AMT 2017 Camaro "Fiftieth Edition"

mustang1989

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2022
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54
Well folks, I've got this one finished up after almost 6 months. This is not my usual automotive area as I normally build classic cars and trucks, however, a good friend of mine was set to retire late last year and owns one of these cars & I wanted to build one for him.
AMT just so happens to have this very car in kit form, so I bought one. Upon opening the kit and going over the instructions I could not believe the amount of detail that AMT put into this model. Engine detail was better than most other models out there and the interior had a lot as well. What caught my eye was the number of parts and attention given to the suspension. This not only stuck out to me on the instruction sheet but during the build as well. There are nearly 50 parts to the suspension/ undercarriage with most of those dedicated to the intricate rear suspension. Just beautiful.
The good points on this build are, as mentioned, the chassis, engine and engine bay and the interior are well thought out and detailed. The chassis required a lot of tedious building but is very rewarding when finished. Engine assembly and installation was straight forward as the interior. One thing that I got hung up on with the interior was the two-tone colors of the seats and how to replicate them. I chose grey decals that I ended up making templates for, cutting out and applying.


Areas of frustration with the kit were the headlight lenses with locator pins on each side which results in a very unconvincing look. I cut both locator pins off but then found out that the headlight lenses were very thick causing them to give the front end a bug-eyed look when fitted. After thinning the OOB lenses and trimming I found that on installation the lenses didn't fill the headlight cavity sufficiently sooooo......I had to source another pair of lenses.... and completely remove the headlight buckets from the nose. After that I shot a coat of black over the lenses and coated that with a good coat of Testors Wet Look Clear shot through an airbrush. THAT....gave me the look that I was hoping for and the headlight lenses sat recessed in the headlight cavities giving a much more convincing look.

Before the correction. You can see what I'm talking about with the lenses.

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Another area of concern is fitting the chassis/ interior into the body. I had to trim the leading edge of the dash all the way across the width of the dash. I also had to trim back the leading edge of the windshield because it contacted the dash and then repaint the inside black so as not to have blemishes along the bottom of the windshield. The exhaust tips are shown to be installed at the very start of the build. I saved this for the very end of the build so I could get the spacing correct.


This was a fun model to put together and was very rewarding at the end aside from a couple of kit shortcomings. I used Gravity Colors Nightfall Grey for the body color and Testors Wet Look Gloss Clear dispensed and shot through an airbrush. This is a mostly OOB build save for the rear license plate which carries the personalized tag that my friend has on his car. Other liberties that were taken by me was to lower the car all the way around by a scale 1" all the way around and display the driver's window in the down position by removing that part of the glass assembly.


The finished product.....with the corrected lenses.


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Yep, ya' done good, one more time!

While we're talkin' about how good ya' done, what all did you do in here?

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Are all them vent rings and such decals or did you paint most of that stuff that well?

Asking for a friend.

:oops:

Rob.
 
Thanks ohbejuan and Rob.

I ended up painting all of the vent dials and the red/blue temperature control colors. The gray seat sections were pulled off by using the gray door decals from the Foose FD-100 kit and cut them to the shape of the seat contours and applied. Not perfect by any means but I feel that it was a better job than I could've done by painting them as those seats would be a nightmare to mask off.

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Door panels were a little easier to pull off. With no aftermarket available for this I had to get fairly creative.

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On the vents I think I used the side of a silver lead pencil across the raised detail Rob. Chrome pens are too unpredictable for me in tight spots like this.
 
Hmm? Never even heard of those, but I'll search, for my friend. Thank you!

Whatever you used, ya' done good!

Rob.
 
No problem bud.

Right here brutha...... Amazon product ASIN B0035A12D6

Hmm...

Link is all busted...

The mystery intensifies...

Daffy Duck Waiting GIF


Rob.
 
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lol.. no worries bud. I apologize for it not working for you but I clicked on it and it took me right to the page.
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In any case you got it. I haven't clear coated over it as of yet but haven't had to either because all of my clear coats have always been applied before this step.
 
Thank you.

It wouldn't let me click nuthin'. This is what it shows me, but it could be something on my end if it works for y'all.

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Mine works as a back-up, so I did get there!

Thank you again and let me know if you ever try the clear test.

Rob.
 
I'll definitely let you know Rob. I'll keep that in mind when posting links for you as well as others on the forums too bud.
 
Awesome build. Amazing detail in the interior and engine. Don't think I would have the patience for that much detail. Love the body color!
 
Awesome build. Amazing detail in the interior and engine. Don't think I would have the patience for that much detail. Love the body color!
Sorry for the late reply fellas. Thanks a bunch for the comments. I plan on taking this one to the Nats this year. Dunno how she'll fare but I'll participate anyhow. I told my buddy that I was going to "borrow" it for the show and it's his afterwards.
 

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