AMT 06 Nissan 350z Review

[MidMazar]

Well i noticed this new model at my LHS so i had to pick it up. I figured if the body had bad porportions than i can at least take the motor for a tamiya 350z. Once the kit was opened and inspected, everything seemed to be there. For an AMT, i have to say its not a bad kit, but i can't say that yet.
On to the pics.

Box Art


Chasis has little detail, some wiring molded. Advertisements have to be sanded though. The rear and front bumper need a little sanding. Test fitting them to the body went well, no issues there.


A couple of the engine pieces, rotors, interior, and wing.


Biggest drawback would be the rims, they are huge. I set down some 18" fujimi bbs wheels on the top for a comparison.


First time i have seen bubble wrap in a kit which protects the headlights and reverse lights. Rear lights, windows, and interior doors are shown. The tires seem to be super low pros due to the fact the wheels are 24"!!


Mainly engine parts, all in chrome plating. Most of flash is found here. Looks like we have to strip the whole tree down.


Now finally the Body, i set a tamiya body along side of it for comparison.




Seems to me like this kit is a little better than the recent AMT eclipse and supra. Hopefully this build doesn't give me too many headaches. Main reason i see picking this kit up is for the engine detail, as the bodykit ruins the kit. Also i forgot to mention the instructions don't tell you what each parts color is. This was a quick review of a kit we will probably be seeing alot on these forums, if not than the engine at least.
Happy modeling

[exhaust smoke]

WOW!!! Thanks for the pictures. I will buy the kit for the engine alone!! Where can I buy one of these from in the UK?

[blubaja]

The interior door panels are have the grab handle going on the wrong door, and the wipers are for a US car aswell. This car seems to have a mixed identity.

[winstona]

Nice review. I notice that the scale of the Tamiya is not so different than that of the AMT. One is supposed to be 1/24 and the other one 1/25...The engine should be very compatible.

Winston

[ales]

To me there seem to be an enormous difference in scale between the two bodies - look at the windows and headlights, for example. Besides, it seems the AMT one is suppiosed to be widebody.

Sorry to say this, but to me this AMT kit makes no sense at all. I don't understand why anyone would tool such wheels, for example, and think they would look good on such a model.

[gasman03]

looks like AMT did a nice job, I was hopiing the AMT kit would be a little big, so I can use the engine in a Tamiya kit. i'll get one for the parts. but the wheels are a big turnoff. seems like AMT is looking at how well Dub City Diecasts are selling, and are tooling there kits of those. which means we may never see an accurate model from AMT again. Those wheels appear to be 22" so they could be used on a Revell Hummer H2 or a Revell Escallade

[Veyron]

I'm in the process of building this kit....just for fun.

Eventhough the kit has problems like the ridiculously oversized rims and roof which looks like it's chopped...it's not as hidious as the boxart makes it look.

The front and rear facias in mine needed a bit of tweaking to make a nice fit...I resized the hood a little also to make the panel lines more realistic. Then I glued the hood on as I'm only intersted in a curbside build on this one.

Another body glitch is they didn't concave the area below the side windows, they rounded it instead.

I replaced the rims with some from a diecast which are still too huge for 1/25 yet thay are smaller than the kit rims. The way the wheel openings are made even 19" Aoshima rims look a bit too small on it.

So....there's almost no way to make this kit look like a realistic street car...it's too exaggerated.

[Chuck Kourouklis]

Finally got mine over the weekend. Someone at Pegasus made a comment that I think parses this kit and especially the EVO VIII straight down: AMT's been hanging around JADA toys a little too much, lately.

I measured the diameter of the wheels at 17/16", which scales out to around 26.5 inches - how frequently do we see a diameter like that on SUV's? Of course they're gonna make the kit look toylike, which is entirely inconsistent with the improved Veilside Supra that at least tries to look like a real car.

The 350 merely limps along with a roof chop and the body kit, but the Evo makes AMT's Eclipse look positively brilliant. That Lancer is a pure cartoon, far closer to a diecast caricature than to any halfway-serious attempt in plastic, with mile-thick A-pillars, an exaggerated squash-'n-sweep in the greenhouse, grossly overdone wheel arches, and, if the pictures I've seen are any indication, a body kit the movie car doesn't even have! Those of you who saw RC2's preview photo and wondered if it was a diecast may be at least half-correct; for these models at least, RC2 appears to have shared master patterns with some diecast toys - that's the single best guess I can come up with as to why these are so toylike - and the picture is sadly representive of what you get in the box.

So AMT gives you a halfway-decent Supra, an Eclipse and an old Camaro that are badly bobbled, a Mustang with a surprise-surprise Skyline engine, a why-did-they-bother Monte Carlo (lowrider, no less) - and these two kits, which are... something else entirely.

Viewed purely as kits, they don't initially look that bad. The recent mantra about RC2/AMT kits has been that the proportions may be off, but at least the tooling quality sucks. Well, these molds, while lacking the sharp engraving that's routine from even the weaker Revell kits, are at least cleaner than we've seen in the recent past, and initial fit tests show that the major parts get along agreeably. The detail is certainly better-developed than the proportions would lead you to expect.

So that earlier observation about the 350 not having its identity worked out is very apt for both of these kits. On the one hand, they embody a game-enough attempt at tooling refinement and current kit design. On the other, they have proportions and wheels that would make Tom Daniel wince. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the designers at Revell had a look at these and just rolled their eyes; there won't be any loss of sleep in Des Plaines.

I sure hope the Camaro concept is more serious than these two.

[Veyron]

If you want to see a built one:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=619036