AMT’s “Ford Intercepter Police Car” Model Kit

The box for AMT’s “Ford Intercepter Police Car” model kit.

When I was younger, I had three pretty distinct phases of modeling. Early on, my builds are almost exclusively sci-fi, or star/space ships. Between 10 and my early teens, I’d switched to cars. I must have been focusing on getting my driver’s license. In my mid-teens, I’d moved to mostly airplanes, tanks and military models. In my recent return to modeling, I’d tapped back into the love for sci-fi and star/space ships, as well as the airplanes. It seem like a good time to bring a car into the collection.

When I was very young, I had a thing for police cars and fire trucks. One of the first model kits I remember building was this AMT Ford Intercepter Police Car kit. It was a disaster. I hand-painted the thing standard Testors Blue, with bubbles and streaks everywhere. But worse, I got glue everywhere trying to build the 15 piece light-bar and stick it to the frame. I remember thinking, “Well, this is crap”. But, of course, as a kid, it’s all-good. It gave me a police car toy I wasn’t afraid to play rough with. AMT, via Round2Models, is doing a nice job of tapping into their 60’s/70’s molds, and brining back the kits of our youth. One of these is that same Ford Intercepter Police Car. I decided to put-right-what-once-went-wrong.

AMT’s completed “Ford Intercepter Police Car” kit.

Maybe it was because I was 6 or 7 when I first built it, but, really, it’s a pretty straight forward car model. No opening doors or trunk. The hood comes off, but is not hinged to swing open. That said, it was molded very well, needing little trimming. The kit also comes with decals for five different builds: Chicago PD, Troy, MI PD, Las Vegas PD, New York State Police and California Highway Patrol. It also comes with a range of interior details, like radio receiver/transmitter, shotgun, etc. I did find that the barrel of the shotgun needed to be trimmed a bit, to avoid touching the windshield.

Front of AMT’s Ford Intercepter Police Car model kit.

Paints will depend on which of the cars you want to build. I went with the old-school Chicago Police version. Given that those decals called for a long, horizontal stripe down each side, I did have to break out the 800 and 2000 grain sandpaper, to smooth out the flaring down the fenders and doors. To get the chromed grill to appear more realistic, I used the old trick of painting some lightly thinned Testors Flat Black across the grill, and immediately wiped across it with a cotton swab. For the headlights, a little dab of lightly thinned Testors Flat White. Since I haven’t built that many cars, rather than go with Testors Amber Turn Signal paint, I simply mixed two-parts Testors Gloss Yellow with one-part Testors Gloss Red for the flashers.

Rear-side view of AMT’s Ford Intercepter Police Car model.

For the color of the car itself, I picked Tamiya’s Pure White. It came out looking just like I wanted, like it just rolled out of the motor-pool freshly washed and waxed. That said, I’m finding that Tamiya spray paints are not as thick as Testors, and have an annoying tendency to run, rather than stick. The interior and bottom are Testors Flat Black, with some detailing, and wheels, done with Testors Flat Steel.

“We Protect and Serve”.

I’m very happy with how this built turned out, even if it took nearly four decades. The kit is well made, has lots of details, a wide variety of decals, and is pretty simple and fun to put together.

AMT’s Ford Intercepter Police Car Model Kit¹ –

Pros:

• Simple and straight-forward car model.
• Lots of variety to the decals, so there are lots of options.
• Good looking, and nicely detailed kit.

Cons:

• No bell’s-and-whistle’s features, like opening doors, etc.

Verdict = Recommended.