danthecapriman

Love that Minor! I’ve painted one of the silver 70 year ones in blue pretty similar. Possibly a shade or two darker. I guess that blue is a multipack only colour?

I used to occasionally work on an Astra 3 door estate, mk2, in that nice pale metallic green they did. I can’t even remember what reg it was. One of the guys I used to work with at the time used to love them too because he’d use them as a van. Which I suppose they are really! The Astramax van with windows instead of panels. But most of them hadn’t had as hard a life as the vans had!

Just been going through a few things I’ve got squirrelled away under the bed! Did Brown really have one of these!? Remember back in the days when 3 door estate cars were a thing! I always liked these and the 3 door Escort estates. Not seen either in years. And a lovely Renault 21. I’m not much of a French car fan but some of these models of them really capture the look of them well. Another car from the 80’s that seemed reasonably common but you don’t see much now. They do a 21 Savannah estate in the same series too but it’s proving difficult to find.

That’s exactly why I’ve been enjoying myself so much doing the customs and other projects I’ve been up to lately. Getting stuck into making or just repainting stuff is about the closest you can get as an adult to escaping the shit involved with adult life these days. You can almost completely focus on the models and not the other crap! Even if it’s just for an hour or so. I like to think it’s a good way to keep your mind going too. A bit of problem solving and constructive stuff to do is good for you. Have you seen the premium those purple Pontiac’s are on eBay!? I know they’re rarer than the red ones but Jesus!! Ive got one here somewhere, not bad but certainly not perfect. Found in a job lot! I love the colour of the purple ish pinkish paint!

The one I have here is now open. The interior is in @eddyramrod box for him. The rest I’ve taped back together to keep it in one piece and put it in @bunglebus & @andrew e box ready to send. Its basically complete apart from the interior.

I think that’s probably the first time I’ve seen one of those Studabakers with the cameraman still attached!

Some of them you can paint black to make them less obvious, but others are terrible and you just can’t do much with them other than remove or replace them. Some of the really bad ones, I wish they hadn’t bothered fitting them at all really. Or gone old skool and done them as moulded into the windscreen unit, maybe with a bit of paint on them instead of separate parts.

Hard to tell tbh! I suppose on one hand it means a bigger parent company can take them on and potentially provide more backup and funding for their products. But, on the other hand it could also mean some stripping back of the range and cost cutting might end up happening? I thought Hornby themselves were in the financial shit though?

That’s exactly it. Lots of them are actually shared with other brand names but you pay much more for them - IXO, Triple9, etc etc. but the end model must get some cost cutting done for the magazine editions so you often get much simpler paint jobs, slightly less detailing, more chunky basic parts etc. I was on eBay a while back looking at them and the Mexico cars partwork Ford Econoline mini bus in red… Is a casting shared with Triple9 and PremiumX, who do a more detailed version of it with two tone paint for going on four times what that Mexico mag one cost me! The Volvo 343 from a Polish cars partwork… Is also shared with Triple9, who do/did a yellow one for considerably more than that one cost me. I’ve got a Triple9 one and two of the blue partwork ones and even a pair of the blue ones wasn’t as much as the Triple9! Theres loads of them if you can be arsed looking for the various different brands.

I’ve got a pair of the yellow version! My plan is to repaint them into standard cars though so it doesn’t bother me. I’ve never had the blue standard version though, looks lovely. Agree with you about the screw pillar in the back too! I might try to grind it down a bit when mines in bits, see if I can’t reduce the size a touch then paint it interior colour to make it less obvious. They do a few versions of the 1500/Avenger saloon too, including one that kind of resembles a Tiger. And the last of the line VW badged one’s. Happy Birthday too btw!

The one in my sale thread has one seat back missing. It might help @eddyramrod if he’s only missing one of course. I didn’t get time to open it up today. Tomorrow is more likely though if you still want it opened up and separated? Suspension is good. Wheels not bad. Glazing not bad. Boot/bonnet present & undamaged. Body itself is ok, no damage to pillars etc. Headlight jewels missing. One seat back missing. Paint not great.

You bad man!😄 Why did you have to show me those!! Now I’ve got to look for some more. The blue Ford boxed one is lovely. Mine is boxed but it’s not the original I don’t think. It’s just an old Minichamps box like the one with your red car.

Had to nip out this morning, but did find this. Minichamps 1:43 Mondeo mk1. Never seen one before so had to have it! (I’m aware I’m supposed to be thinning down!). Looks like an older Minichamps model but it’s actually pretty nice. Quite grubby and dusty so I’ve just given it a wash off. One for @egg 😁 Got a bit more done on the D series cement mixer too. Still some little touch ups and things to paint in. Rear mudguards need straightening a bit as they’ve got a bit twisted somehow. Front wheels need altering still. Rear bumper bar still needs doing too.

They’re awesome @MiniMinorMk3 nice job. Or, you might say, they’re Magnifique…! Id be a little concerned though with a Ford mechanic checking over your Mini. He’s probably sabotaging it!😆

I like the front wheels too. Very nicely done. They could have just used the type they already had for the other Major trucks but made the effort to do these for it. Trucks from that era were so cool though in general. They actually went to some effort to style them and generally did a great job of it. All for a vehicle that was primarily for doing a hard job and then getting thrown away after it wore out.

That is a weird coincidence! Ill take the hammer & chisel drill to your green one tomorrow and part it out.

Isn’t there a red one too? Im sure some of the early ones had jewel headlights still too.

There’s a weird gold one too…

For anyone interested, I’ll be putting more stuff up on my sales thread tonight. Theres shit loads!

Christ, my backs killing me and my arse has gone numb from being sat on the kitchen floor all day! What have I been doing? I’ve been having (another) much needed clear out of toy cars! Meaning to do it for months actually, but today I finally bit the bullet and did it. House move stuff is on (again!) and seems to be going well so far (shouldn’t have said that should I!?!) so I’ve tried to be harsh and cut back on the collection, and therefore weight, I’m taking with me to pastures new… …which of course means I’m going to do another tat sale! I’ll get everything photographed this weekend hopefully and pick an evening to get them pics up. I’ll give you guys first shout then whatever’s left can go on the Bay. There’s loads too! Two big boxes overflowing with stuff from old Dinky and Corgi to 90’s Matchbox!

Wowzers! Two fantastic spots there! That Granada though is utterly incredible. Not seen one like that in a very long time. It’s not only done so well to survive, but dodging the banger boys and remaining as it was built is fantastic, and… it’s a bloody early mk2 as well! I love the mk2 Granny, definitely one of Fords absolute highs.

I had a load of this stuff, https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Other/Kenner/CV-Bridge-4-Plan.pdf It was originally my uncles from new, but was passed down. The original box must have fallen to bits yonks ago so my grandad made a big plywood box with loads of little sections inside for all the different parts. There was absolutely shit loads of it though. You got loads of different girders and braces to build the bridges and buildings then the building faces and road surfaces would clip to them, or just lay on the floor. It was a fantastic system and you could just run your matchbox and corgi toys on it. No idea where it went though. I could have sworn blind it was still up in the loft but clearing out to move last year I didn’t find it, so god knows where it went.

Well, it’s bollocks’d!! No amount of polishing or cutting compound will make a difference sadly. But that’s probably not unexpected really. I’ve ordered a Spot-On Jaguar S type replacement glazing unit from Mr Flowers, which obviously isn’t going to fit, but it might be adaptable for at least the front and rear screens? We’ll see when it arrives. Failing that, I could probably use the original glazing as a pattern and cut new from clear plastic then bend to shape with a bit of heat. There will be a solution I’m sure. I could do a convertible, but tbh, I’m no fan of soft tops, real or model. Don’t know why but they just never look as good as a tin top! I’ll carry on with it though and see what I can come up with.

It is ridiculous really that it’d be a problem. For what it’d cost you’d think they’d use a UV stable type of plastic. What I find even more baffling is that this UV/sun damage is a problem at all in the UK!! There’s probably only about two days of the year we see the sun!😄

You can get a Matrix (mega £££) model of the soft top. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404062746371?itmmeta=01HRC4FH5A1SPN36MW7YZJ3CKN&hash=item5e14043703:g:HKAAAOSwObZj661e&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4G0GhBPPaEGMmjYIyFMa%2BpF4CkvssdpfbVzK2NNG%2Fdwn7kD1%2BlvxhQKgry%2BrdrmawguXbVArGqisOdyKth%2BJ7Ct0nJZDoKRK3IA%2B9jFWY9%2BGOu5fCUyF5qDXMsffb6yrBLi3OQsqRWRDxE1%2FrFtmWtaZuLz3VxcvdbGJ7olqj610waSa19YJQDrs5AOp4ARaHh11UXQCndnQbJsahUyY%2Fn80N9ie53tz17yAkLd6maiLC88vhVaz5I02id8bk99UikfeJZ9M8GBQ0b%2B8n06%2FVuvv0jpdevrD14Nq2wh4KHun|tkp%3ABFBM4JK-hMNj