Willimo's Gremlin

So, thrilled that AMT (Round-2) is re-releasing a repaired Gremlin kit, I ran as fast as I could to my LHS to get one. The kits hit the shelves on Friday but when I got there at midafternoon Saturday, they were already sold out! They had even sold through their next shipment so I had to wait until yesterday to get mine. The guy at my shop says they can't keep hold of them, and I believe it. I expect to be seeing swamp of these on AF and probably any other forums that anyone goes to, at shows and in magazines. That's cool with me, but I guess here is just another one for the big Gremlin pile. Blubaja said he would make one with me but I don't know how far along he is or if he will post up any WIP pics.

I'm pretty excited to build it, a kit of a really neat car, and since it's not my normal fare, I don't have any detail up kits or special tricks or even feel the need to apply them to this car. I originally intended to do this kit 100% box stock but I just couldn't. For example, I can't stand the factory seats so even though they are correct I will be replacing them with some leftover seats from the Revell '69 Camaro. In any case, this will be a quicky, hopefully done by next Tuesday. Realizing that I hadn't built anything in 2011 really got me in the mood to build something - to just build something!

So, on with it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin01.jpg

The first thing I did was thin the wheel arches. You probably can't tell in the photo, unfortunately. I started doing this on model imports so the wheels can sit a little flusher (I'm not all hellaflush but I do think that the closer it is, the better it tends to look), but it's kinda become standard for everything. It's kind of how bigger wheels and lower suspension looks better on a model than being exactly right, thinner wheel arches do, too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin02.jpg

I also opened the front grill area (more on that later) before gluing on the front facia. The hood fits properly when you pull the body out of the box, but when you glue the facia on you end up pushing the fenders further apart, and there is a really ugly gap toward the front of the hood that needs to be filled.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin03.jpg

Not a new trick by any means, I know it's been documented here plenty. I glued a strip of plastic down each side of the hood, and trimmed them to almost length. Then I sanded the sides of the hood until it fit. You definitely need some sort of a sanding block to do this! I was lucky, the plastic strip I added was just the right thickness so I just had to sand the rear edge completely away and leave it full thickness at the front; a good guideline.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin04.jpg

Much mo betta. I realize that the hood is now probably wider at the front than the rear, and to avoid that I could have used any number of other techniques but this was fastest. So about that opened grill area...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin05.jpg

I intend to remove almost all the chrome on this car so there was nothing marrying me to the grill as AMT molded it (though, looking at that picture, it looks really good!). So, like I did on my '69 Camaro, I used this grinding bit to remove a lot of material from the back of the chrome grill. The Dremel tends to be a big hammer for a small problem so I just ground it until I got close.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin06.jpg

This picture is probably worthless, but the idea is that you can just start to see the chrome plating from the backside of the plastic, meaning I'm close, time to file from here! No pics yet, but I finished most of the cleaning before dunking the chrome grill and bumpers in a bleach solution to remove the chrome entirely. I will have pics once it's cleaned up and ready for paint.

Meanwhile I painted the body:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin07.jpg

I really wanted to do the car in heavy metal flake rootbeer with a gold or yellow stripe, but the kit decals do not have gold or yellow stripes. I imagine someone down the line will make all the colors of the rainbow (Google image search shows pretty much anything imaginable) so maybe some other time. So, Tamiya Orange from the rattle can with the black stripe is what I'm doing. I heated the can up and the paint went down super smooth, but it was probably a little too heated and it sprayed way too fast and I didn't get the mist coats I wanted, so some of the gray primer is visible. That's ok, I will polish out any blemishes and add another coat or two tomorrow.

Last comment for the night: Wow, I had forgotten how terrible fitment was on these old AMT kits! I struggle when there are no positive locators for assembly; I have no idea where the dash goes! :uhoh: Anyway, I'm not really griping, this is fun so far and it will make a neat model for the shelf.

Thanks y'all and let me know any comments or criticisms!

Looking good! This should be a fun little build!plica of

I have this kit for a Scale Auto expanded review; will be starting it in about a week. I may borrow some of the same ideas; I had already heard of the front fascia and had determined I'd have to do the same hood widening.

I have a builtup of the original kit that I bought for $2 perhaps 20 years ago, and then found an original box with most trees and fresh decals, but no body/interior bucket/chassis. The new fascia is wider, fit the model w/o spreading the fenders. The new box is much bigger/flatter than the old one (traditional sized box).

Mine will be red w/black interior & white stripes, similar to one our neighbors had, including the 304 V8.

If you loved working on the fascia, I want to see how you deal with the front seats :evillol: The seats are far too narrow. If you can do a mold/cast, take one seat, cut off the two sides, then use them on the other seat to widen it, then fill/finish. Oh, and AMT never had the indented faux vents in the rear quarter panels. They're depicted on the decal sheet, but they have never done that part of the body correctly.

So the Gremlin has Gremlin's :lol:

Kit makes me sad:/ Think I'll hold out for the levis detail set hahah;)

Kit makes me sad:/ Think I'll hold out for the levis detail set hahah;)

This kit was tooled up nearly 40 years ago. It was quite typical of models made from that era. It started as an earlier drag car and later had stock parts made to fit.

why do I envision one of these with some modern deep and deeper wheels, ready to tear up some curves....damn, guess I gotta stop at the hobby shop tonight..

But thats how most older kits are, more work needs to be done to make them look good. Will good luck on your build. I second your method of the arches as if not done the wheels seem like they are miles inside of the fender. Def dosen't look good. This is a 1/24? Will follow. :thumbsup:

I actually think the panel gaps are accurate... I don't think Gremlins and Pacers were known for build quality :D

So, I didn't make my one week goal. At all. Here I am much later still working on this thing. I'm kind of building this out of my typical order, so you'll notice the body is all incomplete, no lights or grill or trim or anything. I did get most of the chassis, engine, and body area done and the interior completed enough. Sorry for some blurry pictures coming:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin09.jpg

Seats are out of a '69 Camaro. The kit ones looked a little narrow but close and fairly accurate but... augh, what the heck! Where seats like this in the '70s? Really? Anyway, I think these look better any my color scheme is just made up to look good; just for visual interest. If I can't really make a good looking Levi's denim interior, what's the point of trying to be accurate? I also added a huge sewing pin as a shift lever because there was none in the kit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin10.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/willimo/Gremlin11.jpg

The body is glued to the chassis and interior bucket and the chassis glued down. The chassis was a little warped and drooped in the back. Mocking it up showed that the rear edge of the chassis showed below the bumper. I had to carefully but firmly bend it to fit properly, and then permanently attached it to the interior bucket to keep it straight. Clearly the engine isn't done, nor is the body, but this is as far along as it got today....

The grill fits terribly in the front facia. It's way to small... like 1/28 or something. I will have to add plastic like I did to the front of the hood. I also foolishly dechromed the bumpers. The are so blocky and miserable I thought I could improve them, but now they don't even have chrome on them so they're a double fail. Oh well, I'll have to fix that.

Almost done anyway! Comments and criticisms are great.

Excellent project, I have always really liked this car. The graphics look sharp on the body colour. I know you said you had a time limit, but I don't think I could resist putting some tubs and a 4-link suspension in there. Great work you did on this so far.

If I had enough time in my life to make a second, I would probably use the body and nothing else, making a tube chassis and stripped interior. It could not be any more difficult than trying to make everything included in this kit fit.