General Motors brought back the Camaro in 2010, and in 2012 came out with the ZL1 version. The ZL1 features a more powerful 6.2L 580hp LSA V-8 engine and for many, is the flagship Camaro on the market today.

The kit itself comes with a pre-finished body, and 48 parts. It’s listed as a “skill level 3” kit and comes in an attractive box that shows the color of the car. My review sample was red, but I have seen black versions as well.

Parts are packaged very well with the pre-finished body held in place with a plastic strip, and the chrome wheels packaged in their own container. The clear sprue and the red tail light sprue are packed in their own bags, as are the side mirrors and tires.

The kit’s clear parts come attached the body, so there is little chance they are going to get marked up. A nice touch is the black outlines along all of the clear parts.

Parts are molded in black, and a metallic grey and the external body parts are pre-painted.

My first thought was to go through and make this a more detailed kit, but instead I decided to build it just as it arrived. Assembly is straight forward, and simple. I found that the parts were made of a softer plastic than I am normally used to working with – especially the black sprues.

The cabin is detailed enough and looks like the real car. I masked the center of the seats to leave them the original color, and then airbrushed the rest of the interior in Tamiya’s X-18 semi-gloss black. With a few painted highlights and minimal dry-brushing the interior is done.

I found it impossible to get the hood off of the body for fear of breaking the attaching hinges, so I did not paint the undersurface of the hood, or the area of the body under the hood.

Wheels are done in chrome, and rubber tires are included. The rubber tires match the tread pattern of the actual tires very closely. The chrome wheels also have the detail of the real car, but there is no chrome on the actual car rims. ZL1 rims have a polished area, but they are not chrome. The chrome process seemed to hide some of the rim details and give them a clunky look. For example the “ZL1” which is cast into the rims is here, but on some rims, barely visible. A metal rod holds the tires together through the undercarriage assembly.

The painted body matches the real ZL1 color “Crystal Red Tintcoat” very well, but my example seemed to have a “heavy” feel to it. Several spots had blemishes in the finish, and there is a significant run over the right rear wheel. The biggest drawback to this pre-painted body was that there are some seams which should be removed, but they are painted over.

I found it somewhat difficult to attach some of the clear parts into the body as well, as I was being cautious as to not mark the finish (perhaps too much so).

Side mirrors are also come pre-painted in the body color but do not have any sort of chrome or reflective surface.

The only detailing I added to the painted body was to paint the front parking lights orange, and to add an ink wash to the door and trunk seams.

While being a somewhat strange cross between a pre-assembled display and a plastic model kit, I found this to be enjoyable to assemble. This is a perfect kit for a new modeler, or a great gift for someone who wants a nice looking display vehicle with minimal effort. The serious die-hard modeler will likely want to look at getting a full kit for the detail work and assembly process, but certainly don’t overlook this offering. One could certainly super-detail this kit with a little effort.

Recommended to those with an interest in the subject. For the amount of detail, ease of assembly and low price – this kit has something to offer everyone.

A special thank you to Revell for the review sample.