Lamborghini Diablo

Wow! Is about all I can say to start this review.
This is the AMT/Ertl Lamborghini Diablo, kit # 6933. The date on the box is 1990.

I got this kit free from a friend who had it in storage for a number of years, and when they bought a house and were in process of moving, I got this as part of their downsizing.

The Diablo was a great car, and this kit fills a gap in my lineup of cars from the tractor manufacturer.

After building this kit, I am amazed at how poor the quality of this kit it. If all kits had been this bad 25 years ago, it's amazing anyone would ever stay with the hobby.

I consider myself to be a fairly competent modeler, and this one just plain wore me out....
The fit of the parts was bad, the instructions horribly vague, and parts were distressingly out of proportion.

 The kit 5-liter V-12 engine was completely chrome plated. A little fancy.... even for Lamborghini.

I toned it down by spraying the whole thing aluminum, and picking out some of the smaller details with contrasting colors. The wheels and tires I ended up simply super-glueing in place, as they wouldn't fit per the instructions. I also had to warm the tires in warm water in order to stretch them over the wheels. By this point I was starting to loose faith. Brakes and radiators were left off, and the interior got an overall coat of black paint, no decals were used or trim was painted.
Even toyed with the idea of simply painting the windows black.

Leaving off parts sped up the process a little (just to get it over with), but didn't solve the fit issues. The chassis didn't appear warped to me, but it might have been a little bit.
Several clamps and more super-glue was used to marry the chassis and body together.

By the end I was done. Left off the mirrors, windshield wipers, and other little bits that go on at the very end.

As you can see, overall the front suspension sits a little high, the front tires in particular seem a little tall in profile to my eye.

The orange makes the body-work and great shape stand out well. It's too bad it was just so frustrating to get to this point. Not sure on the history of this kit. Maybe it was worked up from a snap-tite kit, or a promo model and done in a rush.
Maybe mine was just old and warped, and didn't realized it. Definitely glad to have it off the table and working on a plan for what to build next.

As the expression goes.... Never look a gift horse (or in this case bull) in the mouth.