Supernatural Impala

[Rbray47]

I was waiting for someone to do a WIP thread on this kit, but I'm impatient, so here goes...

My wife is a huge fan of the show, and like an idiot, I told her about this kit when it was first announced. She's been after me ever since to get one and build it. Ofcourse, she wants it as accurate as possible. 

I started by smoothing out the body (it had a few scratches and gouges, I guess AMT's chicom workers weren't happy about getting back to the factory) I've already laid down some Testors black lacquer. Next I filled in the mounting hole for the console since obviously this car wont have one, and the bench seat only covers the rear mounting hole. I also filled in the rear seat speaker and rounded the edges of the bottom cushion. I wont correct the pattern to match the front, she wont notice hehe.

Last pic shows the powerplant swap with the Amt 70 Monte Carlo. The 454/TH400 seems to fit fine. I haven't messed with the exhaust or driveshaft, so I'll worry about that after the rest of the chassis is painted and assembled. Also, I'll be coloring the valve covers with a Molotow pen. The engine as you see it is how I pulled it from the Monte kit (previously started)

I'm not going to get too carried away with detailing, aside from fixing the obvious errors. 

[charlie8575]

So far, so good.

Charlie Larkin

[Bucky]

Off to a nice start. Rear seat looks good. Engine looks serious!

One thing I noticed is the ejector pin mark in the front carpet. I haven't opened my kits yet, so I'm taking notes of what to look for when I do! LoL

[Deuces ll]

Some floor mats should be able to hide those.....

[Rbray47]

Been busy with life, but still managed some progress.

The interior is mostly done. I painted it with Tamiya semi gloss black and Rustoleum flat khaki. I may redo the carpet in a slightly darker shade as I'm not happy with it being khaki with dark brown overspray.

Also, my wife (who wanted this car bad) has decided she wants it inside of a wall display with a 1/25 paper Sam and Dean standing beside it. What that means is that I wasted a lot of time correcting things that will likely never be seen. Had I known, I wouldn't have done and engine/trans swap. The TH/400 is shorter overall than the 4 speed, so instead of fixing the driveshaft, I cheated and added about 1/8" of tubing to the tail shaft. 

On my kit, the hood wouldn't shut all the way. I didnt test fit before painting, either. I ended up grinding the top of the core support until the hood sat flush. 

I noticed in the built examples from here and Facebook that the car rides high in the front. Dean's car doesn't. I cut the wheel stubs off of the spindles and remounted them to drop it some, and while I was at it I bent the too-wide tie rod until the wheels were turned. 

[Deuces ll]

It's looking great!... Keep it up... ?

[misterNNL]

Just the fact that a major kit maker actually made a four door kit is more than a little surprising..

[slusher]

Very nice!

[Rbray47]

I'm still slowly plugging away at it.

I gotta say, R2 really phoned this one in. Nothing fits correctly. Maybe I got a lemon, who knows? 

Today I'm doing the trim.

[TarheelRick]

On 6/18/2020 at 11:48 PM, Bucky said:

One thing I noticed is the ejector pin mark in the front carpet. 

I think that is a requirement for all AMT/Round2 kits.  That being aside, this one is looking really good.  Would like to have one of those, but it would only add to the many I will never get built.  Really need to start thinning down the inventory.

[Tom Geiger]

17 hours ago, misterNNL said:

Just the fact that a major kit maker actually made a four door kit is more than a little surprising..

Actually it isn’t for us... the TV and movie memorabilia market is much bigger than ours. Their conventions are huge and draw the general public. Enough money there to pay celebrities to attend and sign autographs. Round Two will sell oodles of this kit to that market. Many will remain sealed and displayed on shelves that way. If the show’s stars drove a spaceship that would be the kit. We are just along for the ride!

And Rbray brings up a good question.. why didn’t R2 put figures in the kit? So easy to do!

[Snake45]

7 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

And Rbray brings up a good question.. why didn’t R2 put figures in the kit? So easy to do!

Simple: So they can bring out a "Special Edition" with figures (and a higher $ tag) later, of course! And they can sell them all AGAIN! 

[bismarck]

On 6/29/2020 at 3:03 PM, Snake45 said:

Simple: So they can bring out a "Special Edition" with figures (and a higher $ tag) later, of course! And they can sell them all AGAIN! 

So true.?

[charlie8575]

I'm trying to figure out how to make the front seat correct. I'm wondering if the rear seat could be used as a starting point, and adjust as needed?

Charlie Larkin

[doorsovdoon]

Did this get finished? Would like to see the end result, I built the same car recently and also had fit issues. Like you mentioned, the front sits too high which I found was the chassis not wanting to sit tight to the inner wings. Lots of shaving of plastic on this kit I found.