Shite in Miniature II

[eddyramrod]

YES!!!!!  Absolutely Dan, you must!

[mercrocker]

Apologies if this is off-thread, wrong scale, old hat etc.   But its rather wonderful....

 

 

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/10/04/crafting-scenes-of-iconic-americana/

 

[RoadworkUK]

Amazingly, most of the models he uses in those are off-the-peg Yat-Ming and the like. Brilliantly staged, though.

[Split_Pin]

A Kojak background type scene, New York 1974, would be amazing!

[mercrocker]

There's a challenge for you, Dan!

[danthecapriman]

I've been looking at some suitable background buildings. Since I do a bit of railway modelling too I thought about these http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/OScaleBuiltNReady

 

O scale, (same as 1/43). Maybe a row of typically american shop fronts with a road through the middle? Maybe a few parking spaces and an intersection with those american traffic lights that hang down off their cables...

And I could do a little police stop scene with my incoming Dodge Monaco highway patrol car.

Trees and other ground cover etc should be easy as I've done it all before in OO scale (1/76).

 

I think it'd look pretty good as a display type thing, maybe mounted on the wall like a shelf.

[Bren]

Got this in home bargains. Not the standard of the other stuff posted but happy for £2. A Renault 4 gtl.

I picked up matchbox sized polistil one of these for £5 boxed

 

The seller had no idea what it was worth.

[Junkman]

Amazingly, most of the models he uses in those are off-the-peg Yat-Ming and the like. Brilliantly staged, though.

 

He is exclusively using Franklin and Danbury Mint 1/24 scale models.

[RoadworkUK]

He is exclusively using Franklin and Danbury Mint 1/24 scale models.

I must have been thinking of somebody else. I know there's another fairly celebrated chap who's used an old Yat Ming 50s Crown Victoria in a street scene.

 

I stand crekted.

 

Sent from my fingers using clumsiness

[Junkman]

A Kojak background type scene, New York 1974, would be amazing!

Although I'm generally not a big fan of this dolls house stuff, this would be my favourite solution, too. Or something from a Shaft film.

Or one of those terrible semi derelict small town streets.

Those readily available building kits depicting a cheesy idealised America that never existed do absolutely nothing for me.

 

I'm far away from Michael Paul Smith's skills, but a long time ago I had a go at building dioramas myself.

 

Space World Diner:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And one of those travelling shows for the 1960 Mopars:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They created quite some fanfare when I showed them at modelling shows, but did little for me.

Eventually I sold them for shitloads.

[mercrocker]

That Expo piece is right up my alley, would love to create something along the lines of Motorama.    Sadly I have no pics but I did once display my few Vanguards as a corner of the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show.   Took bloody ages and soon after I got the hump with the Vanguard models for some reason and Ebayed the lot - I think it was something to do with the inaccuracies of the F Type Victor.

[mercrocker]

Not in any way a diorama or serious display but this lot sits on our one spare bed for the grand-kids to look at when they come round.   They are not supposed to touch it (cos lead paint) but I let them have a prod around if they scrub their hands afterwards - hence the oddly positioned Halt sign!    Hopefully they will grow up as bonkers as Mrs Rocker and me (might be the lead paint) and not become XC-driving consumers like their own parents (we failed there)....  

 

The Britain's animals are Mrs Rocker's childhood toys, the Dinky toys were mine and we found the base buildings and board in the rain outside an Oxfam - they had chucked them out for the bin men!

 

 

 

 

 

[sierraman]

Went in Home Bargains today alas no Renault 4s

[oldcars]

Went in Home Bargains today alas no Renault 4s

Don't know when i will next be in one, but there was loads happy to pick one up for you if you like?

[quicksilver]

After quite a break I've got back into building buses and working through my huge stash of unbuilt kits accumulated over the last few years. Interest in the present-day scene is starting to wane so I've started a new (currently unnamed) fleet that is set in the late 1970s and contains some proper old coach shite.

 

Duple Alpine Continental (an ancient Fanfare kit, one of the first resins from over 20 years ago)

Alpine Continental by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

Italian Job-style Harrington Legionnaire

"Hold on lads, I've got a great idea!" by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

Transhite

Transit finally has its Day by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

 

Other delights earmarked for this fleet include such old rammel as a Willowbrook Spacecar and a Van Hool Vistadome.

 

The original fleet hasn't been neglected though and has this totally off-the-wall example of Irish shite, a KE-class Bombardier coach with a two-stroke Detroit Diesel engine. In reality none of these escaped for further service and they certainly never made it to the UK.

The Bombardier by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

[mercrocker]

The good thing about 70s (and earlier) coach fleets is the fantastic mix-up of their fleet.....Our local coaching outfit bought up 2 or 3 smaller operators and simply added their logo to the bootlid, leaving the former liveries intact.   They also tended to break up the real dogs and so you would see a panel or two appear on their own stuff like some Harlequin edition of a Bedford VAL or Commer Avenger.    One of the single-coach contractors actually had a VAL painted in the same grey and maroon livery as the Dinky one and I often wondered if that was intentional!

[srad34]

that sierror has got the rong seats- they recaros they are

Glad its not just me with OCD!

[Junkman]

Since I'm ever more cackhanded at modelling, I got me another diecast.

This is actually the Maisto '39 Ford, made for Wix's 75th anniversary.

 

 

I bought it because I like the scallops and moon discs.

What I didn't like are these:

 

 

So I removed them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Junkman]

And I got me this Nomad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[captain_70s]

I woke up on Sunday with a hangover and an email confirming an order of 36 Dinky toy reproduction tyres. Looks like drunk me decided it was time to refurbish my old Dinky models I got from my grandfather.

 

 

All need new tyres but the Minx and Zephyr will need a repaint, I'm thinking maroon with silver wheels for the Zephyr and a light green with cream wheels for the Minx. I might do the XK120 in BRG because the mustard paint, while original, looks shit...

[Junkman]

I'd paint them as banger racers.

[captain_70s]

I'd paint them as banger racers.

Minx and Zephyr already are m8.

[mercrocker]

You can get a ratty XK120 for not much pennies - repaint that instead.   'Tis too nice that mustard one!

[danthecapriman]

And another one from me!

 

Dodge Monaco California highway police made by Neo 1/43 again.

 

 

 

[Split_Pin]

Nice, I love these!

[Bren]

Chips!

[Junkman]

Gosh those Neos are nice.

I wish they'd make them to the only truly proper scale.

[Junkman]

That Expo piece is right up my alley, would love to create something along the lines of Motorama.

 

The problem is that hardly any Motorama concepts exist in el chepo plastic kit form.

Something that would actually be considred a no brainer by the ones not working in the model kit industry.

Hence building a Motorama exhibit wouldn't be such a big issue, but getting the models for it would cost the downpayment on a house.

[danthecapriman]

Gosh those Neos are nice.

I wish they'd make them to the only truly proper scale.

Yeah, but these pint sized ones are easier to store. I can get more models in the same space!

They apparently do make 1/87 scale versions too...

[Junkman]

True, larger scale than 1:43 do take up considerable real estate.

But if your eyesight were as dim as mine, they wouldn't do anything for you.

And I haven't seen my Wiking H0s in years...

 

Actually, my scale bigottery started 40 years ago.

There were hardly any yanks available in 43rd back then, the only dosage form was 1:24/25 plastic kits.

So I ended up with that scale and became a modeller, not so much because I enjoy it so much,

but because it is a necessary evil.

 

The past ten odd years changed all that, what with an explosion of septics in 43rd, but at that time,

I was already 30 years into accumulating kits, so point of no return had been reached.

Around that time, the first few 1/18s had crept in as well, simply because it's impossible to avoid that scale

entirely if one is a model car nut. Well, quietly and covertly, this has meanwhile grown into a 200 strong collection.

 

I have reached a point, where further expansion of the collection is hardly possible, due to space constraints.

Reduction of existing stock to free up space for future stuff is impossible as well, since that would involve

dealing with eBay mongs as a recent feeble attempt has proven. It was so bad, that I now removed all my listings.