The Chevrolet Camaro was Chevy’s answer to the pony car sweepstakes in the late 60’s. Over the years, the “Bow-Tie” boys brought out many exciting and powerful Camaros to do battle with Ford and Chrysler. After a short hiatus in early 2000, Chevy brought back the Camaro in its current retro styling that harks back to the car’s 1969 aggressive styling. Today’s Camaro is truly a state of the art Pony Car, in part because it rolls on modern and expensive independent rear suspension (IRS) components just like its big brother Corvette; engine power ranges from its base 304 bhp V6 engine while V8s are available up to the 6.2 litre 400 bhp L99 engine.

The Kit

Our subject kit from Revell comes packaged as a ‘Special Edition’ release. This kit is based on brand-spanking new tooling. When I first saw news of this release, I thought it was going to be a rehash of their previously released snapper-based Camaro prototype. In a word, this kit is awesome and both rivals and betters the best that Tamiya and Fujimi have to offer these days. The extra detailing and tooling put into the chassis and engine components allow them to be displayed as a separate models.

The Build

As usual, my first step in any build was to spend some time on Google looking for pictures of the Camaro for inspiration about what I was going to build. Quickly, I found a number of pictures of the new Camaro fitted with the “ground effects” lower body cladding and custom wheels that are included in the 2’n 1 kit. As readers of my past reviews know, I like painting the car bodies first. Since I had chosen the dark red pearl version of the car I saw online, the paint would be Tamiya’s rattle can TS39 Mica Red. For those of you who have never used Tamiy rattle can paints, I can attest that they are among the best and easiest to use. The first picture shows most of what the first painting session is all about: the body, chassis, engine, and suspension components are painted overall and later detail-painted. The engine assembly is made up of 18 pieces; it is a jewel of a model by itself. Revell has added a lot of detail and excellent engineering to this mini-kit. The front and IRS (independent rear suspension) components have a jewel-like quality for something that will be hidden from plain sight. I spent about 25% of my build time detailing the underside of this kit; I particularly like how the IRS looks when in place.

Again following pictures garnered off of the internet, I chose to “2-tone” the interior. I first painted all of the two tone components in Mica red. After allowing the red paint to dry, I then hand-painted everything else black. When dry, I shot a couple coats of semi-gloss clear onto the entire interior to even all of the tones. With everything painted, I began the final assembly. As you can see from the pictures of the completed model, I chose to use the traditional double stripe “SS” hood stripes, although Revell was thoughtful enough to add the inverted hockey stick and single stripe SS decals as a variant; way to go!

I had absolutely no build and fit issues with this kit, and recommend adding this kit to your collection if you haven’t already picked one off the shelf. The decal sheet is very well done; the large hood and trunk stripes will require the use of a decal wetting agent and a little extra time in getting them to smooth down over the hood.

Conclusion

Revell has given us Pony Car fans a great and welcome addition to the current stable of American muscle cars. I found this kit to be very well engineered and executed, making for a handsome addition to the Mustang and Challenger models currently in the Revell lineup. Considering the parts count and the excellence in kit engineering, modelers from moderate to pro will enjoy building this kit.

Thanks to Revell for supplying this review kit and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review this kit for you.