1984: 1970 Challenger R/T Six Pack Convertible
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First released around 1983, AMT’s “Yankee Challenge” ’70 Challenger was one of the new breed of plastic model kits paying tribute to classic Mopar muscle cars. An entirely new tool at the time, the 1/25 scale Challenger body was rendered as a convertible. If you wanted a hardtop, the glue-on roof panel was included. Though the front valance parting line is a bit heavy handed, I liked this kit enough to build it pretty much straight from the box with a few upgrades. I had discovered Dupli-Color automotive lacquer spray paint and this was one of my first models to use it. The light green metallic hue isn’t specific to any Mopar color chart, but looked close enough to a factory shade for my tastes. This is also my first model with a detailed underside. Instead of just painting everything black, I followed the factory plan and its all body colored with hand brushed highlights. The “Yankee Challenge” kit’s only soft spots were the valve covers, air cleaner, wheels and tires, all of which I replaced with crisper renderings from various JoHan Mopar kits.
1984: Dodge Deora
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When I built this model in 1984, the market for vintage model kits from the sixties was really heating up. Even built-ups were in demand. The flurry of re-releases that have become so popular today hadn’t happened yet. So when a friend gave me a gloppy built-up version of the Alexander Bros. AMT Dodge Deora kit, I stripped the candy apple red paint with brake fluid (another SAE-inspired trick) and rebuilt it into the model shown here.
I used Dupli-Color automotive touch-up paint but I copied the greenish hue found on a 1/64 scale Hot Wheels Deora from my childhood collection. Guess what, the actual Deora was gold, so the color on my model is totally wrong. The AMT Deora kit’s big surprise is that it’s powered by an aluminum block version of the Slant Six. While the real Deora started life as a Slant Six-powered ’65 A-100 pickup, it was an iron block version of the engine. But for some reason the AMT Deora’s Slant Six is rendered with the unmistakable features of the aluminum block! Perhaps AMT re-used portions of the aluminum block Slant Six from Tex Smith’s XR6 kit?
1985: 1977 AMC Pacer
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Thanks to Chrysler’s $1.5 billion buyout of AMC in March 1987, this one qualifies as a Mopar. But at the time I built it, I was a college junior, the Chrysler take-over was two years away and AMC was alive and kicking in the domestic marketplace. Still, everybody knew the final AMC products were behind the times and each carried a tinge of sadness and defeat. I built this ’77 Pacer as a used car lot find.
Based on the MPC version of the Pacer (AMT also rendered a kit of the car), I pretty much did a straight from the box build, the only deviation being a set of four JoHan stamped steel wheels to lend an aura of austerity and decline. This model taught me the art of restraint. Sometimes less is more.