Scale: 1/25 - about 10"/22.5cm when assembled

Parts: 150 injection molded styrene (grey, chrome-plated and clear)

Instructions: Large fold-out pictorial. No paint guide

Decals: None

Molding Quality: 7 - 30 year old molds in great shape

Detail: 7 - pretty good, considering the age of the kit

Accuracy: Not rated - see review

MSRP: $12.00 USD available from hobby shops and discount stores

Overall Rating: 8 - cool subject, looks like an easy build with plenty of room for added detailing

Click on any of the following for a larger image.

AMT originally issued this kit in 1969. It was based on one of Detroit's visions for a future high-speed family car as modified by AMT (no doubt to make it easier to tool). The concept envisioned a small front module that could be used like a normal car for running errands and such. For longer trips, a rear passenger module would be hooked up, and the combined vehicle driven to a special high-speed "express-chute" system, where "lateral control arms" would contact special guide rails, ducted fans would power up, and passengers would be whisked across the countryside at speeds over 300mph. (For more details, see the brochures included with the original kit here).

As it turns out, the future didn't quite happen that way. We're still driving automobiles not terribly different in form and function than those of 1969 - though there's more computing power in the engine control module of my Dodge pickup than in the vehicles that took men to the moon and back. Go figure.

What You Get

This kit has never been reissued, and the molds have held up surprisingly well over the years. I was pleasantly surprised upon opening the box. It's jam-packed with plastic - so much so it's hard to get everything back in! The box says this is a Skill Level 2 kit, but with 150 parts, I'd say that's a bit optimistic. Go slow, however, and you'll save yourself a lot of frustration.

There are several sprue trees of grey plastic parts in two bags, another couple of bags containing chromed trees, and yet another bag containing a substantial number of clear parts. "Rubber" tires, a small bag of metal pins and a small sprue of red traffic signal lights round out the inventory. Flash is non-existant. Mold seams and sinkholes are few and far between. Ejector pin marks, however, are all over the place. Detail consists mostly of raised likes and is actually about on par with the company's recent offerings. The points where parts attach to sprue trees are substantially smaller than the monster gates ERTL has been using of late, which will make parts cleanup quite a bit easier than I'm used to with their kits.

The chrome parts look very nice, especially considering the reports I've read of recent ERTL kits and their tendency to shed the plating like a dog with the mange. Of course, the first thing I'm going to do is soak them in bleach to dissolve the stuff; it's a bit heavy, obscuring some detail ... and I want to build this in a more heavily weathered state. The rubber (actually, some sort of PVC or ABS plastic) wheels are nicely detailed, though lacking manufacturer stamps - interesting, as the original brochure makes a quite a point about Goodyear's ideas for futuristic tires. I'll probably make a cast of one and replace all with resin copies. My experience with ERTL tires of this sort is that they eat plastic hubs over time - the ones on the F3F7 kit sure do!

Instructions are typical for ERTL - big exploded diagrams in several assembly steps. They appear easy enough to follow, as usual. No paint guide or step-by-step paint call-outs are provided, so feel free to paint this any old way you choose. No decals are provided either, not even for license plates.

Assembly & Finish

Conclusions

I like it. It's got an interesting shape, plenty of room for additional detailing and creative finishing - and loads of cool-looking parts. When these things go on close-out sale in the outlet stores, I'm going to buy a bunch just for kitbashing supplies. I'm sure any modeler with a couple of kits under their belt can have fun with this, though kids may have trouble with the large number of parts. Recommended.