Shite in Miniature II

[Lord Sterling]

Another charity shoppe purchase. 1/18 Maisto Porsche Boxter. I had no intention of buying anymore 1/18s unless they were very desirable to me. This Porsche isn't, but I felt a bit sorry for it, it was in the 'toys' section of the shop and I envisaged it being bought and chucked about until it smashed by some hyperactive kid.

The paintwork on it is very smart and very smooth, only the interior was dusty and was soon cleaned up, the clocks were coming off so a dab of glue saw them back on and the steering was clipped back into place.

No hardtop or anything fancy, just the doors you see that open and close without issue, gave the screen a clean too. It must have been a display model for whoever owned it before. I was going to offer it here if anyone really wants it otherwise it can stay with my other Porsches.

[junkyarddog]

As you may know,I found one of these playworn Corgi Capri Glowworm Dragster recently after a long search.

Today I found this!!

A near mint one,in a slightly battered box. 

😁

[Blue 850]

Junkyarddog. Portlaoise? Great autojumble at the show there today, 

[Remspoor]

On 26/10/2024 at 19:13, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Girls Toys” Barbie, Sandy etc were usually just generic of roaders or vans.

Except Sindy she had an MGB

https://www.oursindymuseum.com/sindy-and-her-mgb/

And a MX5 (plus a few other vehicles).

https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/barbie-cars-jdm/

 

 

 

[junkyarddog]

10 minutes ago, Blue 850 said:

Junkyarddog. Portlaoise? Great autojumble at the show there today, 

Yes indeed,It was a good day out.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 24/10/2024 at 13:12, Dick Longbridge said:

 

Well this turned out better than  expected. Turns out I hadn't sanded loads of detail off the casting years back. Even the Renault diamond logo on the bonnet has survived. The roof and bonnet have some old scrapes but it's going to clean up ok. The photos make it look worse than  it actually is.

Bit more done earlier on. 

Stress cracks cut nipped out and filled with chemical metal. I've taken the donor car apart, cut out the rear panel and stuck it into my shell. Mine went missing in the mid 1980s.

I'll gently file things down and top up the adhesive where required. My shell is dropped onto the donor chassis in the photos - I'm still in two minds as to whether I salvage my original or not. We'll see. 

Oh, and Longbridge Jr wanted a piece of the action. Initially, he was unhappy about me chopping up the donor car although that pretty quickly turned into 'it's our parts car, isn't it daddy?'. 

The compromise was to do a quick custom for him, so we hacked apart his dinosaur monster truck and added a Majorette R4 onto the chassis for good measure. He's chuffed!

Good fun for both of us, to be fair. 

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

Tonka Spirit Sedan?  had one as a kid.

 

Well if you want another...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176648405636

[andy18s]

10 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Well if you want another...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176648405636

The sellers obviously trying to raise funds for a non-potatocam equipped phone...

[Split_Pin]

14 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Another charity shoppe purchase. 1/18 Maisto Porsche Boxter. I had no intention of buying anymore 1/18s unless they were very desirable to me. This Porsche isn't, but I felt a bit sorry for it, it was in the 'toys' section of the shop and I envisaged it being bought and chucked about until it smashed by some hyperactive kid.

The paintwork on it is very smart and very smooth, only the interior was dusty and was soon cleaned up, the clocks were coming off so a dab of glue saw them back on and the steering was clipped back into place.

No hardtop or anything fancy, just the doors you see that open and close without issue, gave the screen a clean too. It must have been a display model for whoever owned it before. I was going to offer it here if anyone really wants it otherwise it can stay with my other Porsches.

1993 concept Boxster, in my opinion  one of Maisto's nicest models. The seller of mine never took it out of the box and when I did, they were amazed at how lovely.it was and I think they wished they'd kept it!

[RoadworkUK]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

1993 concept Boxster, in my opinion  one of Maisto's nicest models. The seller of mine never took it out of the box and when I did, they were amazed at how lovely.it was and I think they wished they'd kept it!

Maisto has produced some absolute bangers over the years (and I mean bangers in the sense of BANGING, not a Mk5 Escort with the trailing arms held on by prayers).

Engine bay detail of their Porsche 550A:

And their C2 Chevy Corvette Stingray:

Punching WAY above their weight for what were usually the cheapest 1:18 models you could buy.

[Split_Pin]

I've always liked their range of more modern cars too, such as the Mercedes S Class and C Class SportCoupe, complete with jazzy early 00's cloth trim!

[RoadworkUK]

Agreed. I keep meaning to pick a C Class up at some point. I have the W168 and W169 A-Classes. I need an X-Type, too.

I say "need"... I really don't.

[sierraman]

Remember the ‘soft’ seats you got on the Corgi 1/18 MGF? 

[RoadworkUK]

Are they?! I've never prodded mine! I must do so at some point.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Minichamps did the Boxster Concept in 1/43rd.

Silver

Metallic Blue

Red

[Spottedlaurel]

Reportage and finds from long weekend away in Somerset....

I'd already planned to visit Jadlam in Glastonbury, which is where I got the rather nice newly-released 240Z kit. More of things like this please Tamiya!

Also found a bricks and mortar model shop in Frome, which had a few tempting kits but in the end I just got paints and a bit of Plastruct from them. Very little diecast stuff there, so back to my visit to Jadlam....

 

 

A great selection of Tamiya R/C stuff. One day I'd love to have the Subaru Brat, and that Opel Kadett is rather nice too. And who knew they did a DS?

The priciest 1/64 diecasts.

 

The 'mid-range' stuff, I could have chosen several from here. They also had Siku and HW, but the latter didn't seem to be a particularly recent selection (or it had been well picked-over if it was).

My choice to follow.....

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I was very tempted by a Datsun 510 estate with Moon livery, but as I've had several of these C210-series Skylines at 1:1 this is what I went for:

Box a little bigger than Matchbox.

With packing to the model. On mine this has rubbed at the roof very slightly, so debatable whether it's any better than a bit of tissue or plastic, but those crazy exhausts look quite vulnerable to damage.

 

 

 

If I'm going to be hyper-critical I would question why they've missed off the fuel filler in the corner of the bootlid, it's a distinctive feature of the 1:1.

Difficult to photograph the interior, but it seems to have a coloured gearlever which I presume is meant to replicate the 'cheeky' replacements these cars often end up with.

Base is screwed on, maybe to allow for wheel swaps?

There was all sorts of other 1/64 stuff available, like a garage lift, figures etc.

[Split_Pin]

On 27/10/2024 at 13:06, danthecapriman said:

This one might well be my final custom job for a while. I’m going to have to start clearing everything up and packing away for the move next week.

But for now, this started off as an IXO Fiesta mk1. Nice little things really. I think the Vanguard’s one has a slight edge in terms of shape around the back end, but these are cheaper!

 
Dusted on some etch primer then carefully cut the rear windows off of the single piece glazing unit. Then glued them into their openings.

As you can probably guess by now I’m building it into a van! 
Annoyingly the original windows don’t fit flush enough for my liking so I found some scrap plastic card and cut them to shape and glued them in on top of the original windows to fill them out a bit.

Then pick a colour! Ford midnight blue! 
Apologies for the crappy lighting. It’s terrible down in the shed.  
The bumpers come in black but for an early mk1 I wanted them chrome so I just used the Molotow pen. Interior has had the rear seat cut out and replaced by a plastic card flat floor section.

 
Stating the obvious, but these Fiestas are tiny even in 1:43! I’ve done bigger cars and vans mostly recently but this is so much smaller and very light! I like it though, looks the part and it’s a bit different!

I love that! Great job Dan, another belter!

I remember these and other car-based vans that were simply a hatchback or estate with the window pressings still visible. Chevannes, Astras, Yugos, Escorts, Metros. They were really popular.  I think the last of those was a fleet of Kas for BT. The later MK5 Astra Van had smooth sides although it was clearly based on the estate.

You just don't get those any more, or not that I can think of. Most small vans are models that have the appearance of a scaled- down larger van such as a Bipper, Combo or Partner.

[danthecapriman]

28 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I love that! Great job Dan, another belter!

I remember these and other car-based vans that were simply a hatchback or estate with the window pressings still visible. Chevannes, Astras, Yugos, Escorts, Metros. They were really popular.  I think the last of those was a fleet of Kas for BT. The later MK5 Astra Van had smooth sides although it was clearly based on the estate.

You just don't get those any more, or not that I can think of. Most small vans are models that have the appearance of a scaled- down larger van such as a Bipper, Combo or Partner.

Cheers!

I like the old car based vans too. As you say, something not seen so much now. Such an obvious idea though. 
A Chevanne is on my ‘to do’ list, I’ve got the donor models but it’s not likely now for a few months until I get sorted at the other end.

Those Ka’s for BT, I remember working on those! They used to come in as fleet jobs for whoever looked after BT’s vehicles for them (Lloyds auto lease or whoever). I remember they were always a shit state. One came in for a service and I could barely drive it into the workshop from the car park! The thing just couldn’t hardly move itself. 
Got it in and immediately found a severely melted front wheel trim…      
The moron who used it had been driving it around with a seized solid front calliper which had completely destroyed the brakes and got so hot the wheel trim had melted! How do you carry on driving around like that!? It wasn’t like it wasn’t noticeable either!

[Lord Sterling]

23 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

OK, so mine seems to have been a Friday afternoon car.  It's missing a few details. The spare wheel alloy is not silver and the silver details on the dash and door cards are missing. Plus my steering wheel seems orangey in colour compared to a Maisto Boxter Concept I found on eBay below:

I also managed to accidentally break the steering wheel off mine. 

Ah well, it was a cheap to buy model and not one I was overly keen on but I did want to preserve it anyway. Steering wheel glued back on and I tried to add some of the details missing from mine with not much luck so I'll leave it as is.

[bunglebus]

5 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

That's pretty good for 1:64, especially when you compare it to something like the Hot Wheels Mad Manga

[Lord Sterling]

On 28/10/2024 at 19:29, bunglebus said:

That's pretty good for 1:64, especially when you compare it to something like the Hot Wheels Mad Manga

Yeah, I've noticed a big jump in the quality of detail on 1/64s over the last several years. 

Not quite a fair comparison as the Audi A6 from Siku came out many years ago whereas the one below came out probably in the couple of years. But it's good to see 1/64s getting the level of detail they always deserved. Although it has to be said, even Matchbox aren't always keeping their eye on the ball regarding the front/rear lights on their cars.

What I haven't seen is any scenery models for 1/64s. For example, there is a seller on eBay who was making a block of garages for 1/76 cars, I asked him about 1/64s and he said he'd be looking to create similar if he could, when I messaged him again recently I didn't get a reply.

[RoadworkUK]

Biggest problem with 1:64 IMO is that paint seemingly cannot be applied to scale. It always looks way too thick (as shown by the A6 pictured above), to the detriment of sharp angles and accurate shut lines etc. Just means they always end up looking like toys, irrespective of how many details are carefully added.  But then again I could just be a fussy tosser.

[Split_Pin]

10 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

Agreed. I keep meaning to pick a C Class up at some point. I have the W168 and W169 A-Classes. I need an X-Type, too.

I say "need"... I really don't.

The X Type and S Type are 2 other great Maisto models. I also can't think of any other miniature manufacturers that have covered them. I love those cars and these model ones are perfect as they've got all the detail but don't rust!

Speaking of concept cars, the Maisto Dodge Copperhead is a cracker. I don't normally like concept cars that bear no resemblance to a production model but the paintwork and interior details are very nicely done.

I've also actually got my Corgi MGF for sale on Marketplace at the moment. It's a nice model but somewhat lacking in detail and I don't think the rubber seats work if they're trying to emulate cloth. Their MGB was a better effort.

[danthecapriman]

There are things you can get in 1:64, it’s just not quite as common as the likes of 1:76 and 1:43, the main reason being is the model railway scales, where scenery items are very popular match 1:76 (OO gauge) and 1:43 (O gauge).

But if you search for things like ‘1:64 diorama’ it does bring up results…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4432023.m570.l1311&_nkw=1%2F64+diorama&_sacat=0

Edit: this is a pretty handy little garage display piece,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167021434174?_skw=1%2F64+diorama&itmmeta=01JBAJJ3R75A1GEHG17QG2CCT1&hash=item26e340d53e:g:3U0AAOSw29Rm5Fqn&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlv6uHglgZwpXE05eH8jUoXmJC6aMjjRMaYBf9lvpSbblez5fWbtoPI8NFfVRskSKu5KvqbVtox1N%2BHz%2Fx%2BFTgEebQu%2BX6WDI0p0HMOg4OHBnno%2B3vyiOWtBPZgMsUkGbPWLhH1%2BRZvYHuM3Rp0XhQ0ZA8Bov93D6F9mbBJryvrfbXdzMUigVI4DSDyoZm2urAITKcluG6FbNt%2FIkbsce2TKlxUi8OSrPMum%2FaJa8rbIl0w3KL69c%2FuiduYLN3AyzPwPVYDoiJRi8xrRoi8fPr2941JQNYyJm5KneEXu7M3fw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5q8yNLaZA

[Split_Pin]

8 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

There are things you can get in 1:64, it’s just not quite as common as the likes of 1:76 and 1:43, the main reason being is the model railway scales, where scenery items are very popular match 1:76 (OO gauge) and 1:43 (O gauge).

But if you search for things like ‘1:64 diorama’ it does bring up results…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p4432023.m570.l1311&_nkw=1%2F64+diorama&_sacat=0

Edit: this is a pretty handy little garage display piece,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167021434174?_skw=1%2F64+diorama&itmmeta=01JBAJJ3R75A1GEHG17QG2CCT1&hash=item26e340d53e:g:3U0AAOSw29Rm5Fqn&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKlv6uHglgZwpXE05eH8jUoXmJC6aMjjRMaYBf9lvpSbblez5fWbtoPI8NFfVRskSKu5KvqbVtox1N%2BHz%2Fx%2BFTgEebQu%2BX6WDI0p0HMOg4OHBnno%2B3vyiOWtBPZgMsUkGbPWLhH1%2BRZvYHuM3Rp0XhQ0ZA8Bov93D6F9mbBJryvrfbXdzMUigVI4DSDyoZm2urAITKcluG6FbNt%2FIkbsce2TKlxUi8OSrPMum%2FaJa8rbIl0w3KL69c%2FuiduYLN3AyzPwPVYDoiJRi8xrRoi8fPr2941JQNYyJm5KneEXu7M3fw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5q8yNLaZA

I think you'd be the very man to weather that second one into an old rust-shed!

[IronStar]

Am I right in thinking that none of the usual suspects are currently doing an original Mini in their 1:64 mainlines? I’d like to turn it into a keychain, and I’m looking for something simple with no moving parts to break. 

[Split_Pin]

Just now, IronStar said:

Am I right in thinking that none of the usual suspects are currently doing an original Mini in their mainlines?

Not that I'm aware of!  Plenty of older Hotwheels releases though. I think the earlier HW Minis used to ha e a removable bodyshell!

[bramz7]

Norev do a 1/64 original Mini. 

[bunglebus]

17 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Not that I'm aware of!  Plenty of older Hotwheels releases though. I think the earlier HW Minis used to have a removable bodyshell!

Indeed

 

The premium versions still have removable shells. (but no rollcage), mainline ones do not

Matchbox still crank out a Mini now and again that's closer to stock