RM 68 firebird into 69 trans am

[freakshow12]

Is this the next logical step for this kit? I would buy many

[Casey]

I don't think typical logic applies in this case, or we would've already seen a '67 or something else similar.

I would expect Round2 to reissue their '69 T/A in a fauxback box very soon, though.

[freakshow12]

That would be good even. Do you know anything about the T/A parts fit on the RM body? Seems like a cut and paste conversion to me for the current 68. Just an extra tree of parts no?

Basically it would be the hood, spoiler, nose and fender vent scoops. Likely an interior pattern change?

Edited December 10, 2014 by freakshow12

[Snake45]

There's not much in common between '67-8 Firebird and '69 except the roof, tulip panel, and trunk lid (and glass, and possibly cowl--I'd have to check).

The AMT (ex-MPC) '69 Firebird is pretty poor. It was retooled from the fairly accurate '68 molds, but unfortunatately you can't get an accurate '69 body that way. The whole sides of the car are wrong. (The same is true of the MPC '69 Camaro, too.)

To get an accurate '69 Firebird, you'd have to start with a Revell '69 Camaro body and then mod the fronts of the front fenders, the front and rear panels, and so forth. Now it gets interesting because the MPC '69 Firebird body is singificantly narrower than the Revell '69 Camaro. Which means you can't just plop the MPC bumpers, grille, etc onto the Revell body. You'll have to widen all that stuff--or narrow the Revell body.

And THEN you'll prolly want to use a Revell '68 Firebird for the chassis or at least the engine.

I've given a good deal of thought to all this, but the truth is I don't like the '69 Firebird enough to go through all the hassle. It WOULD make a spectacular model if you could pull it off, though, and instantly make eveybody else's '69 Firebird and Trans Am builds look like garbage.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Snake45

[Scale-Master]

Much like the Camaro, the '69 Firebird is a car unto its own. To make a '69 from a 67/68 requires basically a whole new body.

Wow Snake, you type fast.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Scale-Master

[freakshow12]

Well there I learned something today. Nevermind. Lol

I just went and looked. Easier to start with a camaro for sure. Didn't realize they were so different. Anyway, what I was getting at was that maybe it's time for one of these in new form

Edited December 10, 2014 by freakshow12

[Snake45]

What Revell should do is kit it up as a snapper, like their '69 Camaro snapper. Those who wanted to could then kitbash the accurate body into a full detail kit, if they wanted.

[freakshow12]

That is a very good idea

[Snake45]

That is a very good idea

Yup. There's a lot of that kind of stuff they could do. They could do both '65 and '67 GTO snappers that could use the full-kit '66 GTO chassis and engine if desired. Quite a few other things they could do in that line--I bet such kits would be good sellers, too.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Snake45

[mikemodeler]

Yup. There's a lot of that kind of stuff they could do. They could do both '65 and '67 GTO snappers that could use the full-kit '66 GTO chassis and engine if desired. Quite a few other things they could do in that line--I bet such kits would be good sellers, too.

Yes, that would be a good idea! I have a ton of Camaro glue kits and snap kits (AMT & Revell) but tend to build the snappers faster as it allows me to fill the display case faster and keep from having detail a full build. I'd have a bunch of GTO builds if they took your advice!

[Snake45]

There's not much in common between '67-8 Firebird and '69 except the roof, tulip panel, and trunk lid (and glass, and possibly cowl--I'd have to check).

The AMT (ex-MPC) '69 Firebird is pretty poor. It was retooled from the fairly accurate '68 molds, but unfortunatately you can't get an accurate '69 body that way. The whole sides of the car are wrong. (The same is true of the MPC '69 Camaro, too.)

To get an accurate '69 Firebird, you'd have to start with a Revell '69 Camaro body and then mod the fronts of the front fenders, the front and rear panels, and so forth. Now it gets interesting because the MPC '69 Firebird body is singificantly narrower than the Revell '69 Camaro. Which means you can't just plop the MPC bumpers, grille, etc onto the Revell body. You'll have to widen all that stuff--or narrow the Revell body.

And THEN you'll prolly want to use a Revell '68 Firebird for the chassis or at least the engine.

I've given a good deal of thought to all this, but the truth is I don't like the '69 Firebird enough to go through all the hassle. It WOULD make a spectacular model if you could pull it off, though, and instantly make eveybody else's '69 Firebird and Trans Am builds look like garbage.

I took another look at this last night and would like to revise and extend my remarks.

The AMT ex-MPC body is not quite as bad as I remembered (was looking at an original MPC annual, not a more recent reissue). The wheel openings and fender creases are still too low, but for some reason they don’t seem to be quite as bad as the MPC ’69 Camaro. Maybe it’s because the ’69 Firebird isn’t as familiar a shape to us as the Camaro, maybe it’s because there’s no better ’69 Firebird kit to compare it to, maybe MPC actually did a better job on the Firebird than the Camaro (they did have the Pontiac promo contract but not Chevy in ’69), I dunno.

The width problem isn’t as bad as I remembered either. The AMT/MPC ’69 body is noticeably narrower than the Revell ’69 Camaro at the rear, but at the front, it’s not that bad. I think the Firebird bumper etc could be grafted onto the Revell body without TOO much trouble. (I know the MPC Camaro body is much narrower than the Revell in this area.)

I’d forgotten about the front fender vents on the Firebird. If bashing up a Revell Camaro body, you’d have to graft those in in some way.

In summary, I think you could bash the AMT ’69 Firebird and Revell ’69 Camaro bodies and build a more accurate ’69 Firebird. BUT I’m not sure it would be worth all the work. When I get around to doing mine, it’ll be with the AMT/MPC kit body, probably with a few tweaks around the tops of the rear fenders.