2012 Chevrolet Camaro RS 45th Anniversary Edition – Revell

Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors ’til 2009 claimed on August 20th, 2006 that he and his staff weren’t completely braindead and would bring back the Camaro for real, no bullshit. He claimed it would follow the design cues of the ’06 concept that was unveiled at the NAIA show 7 months prior on January 6th. As timing would have it, Chrysler showed off the Dodge Challenger concept the same year at the Detroit Auto Show. And sadly, while all the winners of the muscle car eras got revamped, the Pontiac Firebird never came back, hell Pontiac as a whole got killed off to allow GM to actually survive for a bit longer in 2010.

But I digress, we got the Camaro back in 2009 for realsies for the 2010 model year. Now, both AMT Ertl and Revell have been on top of the Camaro hype train for most of their existences. Both companies have been making models of their “new introductions” so to say, take for example AMT’s devotion to the ’67 Camaro kit that got released in the same year as the car itself and every year from there on out ’til 76. Then, in 1982, both Revell and AMT produced new tool Camaro kits for the third generation’s arrival. Same again in 1993, Revell-Monogram and AMT Ertl made their own versions of the fourth generation. So it’s not strange that yet again, both model kit companies would be all over this. It took both of them ’til 2012 to put out a proper 2010 Camaro kit.

And hotdamn did we get some variety. We got the Special Edition, which I got here, with the standard SS model but also a 1LE inspired look as an alternative, while AMT Ertl put out the normal ’10 SS as well but also some variants like a highway patrol car and the 2010 Indianapolis Pace Car so in terms of choice we got nothing to complain. However, when it comes to how well both of the new tools end up going together, I gotta hand it to Revell. I mean, AMT isn’t far behind, it’s just a fair bit clunkier all around. Nearly every aspect of it has something that won’t sit well or required some serious force to get into place.

Now one of my first model car kits I’ve built since picking up the hobby again was the 2010 Camaro, though the one I got my hands on was the Revell of Germany re-release with a more… European touch to the whole ordeal. Small touch-ups here and there, some omissions and in the end just a smidge more European. Like Dutch, German, Belgian and French plates, bigger decal sheet, but also some stuff not being there like the entire body kit option and second pair of wheels. And back then, I first encountered something I absolutely frickin’ hate about Revell’s early 2010 and onwards kits; the way they handle the wheels.

They decided that for some reason, metal rods and little metal screws to attach the big heavy wheels to. So here’s the kicker; no wheel they’ve ever made fits on these things. On top of that, it’s real hard to force them on when the complicated suspension bits are literally millimeters thick at best so you’ve got no chance in hell to actually get ’em on properly. This all in the name of getting wheels that turn… And guess what! They still won’t after cause the Goddamn things will drop off at the slightest tiniest little bit of breeze coming near ’em.

So that explains why the stance of the wheels themselves is… crooked, at best. Like this it’s the only way they stay on, otherwise it’ll look like a Camaro left in early nineties movie Bronx. Just a car sitting on the axles. Speaking of stance, the gargantuan ride height is… well, I just don’t know how to fix it. The model has a lovely complicated suspension, it’s detailed and super well cast but it’s also incredibly hard to get the ride height down without omitting bits.

But enough bitching for the time being, the kit, aside from those issues, is unbelievably wonderful. For instance, a thing I love – metal exhaust tips! Good stuff, excellent addition! Making the spoiler separate? Thank you! The incredibly detailed suspension? Hell yes, Revell, hell yes. But the strongest part, by a fair amount, even though everything else cast wise is impeccable? The interior. Sweet mother of God the interior has a quality that is on a level of its own. Granted, Revell is known for going all in on detail on every side and this is no different but there’s so much detail everywhere. The fit is rather good too, despite the wheel fit being an absolute pile of shit, the rest snaps and fits together supremely well plus it takes very little effort on your end to make this a very good looking model cause Revell did a lot of the work for us luckily with the decal sheet and the super crisp quality.

Though I had never considered to expand on the four Camaro Anniversary Editions, given they were actually as they were from the box with no outside help for the most part. Revell with the ’02 Camaro that has the 35th Anniversary decals and AMT with the ’92, ’97 and ’17 anniversary editions that were all proper renditions of the real deal. And one thing has to be said, I said it before in the article on the FIFTY Camaro; the Camaro has a weird anniversary going on… Technically, the Camaro is 43. Hell, 42 even but it’s 43 on a technical note that even though the Camaro went on sale again in 2009, it was for the “2010 Model Year” as car manufacturers call it. But the Camaro went shelved from mid 2002 onwards until then, all the while the Mustang kept going strong putting out a retro-inspired(much like our dear Camaro here) update that went back to its roots… in 2005.

So we’ve got the 45th Anniversary done with and the FIFTY as well, yet it has friggin’ 2 more years to do to even deserve the 45th one to begin with. But I digress… I was pointed towards Slixx Decals, a model car decal shop for just about everything decal related to any competition car you can name. And they rarely do stock decals, it’s actually super out of character for them to do this particular sheet which has the 2012 45th stripes and logos, the 2010 Transformer Bumblebee stripes and logos but also ZL1 emblems, the proper SS stripes and all of the super rare street version of drag COPO Camaros. And that inspired me to get one of these done now I knew it was possible without having to mess around in Photoshop and create my own sheet.

Which I am doing for the ’87 Camaro 20th Anniversary Edition that’ll pop up on the website at some point or another. But the decal sheet from Slixx gave me 95% of the work pre-made on a nice sheet… The rest? Well, I didn’t have access to Chevrolet’s American line of paints so I took the next best thing and maintaining quality – I bought a can of Mercedes Benz’s metallic black paint, or rather “Obsidian Black/Obsidianschwarz” and used that instead. I mean, it may not be the right brand or even technically the right color but at least it’s a very good color nonetheless! And I gotta admit, I am a fan of the 45th Anniversary Camaro’s colors. The stripes are a really nice offset against the color and the bright red stripe highlighting the 45 does grab the attention rather well. On top of that I’m trying something new, Motip’s got this line of chrome-ish paints that are meant to replicate the proper chrome though I figured out that if you only do two coats instead of the required four to six, you get the perfect polished silver look on rims like most modern cars have these days. But I’m just harping on now…

In the end, even if it was a super unnecessary commemorative edition, I am happy as hell that it exists cause it allows me to expand the Anniversary collection from four up to 6. Though, the 20th version doesn’t quite count based on the fact that the only differences from the standard models was the little embroidered 20th Anniversary logo on the dash but meh, screw it, it’s gonna be a part of the line up.