the hood on my kit's box lid, then you know what I paid for this kit at a swap meet in Chicago back in the mid-1990s... $7.00!

I want to start this process by posting about the kit's body. 

Overall I think the body is a really good representation of the 1:1. I'll start with the challenges that come when fitting all of the separate pieces to the body. 

First pic shows the passenger side with just the front end piece glued in place. The front end piece fits pretty well but getting a good, strong joint means that glue joint needs cleanup work. 

The 2nd pic shows the driver's side front and rear fender flare pieces glued in place. It is sorta unclear exactly how these flare pieces should be fitted, but following 1:1 reference pics, I positioned them as shown in the 3rd and 5th pics; hanging below the bottom edge of the front and rear fenders. This also allows these front flares to lineup properly with the flare piece that extends underneath the front end piece so these pieces are all flush across their bottom edge with each other.

The 4th pic shows the attached flare; it has a rounded edge at its top but that is actually true for the 1:1 as well, (although it's a bit exaggerated in 1/25)!

The 5th pic shows how I positioned the rear flare piece slightly below the bottom edge of the body, per 1:1 reference. 

Edited June 7 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

Next, the rear spoiler piece.

As with the many releases of these AMT and MPC mid-70s to early-80s Camaro kits, the rear spoiler piece can be a tricky fit. 

I attached a few 1:1 reference pics to show you how this spoiler piece should look. 

The 4th picture shows the underside of my kit's piece; it has several places where there is excess plastic that pushes the spoiler away from fitting flush on the trunk lid and down the sides of the rear fenders. The light areas in this pic show you places where I removed excess plastic.

The last pic here shows you that the rear spoiler piece is actually too wide to properly fit the kit body... more to come on how I'll attempt to correct this.

Edited June 7 by '70 Grande

[espo]

Thank you for your tutorial on this kit. A thought on the rear spoiler being too wide. Since the 1:1 Camaro spoiler is three parts anyway, maybe cut the ends off where the trunk line is and then remove the needed material from the center section too correct the width. This may also better represent the natural opening between the ends on the trunk lid and fenders.   

['70 Grande]

espo: that's my exact plan... just gotta breakout my razor saw and start posting pics! 

One wacky thing about the kit spoiler piece is those molded trunk lines are raised, (not cut-in), so using those for making the needed cuts solves that problem. 

Edited June 7 by '70 Grande

[Can-Con]

1 hour ago, espo said:

Thank you for your tutorial on this kit. A thought on the rear spoiler being too wide. Since the 1:1 Camaro spoiler is three parts anyway, maybe cut the ends off where the trunk line is and then remove the needed material from the center section too correct the width. This may also better represent the natural opening between the ends on the trunk lid and fenders.   

 

50 minutes ago, '70 Grande said:

espo: that's my exact plan... just gotta breakout my razor saw and start posting pics! 

One wacky thing about the kit spoiler piece is those molded trunk lines are raised, (not cut-in), so using those for making the needed cuts solves that problem. 

That's what I did on mine too. 

Should have probably narrowed that bumper a bit too but it was built over 35 years ago, no easy access to reference pics back then.

['70 Grande]

Can-Con

After explaining and posting about the rear spoiler, narrowing that rear bumper, (with  1:1 reference pics), will be the next thing I post about.

Your White Z28 looks excellent and will provide me with some inspiration!

Edited June 7 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

The rear spoiler work that I started on this Camaro project became more complicated and intimidating than I thought. Reshaping pieces that are complex-curves in all directions and then getting those curves to properly line-up with an area on the body that's also nothing but complex-curves means slow and patient work.

My main issue with the kit's rear spoiler piece is that it's bottom edge doesn't come to a point on the rear fender per the 1:1... (see previously posted 1:1 reference pic).

In the first pic below you can see a nicely molded trunk emblem that sadly needs to be removed as the rear spoiler piece will cover most of it.

The second pic shows additional styrene I added to the driver's side spoiler piece to build it up for a pointed-tip.

The  3rd pic shows my end result. 

Edited June 19 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

And some more pics of my end result. You may notice in the last 2 pics here that the cut-line on this rear spoiler/corner piece doesn't line-up anymore with the trunk's panel line, but now overlaps it a bit. This was a result of me taking some material away from the bottom side of that rear spoiler/corner piece to minimize how much length would be added when the point was attached... I didn't want the tip of that point going below the side-body-line on the rear fender per the 1:1. (I hope this makes sense).

I'll be removing that excess when I install the center section of the rear spoiler. I kept it here for now as a reference piece as a duplicate this same rear spoiler corner piece work for the passenger side piece.

Edited June 19 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

I was a bit surprised by the poor fit of the kit's front spoiler center piece. Once the front fender flares were in place, I expected the front spoiler center piece to basically drop into place. 

Turns out the pieces don't line up very well and end up not being flush across their bottoms once all together. 

I decided to add some styrene to correct this as much as I could. The first added piece of styrene brought the bottle edge of the center piece more flush with the bottom edges of the fender flares.

The second styrene piece I added covers the entire area as shown in the 2nd pic.

It doesn't bother me that this additional styrene makes the entire front spoiler a bit deeper/closer to the ground as I'm doubtful that will be noticeable when my  build is completed.

[mikemodeler]

Nice tutorial on this kit. I have one in the stash and am thinking maybe a base build with L-6 250 from one of the 3D suppliers. 

['70 Grande]

Sidebar story mikemodeler:

Yes, I'm a Ford Mustang guy, but one of my favorite 1:1 cars I owned for over 7 years was this 1970 Camaro with the 250-inline 6-cylinder and automatic transmission... old out-of-focus pic below! The car had an interesting back story too long to get into here, but at age 16, my parents wouldn't let me buy a V8 Camaro so this is what I got instead! 

Edited June 19 by '70 Grande