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Attempt in recreating my '79 Camaro in 1:24 scale


Liizio

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Greetings, it's been a while. Summer is over, nights are getting darker, and I hear the call of the workbench once more.

 

Recreating one's own vehicle as a model has always been an interesting idea for me, but unfortunately my cars so far have been kind of difficult subjects. For some reason model companies have not found it necessary to release kits of such cars as 1984 Mitsubishi Lancer 1.2GL, 1993 Corolla XLi, or 1997 Saab 9000 Turbo. At one point I did own a car that Fujimi had a nice kit of, a 1999 Mercedes A140, but I was hardly enthusiastic of having that one in my display. I wonder why.

 

Last year I finally fulfilled a dream I've had for more than fifteen years, and bought myself a silly, gas-guzzling American Coupe, A 1979 Camaro Z28 to be particular:

 

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And with the Camaro, I thought I finally had myself a car I could pretty easily build a pretty accurate model of. I had built a Revell '79 Z28 couple of times as a teen, and while the model was pretty simple, I thought it looked good enough on the shelf. And it's a basic, modern Revell kit, surely it will be easy to buy one to build!

 

Apparently the supply had run dry, since I couldn't actually find the model for sale anywhere locally, and importing one from US was ridiculously expensive. I then put up a 'Wanted to buy' -post on a local modelling site, and the only offer I got was for a started kit. I decided to go for it, since at least the clear parts and decals were untouched, even if the body was brushed brown.

 

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This is the same exact release I remember building around fifteen years ago, it was all over even local supermarkets back then. 

 

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As I wrote previously, the body was painted brown, and the interior and undercarriage were also brushed in some funky colours. I don't know what type of paint it was, but it sure held its own against brake fluid for a while. I managed to get the body pretty clean, underside not so much. 

 

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Revell seems to have had a 'less is more' -kind of an approach to detail, this is all you're getting on the underside, minus propshaft and rear shocks, which don't go to their correct places anyway. Gotta love that rear axle, suspension and exhaust molded into one big lump, a joy to clean up for sure. It hardly matters, my car has a non-stock exhaust, so it needs modding anyway.

 

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Next on the agenda is the Fire-breathing, tarmac-tearing machine, the mighty 175-horsepower LM1 350 small-block V8. Or that's what it's supposed to be anyway, the GM magi-float alternator defies gravity on the wrong side of the engine, and those fancy chrome valve covers look like Corvette ones.  Intake manifold, alternator and carb are one solid piece. As are the belts and fan.

 

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Exhaust manifolds are a reasonable approximation of the stock headers on my car, that's nice.

 

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Testing to see how the engine bay looks. Not thrilled. Brake cylinder looks awful, both reservoirs are the wrong shape and too bulky. The thing on the top-left corner of the bay is a part of the AC system, which I don't have, so it's gotta go. Also, no battery or a place for one. It's supposed to sit around where the colling reservoir now is. Frankly, almost everything is more or less wrong.

 

For comparison, here's my engine:

 

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My engine bay is not a concours winner either. Radiator, Intake, carb and air cleaner are not original, but pretty close to it. All smog equipment is gone. Some parts are the wrong colour. The engine has higher compression pistons and some mild cam, but that doesn't affect the model. Also the transmission is not the original 4-speed, but a T5 from a newer Camaro. Don't know if the visual difference is big enough to affect the build.

 

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The interior on my car is close to stock. Wheel, shifter and some stereo bits are the biggest changes.

 

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Interior on the kit is pretty nice. Steering wheel is a bit wonky, but it will be replaced anyway.

 

The biggest single modification I need to make to the kit is the removal of the targa-top, since my car doesn't, luckily, have one. Started by test-fitting the clear targa tops to the body, and, well...

 

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It's gonna be an absolute joy to make these ones invisible under paint. 

 

It seems I have my work cut out for me. My plan is to start with the body shell, sort out those T-tops and then start chopping up that engine bay to remove all that molded in incorrect detail. Those reservoirs should be easy to scratch build, and I probably have a suitable, better looking brake cylinder somewhere.

 

 

And lastly, for comparisons sake, here's the same Revell kit I built as a teenager. In fact I built it twice, first it was light yellow with some BBS wheels, then I tore it apart and rebuilt it in a different color a year or two later. Apparently also did some slight detailing on the engine, the belts and accessories are not the kit ones. Looks like a new alternator too. Wish my 1:1 was this colour, suits the car nicely.

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That's a lot of words and pictures for pretty much no progress on the actual model. The 1:1 will be going through some changes during the winter, most importantly I got a set of original decals which will be added soon, hopefully. I also have the original wheels for the car, but those need some paint and new trim rings before they can be put to work. I'll probably be building the model with these changes included.

 

-Till next time

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That's a very good model to have built as a teenager - I wish my teenage models were even half as good as that.

 

As for building cars you've owned, I think we'd all love that and most of us face exactly the same problem. For me, I decided to just get something which shares the name, even if not much else. So for that Corolla you could get the racing '80s Corolla instead (using my logic at least :) )

 

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That's a lovely 1:1 ride you've got! And that blue model is really nice, I'd also have been happy to have my teenage builds look that good!

 

As to building cars we've owned I'm fortunate in having owned a 'few' Mk1 & 2 Escorts and there are kits and bits available to build any of them. I'm currently slowly working on the only Mk2 that I actually rallied, a Vista Orange 1600 Sport. The only problem I have with that is I didn't take a single picture of it and can't for the life of me remember the registration number!

 

Looking forward to progress on your Chevy....!!

 

Keith

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On 10/16/2022 at 11:18 PM, Spiny said:

 

As for building cars you've owned, I think we'd all love that and most of us face exactly the same problem. For me, I decided to just get something which shares the name, even if not much else. So for that Corolla you could get the racing '80s Corolla instead (using my logic at least :) )

I've built an Aoshima AE86 Trueno at some point, that's kind of a Corolla, 1.6l too, just like mine!

 

On 10/17/2022 at 3:07 PM, Alan R said:

I'd love a model of my Fiesta XR2 Mk2... 

 

Old hot hatches, other than Golfs, are criminally rare to find as kits.

 

On 10/17/2022 at 6:04 PM, keefr22 said:

As to building cars we've owned I'm fortunate in having owned a 'few' Mk1 & 2 Escorts and there are kits and bits available to build any of them. I'm currently slowly working on the only Mk2 that I actually rallied, a Vista Orange 1600 Sport. The only problem I have with that is I didn't take a single picture of it and can't for the life of me remember the registration number!

It's real nice that Escorts are nowadays easy to find as models. Back in the day I really would have liked to build one, but then the only options were the ancient MK2 releases by Esci or Italeri, and they were pretty rare and expensive.

 

On 10/17/2022 at 7:32 PM, Vesa Jussila said:

You have nice car. And you can check details for build easily.

Thanks! it's not a collectors grade specimen by any means, but suits my needs really well, and works very nicely for a 40+ year old car.

 

 

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I glued on the T-tops and started blending them in with the rest of the roof. long way to go. Need to add lots of material to the sides.

 

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My first thought was to use the kit engine and just add detail. I removed the molded-on water pump, carb and alternator. Went through my spares box, found some bits to use: first, a set of belts and pulleys from some Mopar big block, with a pulley for a power steering pump as well, which was not included in the kit. The power steering pump sat too far away from the engine, but I managed to shorten the belts, and it looks better now. Also found some blank valve covers, ok looking carb, couple of alternators, water pump and some gear linkage.

 

The more I looked at the kit's engine, the more I was annoyed by the molded-in starter motor and oil filter. But removing them and filling the places neatly seemed pretty hard.

 

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I went through my stash, and found an AMT/MPC 80's El Camino I had started to build some years ago. The kit had far a nicer Chevy small block, so I decided to steal that one for use in this build. I think it's a 305, but it's visually pretty much identical to 350. The kit also had exactly same valve covers as my car! El Camino had an automatic, so I chopped it off and took a 4-speed off some Chevy BB I had laying in the parts box and glued it on. Wish it was so easy in 1:1 scale.

 

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Some options for air filters. I don't know where my car's filter is originally from, but it's flatter and bigger than the original one, so both the kit's own and El Camino's look a bit wrong. The lowest one is from a Mopar BB, and when I'll chop off the second intake, it'll be a pretty close match.

 

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Also found this Corvette steering wheel, looks pretty close to mine.

 

-Till next time

 

 

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Sir, 

Your Blue  finished car is STUNNING. 

:wow:

Would like to see  a WIP on your 1:1 when you comnence the changes , please.

:whistle:

Back to your present build... Very nicely started and I think you have a lot of skills to make this one another spectacular  build.

Look forward to seeing more.

:thumbsup:   :clap:

 

HOUSTON.

 

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11 hours ago, keefr22 said:

You have a really well stocked spares box!

 

Keith

 

Not now he hasn't!  :giggle:

 

This is a build after my own heart and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.

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That's a really nice Camaro you have there, the interior looks ace! Good luck with your build. It would be nice if Revell did a little more effort on engine and engine bay in these kits. Removing the moulded on detail is a pain. 

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On 16/10/2022 at 19:44, Liizio said:

And lastly, for comparisons sake, here's the same Revell kit I built as a teenager.

Wish my 1:1 was this colour, suits the car nicely.

 

Am I the only one who sees an obvious way to avoid having to battle with your new kit here...?  🙃 

 

But assuming you don't want to simply paint your 1:1 to match your existing 1/24, I look forward to following this one. 

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On 10/19/2022 at 12:36 AM, keefr22 said:

You have a really well stocked spares box!

 

Natural occurrence after 15 years of building mostly american car kits, which almost always include some optional parts. I don't even want to know how many sets of  1:24  or 25 -scale Magnum 500 -type wheels I own... 

 

On 10/19/2022 at 9:26 AM, HOUSTON said:

 

Would like to see  a WIP on your 1:1 when you comnence the changes , please.

:whistle:

Back to your present build... Very nicely started and I think you have a lot of skills to make this one another spectacular  build.

Look forward to seeing more.

:thumbsup:   :clap:

I'll probably find a way to shoehorn some pics in this thread, if I actually get something done with the car during winter. I'd be really excited to get the decal set on, it will really change the look of the car, I hope. I just have no experience with decaling a 1:1 car, so maybe I'll just get a pro to do it.

 

 

On 10/19/2022 at 4:49 PM, JeroenS said:

It would be nice if Revell did a little more effort on engine and engine bay in these kits. Removing the moulded on detail is a pain. 

Indeed. Really wish that this was in 1:25 scale so I could use the chassis/engine bay from an AMT 1970 Camaro. But as it is, they are just too far apart size-wise.

 

On 10/19/2022 at 10:44 PM, Anteater said:

 

Am I the only one who sees an obvious way to avoid having to battle with your new kit here...?  🙃 

Oh if I had the money, I wouldn't mind that Idea either. I really like the colour/decal -combo on the blue model. And I also had good taste with the engine back in the day, the way I painted it orange and used those finned calve covers makes it look like an older LT1 350 that was available on early second-gen Camaros. Much better looking and more interesting engine with it's claimed 360 horses compared to my actual cars malaise-era blue LM1.

 

 

A little progress once more. Painted and assembled the main parts of the engine:

 

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The only power steering pump I found looks a tad blocky. Started building a bracket for the altenator.

 

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Modified and painted the air cleaner.

 

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The roof is starting to look a bit better. Still needs some work. I need to buy some fine plastic strip to make the mouldings for the side window.

 

-Till next time.

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  • 3 months later...

Greetings!

 

A long time has passed, and very little progress has been made. I've removed most of the molded-in detail in the engine bay:

 

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Not that tidy, but I'm not really worried. It will be mostly hidden by new parts.

 

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The roof is annoying, it has one scratch I don't seem to be able to get rid of.

 

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Little progress on the engine. Carb with its details and spark plug wires should be next.

 

-till next time

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