Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

I did a buy using some of my Asda cashpot vouchers

[MiniMinorMk3]

Time to finish the ToTip Lancia 037.

Front end finished. The lamp covers were a pain. Trying to get the flat decal to stick to the convex surface, lining them up so the script was horizontal and then waiting for the initial dry seamed to take forever.

Top side complete.

Starting on the right.

Right side done.

Now for the left.

Done.

After the Pioneer Lancia I decided to have a go at bending the wipers so that they would fit on the correct side. I got one done but had a disaster with the second, it snapped in two, with the broken piece disappearing for ever in my dark carpet.

Oh well, time to break out the Tameo photoetch ones that I have.

First thing is to bend them into shape so the arms and blades are correct...

then paint them with a drop of matte black.

Whilst the wipers were drying it was time for the door mirrors. When I had the silver out for the mirrors I also put some on the wheel centres o tone done the plasticky chrome.

And then on with the wipers.

All finished.

 

Next up is one of the most iconic of cars and liveries.

[MiniMinorMk3]

PS If anyone is looking for the wipers then I get them from Grand Prix Models.

Product Search (grandprixmodels.com)

I've been getting stuff from them for years. Beware, clicking on their website can loose you a lot of time.

[bunglebus]

10 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

PS If anyone is looking for the wipers then I get them from Grand Prix Models.

Product Search (grandprixmodels.com)

I've been getting stuff from them for years. Beware, clicking on their website can loose you a lot of time.

Any recommendations on filler/pulley? I've been using Revell Plasto but I seem to always get holes and bubbles appearing in it.

This flippin' MK1 Escort is fighting me, terrible casting lines and some damage I needed to fill - but for some reason the primer hasn't adhered and just flakes off

So now I've had to strip it which means doing all the filler work again.

The Dinky I did before was also terrible which is why I ended up making it look deliberately ratty

[sierraman]

Has anyone noticed prices of Matchbox have gone giddy again on eBay? Boxes of literally broken crap are going for mad money. 

[flat4alfa]

15 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

found a fairly ancient selection of the Orange & Blue 53rd Anniversary cars dating back to 2021.

Blast from the past, and no mistake...

I went a bit around the twist chasing those

Something about the colour.  Of all the Anniversary Series since 2018, this was the one that got me.  I avoided all the others so very well too.

The one never achieved was Gazella R, which was THE CHASE CAR, but quite glad as it glaringly (pun) didn't fit and looked more like a B&Q spanner set promotion

Then I found out it was a Ryu Asada re-jig on a previous casting Gazella GT by Dmitriy Shakhmatov.  The 'Orange and Blue' series was 2021.  Ryu Asada died March of that year, so more than likely a tribute. 

But, time has passed and I am now cured.

Or was I.  Found this one same colour at a car boot some time later.   From the 50th Anniversary year, name is Rise 'N Climb .  So it felt like compensation.  Settled, then.

But then looking into it I now find there was a Bone Shaker in that set too!!  Arse! - THAT should have been the Chase Car

Anyone got one of those spare?

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Any recommendations on filler/pulley? I've been using Revell Plasto but I seem to always get holes and bubbles appearing in it.

This flippin' MK1 Escort is fighting me, terrible casting lines and some damage I needed to fill - but for some reason the primer hasn't adhered and just flakes off

So now I've had to strip it which means doing all the filler work again.

The Dinky I did before was also terrible which is why I ended up making it look deliberately ratty

I’ve had one so far with a similar problem. No matter what I did - cleaned repeatedly, degreased it with spirits etc etc the primer just wouldn’t stick. 
In the end I sprayed it with acid etch primer, left over from doing real cars! That got the bugger! It’s etched to the surface and stuck fast after that, then I just went over the etch primer as normal.

[andy18s]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I did a buy using some of my Asda cashpot vouchers

I hate to ask how much those cost...

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Has anyone noticed prices of Matchbox have gone giddy again on eBay? Boxes of literally broken crap are going for mad money. 

Yes. Good job I'm digging out a few to sell then!

[bunglebus]

9 minutes ago, andy18s said:

I hate to ask how much those cost...

£6.00

[sierraman]

11 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Yes. Good job I'm digging out a few to sell then!

Honestly even absolute crap like Military Carriers and engineless Whoosh and Pushes. Things you couldn’t even do anything with that are battered and stamped into oblivion. I’ve seen as well values of Superkings are starting to go up, after years in the doldrums. 

[ETCHY]

I've got a thing for Dinky toys & especially their emergency type vehicles so have been collecting.
I only got the Escort today for £8.00 off a car boot sale, hopefully a good price !
The Transit came with its signs, cones & legless driver.
The Zodiac is just cool & still has all its jewelled lights
The Merryweather is possibly quite an early one as the roof where the bells are mounted is body colour it's normally bare steel. I must test the water pump at some point.
All are a bit playworn but to be honest that's how I like them.
Hope they're of interest !
 

[flat4alfa]

Not sure what I am doing wrong then as for me, nothing is selling

[bunglebus]

16 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

I only got the Escort today for £8.00 off a car boot sale, hopefully a good price

Yeah that's not too bad, they seem to get snapped up on eBay

[danthecapriman]

27 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

I've got a thing for Dinky toys & especially their emergency type vehicles so have been collecting.
I only got the Escort today for £8.00 off a car boot sale, hopefully a good price !
The Transit came with its signs, cones & legless driver.
The Zodiac is just cool & still has all its jewelled lights
The Merryweather is possibly quite an early one as the roof where the bells are mounted is body colour it's normally bare steel. I must test the water pump at some point.
All are a bit playworn but to be honest that's how I like them.
Hope they're of interest !
 

That’s a nice haul!

I got one of those Merryweather fire engines recently myself. Although mines not in as nice condition as yours! I have a plan for mine though!

It was filthy so I took it apart for a wash. 
I’ve got a second one I found ages ago in an eBay job lot that in better condition but missing it’s ladder so this one will donate that. 
Everything else though is available if you need parts! The water pumper is working too.
I just need the cab and glazing.

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, ETCHY said:

I've got a thing for Dinky toys & especially their emergency type vehicles so have been collecting.

It starts like that, then you find doubles get everywhere!  Had the Merryweather as a boy, memories of how heavy it was stuck in mind.  Once I became a mid-life-crisis man-child, the Merryweather had to be obtained again.  Then found out it also had a wheel type change in its life too, so did have three at one time.  Dinky produced that at an odd scale to go with the rest of the Fire Service vehicles - I ought to measure it up.

Thankfully after a slimming-down campaign, just have this little lot, which will have to do

And of course then the collection falls into including-in the Corgi Toys, to mix and match.  I most cases, the cars and vans tend to get repainted into as civilian.  The sole Dinky Escort back here is one of those and is in that purple of the era.  So not photographed here, to save the eye strain.  Any Dinky Escort for £8 is a good buy.

Then things get silly as the fourth emergency services get in on the act

Chaos.

[bunglebus]

I keep finding variations as I sort through my Matchbox

[flat4alfa]

Yikes is your collection so large now ....that you're sorting them into boxes of colour types 😲🙂

[bunglebus]

It seems my green wheel Alvis Stalwart is the early smooth version too

[bunglebus]

21 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Yikes is your collection so large now ....that you're sorting them into boxes of colour types 😲🙂

Yep only way to be able to find them when I acquire doubles

[MiniMinorMk3]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Any recommendations on filler/pulley? I've been using Revell Plasto but I seem to always get holes and bubbles appearing in it.

This flippin' MK1 Escort is fighting me, terrible casting lines and some damage I needed to fill - but for some reason the primer hasn't adhered and just flakes off

So now I've had to strip it which means doing all the filler work again.

The Dinky I did before was also terrible which is why I ended up making it look deliberately ratty

 

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I’ve had one so far with a similar problem. No matter what I did - cleaned repeatedly, degreased it with spirits etc etc the primer just wouldn’t stick. 
In the end I sprayed it with acid etch primer, left over from doing real cars! That got the bugger! It’s etched to the surface and stuck fast after that, then I just went over the etch primer as normal.

I'm guessing that they was probably a lot of zinc in teh original mazak, paint does not like it.

As Dan suggests etch primer is a good base. For filing on metal models I use Standard Milliput, but there's no reason why regular car body filler or fine body stopper would not work. Careful of cellulose putty though, as it may react with different types of paint.

This is a good read for techniques for small model builders.

How-to.pdf (grandprixmodels.com)

 

[Tenmil Socket]

Didn’t someone acquire an electronic MB Sierra recently?

I came across the packaging earlier. 
 

[MiniMinorMk3]

The Vitesse Porsche has been started.

It is a model of the 1986 Le Mans winning Rothmans Racing Porsche 962 C of Derek Bell, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Al Holbert. As this is a Le Mans winner there are no shortage of images on the interweb,

The usual stuff in the box...

A car...

some parts...

and some decals.

We have a dash again so the car needs to be taken apart.

Just one cross head screw and a pull to the rear...

and the floor is off.

I also removed the back wing...

 so the the end fence and centre stripe decals could be put on easily. I also put the sun strip decal on now as I had to cut that from the sheet to get to the dash decal.

Off with the wheel. These usually just pull out, hence why they are often found rattling around inside models from time to time.

Dash decal on...

and wheel back in place.

Initial stick of rear wing decal. After the problems with the Pioneer Lancia I trimmed the decal. After about 3 sessions with softener the decal was in place and wrapped around the edges.

I had to poke the cars eyes out...

because there are two Cibie decals that go inside the lamps.

You can see were they are on this picture.

Also. whilst the eyes were out, I painted the body surfaces black and the lenses silver with a drop of yellow for the indicator.

Lenses back in...

with the Cibie decal.

And the I put the car back together and the rear wing back on.

That's it for now, more later in the week.

[bunglebus]

29 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Didn’t someone acquire an electronic MB Sierra recently?

I came across the packaging earlier. 
 

I think it was in the window display of DC's favourite shop

[flat4alfa]

15 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Didn’t someone acquire an electronic MB Sierra recently?

I came across the packaging earlier. 

It seems 'Siren Force' was a re-release/re-brand of the early 1990s 'Lasertronic' series.

Not sure if the base castings reflected that, but most won't work anymore without taking apart and getting the battery cell out.  No harm in giving it a try.  I bet they make a right din though.

[ETCHY]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

That’s a nice haul!

I got one of those Merryweather fire engines recently myself. Although mines not in as nice condition as yours! I have a plan for mine though!

It was filthy so I took it apart for a wash. 
I’ve got a second one I found ages ago in an eBay job lot that in better condition but missing it’s ladder so this one will donate that. 
Everything else though is available if you need parts! The water pumper is working too.
I just need the cab and glazing.

Nice to see one taken apart. I hope the pump on mine works. Really nice hefty model, proper quality feel to it.

[ETCHY]

2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

It starts like that, then you find doubles get everywhere!  Had the Merryweather as a boy, memories of how heavy it was stuck in mind.  Once I became a mid-life-crisis man-child, the Merryweather had to be obtained again.  Then found out it also had a wheel type change in its life too, so did have three at one time.  Dinky produced that at an odd scale to go with the rest of the Fire Service vehicles - I ought to measure it up.

Thankfully after a slimming-down campaign, just have this little lot, which will have to do

And of course then the collection falls into including-in the Corgi Toys, to mix and match.  I most cases, the cars and vans tend to get repainted into as civilian.  The sole Dinky Escort back here is one of those and is in that purple of the era.  So not photographed here, to save the eye strain.  Any Dinky Escort for £8 is a good buy.

Then things get silly as the fourth emergency services get in on the act

Chaos.

Nice collection there. I note your Merryweather has a roof like mine that's painted. Yeah I think there's something concerning number of wheelnuts signifying early or later. The nozzle on my perished hose (that sounds like something from Viz🤣) is brass too.
I like the Transit vans, I know there's a few variations of those..
Those AA vehicles are cool.
"Mid-life crisis-man-child" yep me too 😂 !

[bunglebus]

Dug out 177 Matchbox to get rid of - shall I bung them on my sales thread tomorrow?

[danthecapriman]

8 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

Nice to see one taken apart. I hope the pump on mine works. Really nice hefty model, proper quality feel to it.

It is! Very hefty for a kids toy! 
It’s literally just two screws underneath to completely disassemble it. The glazing on mine was filthy inside, cleaned it out and it’s crystal clear now.

[danthecapriman]

7 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

Nice collection there. I note your Merryweather has a roof like mine that's painted. Yeah I think there's something concerning number of wheelnuts signifying early or later. The nozzle on my perished hose (that sounds like something from Viz🤣) is brass too.
I like the Transit vans, I know there's a few variations of those..
Those AA vehicles are cool.
"Mid-life crisis-man-child" yep me too 😂 !

The very late versions don’t have jewel headlights either. That one in my pic has cast headlights painted silver.