Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

Wife-approved display cabinet for ALL my models.    This is despite me specifically leaving the whole collection to my grandsons in my will.

 

Ooh, that's somewhat harsh... though it's also true that some spirited debate did occur between myself and MrsDC concerning how much of my collection should be on display at any one time, and where those displays should be located.

 

We did get something sorted out in the end, though. Being all 1/43 and 1/72 helps, mind.

 

Funny, I was actually just wondering only this morning (apropos of nothing) whether I should slip a note inside my will to advise that my diecast collection should be offered up to this forum thread as and when I pop off, as I really don't know anyone else who'd want it. I've already compiled a similar note for my (now much-reduced) vinyl collection, divvying it up between several friends.

 

Obviously it won't make much difference to me anyway!

[Split_Pin]

^^Same here - my next of kin can stick the lot inside the fire beside me for all I care.

[mercrocker]

They can do what they like with my dried-up carcass, but stuff is more important to me than that. 

 

I got my will solicitor to do side-letters giving stuff to people who will take care of it.   Otherwise I have lived in vain.

[morrisoxide]

Has nobody else noticed that Morris Oxford is actually an Austin Cambridge?

I was hoping someone else would spot that. I feel less nerdy now. 

 

I noticed this in one of the videos back on page 218

Looking at the wrong drawing there M8. It's obviously a Oxford VI and not a A55 

 

_{Well that's my Nerd-ism back then.}

[mercrocker]

I have seen that film clip many times and often wondered whether they were planning to update the A55 Mk2 into the Oxford VI.   Must have pissed them off that BMC updated the Farina within a couple of years!

[junkyarddog]

Got this today,

 

Really nice Siku Vw transporter.

 

 

 

[junkyarddog]

Lidl had Matchbox 5 packs today

 

Couple of my favourite castings.

 

 

 

 

[mercrocker]

Must.....not.....collect......anything ELSE...........

[Frogchod]

Another Citroen arrived today

This time a placky Norev Ami 6.

I like how Norev do the soft long travel suspension just like the real thing.

I had to get this on a "but it now" coz I recon Egg and Junkman are outbidding me on the auctions...

[egg]

Class!

[59Impala]

Aaaaand I'm back in the room after a bit of an absence. No note from my mum either. It has been a while since I posted so here's just a few pics of some stuff i bought months ago. Much more has been bought but for some reason I haven't bothered to get my camera out. Some French plasticness is included just to let JM and Egg that they ain't the only ones with such a fetish.

 

French and plastickey

Dinky Code 3 Bedford

 

More Bedford & Tekno Taunus van

Plastique!!

Assorted stuff

Everyone likes a woodie don't they?

An Airstream

I do like a Thames 400E

[RoadworkUK]

That Airstream is amazing.

[59Impala]

That Airstream is amazing.

You too can own one, this is where I bought mine:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IXO-ATLAS-1-43-1981-AIRSTREAM-EXCELLA-280-TURBO-CAMPER-VAN-RV-MOTORHOME-SILVER/362383075967?hash=item545fb6ea7f:g:I2oAAOSw1NJbLPXA

 

Pretty good price. 

[RoadworkUK]

Ha, I went straight on there as soon as I saw it. Tempting, but I'm trying to go cold turkey on models right now.

[morrisoxide]

The talk of Austin A55s has had me looking for this for hours. Some kind of magazine freebie?

Looks like this chap is err... well playing with his lad from this angle. 

He's actually taking a picture of his other half.

 

I also picked up that matchbox 34 Hot Rod. I wasn't keen on the odd wheels so I painted them black with some wide whites. 

Goes well with my Hot Wheels custom 32. How do customs go down on here (nothing old by the way) Yay or nay? 

[junkyarddog]

Yay from me to seeing some customs!

[eddyramrod]

Me too

[eddyramrod]

I think the plastic kits got shunted over into Open Forums, so they're probably a few pages down by now.

 

The really sad thing about kits is, making them devalues them.  Your hard work is worth nothing - less than nothing, even.  My advice would be clean them up, fix anything that needs it and get them in a glass cabinet where you can enjoy them.  I remember that series from the early 80s, and I'm fairly sure I built all three: Cortina, Capri, Zodiac.  Good effort by Airfix, but not followed through.  They really should have included the Escort and the Victor Estate, to name just two from their range.

[eddyramrod]

Found it!  It had slipped all the way to page 5, so I've bumped it up.

[Junkman]

Those old Airfix kits are sought after and hence quite valuable in any condition.

Reissues are unlikely, because some of the tooling went to MPC in the USA and thus went under with them, hence the whereabouts are unknown and it's more than likely some of it got sold for scrap. The succession of takeovers and mergers over there is so convoluted, that the trail of the tooling often can't be traced and nobody at this time really knows what exists and what not. Often tooling is now incomplete and retooling the missing components economically infeasible. Add to this the licensing jungle you have to go through to release any kit and you can imagine how unlikely it is for what was a niche product even in its day ever hitting the shelves again.

 

Depending on how restorable these built models are, they can command stiff money, but as has been mentioned by others, nowhere near the price of unbuilts.

If I could look at pics, I'd be able to tell more, but if they are reasonably complete and can be rebuilt, I'd say they are at least 75 quid each.

If you really don't want to eBay them, which IMO is the only sensible way, because it's exactly this what eBay initially was invented for, I'd try relevant fori such as Britmodeller.com, or approach vendors of old kits such as Kits for Cash, Kingkit, or Plastic Past Times. Although the latter will not pay full whack for obvious reasons, their offers aren't unfair and dealing with them couldn't be more hassle free.

[rainagain]

My £5.50 ship arrived, complete with no mast and a very broken funnel 

 

Thanks for the previous advice I found I could buy a replacement funnel for £1.50 + £3 P&P, however I also have use of a 3D printer so I fired up tinkercad

 

A short while later

 

 

Next I need to paint it, I'm not going to go with the original green colour as I just don't like it, so I think I'm going to go with a classic Cunard black/white

[Junkman]

Can you print me some 1/24 R16 TX wheels?

[Junkman]

Built kits are built kits no matter whether the clearcoat yellowed or the decals deteriorated. As long as they aren't glue bombs, they are worth something to someone.

 

One must distinguish between kit collectors and kit builders. For the former, even a part having broken off the sprue over the decades reduces the value, for the latter, its desirable as long as something he imagines can be made from it. In today's money is everything society, the paths of those two groups actually seldom cross, except like in your case, when the boxes and instructions are still present. This might enable a collector reboxing mint contents from scruffy boxes to add value and he could flog the built contents to a builder/restorer. A win/win situation for both.

 

I used to be a collector and only ever built kits when I had more than one example. Meanwhile I've abandoned the kit collecting field because it became too anal even for me and plead guilty to have driven the merciless Proxxon tool into the contents of some of the few mint/boxed kits I had left with gay abandon to create a custom.

I wouldn't do such a thing nowadays because in the end I do acknowledge the desire of the restorers in a live and let live kind of way and my collection now only comprises either common wares, or restorable chod, some of which being rated even in that condition, though.

 

But it still gives me extreme pleasure when I can respond to the quest of a man regarding his holy grail "oh, I cut one of those up not too long ago".

The reaction thusly provoked is priceless.

[Junkman]

Found it!  It had slipped all the way to page 5, so I've bumped it up.

 

Whatever is relegated to that section for some inexplicable reason is dead as a tin of corned beef.

[mercrocker]

Can the kit thread not come in here?   Most of us mini-shiters have at least a passing interest in them.....

[Junkman]

I think the management took issue with it having some non automotive content.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Plastic kit, you say?

 

Last night I finished the Camaro from Revell's Hey Kids Please Stop Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 And Glue This Together (glue not included) range. Home Bargains were knocking them out for a derisory amount recently.

 

It's basically a plastic model kit with three quarters of the work done already. The body is painted, the decals pre-applied, the wheels are painted and they're the metal rod axle type so there's not even any fiddly suspension stuff to assemble. I completed it in one sitting, the only customisation being to repaint the wheels because the standard chromed ones are rubbish. 

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

At the last toy fair, I passed on this Siku Pizza Mini. Mainly because it was mint in box and I never know what to do with those. Do you rip them out of the packaging or not?

 

Fortunately Junkman is cleverer than me and went back and rescued it, so that I could tear it out of the packaging it's been trapped in for so many years. 

 

 

Isn't that cool?

[egg]

This was going well until I I dropped the f-ing thing!

 

[Datsuncog]

^^^^