Shite in Miniature II

[Split_Pin]

Actually I did get a reasonable deal the other week-

 

It's an age old model but they captured the lines really well:

 

IMAG6440.jpg

 

IMAG6471b.jpg

 

It's only an old Guiloy, but it was MIB £8 and came with another 1:18 Bburago as part of the deal. Albeit a bloody Viper with a broken seat.

I've been after one of those XK8 Coupes for ages but I thought only the Maisto cabriolet version was available. Now I know what to search for in eBay!

[eddyramrod]

Isn't that XK8 a DB7?

[RoadworkUK]

Yeah, but you could always change the badges...

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[Split_Pin]

I always get those two cars mixed up............

[stuboy]

Boot fair booty

[stuboy]

Boot fair booty

[quicksilver]

I predict some new additions to this thread after Shitefest. I've come back with far fewer than I brought and it was great to see them going to good homes. Someone was clearly delighted with his haul!

 

What was my Shiteace and boat, the perfect* holiday combo. Andy had to put the boat in the puddle to see if it floated

[Felly Magic]

Is that a Matchbox Transincontinental full of Granadas?

[quicksilver]

Is that a Matchbox Transincontinental full of Granadas?

That it is. Off to a 1/64 scale banger race no doubt!

[Mr Lobster]

When I was really into collecting when I was 11-14 they were almost untouchable, yet now seem to be on a tight rope of fortunes.

 

I know nothing of either, but wouldn't a Corgi sell off to Oxford benefit everyone?!

 .

Corgi / Hornby's biggest problem is themselves. Far too much reuse of the castings over and over and over again and some strange choices too. A lot of the problem is that they seem to hate all their trade customers which doesn't help endear them to you either.

The Vanguards stuff is actually pretty good in the main. Quality is decent and it sells fairly well. When they get it right they do really well. Hopefully 2017 might bring something new from them.

 

I can't really see that Oxford would benefit from buying Corgi in any way at all or that there's any liklihood of it happening. The guys at Oxford at very on the ball and know their market inside out.and they are also really nice people too. Saw the new Sherpa castings last week and they will be very popular. Whilst the aren't really Autoshite, the forthcoming 1/43 Aston Martins are very lovely and a bargain at the price.

[Mr Lobster]

Taff's dipping his toe in now, I think the Firenza has gone down fairly well...... I wish Lobster would get in the Eaglemoss Opel Bedford CF blitz

Firenza has been very popular, next colour variant is due shortly too.

 

Eaglemoss CF? For a variety of reasons whilst we might go for them, I wouldn't hold your breath at the moment.

[Felly Magic]

Just missed out on one for sensible money from France, not paying £30-odd for the same casting but in an Ixo box. I'm also annoyed that 5 door Mondeo Mk3's are like rocking horse crap, but the saloon is on the discount list in 2 colours. 

[sierraman]

If it's 1/18 scale you want I'm after disposing of a few Bburago 1/18 scale stuff. I've an incredibly rare Dodge Viper for a £10 delivered, similarly I've a 1957 Corvette in bright red - same a £10 delivered. Both boxed. 1950s Lancia Aurelia albeit missing a tail lamp that's £8 delivered. Any interest?

[Junkman]

The guys at Oxford at very on the ball and know their market inside out.and they are also really nice people too.

 

Although I'm unable to follow their thought process of their first ever 1/18 scale offering being a German car of which not one, but two 1/18 scale diecasts exist already.

Does it sell, or is it flopping enough for us to never see a follow up?

[andrew e]

There's only five partly because most of the first half of the years stuff hasn't come out yet but yes it's a disappointing selection. Didn't expect new castings as they haven't got the money - I've heard about Hornbys financial issues and it does sound difficult - of the new stuff the Capri should sell ok but the rest are a bit meh.

http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=x645jbtz&headline=EXTRA_Hornby_Looks_To_Reassemble_Winning_Business_Model_After_Losses

[rml2345]

Although I'm unable to follow their thought process of their first ever 1/18 scale offering being a German car of which not one, but two 1/18 scale diecasts exist already.

Does it sell, or is it flopping enough for us to never see a follow up?

Their second release is a Heinkel Trojan which seems pretty left field. Oxford have gone from strength to strength in recent years so I imagine they'll make a successful shift into the 1/18 scale market as well.

Their model railway stuff seems to have been warmly recieved too.

[Roverageous]

Incoming!

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't it beautiful? (Yes is the correct answer).

[Felly Magic]

The Streamliner livery of KHCT did look good I thought

[Mr Lobster]

Although I'm unable to follow their thought process of their first ever 1/18 scale offering being a German car of which not one, but two 1/18 scale diecasts exist already.

Does it sell, or is it flopping enough for us to never see a follow up?

The 1/18 Messerschmitt is actually really nice and has sold pretty well actually. So much so that due early 2017 is a Heinkel Trojan in the same scale.

[fred]

I do have a 1/18th scale vintage something gathering dust for years now, I will have to find it out and pap it for yall , it was a tad fragile as I believe. But I will endeavour to find it tomorrow

[eddyramrod]

That's funny, I have two vintage-somethings knocking about!  The one gathering dust is an Alfa, which I'd probably sell to a Shiter who fancied it, and the other is a Merc 540K (I think) in box, unblemished.  Which I'd probably also sell.  Maybe I should photograph them.

[Felly Magic]

Another 5 minute code 3 coming up, this time a Whitebox Onion made to look a little sportier. Used wheels from a cheapo Altaya Capri

Before

 

After

 

Before

 

After

[fred]

I do have a 1/18th scale vintage something gathering dust for years now, I will have to find it out and pap it for yall , it was a tad fragile as I believe. But I will endeavour to find it tomorrow

I bummed out , its 1:16th Polistil Alfa Romeo , hugely dusty but is red once you have wiped some f the dust away

[Frogchod]

Been braving the spiders in the attic and found a box of about 30 models that was packed 12 years ago. Somewhere up there there should be another 200 or so. Dyane and Le Dandy are repaints, Dyane pickup is a regular Corgi hacked about a bit and the 2CV is kit made to look like a 2CV I had at the time.

[dugong]

When does the 1:43 Bumgrape Frightening ship, Dave?

[Ghosty]

That Dyane pickup is executed a thousand times better than the real-life hacked up Ami pickup occasionally seen around Manchester.

[Split_Pin]

I predict some new additions to this thread after Shitefest. I've come back with far fewer than I brought and it was great to see them going to good homes. Someone was clearly delighted with his haul!

20160626_121249.jpg

 

What was my Shiteace and boat, the perfect* holiday combo. Andy had to put the boat in the puddle to see if it floated

20160626_121329.jpg

Andy I though you were supposed to be trimming down the SIM fleet, looks like that's not gone to plan ha ha!! Nice haul there!

[garethj]

Buses in 1:32 scale.  You know how it is with buses, you wait for ages and then two come along together?

 

When I started making slot cars about 5 years ago the guys in the office thought I was crackers but one suggested I do the Italian Job coach.  Obviously I ignored him and started off doing American police cars.  Years later, while scrabbling around for ideas, this one came back to me.  As usual I started off with a 3D CAD model

That got hollowed out and the windows removed, then I got to the business of checking the fit of Minis and putting in the running gear

The motor is the same as I used for a truck, it's got 2 stage gear reduction for more torque and steering front end as all my slot cars have.  I put in a floor with groove for the Minis to run in and a ramp too.

I thought that the Minis would be the easy part as Scalextric made a set a few years ago.  Unfortunately they're £150 on ebay!  There are several other Minis around but they don't handle too well, they're quite expensive and they don't have the correct spotlights and bumpers.  My existing slot car chassis didn't work as the Mini's length compared to its wheelbase is very short.  So I had to design a new chassis.

This had a steering front end but no suspension (as most of my slot cars have) because Minis don't really lean around corners.  Perhaps I should have put in a 1:32 scale rusty subframe or battery tray for more realism?  This uses the motor and rear axle from a 1:43 scale slot car which is much smaller and provides plenty of speed on such a small car.

I resin cast the bodyshells with the correct bumpers and spotlights and designed the waterslide graphics too.  The wheels are specially made narrow Minilites which take Airfix slot car tyres.

 

 

Making a resin casting of the coach was tricky, I make all of mine by casting them under pressure to avoid air bubbles in the resin.  However my pressure pot is only big enough for a large 1:32 car, not a bus!  I could invest the £350 for a larger pressure chamber and goodness knows how much silicone for the mould, but instead I thought I'd 3D print each one.  The drawback is that the coach is so large there are only a couple of companies in the world that can do it and the one I picked is very busy, so not too quick.  So I did some reading about the original coach used in the film.

 

Here is the very one, ALR 453B, delivered new.

For the film most of the seats were removed (although they kept a few at the front because it was used to transport some of the crew around during filming), it was painted in red, white and blue colours and had the Charlie Croker's Tours signwriting applied.

 

After filming it was sold and turned back into a coach, it was actually used as a school bus in Scotland, you could see where the rear doors had been cut and then welded back up!  This seems insane in the collector-mad world of today where people pay hundreds of dollars for the remains of a tiny movie prop, but the coach was actually scrapped in the early '90s.

 

There hasn't been a model made of it either, Corgi used a Bedford VAL for their Italian Job coach and other than a few scratchbuilds, that was it.

 

Except for morris_ital_lover of this parish who'd had the same idea as me and has done the same.  He commissioned a master model which he got resin cast as a slush moulding, the drawback is that cutting out all the windows is time consuming but on the plus side his is available now, it looks fantastic.

Contact him here and he'll sell you one of his lovely kits, go on - you know you want to.

 

Meanwhile I'm still waiting for the first of my 3D printed models to arrive.  Once it gets here I'll need to get the running gear fitted, try it for size with Minis and get the graphics on.  See lonely and forlorn picture below for the waiting parts.

 

Charlie's kit is cheaper than mine, but mine has the bus floor, graphics and running gear so hopefully there's enough room for both of us.  And if there's enough demand, I could also print mine at any scale.

 

 

Here's a home made coach (built from flat sheets of plastic) doing its thing.

[Skizzer]

You are insane!  In the best possible way.

[Felly Magic]

Like times 111111111. Only thing, the dormobile was a Ford Thames, not a Commer in the film