1977 Pontiac Firebird 400 – Revell

Ray

9 years ago

To start off this one, this kit’s not a Trans Am. Bandit’s Firebird was a T/A 6.6 and oddly enough the kit based on the movie’s star vehicle isn’t actually the same vehicle. Granted, it’s still the Special Edition and still has largely the same engine, it’s just not a Trans Am. Though it does have the detailed bits of a T/A 6.6 like the chrome valve covers and the A/C set up.

But enough about how it isn’t a Trans Am.What it is, is a beautiful kit. I mean, holy crap it’s a beautiful kit. Excellently detailed interior is just the start, which helps with it being a T-top and all. Figured I wouldn’t make yet another black muscle car and change it up a bit. I once saw a ’78 Firebird T/A near where I lived and just fell in love with the color.

It also saved me the hassle of having to paint the chrome bits gold and the insides of the wheels gold as well, also saved me from having to do all the Special Edition decals, which there are a lot of! I did decide I’d try and do as much detailed work as possible, like wiring up the engine, painting the interior with a bit of a personal touch.

The quality of the whole thing is superb, it feels like a Special Edition release. It has a fantastic little thing that I wish more kits would use; screws. Screws connect and firmly secure the chassis and the body together. No clunky and weird squeezing with the chassis, it just… fits. Man, how I wish more kits would use this.

The engine detail and quality is pretty good though, though not as complicated as other kits. For instance the cylinder heads and the intake manifold are one piece, some of the fluid containers, A/C components and the battery are already molded into the engine bay, that sorta stuff. Still though, it looks fantastic and crowded once it’s all put together.

The interior is pretty detailed too, nice touches with extra parts for the gauges and of course, a CB radio build into the dash. And of course the T-top, which I didn’t glue in place so I can remove ’em at will. It’s a snug fit so they don’t just fall off on their own all the time.

All in all, it’s just a beautiful kit. One of the few Pontiacs that Revell has license to build(fairly sure MPC/Round 2 has pretty much all the Pontiac licenses under their belt). The 1/24 scale ’78 Pontiac is on the list someday, I just don’t like the scale all that much and the kit itself is ancient. This one though… Just gorgeous.

Also: new phone, so better quality pictures! The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge makes some nifty quality pictures, oh man.