Shite in Miniature II

[sierraman]

£1 bought this Tincorner, which seems cheap given they’re about a million quid on eBay. 

[sierraman]

Fifty pence bought this project. 

[egg]

Hello folks, got this from eBay this week. After some scrubbing up and tidying as best I can, very happy with it. This extremely geeky site dates the model quite precisely in my mind to 1957 (can translate from French using Chrome or whatevers) https://www.nuancierds.fr/DT Norev 2.htm. Given it has '1/43' on the base, but has the thin original b pillar. 

I also found out from that site they did a slot car DS!

[eddyramrod]

@sierraman that's some top buying right there!  Where could these absolute bargains be found?

[sierraman]

28 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

@sierraman that's some top buying right there!  Where could these absolute bargains be found?

Doncaster, it’s on about every 3 months, think next one is April. Don’t get me wrong there’s some with daft prices but most are surprisingly reasonable. Probably 25% less than EBay. Loads of fifty pence bins! 

[MiniMinorMk3]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Just given it a wash off to get all the dust off, but I don’t think I’ll even bother repainting this one. Looks nice in black. 
Although I might do the interior a different colour so it stands out a bit more. I’ve got a few of these as you can pick them up reasonably cheap and easy so now I know it works well I’ll do more, but in other colours. This should work on the silver Maserati in the same collection.

Nice work on the Lincoln. It does seem daft that they have modelled it with an open trunk, but I guess it is to do with the box art. 

The car drives to the crusher with the trunk closed, also I think it is metallic blue, not black..

PS Keep the project coming.

[danthecapriman]

7 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Nice work on the Lincoln. It does seem daft that they have modelled it with an open trunk, but I guess it is to do with the box art. 

The car drives to the crusher with the trunk closed, also I think it is metallic blue, not black..

PS Keep the project coming.

Yep, they got the colour wrong with this one. As you say, it should be blue!

Some of the choices for cars in that partwork was a bit odd. There’s some (like the Anglia) that aren’t on screen for long at all yet got a feature in the partwork. 
There’s a handful with body damage modelled on them too that needs repairing if your customising them - Sherpa van, Dodge Monaco, one of the Mustangs… etc etc. the open boot cars like this and the Maserati are a pain too. 
Although I’m not complaining too much. It gives me something to do!

Heres the Maserati.

Not a bad looking model, but the boot lid open does spoil it a bit.

[sierraman]

Three quid on this but I’ve been looking for one for ages! 

[flat4alfa]

Not sure quite why they did that either, but look inside and you can see there was an attempt to model the armoury:

The scene:

The diorama is modelled around where/how they abandoned the car, although note they did not model the left-open front doors as well:

The scene:

Perhaps it would have been better to capture this scene though

Although as the truck driver was thrown off the bonnet moments later, perhaps not!

[flat4alfa]

18 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Nice work on the Lincoln. It does seem daft that they have modelled it with an open trunk, but I guess it is to do with the box art. 

The car drives to the crusher with the trunk closed, also I think it is metallic blue, not black..

Not only that, the car driving was a '64.  The car being crushed was a '63 (minus engine & gearbox)

Apparently they had to cut down the cube significantly, as when they first put it into the bed of the Ford Ranchero, the suspension broke (unsurprising!) and they had to scrabble to get dealer parts to fix it, in order to film the second take and driveby scene

The trunk lid opening in the crusher scene wasn't what they intended to model I think.  Earlier-on in the film, there was this scene:

Check in the trunk of the model and you'll see the spare wheel and the flight case. 

[danthecapriman]

There’s this one too, 

Jim hanging off the back and open tailgate aside, it’s not a bad looking Land Rover.

[MiniMinorMk3]

24 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

The trunk lid opening in the crusher scene wasn't what they intended to model I think.  Earlier-on in the film, there was this scene:

 

Check in the trunk of the model and you'll see the spare wheel and the flight case. 

That's the scene that is depicted on the box art work, complete with concrete bollarks.

[cms206]

Decent value sets in TKMaxx Lewisham - sadly no Volvo interest for me!

[bunglebus]

New semi-premium F&F set out - and of course every single #4 (VW Jetta) has gone already

[MiniMinorMk3]

A new  project has been started. After getting the old Corgi Mini from @bunglebus  almost a year ago it is time to start fixing it up with parts from a damaged later Corgi.

Modern Corgi has a cracked screen pillar...

and a big chunk missing from the rear.

This era of modern Corgi must be made from the weakest of Mazak (or is it Zamak) as it took a slight pull on the chassis and the front rivet mount fell off.

A quick push here, and a quick push there, and the parts needed where soon loose.

Bit of red paint on the windows.

The old Corgi needed the grinding tool to remove enough of the rivets to pull the base from the body. How the original windows and interior went missing I do not know as the rivets looked to be originals.

To get the windows from the modern Corgi to fit some material was ground and filed from the base of the rear window opening...

and the corners of the new windows where filed off.

It is not a perfect fit, but when did 1960s Corgi windows fit snuggly all round?

To help it fit better I carefully filed some material from the front and rear pillars where there were mould seam lines.

The interior went straight in...

but the two large castings in the floor stopped the car going together.

So after some grinding and filing of both the casting lumps it would now fit back together.

I also took the grinder and the files to the grille as I am not restoring this into yet another rally Mini. It will be a model that Corgi did not release in the 1960s, but probably would have sold in the millions. I am doing a representation of an Austin Cooper road car.

That's the basics done...

with all the replacement parts test fitted.

Next thing is to strip the paint and make the shell good.

 

[danthecapriman]

Im waiting for some paint off eBay to carry on with the AEC tipper, so while I’m waiting I repainted the Lincoln’s interior in a different colour so it stands out a bit more. 
It’s Humbrol wine red. I’m not 100% sure about it tbh, but tomorrow when it’s dry I’ll offer it up to the body and see how it works.

 

Then decided to start another truck project, having sorted the cab for it out.

A Ford D series cement mixer. 
Basis for this being a Dinky D800 cab, with the front modified to improve the look, and a Spanish partwork Berliet cement mixer truck acquired fairly cheap off eBay.

   
The biggest problem here will be going from a conventional bonneted truck to a cab over style. You can see the massive length difference and position of the front axle.

I won’t lie, taking a saw to this was a bit nerve racking! But if you want these things you have to!

After lots of chopping and filing…

It’s had the chassis stripped down, the front chopped off, then a lump for under the cab chopped off and cut down, and the Berliet wing’s removed. It’s a bit too short as it is in the above pic so I’ve adjusted it and mocked it up to see how it can go together.

The knife and screwdriver are just holding everything at the right sort of height temporarily, but that better! 
I’ll make something up the reattach the two halves of the chassis together again, and then make a small cabinet for the auxiliary engine that these often had to power the mixer barrel, which will go directly behind the cab.

Similar to this one (from Flickr)

Shit loads still to do on it but the horrible bit is done now!

 

[Tenmil Socket]

On 18/02/2024 at 15:05, sierraman said:

Gave 50p each on these

Is that a caravan with a balcony!

[eddyramrod]

Yes it certainly is.  It was a pretty long-running model for Matchbox too.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

A new  project has been started. After getting the old Corgi Mini from @bunglebus  almost a year ago it is time to start fixing it up with parts from a damaged later Corgi.

Modern Corgi has a cracked screen pillar...

and a big chunk missing from the rear.

This era of modern Corgi must be made from the weakest of Mazak (or is it Zamak) as it took a slight pull on the chassis and the front rivet mount fell off.

A quick push here, and a quick push there, and the parts needed where soon loose.

Bit of red paint on the windows.

The old Corgi needed the grinding tool to remove enough of the rivets to pull the base from the body. How the original windows and interior went missing I do not know as the rivets looked to be originals.

To get the windows from the modern Corgi to fit some material was ground and filed from the base of the rear window opening...

and the corners of the new windows where filed off.

It is not a perfect fit, but when did 1960s Corgi windows fit snuggly all round?

To help it fit better I carefully filed some material from the front and rear pillars where there were mould seam lines.

The interior went straight in...

but the two large castings in the floor stopped the car going together.

So after some grinding and filing of both the casting lumps it would now fit back together.

I also took the grinder and the files to the grille as I am not restoring this into yet another rally Mini. It will be a model that Corgi did not release in the 1960s, but probably would have sold in the millions. I am doing a representation of an Austin Cooper road car.

That's the basics done...

with all the replacement parts test fitted.

Next thing is to strip the paint and make the shell good.

 

Mini hybrid looks great! Surprising how well the much newer parts fit that ancient body!

That newer one didn’t have zinc pest did it? It seems to have broken really strangely, almost like the metal went funny and started crumbling and breaking up.

[quicksilver]

7 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Mini hybrid looks great! Surprising how well the much newer parts fit that ancient body!

That newer one didn’t have zinc pest did it? It seems to have broken really strangely, almost like the metal went funny and started crumbling and breaking up.

Looks like classic zinc pest symptoms to me. Some early 2000s Corgis are known to suffer from it as there was a bad batch of metal going around the Chinese factories then.

[danthecapriman]

30 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Looks like classic zinc pest symptoms to me. Some early 2000s Corgis are known to suffer from it as there was a bad batch of metal going around the Chinese factories then.

I had/have a Hornby class 31 in OO gauge from around that time, it was the first batch they did. It was fine for ages then one day I noticed a tiny hairline crack in the plastic bodyshell. I took the bodyshell off to find the metal chassis covered in tiny cracks, and the very ends had actually broken off. 
Turned out to be a common problem with those models from that first batch. Some of them got really bad and the chassis swelled up so much the plastic bodyshell actually got warped and destroyed.

Luckily I spotted it pretty quickly and saved to body. Hornby we’re doing a warranty type thing with them then and I managed to get a new chassis for it.

Ive got no idea what actually does it though. I’ve heard it’s contaminants in the alloy causing the diff ent metals to separate with time. Some people said it could accelerated by extreme temperature variations too. 
Im pretty sure Triang had a similar problem back in the 50’s or 60’s though so it’s not a new thing.

[eddyramrod]

Here's what I got up to this morning...

That was all for today because I had appointments from then on.  Weather permitting, there might be more tomorrow.

[andrew e]

@danthecapriman despite ARC becoming Hanson last century today I still stuck a train in the ‘ARC sidings’ in Dagenham 😉

[MiniMinorMk3]

18 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

 

That newer one didn’t have zinc pest did it? It seems to have broken really strangely, almost like the metal went funny and started crumbling and breaking up.

 

18 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Looks like classic zinc pest symptoms to me. Some early 2000s Corgis are known to suffer from it as there was a bad batch of metal going around the Chinese factories then.

Looking at the paint surface it does look like there has been some sort of reaction underneath. I think what caused the initial damage was the car was dropped on to a hard surface and the weakened metal just broke. Unfortunately the bumper has gone missing. I would have used those on the rebuild. 

[danthecapriman]

20 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

 

Looking at the paint surface it does look like there has been some sort of reaction underneath. I think what caused the initial damage was the car was dropped on to a hard surface and the weakened metal just broke. Unfortunately the bumper has gone missing. I would have used those on the rebuild. 

It usually looks like loads of tiny cracks and crazing all over the surface. 
Someone told me it’s where some sort of contaminant is in the metal mixture which causes the different metals to try to separate. It cracks and swells up which makes it very brittle and eventually it distorts as it swells and expands. That’s why my Hornby bodyshell cracked - the chassis started swelling and expanding putting pressure on the plastic bodyshell. Sometimes if you don’t catch it early like I did it’ll expand so much it’ll actually smash the bodyshell roof and cab fronts apart! 
Unfortunately if it’s from a contaminated batch of metal there’s nothing you can do about it. Eventually it’ll just crumble and break apart. Some do it quicker than others though, the Triang models I mentioned lasted decades before it did anything. Some do it within a few years.

[MiniMinorMk3]

There is a crack in the roof, but I think this is from the accident damage.

The side has now fallen off!

Moon Surface paint effect on the bonnet.

[MiniMinorMk3]

What's the smallest Mini?

Maybe this one.

Compared to a 1/43rd

It is only 26mm long.

So what's the scale. Using the overall dimension from an old BL sales brochure...

it works out at 1/122nd.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Progress on the project Mini.

Lets get that paint off.

They don't want you to get into that Nitromors in a hurry.

Place parts on tin foil.

Paint on Nitromors.

Wrap up the foil  and leave to bake at room temperature for a couple of hours. The new Nitromors is not as good as the old stuff, hence the wrapping in foil. It also keeps the aliens away. 

After a good baking the skin paint is now all crinkly.

The base seams to have resisted.

After a good stippling and wash with a paint brush there's still a few stubborn bits left.

So it's back to the foil for another bake.

Then a wash.

Then a final going over with some stiff brushes.

Next time it's time to sort the body out with filling the roof and deciding what to do about bumpers and headlamps. The Nitromors might not as good at getting the paint off, but it had now trouble destroying the plastic headlamp jewel sockets.

[Yoss]

23 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

What's the smallest Mini?

Maybe this one.

Compared to a 1/43rd

It is only 26mm long.

So what's the scale. Using the overall dimension from an old BL sales brochure...

it works out at 1/122nd.

So that's pretty much TT gauge in railway speak at 1:120. I have lots of 1:87 ones for my HO gauge layout.

This is some.

There are lots more in here.

Cost 99p each from Wilkinsons about 15 years ago.

[Yoss]

These are smaller.