2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS – AMT Ertl

I’ve been awaiting this one for months ever since they announced it back in April. A full new tool release from AMT? Hell yeah! A month or two ago a post by Tim Boyd at the Model Cars Magazine forum showed just how deep the detail went with the kit before the release, that for once a kit would give as much detail to the suspension as to engine bay.

The mold quality is top of the line, pre-detailed windows which is a very welcome addition and a bunch of pictures of the car itself on the side for reference saving a ton of Google searches. They really planned this one out. The whole kit has this feel as if they’ve got big things planned for this kit in the long run.

Right from the get-go, the parts feel like a step above anything AMT’s done recently. Especially with some of the extra detailed parts like the tail lights, which have the indicator and reverse light lenses already molded in clear, as well as the pre-painted windows(including defroster, that’s a rarity!). Other nice extra detailed parts are the engine, which has all the tubes, wiring(well, not all the wiring) and extra bits that go missing or overlooked in most kits properly molded and added to the frame.

It looks incredibly crowded in the engine bay, which let’s be honest here, is really nice on a modern car where most the engine is hidden below the plastic engine cover. Besides, it’s just molded really nicely and the instructions go out of their way to ensure you get the tubes and wires where they need to be for authenticity’s sake.

The interior is the same story, albeit hidden behind the windows on this model, another rarity in it’s own right, the model has door windows, go figure! It’s very well molded, all the little details are clearly visible and enhanced by the decals you can get in there, though the only downside is that for some reason the seats sit so far back that you can honestly say not even stick-figures could sit in the backseats, but hey, that might be a Camaro problem rather than an AMT problem.

Now, onto the undercarriage/chassis. Go Google a picture of the chassis of the ’16 Camaro, that’s pretty much exactly the way you can make the chassis of the model look too. It’s got give or take 20 parts for just the rear suspension alone, separate fuel tank, 10 or so parts for the front suspension, very intricate ways of getting the wheels turnable all the while actually getting the damn things to stay on(looking at you, Revell, you haven’t made a model where the wheels would stay on since the nineties!), hell the only negative point I can bring up is despite the absolute mountain of chassis detail, for some reason the driveshaft is just a generic shape molded onto the chassis.

I mean, the whole new tool, interior and chassis detail and how absolutely detailed the new instructions are, AMT really raised the standard way, wayyy the hell up. The only few downsides I can name that might bother some modelers, the mold lines on the body are pretty rough, especially on the rear quarter panel and something that might limit some color combination plans; the stripes are considered quite optional and they only come in black. So no white, silver, etc. Which is a shame, I know some folks would love to make themselves a blue/white or black/white combinations.

In the end, it was a very pleasant build, it all went together the way it should, love the detail that literally every bit of the car got from the makers and man, if this is a glimpse at what AMT is gonna offer from here on out, then other’s gonna be playing catch-up with AMT for once.