CC In Scale: Cars Model Year 1970

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– Posted on August 1, 2024

Filing has never been my strong point, and my grasp on it weakens with the passing of the years. The photo files of my models are organized by decades; well, except for this century which is just all lumped into one file. I can get away with that as I don’t build many newer vehicles. Are there fewer kits of them? Quite possibly, but I don’t often go looking. New cars are not as interesting to me as they used to be, plus there are still older cars that captivate me that I haven’t built.

And also, there are older cars I want to build more of! Just this week I finished a Nissan Gloria 330 (’75), a ‘companion’ to the Cedric 330 I built twenty years ago. Can I stop at two? Possibly, but possibly not: see Edsel…. Or maybe Don’t: see also 1953 Studebaker, 1956 Ford, 1958 Plymouth, 1960 Ford, 1961 Chevy. And others. You get the idea. If I like it, I’ll build it again.

But searching through my photo files, it’s hard not to notice that certain years have more models than others. Case in point: 1970, when I was a car-mad thirteen-year-old.

So, let’s get started.

Here’s a Mustang Boss 302, taken outside on a sunny afternoon a few summers back. Forty-odd years back I went mad building Mustangs for a while, and after seeing this in the catalog I asked an obliging shopkeeper to get four of these in for me. Wisely he halved that. Initially done as a Boss 429 (engine overkill?), about ten years back Revell revised the kit to produce a Boss 302 and this Mach 1 (with 351 Cleveland, just to be different). Three versions of the kit, with three different engines.

Having started with this Mustang (filed under B for Boss), we might as well keep looking for interesting Fords. Maybe a Torino? Two? Because I like them. Especially in Ford Australia’s muscle-era colours. IIRC these are Red Pepper and Sherwood Green;

We’ll give the Maverick a miss, but here’s a Mercury Comet;

About now the Chevy guys will be going “How about a…?” Relax. This is the ‘new tool’ Z28 from the nineties, when AMT were going through something of a golden age. Much better than their 1970-vintage kit, which still reappears from time to time (shakes head);

Here’s a bonus Chevelle. Another of Monogram’s early-eighties muscle car kits;

A Monte Carlo. Another excellent nineties AMT kit;

And a Caprice. This one’s an AMT annual kit (dates from 1970) that periodically reappears in the catalog, here showing off that unusual roofline;

Crossing over to Pontiac, we have the Firebird. I didn’t want to go for the too-common white-with-blue-stripe look, so reversed it;

We have to look at the GTO. Here’s a gold one. Once again, there are others…

And how about a big red convertible? Only one of these Bonnevilles;

Oldsmobile, you ask? That would be filed under 442;

No ’70 Buicks in my collection, we’ll have to wait until I do 1971, but there is this Cadillac Eldorado, an old Johan annual;

Time for some Mopars. I’ll admit they’re my favourites, partly because of the wild colours offered, but also the styling. Let’s start with a Challenger first; top down, I think.

Okay, I cheated on the colour. This one’s Aussie Ford Tropicana Green from that period, one of my favourites.

And maybe a coupe. Here’s a yellow T/A. I can’t recall which yellow I used here;

I don’t have a ’70 Cuda built (yet), but here’s a Road Runner. I could have used Sassy Grass Green or Lime Light, but didn’t have them handy;

And from Dodge, a Super Bee with that wild front end. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it in a magazine – they actually produced that! And fancy calling a colour Go Mango;

Of course I also did one in Panther Pink. Had to, just had to…

Now there are plenty of other muscle-era Mopar models, but they all appear to be ’68s, ‘69s (Darts, Road Runners, Chargers…) or ‘71s (Dusters, GTXs, more Chargers…) We’ll catch up with those another time. Not next time though; I’ll keep you guessing.