'The Pesky Plastic Affair' (AMT/Round 2 'Super Spy' Piranha...a.k.a. the 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' Car)
First built this on its original release back in 1967, as a fanatic eleven-year-old 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' fan. Back then my only modeling tools were tube glue and a Boy Scout knife to cut the parts from the sprues (a word I'd never yet heard, at that point). My memories of that much-loved kit were of its being frustratingly difficult at every stage along the way...but I finally got it together (though the back wheels kept dropping off) and it was COOL.
Bless 'em, Round 2 finally re-released it a few years ago...albeit without any reference to the TV show, neatly avoiding any accompanying license fees to MGM (since AMT had actually commissioned the build of the original, and presumably still had those rights unencumbered). I eagerly snapped it up again...along with a neat ParaGrafix mixed etch/decal detail set. I was curious to see whether nearly a half-century of model-building would make things any easier.
The kit is still an artifact of '60s model technology, with lots of mold mis-matches, poor fit everywhere, and nearly every locating peg on any part a different shape (and usually, size) from the hole it's supposed to fit into. There are also some pretty basic engineering challenges: an engine too deep for the compartement it needs to fit into...a rear axle too short to actually reach the wheels...and inner/outer wheel assemblies considerably wider than the supplied tires. I won't even go into the problems with the non-fit of doors and clear parts.
On the plus side...all those cool super-spy features were still there...and I now had the skills to make some of them 'operable.' The ParaGrafix set provided some great etched detail (including operating door hinges that resembled those on the real thing) and a dazzling set of wood-grain panels for the interior...with equally-impressive 'secret electronics' panels to go behind them. The kit itself provided beautiful pad-printed tires (with the original red stripe on one side, and flashy Goodyear Speedway Blue Streak logos on the other...which I couldn't resist).
I bullied the turbocharged six-cylinder Corvair engine as best I could, added a few bits and bobs, and nearly got the fit of the clear parts right with a flush fit (instead of the scale-six-inch set-back of the instructions). I used all the 'spy' gear except the ludicrous 'drop down propellers': by no stretch of the imagination was this design ever going to pass as a water-tight amphibious vehicle. The kit provides an 'either-or' 2-sided tach-gauge console with 'gadgets' on the opposite side; I used a bit of twist-tie wire to make it revolve to 'specs,' as well as hinging the door next to it for the secret 'telemetry' panel, to show off those nice ParaGrafix decals. Only major interior addition (besides seatbelts, which seemed logical even for a '60s turbocharged spy vehicle) was a 'ready rounds' rack for the kit-provided door rockets...which would otherwise have been invisible inside the doors themselves. On the exterior, I added a hinged panel for the rear license plate...which flips up to expose the kit-supplied drag chute.
The TV original had sort of an 'ice blue' finish, but I went a shade darker with mine, painting it with the current equivalent of what I almost certainly used back then, on my first build: Testors spray-can metalllic, in this case a rocking Nassau Blue.
It's got it's flaws...but it's still cool all these years later, loaded and ready to roll against the evil minions of THRUSH. "Open Channel D, please...."
