I've become a little skeptical about the new RC/Ertl, but if this car is any indication of what they are capable of, I think things will be fine. Of course this is a limited edition version without the regular edition version's molded in exhaust.... But still, it is a striking model of a great car. First on the order of business was to properly black out the grill. Such an improvement. Next was to chrome over all that painted on trim. Silver paint trim is better than none at all, but not by much.
The tail lights are rather odd. The rear facing portion is a piece of red clear plastic but the sides are just red painted over the chrome underneath. Amazingly the color transition is not noticeable but there does exist a narrow band of vertical chrome where the two meet. A touch of turn signal red and it all blends together quite nicely. I really like this body shape. The exhaust tips seem a little large and not quite the right shape but still look nice.
Ertl added a lot of detail here already. Notice the warning labels on the radiator support, the nicely detailed (too modern) battery and the master cylinder. I added nothing! I should add some plug wires and it would look like a $70 model! Did I mention this car was detailed WITHOUT taking it apart? Ertl did a nice enough job that I could add 95% of the details I wanted to add without a tear down. I like that. I do need to properly paint the underside of the hood and the cowl vent area in the future.
Since the car didn't come apart I didn't really a chance to do much in here. I am a little miffed about the gauges however. The speedo and temp/oil/amp/gas gauge cluster are in the wrong locations, they should be swapped. I also noticed the "speedometer" is really a Stewart-Warner temperature gauge with yellow lettering. What the heck?! They did manage to get the badge on the steering wheel correct. They did goof on the door panel emblems. The passenger door has it correct as "SS396" but the driver's door has it backwards: "396SS". Duh.
This is one of the best undercarriage designs from Ertl yet. The steering links are one of the most complex and detailed sets to date. I now notice I painted the link that actually does the steering. I should have left it black since it does not represent a 1:1 part. I'm glad they included the optional rear ant-sway bar to add some nice paintable detail to the rear axle area. All I added was paint to the driveshaft, steering links, anti-sway bars and the lower radiator hose. For some reason the hose started out orange.
I added absolutely nothing here but the trunk opens so I thought I should show it off. Extra detailing from the factory includes the jacking instructions and positraction warning labels. The trunk is nicely finished off as well.
