Kit: AMT 'Pro Shop' 1/25 1962 Buick Electra 225

Kit #: 6116

Price: $11.00

Date of Review:

Review and Photos by: Scott Van Aken

All I can say as a preview is that I learned to drive in a 1962 Buick.  It was a natural that I would pick up this kit when I saw it.  For more info on it, go here.

Upon opening the kit, the first thing I noticed were all the extra parts.  Unless one is doing a custom job, those will go in the parts bin.  The next was the amount of flash.  Not really that bad considering the age of the mold and where it is done.  There are bits of flash on many of the parts. The body suffers from it mostly in the front and the front quarter windows.  No big problem, and considering that these are probably 35 year old molds, a lot less than expected.  Of course they haven't been used since the initial release back in 1962.

Unlike the kits of yesteryear, this one is molded in a very light brownish grey plastic.  They used to be white. Detail is pretty crisp, though since I build few cars, I don't know what the standards are nowadays.  I do know that there really are few parts to this one. To build a stock version, 45 parts are used.  An equal number are for the other versions.

There are giant ejector pin marks in the interior floor that will be a pain to remove. The chrome looks well done and doesn't flake off like some other AMT kits I have built. The tires are properly skinny Firestone Supremes. They are, however, blackwalls. No self respecting Buick Electra 225 would be caught dead without whitewalls!

Well first step is prep. For cars, that means cleaning up the mold lines and polishing the heck out of the body.