Shite in Miniature II

[Datsuncog]

Nah, jumbo parsnips round here.

Aubergines are seen as a bit suspiciously cosmopolitan.

Any other guesses about what's going on beneath the blanket, do drop us a postcard at the usual address.

[Spottedlaurel]

18 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Speaking of kits, I made a start to this which I got from Mr Lawrence.

I'm going for the black colour scheme. This also appears in the 1991 Tamiya Catalogue I got from @Datsuncog. I'm quite excited about this one as I loved the real car as a kid and sorely regret foolishly selling my lovely 1/18 Revell NSX for a tenner to a 'collector' who was only too happy to oblige. This has a similar level of detail.

That is one of my favourite kits, nicely detailed and it goes together very well.

Here's mine from 25+ years ago:

 

Had a good weekend working on the Skyline saloon:

 

Main thing now is the foil trim around the windows, then final assembly. Black trim and bumper painwtwork was done by hand with a brush, no masking tape. There's a family thing with shaky hands, but doesn't seem to be affecting me much yet, just had to be grateful for my new varifocals......

[Split_Pin]

That looks great, it does go together a treat.

Unfortunately, I've had another paint disaster. I've been using aerosol cans for years with no bother. I even sprayed the bootlid of the Corsa yesterday which is looking good. 

I ever so slightly keyed the surface with steel wool to aid adhesion. It really was the lightest of touches. But now the boot and both doors still have a rough look, even after 2 colour coats and one of lacquer. The rest looks ok. Unsure how to proceed. Moderately peeved.

[bunglebus]

8 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Although obviously based on the Chevrolet panel van, this was a completely different casting

I hadn't really appreciated that until you mentioned it - I knew the rear doors were different and there was the roof cap, and the windows obviously but hadn't looked at the extra casting lines.

One of us needs to get them side by side...

[bunglebus]

44 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

The boot and both doors still have a rough look, even after 2 colour coats and one of lacquer. The rest looks ok. Unsure how to proceed. Moderately peeved.

Not easy without seeing what's happened but you may have to carefully flat back and repaint. I've not touched a plastic kit since I was a kid, at least with die cast I can strip the paint without dissolving the car

[flat4alfa]

12 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Although obviously based on the Chevrolet panel van, this was a completely different casting

4 different castings

2 different modifications on one of the castings

[bunglebus]

Now this is a rare bit of kit, #2 of three unusual bits I've won recently, and to be honest this is by far the most uncommon.

Lesney Giftware Speedkings K50/K-53 Street rod calendar and pen holder. Find another one!

[flat4alfa]

Crikey.  Needs a side-by-side photo table shoot with the Sand Cat giftware one?

I did not know - I'd assumed for years it was just Aircraft and MoY they offered.

The Matchbox Giftware ultimate must be the Soap, but I won't be looking for that.  And you know why?

It's a slippery soap.

[SmokinWaffle]

Looking for a cheap toy Transit van if anyone here happens to have one!

 

[Christine]

£2 in the  Post Office  

Chyyynese..   They have  got a Micra k12 too

[andrew e]

So another entry  from the “I had totally forgotten when and where and why I bought this files” this Vitesse 1/18th beauty appeared back in the summer after a long hibernation. (In my defence the box was always battered but it’s still got its mirrors!)

I had a similar 1050cc Golf as my real first car (the FIAT 127 I bought off a painter mate of my dads was sold back to him when its replacement was written off within a few days!) however KPD52W was black with GTI stripes and grill - and couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding 😁 Looked cool though and it’s probably why I bought this on whim years ago.

Obviously this is the swanky LS model (with spurious alloys!) and that brinylon trim that turned to powder upon daylight seeing it. I’m sure every early Golf had seat covers fitted by its first MOT.

However it’s up for trade if any of you chaps fancy a swap, give us a shout 👍

[bunglebus]

36 minutes ago, andrew e said:

However it’s up for trade if any of you chaps fancy a swap, give us a shout

That's really nice - sure they're the same spec seats my ex's MK1 had in it, can't for the life of me remember the reg of hers but it was dark metallic red and 5 door.

Pretty sure those wheels are meant to be steels

[RoadworkUK]

I think those alloys might actually be steels:

I think Vitesse and Sun Star were later one and the same. My Golf Cabrio has the very same wheels.

The headlights are suspiciously similar, too.

They also offered the 1:18 Cabrio in GTI trim, but I eschewed that because POVVO LOVE.

 

[andrew e]

Your right! I thought they were the tarantula ones. The cabrio is ace @RoadworkUK

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Crikey.  Needs a side-by-side photo table shoot with the Sand Cat giftware one?

Yeah why not. I'll stick the other two Street Rods in for a few pics too. There are a couple of other versions of those to find yet

[Tenmil Socket]

2 hours ago, andrew e said:

So another entry  from the “I had totally forgotten when and where and why I bought this files” this Vitesse 1/18th beauty appeared back in the summer after a long hibernation. (In my defence the box was always battered but it’s still got its mirrors!)

I had a similar 1050cc Golf as my real first car (the FIAT 127 I bought off a painter mate of my dads was sold back to him when its replacement was written off within a few days!) however KPD52W was black with GTI stripes and grill - and couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding 😁 Looked cool though and it’s probably why I bought this on whim years ago.

Obviously this is the swanky LS model (with spurious alloys!) and that brinylon trim that turned to powder upon daylight seeing it. I’m sure every early Golf had seat covers fitted by its first MOT.

However it’s up for trade if any of you chaps fancy a swap, give us a shout 👍

What would you like to swap for? 

[andrew e]

Diecasts! Corgi 50’s to late 80’s, Siku, majorette? Anything really! £20/25 swap value I reckon with the bashed box. No  Lledo days gone 😂

[RoadworkUK]

Those Lesney giftware sets are great and all that, and magic in rareness terms, but my first thought is DUST TRAP.

[Tenmil Socket]

44 minutes ago, andrew e said:

Diecasts! Corgi 50’s to late 80’s, Siku, majorette? Anything really! £20/25 swap value I reckon with the bashed box. No  Lledo days gone 😂

I'm interested. I'll have a look what I've got...

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, RoadworkUK said:

Those Lesney giftware sets are great and all that, and magic in rareness terms, but my first thought is DUST TRAP.

They have some weight to them though. Ideal for throwing at partying neighbours that breach the lockdown rules

[flat4alfa]

Anyone for PLYMOUTH PROWLERS ?

Charity shop.  Just before lockdown, obvs.  Think it was £3 but I don't argue in charity shops that support a cause I follow.  At first I was dismayed to find the bumpers were missing, but I'd forgotten how rum they look on the real thing. 

But why didn't I walk away at that sort of money, you ask?  Well, apart from the fact it's diecast and another one made by SunnySide.

Was also because it works out to be around 1/29 scale and it can go in my convert to slot car pile mountain.  Plus the colour is nicer in the flesh

It has an interior and the peeling dashboard may be a genuinely scaled asset

.

Not only that, it's got Vanessa Feltz's arse.

 

[flat4alfa]

17 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I hadn't really appreciated that until you mentioned it - I knew the rear doors were different and there was the roof cap, and the windows obviously but hadn't looked at the extra casting lines.  One of us needs to get them side by side...

Sorry, it looks like it's me.  It's the excitement.

Anyhow, thought probably best to show a tampo'd example, rather than peel a 40-year-old sticker back 

On 11/16/2020 at 12:03 AM, Datsuncog said:

But! How could anyone resist that purposeful front end?

Or arse end.  No aubergines.

Doris fainted at the thought of Ken and his aubergines at the allotment.

Thankfully all the equipment worked

Doris was discharged after an hour.

[flat4alfa]

4 hours ago, andrew e said:

Diecasts! Corgi 50’s to late 80’s, Siku, majorette? Anything really! £20/25 swap value I reckon with the bashed box. No  Lledo days gone 😂

Anything specific?  It's a fantastic model.  The rear 3/4 view you've done shows how superbly accurate the model is.  And that colour!  I remember the similar 1:1 colour well, I spent a few nights out in the back of one of those (as a passenger getting stoned with the lads, not as a rent boy I should add).

[Datsuncog]

I had a bit of snappy snap earlier this afternoon with some Corgi, but only getting a chance to post it on up now...

So yup, as stated there's four primary casting variations of the Chevrolet Van:

- the 'Custom Van', with four roof windows and oval-window rear doors, which appeared in 1977 in many Vanner custom-style guises plus full mobile bordello cardboard interior (eg Rough Rider) and also as Superhero vans (Superman, Spiderman, erm, Charlie's Angels) - plus the same casting presented as a more sober Coca-Cola delivery van. Which then turned into...

- the 'GM Van' which appeared post-Mettoy, as above but with the roof windows now filled in to make a standard panel van - as per the Royal Mail van in the post above. This casting appeared well into the 2000s in increasingly tenuous guises, including as the A-Team's van and the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine.

- the Corgitronics Radio Van, as shown in my pic above (hey, it's the only other one I have - now owned for about 25 years, since I found it at a car boot sale) - same basic idea, but with a plastic roof insert to house the speaker and a battery aperture in the base. AM radio tuning mechanism is behind the oval-window doors, and the on-off/volume rotary dial is also mounted on the base.

- the Jean Richard Circus Booking Van - this one came with loudhailers mounted on the roof, and a fold-down plastic canopy at the rear instead of the oval-window doors. I've only seen this one in catalogues - never in the metal.

- the Superior Ambulance, which differed from all of the above by having detailed side doors and windows and, as you can see from the photo with the Radio Van, differently profiled wheelarches - not as flared as the other variants. Its roof is also a separate casting entirely; I think the others are either all-metal  as part of the shell, or have a plastic insert like the Radio Van.

So yeah... Corgi sure got their money's worth out of this design!

[flat4alfa]

26 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

- the Jean Richard Circus Booking Van

Nada.  Circus is same casting as Charlie.  Lop the Pinder roof bit off and you will see....  You listed five - for your offering of four!  This is what the 'Corgi Chevrolet Van' collection episode does to you.  Slope> Slip > Affected ☺️.  Ah well, it is... getting late.

The Chevrolet 'Tampo-Ambulance' wishes all, a good night.  Ken however, as ever, is over-enthusiastic and gets in the way

Peace.

[bunglebus]

8 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

 

6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Is it just a trick of the light, or is the body line/wheelarch treatment different on each side of the ambulance? Left side looks raised while the right looks in relief.

The one F4A posted looks the same both sides

[155V6]

A few finds at Tesco this morning,the box was fairly empty so not sure what else would have been there?

[bunglebus]

Nice! My Tesco has had naff all interesting since they started their toy sale.

I'm after the hot rod and pickup 

 

[egg]

Matchbox xk140 just fits in a large letter box, so £2.50 posted.

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, 155V6 said:

A few finds at Tesco this morning,the box was fairly empty so not sure what else would have been there?

The Powell !

I've stopped getting hold of small-scale, but still want to fondle one of those

Rest of the set: