'66 AMC Marlin

[W-409]

Some time ago a friend of mine who is an AMC enthusiast gave me bunch of his old model cars and glue bombs for free. There were some really good starting points, lots of parts etc. The most interesting one was this Jo-Han '66 AMC Marlin. First I found only the body, chassis, interior, bumpers and grill, so my original plan was to build somekind of Altered / Match Racer from it. But the more I went through the boxes, I found nearly all parts for this Marlin. Most of them still on parts trees. I have only a couple of smaller items missing, but I might be able to source them from some other kit as well. So after having nearly complete kit, I had to change my mind and I decided to build this factory stock.

Looks like he was going to turn this into a four door. Luckily no modifications have been done, there are only the drawings on the body.

My plan is to add some basic details and do some improvements to make the kit a bit more accurate. But I'm not going to go crazy with the modifications as I want to finish this one some day, too...Let's see if I can keep up with that plan or not...

First up is the AMC 327 Cid engine. The engine in the kit is pretty good, but that huge metal axle hole on the engine block is not going to stay. So a bit of sheet styrene came to rescue and after rough sanding I smoothed those areas with a light coat of putty. Looks like I need to do a bit more filling and sanding before primer, but it's not too bad.

[espo]

I had forgotten that Jo-Han even offered the Marlin years ago. This should really be done showroom stock if for no other reason than being so rare.   

[tbill]

That’s a pretty cool find, I’ll be watching this one......, how ever you build it.

[cobraman]

Did not care for these cars when new back in the day but now I wish there was new kits of these on the shelf.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I'll be watching.

 

I traded one of these away quite recently.

Sometimes I wonder if that was such a great idea.

 

 

Steve

[Sam I Am]

I will be following this one. I have one in the stash. Love the looks of these cars. A number of years ago I saw a magazine article with, IIRC, a  pro street style build that looked so sweet. I am leaning that way with mine.

[Bucky]

I'll look in on this one, too. I have one in the stash for a future build.

[landman]

I can only wish I had one.

[Cpt Tuttle]

Not a car one will see being built up very often, I will be watching with interest.

[thatz4u]

me too

[Richard Bartrop]

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.  I have a USA Oldies edition of the Marlin, and that one has poseable steering and no hole in the engine.

[thatz4u]

any updates???

[Snake45]

On 10/7/2019 at 9:05 PM, landman said:

I can only wish I had one.

There's one on ePay right now, what looks like a rebuildable project for a not-horrible price. 

[landman]

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

There's one on ePay right now, what looks like a rebuildable project for a not-horrible price. 

?

[Misha]

Great find! I was lucky to find a Marlin and the 62 Fury, both unbiult,  a couple of weeks ago. The Fury is WIP to become a Max Wedge Savoy, and the Marlin will be stock in appearence with a turquoise body and white vinyl inserts. See below.

On 10/7/2019 at 1:17 PM, espo said:

I had forgotten that Jo-Han even offered the Marlin years ago. This should really be done showroom stock if for no other reason than being so rare.   

 

I agree with David above, yet would like to have a detailed chassis, beyond the pan. Would the SC/Rambler chassis work?

I'll be following your build as well Niko, model on!

Cheers Misha

[Snake45]

54 minutes ago, Misha said:

I agree with David above, yet would like to have a detailed chassis, beyond the pan. Would the SC/Rambler chassis work?

No. The SC/Rambler is smaller, and its chassis not much more detailed. And keep in mind that the JoHan AMCs might actually be 1/24, not 1/25. (Recently brought to my attention by Mark--I'm still checking this out). 

As the AMCs were unibody (i.e., no full frame), the closest/best match might be the AMT '68 Road Runner/'69 GTX family. But others might have better ideas. 

[djflyer]

Just picked up a mint JoHan AMX and SC/Rambler. The AMX has the chassis/underbody with molded in driveline and rear end assembly, while the SC/Rambler does not.  Both measure out to within a fraction of 24th scale.

[David G.]

A fortunate acquisition! 

I'll be following along on this one.

Best of luck!

David G.

[Trendsetta68]

11 hours ago, Snake45 said:

No. The SC/Rambler is smaller, and its chassis not much more detailed. And keep in mind that the JoHan AMCs might actually be 1/24, not 1/25. (Recently brought to my attention by Mark--I'm still checking this out). 

As the AMCs were unibody (i.e., no full frame), the closest/best match might be the AMT '68 Road Runner/'69 GTX family. But others might have better ideas. 

I used an AMT Roadrunner chassis for a Rebel Machine build that I did years back ... worked pretty well from what I remember ... had to change it up a bit to get it close to factory specs but it's not 100% correct  ...

 

Hope this helps ya ...

???

[W-409]

Why doesn't this forum let me reply in here...?

...This seemed to work. Strange. Well let's try some other time then...

Edited November 14, 2019 by W-409

[mustang1989]

I remember both of those kits. Still trying to figure out the hole in the engine block thing. Was this added by the last builder or does the engine sit that low in the car? Looking forward to more.....

[W-409]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

I had been trying to find one of these Marlins for some time before I got this one. So it was a very nice surprise to see one of these in the box the friend gave me. And because I have a nearly complete version of this rare kit, I thought I want to build it factory stock.

Don't know what is wrong with this, but can't seem to post this reply here. Let's try if I post it in pieces...More to come.

[W-409]

Hey, this worked!

...Continued:

I also have Jo-Han Drag On Lady SS AMX and also the AMC Javelin Super Stock kits. I did big modifications to the AMX chassis and interior to get rid of the molded in drivetrain and front seats. Front suspension will be sourced from AMT '67 Mustang and that's what I'm going to use as chassis donor on the Javelin too. Not 100% accurate, but a lot better than molded in everything.

 

 

[W-409]

I wonder what is wrong with this thread. Anywhere else I'm able to post normally, but when I try to post here, it just says "Failed to Reply"... Yet a really short post like this works just fine.

If this keeps happening, I'll post my builds somewhere else then. My apologies to all who are/were interested in them...

[A modeler named mike]

I too have been trying to score a 66 Marlin kit (molded in blue) for sometime and I just picked one up from eBay yesterday. I never thought I'd be paying well over $100.00 for a model kit although I have several times now for some hard to find complete kits.