SCALE MODEL NEWS

JAMES BOND is the movie industry’s longest running franchise, with the 25th movie due for release in 2021. And now Round-2 has a license to produce kits of Bond movie subjects, using the AMT brand. 

THIS 1:25 SCALE BUICK RIVIERA CUSTOM is a reissue of a kit first released by AMT in 1965. Mat Irvine: I mentioned the chassis of a 1965 AMT Buick Riviera in my recent article, ‘Scale modellers and Self Isolation’ so here’s a closer look at the Riviera, the chassis of which was in the photo of my workbench ( circled below ). The kit is a reissue of the AMT 1965 Buick Riviera, one of the company’s ‘annual’ kits, released each year from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. These were ‘3 in 1’ kits, meaning that you could build one of three supplied options, almost always being stock, competition, or custom. The 1965 Riviera was a 3 in 1 kit, but there was no competition version, instead having two custom options. The ‘Villa Riviera’ came about as a present from General Motors’ Buick division to car-customiser George Barris ‘to do with it what he thought best.’ Unsurprisingly, Barris accepted the car, and was ready to start some mild customising on it. George Barris workshop The Barris wor...

FOLLOWING RECENT JAMES BOND articles, here’s a piece on converting two kits into one of 007’s more unusual forms of transport. Mat Irvine reports:  The second James Bond movie was based on Ian Fleming’s book  From Russia With Love , and came before  Goldfinger , where the idea of Bond using a specially adapted car – the famed Aston Martin DB-5 – was introduced. In  From Russia With Love  the vehicles were frankly ‘working props’, appearing on-screen for relatively short periods of time. But the movie did have one set of wheels that made an impact, a 1961 Chevrolet Apache 30 stake truck, carrying a load of cut flowers ( movie still below ). In the movie, 007 hijacked the truck to escape an attacking helicopter, driving across what was meant to be ‘east European’ countryside, with his latest lady friend ( see below )bouncing about in the pickup bed at the back, amongst the blooms. A kit of the vehicle was a non-starter, my idea coming from the multi-issue par...

THIS IS A REISSUE of an original, and very popular, AMT kit. It’s a 1:25 scale model of the Anglo-American Sunbeam Tiger, a V8 roadster built from 1964-67, by the British Rootes Group. Mat Irvine:  But first, the kit as now issued. It depicts a Sunbeam Tiger, a British sports car based on the Sunbeam Alpine, its four-cylinder engine replaced by a Ford small block, 260 cu in V8. The kit supplies the V8 engine, with a simplified chassis, running gear, and interior. You can build the AMT Sunbeam Tiger perfectly stock, or as a racing version. For this, there are optional lowered rear leaf springs, magnesium-alloy wheels, and alternative exhausts. You can also add flared wheel arches, front air dam, a roll bar, and a rear spoiler. The decals include a variety of stripes and numbers. USA and GB national plates are included, though the kit comes only in left-hand drive form. So how did the kit first appear? In fact, the original was an early AMT Star Car, one that featured in a movie or o...