AMT 83 camaro, no colors in the instructions

Modeling Subjects Autos
1

has anyone built THIS thing?

the instructions are not even sub par, they are worthless. i can put the model together WITHOUT the instructions, i can put an actual car together without instructions let alone a few plastic parts but what bugs me is this…

they do not name ONE color for any parts in the kit. apparently you’re on your own to guess what colors to use.

now i have cars that have flat black bottoms and gloss black bottoms. most are flat black though. a 66 riviera i have has a flat black frame BUT has a gloss black bottom.

ok, so who’s built this thing and what colors did you use?

i’m about to deault to flat black for the bottom, gloss black for the suspension parts and black for the engine (since it is mid 80’s and GM got cheap and stopped using all kinds of paints on their engines and used only black)

but more importantly. what gives? i have 4 models from them and 2 have really great instructions, one even gives all these different colors for interior and exterior combinations (factory colors no less), one has ok instructions and no color suggestions for anything and then you have the instructions for this one which looks like it was done by a five year old. AMT seems to be really hit and miss with quality kits as well as quality instructions.

this kit has parts for the fenders and the front facia to make it look like a road race car and even has a roll bar to install and engine and exhaust parts for it but doesnt mention ANY of it in the instructions.

2

Man I hate to hear this about this kit. I have two waiting to be built. One I am going to make into an '82 model as best as I can to replicate my first Camaro. The other is going to be converted into an '87 IROC to represent my third Camaro. Love those Camaros. Anyway for what its worth I seem to remember the engine in my '82 being flat black as well as the suspension and chasis parts that were not well worn by the time I got it. I would be glad to help if you have any other questions. I really love these cars they have to be my favorite body style Camaro.

Anyway for my small rant.
These cars are insanely popular so WHY doesn’t some company make more third generation Camaro models? I mean I would buy as many as I could, so no more Citation models make some more Camaros.

Ok done now

Thanks

3

ProRe -

Sorry to hear about the kits, yeah, lousy instructions can ruin a good modeling experience. [8]

OK, enough for the sympathy. [:p]

This is were modelling comes in. Instructions can be inadequate or even just plain wrong. It happens, but modeling is more than just good building skills, for some folks. That’s were your research and decision making ability comes into play, to make the model YOUR model. In my younder days, I’ve built a few Mopars, real ones. When I build a model Mopar these days, I rely on my experience with the real thing to get the details right. If my memory gets foggy, which seems to be happening more and more, I have several books on cars of that era, right next to my work bench for ready reference. For my aircraft models, there are always pictures up around the bench for reference, and detail books within reach if I want/need to check on the real thing. Lastly, I may want a fair amount of reality, but it’s still MY model, and I can and do take some poetic license when I build and paint. (My last F-16A has detailed marking for an F-16C. Why? The “C” model declas were better than the ones that came with the kit for the A model.)

For you 83 Camaro, do a few google searches, you’ll probably find the factroy colors, and can either use Model Master car colors or get the real thing from places like House of Color, IIRC.

AMT does a lot of re-tooling, re-issuing/releasing. So the kit you bought may has easily been released as a race car in a former life. This is usually a good thing, as you get free parts for your parts bin, to use as your research or imagination dictates. Don’t feel bad; the F-16 I mentioned, had decals, that matched the box art, but not the instructions, in addition to being, incomplete, and inaccurate, they were too thick to use. The “C” model decals I had were great, and unless someone is checking A/C numbers, don’t think anybody will care, I certainly don’t!

Archer out.

4

well i have no problem figuring out what paint to use, i just dislike buying kits that seem to be thrown together in a slipshod way.

IMO if they cant take the time to put out detailed instructions, then what makes me think they’ll bother to put a quality kit? as my grandfather would say if you arent going to do it right then dont bother doing it at all.

but not everyone who builds models has access to the internet and not all are members here so i’m sure there is a chance someone who doesnt know enough about GM history in the mid 80’s to replicate a 80 something camaro in fairly accurate detail has this thing and probably felt frustrated by it and probably didnt even finish it.

now i’ve been under enough REAL GM cars to know they didnt paint the bottom black, in fact they painted them whatever color the body was or was left grey (if they didnt get the rubberized coating for winters up north). there is no gloss or flat black for the suspension parts, its not even a semi gloss, its a matte finish with a hint of gloss to it, its a very specific finish thats hard to replicate, and i worked in a body shop, it really is hard to duplicate.

i’m not complaining because i feel incapable of figuringit out for myself, i’m more or less complaining about the lack of quality in this kit, the extra parts are nice and all but doesnt make up for the lack of quality that went into something that wouldnt have taken up a lot of their time to do.

maybe i’ll stick with revell next time.

but someone needs to make more 3rd gen camaros, f-bodys in general since you just dont see many of them, its why i bought this one.

the scheme i’m going for is a silver body and grey interior, IMO, its the best looking combination i’ve seen in 3rd gen camaros. it may not be accurate for this year but i’m not worried about that. flat gull grey looks nice for the interior and matches the interiors i’ve seen as closely as possible without having to mix paints. i might actually get a small bottle of touch up paint from pep boys, thin it and air brush it on the body. silver metallic should do nicely (mid 80’s color).

5

If I get such a Kit it doesn’t faze me to used to it from Garage-Kits that come with either very poor or NO Instructions at all.

Most figure kits simply say: Red here, Black here and that is all.
If the Instructions are not more than a poorly hand-drawn exploded Diagram and those kits cost anywhere between 75USD~300USD. So stop whining. [;)]

6

stop whining?

no, as a consumer i have a certain standard i hold companies to when i fork over my hard earned cash.

i simply do not bend over and accept things for the way they are.

its why everything is made in china and rarely seems to last longer than a year anymore, people simply give up and think nothing of it. well i’m tired of forking over money, whether its 27 cents for a packs of wrigley’s spearmint gum to a 15 dollar model kit at walmart, i expect a quality product. should i not get one i will complain and i will do so loudly so others might avoid giving money to a company that doesnt care enough about its customers or its product to put some kind of pride in what they do and hold themselves to a standard that might actually impress people and increase their business.

i am always willing to pay more for a better quality product. i am also willing to take my business elsewhere, so i’m not so sure AMT will be getting my business anymore.

7

As far as I can recollect AMT kits were always poor in quality, so I doubt that they will change.

As for paying what you get. Most of the Kits I do are not mainstream kits and are often done by someone on the weekend in his garage.
That is why I am willing to fork out $300 for a Kit that nobody else is producing, yeah most of those kits are poor quality and most modellers would give up after growing gray hairs trying to build them.

To be honest got quiet bored with “Shake and Make” kits that are out there plus the fact that most kits are out in an insane number of variations(after 10 F-4’s I got bored with the plane).
Give me a Tamiya Bike kit and I most likely can assemble it without one glance at the Instruction sheet, simply too easy.

So, yeah, at times I will deliberately seek out kits like the above mentioned AMT kit because it offers a challenge.

8

i own a 84 trans am black outside tan inside , anyways only on rare times do i go by what the directions say for colors anyways. Some kits instructions dont even say what the part is just a number hehe

9

I’m right there with you man, I’m doing an AMT kit for a friend and although it isn’t going too bad, I swore off AMT kits a long time ago and would never purchase one for myself, if you want to read my rant on the AMT kit I’m working on, go to the General Modeling forum and find the thread ‘From one extreme to the other’.

10

i read it.

AMT seemed ok at first, their fitment is hit and miss, as is the quality in other aspects of their products.

i have a 66 riviera that is nicely detailed, the instructions are nice, the parts are nice (very little flash on the parts) and everything seems to fit together pretty well. i have a 69 firebird, again everything seems to fit together pretty well, aside from the alternator.

i’m just seeing a lot of inconsistency in their kits. i dont really care what the reasons or excuses are, the quality should be similar. i’m sticking with revell, their grand national was a nice kit.

11

I guess it’s the same with most any product, you pay for quality, AMT in my opinion is a low end kit and is priced as such, there isn’t a whole lot of detail but you can pick up most any AMT kit for less than $15.00, however if you want a very nice detailed kit with consistant high quality like a Tamiya, you are going to pay over twice as much, so it all comes down to the saying “You get what you pay for”, and if we want a certain kit that only AMT has issued, then we have no choice and will just have to work through the problems. [8D]

12

i know. i’m “living with it” but i’m still going to voice my concerns over their kits.

Tamiya doesnt even have anything i like. they dont seem to have muscle cars or anything similar to them but there are other companies that i will check out in the future.

i’m moving away from cars and more towards military vehicles, armor and aircraft. seems the kits for those are better, more expensive but better quality just the same.