1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am – Monogram

Another golden oldie of the 1/24th scale line up from Monogram, one of the later ones made by ’em in that particular era. And this one might’ve been the hardest for me to find. But Monogram’s been making great kit after great kit since the early eighties, from the best muscle cars to more daily driver type vehicles like the ’79 Chevy El Camino and ’81 Chevy Citation.

This one was cast and sold in 1991, which makes it one of the later Monogram releases and oddly enough, it’s stupidly hard to find. And like most of those kits, they later got a re-release in the early 2000s briefly under the “Motor City Muscle” line and then it just vanished off the map like most model kits.

And like usual, the normal Monogram staples apply; excellent exterior detail, very nice interior, beautiful engine, above average engine bay detail and slightly limited decal choice that either hold their own over time or turn dingy yellow. But since the most important parts are always beautifully cast and made, one really can’t ever truly complain about the quality.

That being said though, it’s a nice and simple build. I didn’t end up wiring the engine bay up, I wanted to but the lack of spare time and well… I ain’t impatient, but I can be hella impatient, I figured I wanted this beauty set up and standing on the display pronto. And for a change, I even ended up mixing the Pontiac engine blue! Which was a hassle of trying and being absolutely idiotic, just mix some white, metallic green and metallic blue and poof, but no I ended up stirring a heck of a lot more in there.

But I digress, as I said a few times now, the body quality is awesome. You wouldn’t guess it’s a 25 year old model. Even before painting it. It’s got no flash, the details are crisp as hell and the only thing that didn’t go smoothly was the front valance just refusing to stay where it needs to stay. Which of course is an age issue, but y’know, can’t argue with a 25 year old kit being tightly wrapped in plastic being a tiny tiny bit warped.

The interior is pretty great too, it’s a slight bit simplistic and there’s no decals to enhance it some but from just glancing in it looks alright. The mold quality is high enough that with a very steady hand you can easily paint the details on the dials if you’d be willing to go that far for it.

Speaking of decals, exterior wise you get the two official choices available in nicely detailed(with faux shading and all!) white and blue stripes and T/A emblems. No giant Firebird for the hood sadly but who really minds, the little bird on the nose with the stripes ain’t any less good looking and besides it works beautifully with the appropriately colored Ram Air III shaker sitting ontop of that big six liter Pontiac 400 V8.

All of which are detailed amazingly, as per usual. It’s always a bit disappointing to see the rest of the engine bay being a bit bare but it’s just one of those things that Revell Monogram got stronger with over time.

In the end, this kit is just one of those builds that you greatly enjoy and has a hell of a result in the end to go along with it. Like the Superbird, it’s a great rut breaker to get yourself back in the hobby, provided you can find one for less than 40 bucks still in it’s shrink-wrap.