Almost a Gasser!

When I opened the box I was kinda disappointed with the Funny Farmer Pontiac. Dunno if it was the white plastic tyres or the low parts count.



However, once I got into it, it became one of the more enjoyable builds.



A little research showed that the kit wheels were wrong and a few other details if built to the instructions would not be perfect. Also showed that the car was still fitted with all the factory glass, yet the kit only had windscreen and backlite.



Paint is candy orange over gold metallic, which I figured would go close, but no so close as it does, to the original car.



After trimming away what was left of the front wheelhousings and adding some extra detail it all started to come together nicely



With a little work and a combination of satin and flat back paints the tyres actually turned out looking OK too. Some more detail missing from the kit is the drag chute from my junk department, a little cotton thread and a black release wire make this one I'm really pleased with.



There's a couple of details I probably should have adjusted, like the location of the front wheels a tad further forward with the fenders slightly trimmed for clearance, but I can do that on the next one. I'll also remove the plastic from behind the grilles at the same time as I remove the wheelhousings.

cool looking goat,one can almost smell the tyre smell.tops.

How can the AMT guys get so many mistakes in one kit? I wonder if they realised what was ahead? You've managed to make a silk purse from a sow's ear - very nice. I'm guessing the wheelbase on the real car has been altered somewhat?

I'm not so sure they were mistakes more-so a means to an end.

The body appears to be a promo modified to fit on a chassis that was designed for another kit altogether. However, the engine in this kit is not the engine from the Bossa Nova kit which I understand is where the chassis first appeared.

I enjoyed building this car so much, that I went back to Dave and grabbed a few of the other kits that have been created using many of the same parts with different bodies and drivetrains.

Most are like this one, there's enough to build a nice model out of the box, but with a little research and some kit bashing a very accurate replica of an original race car can be constructed.

As an example, the Falcon kit I have has a full glasshouse but the real car it is based around only used a windscreen, all the other glass was removed to save weight. I'll need to scratchbuild a few bits to add enough detail to make it an accurate rendition of the real thing, but like the Poncho, it will be a fun build because most of what it needs is not too dificult or challenging, just fun.

Had AMT or Dave Burhart not taken this course, we modellers would be the worse off.

What you say makes perfect sense. Perhaps I should have said "compromises" rather than "mistakes". AMT was no different to other kit manufacturers in that if they could create a new car model using parts from existing ones, then why not save some money in the process? And you're quite right - these unique AMT kits have provided us modellers with a variety of options when building and detailing them. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

tezza43 wrote:What you say makes perfect sense.

Can you tell Mrs Carps, please.

Top build Carps.. I was gonna open mine and build it, but might sell it now due to the irregularities. Theres no way I'd be able to get mine to look as good as yours..