Shite in Miniature II

[MiniMinorMk3]

I've cleaned up my small auction box.

Most of it is quite used.

All the Team Corgi Minis have been thrashed and trashed.

A few windows and bumpers are broke.

There' a gang of 1/36 Metros. Again some have really been through the ringer.

One has lost the bottom half of the rear hatch.

A smaller gang of the smaller scale Metros.

Lots of wear and repainting.

The plan with the Minis and Metros is to restore them in period BL colours. I think I have enough Metros to do a complete colour chart of cars.

 

Here's the rest of the box.

Siva is heavily repainted, but it does have the central plastic trim that the one I acquired before Christmas is missing. So a careful bit of gouging and  careful bit of paint removal and the other one will be complete.

A couple of little Minis to go in my unboxed cabinet.

Corgi Juniors VW club. The blue light from the top of the Beetle is inside, so it's probably worth pulling it apart, repainting it and making some new decals.

Old and newer Matchbox Refuse truck. 

An unidentified motorbike...

that has some sort of drive mechanism.

This one is a Lone * Star Tuf-Tot

K-115 Ford LTS Tractor from an Exxon Tanker.

K-49 Ambulance. It looks like an Aston DBS front...

has been stitched to a second generation Subaru Leone Wagon

Dinky Road Roller with faded paint.

And finally we have this vintage piece

The tipper needs a cocktail stick to hold it up.

It is not any particular type of truck.

It was made by Charbens. This is model number 8 and was made from 1947 to 1960. Most of the paint is original including the stuff on the wheels.

 

[Tenmil Socket]

18 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

We use a lot of them where I work… we actually throw the fibreglass part in the bin and replace it with a brass bristle brush.

 

 

[sierraman]

I think Charbens were the ones that were early pioneers of Zamac but the make up of them was a bit shit to the point they’d crumble to dust? 

[danthecapriman]

From what I gather, if the Zamac/Mazak/pot metal whatever it is, crumbles and distorts it’s a contaminant of some kind in the alloy mix.

Sometimes signs of it can be very quick after casting, but other times it can take years, even decades to start. 
Hornby trains had a problem with it back in the Hornby Dublo & Triang era on certain models. That quite often took years to develop though. More recently Hornby had the problem again on their first batch of class 31 locomotives from the Chinese factory, which took years again. First signs were tiny cracks appearing in the plastic body where the diecast chassis was beginning to expand and break up. Luckily I spotted it on mine and saved the body by removing it. 
If they were left unnoticed though it’d eventually distort and break the cabs off. 
Looking at the chassis it was covered in weird cracks and splits like crazy paving! Basically something in the metal was causing a reaction and separating it! 
Eventually they just crumble and turn to dust. As far as I know there’s nothing you can do about it either unfortunately. Luckily on the Hornby 31 model they recognised it and offered replacement chassis from newer uncontaminated chassis batches.

I was wondering the other day funnily enough if diecast vehicles have ever been affected? It doesn’t seem to be something you hear much of in diecast vehicle circles. It’s quite well known in model railway circles though.

[MiniMinorMk3]

34 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

From what I gather, if the Zamac/Mazak/pot metal whatever it is, crumbles and distorts it’s a contaminant of some kind in the alloy mix.

 

Charbens by Robert Newson

Quote

Like most Charbens zinc castings, the tanker can suffer from metal fatigue.  The dreaded fatigue is caused by impurities such as lead in the zinc alloy.  Charbens continued to use lead for their hollow cast figures alongside zinc diecasting, so it is not all that surprising that some lead contamination got into the molten zinc, but fatigue is so prevalent in Charbens production through the 1940s and 1950s that it is clear they didn't care very much about the quality of their product.

 

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

I was wondering the other day funnily enough if diecast vehicles have ever been affected? It doesn’t seem to be something you hear much of in diecast vehicle circles. It’s quite well known in model railway circles though.

Yes, Hot Wheels had some "crumblers" especially in 1971

[bunglebus]

Bought a spare white Proton to try the dying method on. Quite a matt finish on this one which may help

I also heated the dye up this time as that's what the destructions advise for clothes. This is after about 10-15 minutes - and is supposed to be dark blue!

I've stuck it back in there to see if it'll go a bit darker

[bunglebus]

Oh and VW nemesis strikes again. He must have sold his soul to the devil I think

[danthecapriman]

17 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Bought a spare white Proton to try the dying method on. Quite a matt finish on this one which may help

I also heated the dye up this time as that's what the destructions advise for clothes. This is after about 10-15 minutes - and is supposed to be dark blue!

I've stuck it back in there to see if it'll go a bit darker

Tbh… I don’t actually dislike that purple and white!😆

Because it’s still got the decals you could put it on eBay as a ‘mega rare pre production colour sample’ and see what it goes up to!

[Tenmil Socket]

23 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Oh and VW nemesis strikes again. He must have sold his soul to the devil I think

Is it rare?

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Is it rare?

Yes part of a James Bond OHMSS set, been looking for one for years

[bunglebus]

WTF...Hungary? I knew about Bulgaria 

[quicksilver]

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

From what I gather, if the Zamac/Mazak/pot metal whatever it is, crumbles and distorts it’s a contaminant of some kind in the alloy mix.

Sometimes signs of it can be very quick after casting, but other times it can take years, even decades to start. 
Hornby trains had a problem with it back in the Hornby Dublo & Triang era on certain models. That quite often took years to develop though. More recently Hornby had the problem again on their first batch of class 31 locomotives from the Chinese factory, which took years again. First signs were tiny cracks appearing in the plastic body where the diecast chassis was beginning to expand and break up. Luckily I spotted it on mine and saved the body by removing it. 
If they were left unnoticed though it’d eventually distort and break the cabs off. 
Looking at the chassis it was covered in weird cracks and splits like crazy paving! Basically something in the metal was causing a reaction and separating it! 
Eventually they just crumble and turn to dust. As far as I know there’s nothing you can do about it either unfortunately. Luckily on the Hornby 31 model they recognised it and offered replacement chassis from newer uncontaminated chassis batches.

I was wondering the other day funnily enough if diecast vehicles have ever been affected? It doesn’t seem to be something you hear much of in diecast vehicle circles. It’s quite well known in model railway circles though.

Yes, some quite expensive 21st century models are succumbing to the dreaded pest. Britbus are so notorious for it that they're nicknamed 'Brittlebus' and very few of certain liveries remain because almost their entire production run was made from contaminated metal.

[AndyW201]

Two notable Vanguards releases which succumbed to zinc pest were the Mk1 Transit "One Millionth" edition and the Le Mans green Consul GT from the FC 10003 three car Ford set. The Solar gold Mk3 Capri Ghia is known for having a disintegrating base too. 

Judging by some listings I've seen on AliExpress, the Schuco 1/43 Opel Rekord E casting seems to be riddled with it too, as there are quite a few on there, both from the Opel Collection partworks and ones in Schuco packaging, that are being sold as 'seconds' but are absolutely beyond saving. As well as the cracking, look at the distortion on the body

I've been meaning to get in the loft and check the Opel Collection Schuco Senator and Monza I've got as it seems a few of the Schuco Opel castings have problems.

A few of my 1/43 diecasts seem to have picked up a bit of paint rash and the odd bit of acne over the years, Minichamps stuff in particular, but a lot of people on diecast sites confuse that with zinc pest. Luckily nothing's crumbled to dust yet...

[danthecapriman]

3 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Two notable Vanguards releases which succumbed to zinc pest were the Mk1 Transit "One Millionth" edition and the Le Mans green Consul GT from the FC 10003 three car Ford set. The Solar gold Mk3 Capri Ghia is known for having a disintegrating base too. 

Judging by some listings I've seen on AliExpress, the Schuco 1/43 Opel Rekord E casting seems to be riddled with it too, as there are quite a few on there, both from the Opel Collection partworks and ones in Schuco packaging, that are being sold as 'seconds' but are absolutely beyond saving. As well as the cracking, look at the distortion on the body

I've been meaning to get in the loft and check the Opel Collection Schuco Senator and Monza I've got as it seems a few of the Schuco Opel castings have problems.

A few of my 1/43 diecasts seem to have picked up a bit of paint rash and the odd bit of acne over the years, Minichamps stuff in particular, but a lot of people on diecast sites confuse that with zinc pest. Luckily nothing's crumbled to dust yet...

Shitting Nora! That Rekord is a mess! Wheel donor really as the rest is fit for the bin.

That crazing on the sides is how my Hornby locomotive chassis looked… not long after it started falling apart! The distortion is from the metal expanding as it reacts and starts separating and crumbling. Again, that’s what happened to the Hornby class 31 locomotives, but the body was plastic so as the chassis expanded and did the zinc pest thing it put pressure on the plastic body until it just bent and shattered.

Im surprised in a way it’s still being allowed to happen with modern manufacturing and better understanding of metallurgy etc but I’ve a feeling it’s partly down to paying as little as possible to Chinese factories that’s the problem now.

[bunglebus]

Fingers crossed the recycled metal Matchboxes don't do it

 

[danthecapriman]

11 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Fingers crossed the recycled metal Matchboxes don't do it

 

The annoying thing is, there’s no way of knowing until it starts happening. Im not sure it’s necessarily the metals used in the alloy, but the manufacturing process that makes it a problem. Obviously if there’s a contaminant in the moulds or machinery while the alloy is molten and being injected into the tooling that’s going to do it. But on the other hand could it be contaminated base metals being used? I doubt we’ll find out tbh.

I’ve heard temperature can affect it too. Prolonged storage in hot or cold either slows the process or speeds it up, but I don’t know how true that is?

[Datsuncog]

23 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I was wondering the other day funnily enough if diecast vehicles have ever been affected? It doesn’t seem to be something you hear much of in diecast vehicle circles.

Some Dinkys can be quite badly affected, especially pre-war releases, and also their 1950s shipping and aircraft ranges:

Urban legend has it that Meccano workers at the Binns Rd factory would throw the foil from their cigarette packets into the crucibles, and that was enough to contaminate whole batches of toys; other theories are that sack ties made of lead discarded into the molten metal were responsible for zinc pest.

More likely is that the zinc alloys used in diecasting at the time were of variable quality and typically contained a certain level of impurity, typically from lead, until a patented process to refine zinc to 99.99% purity was developed in the United States in the late 1920s. This allowed better quality zinc to be mixed with aluminium, magnesium and copper, forming a more stable zamac (or zamak) alloy suitable for diecasting.

This process was licenced to a UK metals producer in the 1930s, and a similar product was marketed under the trade name of Mazac. Ingots of Mazac were initially quite expensive, so at first tended to be used for higher-end diecast components such as engine parts and decorative fittings.

I had a 1950s Massey Ferguson muckspreader with diecast wheels, which cracked and crumbled with zinc pest - or intercrystalline corrosion, to give it the proper term - while simply sitting on a shelf.

But it must have been over 40 years old at that point, so well past its intended lifespan.

I think it's fair to say that the idea of keeping toys for an extended amount of time would have been a radical concept to early C20th mass-market toymakers, who tended towards cheap, easily worked materials such as slushcast lead and tinplate to construct affordable toys and novelties which may have survived for a few weeks at best, and a few minutes at worst. Cheap toys were meant to be used, broken, thrown away and replaced.

By the start of the1950s, production costs of zamac/ mazac had fallen and so become the industry standard for the majority of diecasting, replacing the unstable proprietary alloys that had gone before.

However, although standardisation allowed the production of better quality toys which lasted longer, problems could still arise with cross-contamination or bad processing - the entire Mini Dinky line, launched with great fanfare in 1968 as an intended rival to Matchbox, Husky and Lone Star Flyers, suffered dismally from rapidly self-destructing metal castings, seemingly through poor metallurgical practices by their Hong Kong contractor:

More on that particular disaster can be found here:

https://www.maronline.org.uk/the-mini-dinky-story/

Good surviving toys are consequently quite rare, and can be spendy.

I also had a few Soviet 1/43 diecast which developed zinc pest - one Lada police car fell to bits while still in its box, annoyingly. I understand that's not uncommon either, and as we've seen upthread, even 'quality' producers like Corgi Vanguards, Britbus or Schuco can find themselves facing the ire of collectors when a batch of models turns out to have been made using unstable metal - the problem being that the issue of the castings tearing themselves apart as the metals slowly react with each other and crystalize usually won't be revealed for a number of years, so can't be picked up by factory quality control.

While impurities in the alloy are the primary cause of zinc pest, apparently high levels of humidity can accelerate the process.

So keep everything cool and dry, kids...

[AndyW201]

Bringing us neatly onto 'seconds' from AliExpress...

Been waiting for this for a few weeks, but it's here. It started with the conversation on here about the el-cheapo Corgi Motoring Memories Mk3 Cortina GXL. Which reminded me that I too had the yellow one of those, and that lattely, Corgi did a Vanguards GXL in yellow as well.

I admit to being a bit pissed off with Corgi at the time, because it was originally announced as a Daytona yellow 2000 GT. Which is the Mk3 variant I've always wanted them to make, ever since reading about the prototype that was made for a planned Atlas partwork series, that got shitcanned,

In the end though, it ended up being released as yet another GXL, and the GT release ended up being in the fairly uninspiring Marine blue.

But I do like a Daytona yellow Ford, I always wanted one as a kid, and I eventually ended up owning one in the mid '90s.

VLY 484M, 1600 crossflow, 4-2-1 with Swift big-bore, servo'd front discs and Mk2 Ghia front and rear seats. Ahhhhh...

However, in the meantime, the Vanguards yellow GXL has gone the way of the previous GXLs and now it seems you cant get one for less than £60 - £70.

Nah!

AliExpress has a seller with a load of factory reject ones of these, with varying degrees of faults. Some of the guys on the FB Vanguards page have bought them and, taking into account the damage, been pretty pleased, especially for £12 posted. So I thought I'd take a gamble. Even if it was a disaster, I'd have a spare set of dartboard wheels, which always come in handy and a nice GXL four headlight grille...

Firstly, these rejects only come on the plinth, no perspex case or cardboard outer packaging,

The one shown in the listing had half the front bumper and the number plate missing, no wing mirrors, mangled wipers,  bent rear bumper underriders and marks on the vinyl roof.

This one hasn't got away too badly, the mirrors are gone obviously, there is a bit of paint rash here and there (which makes it look like an authentic Mk3 from about the mid '80s...) but the main fault was that something seems to have landed on the top of the windscreen which has cracked it at the top and caused some hazing on the screen, and removed some of the silver paint on the top of the surround.

So some silver Sharpie has restored the top of the surround, and I've just added a black sunstrip type effort to the screen to try and hide the damage for now. Amazingly the notoriously fragile Vanguards wipers have at least survived!

Bumpers, grille and plate all intact,

All good at the back, love the little 'Automatic' script on the rear panel,

So yeah, I think it might survive as a model in it's own right, rather than a spares donor, (will just have to keep an eye on the paint rash!).

What a colour!

[Split_Pin]

The 1/24 Volvo F12 is finished

 

[Split_Pin]

I've had a few random models die of Zinc Pest over the years, the most notable of which was a very expensive Norev 1/18 Audi A6. The body was fine but the opening parts swelled up and fell off. I've had a couple of Soviet models disintegrate too. In fact I have been conducting a long term experiment with a Lada Riva which is in a cabinet in my loft.  The opening parts have swollen and are literally pushing themselves off the bodyshell. I'm seeing how long it can sit untouched before parts start to drop!

I also refuse to touch any more Britbus model buses as the affliction is really common throughout the range.

[eddyramrod]

I have a Soviet Volga with a pest-ridden chassis.  Fortunately it came in its original box, so was easy to isolate.  But it's a damned shame.  I've had it years.  Maybe I should open it up and check on the progress!

Also, Daytona Yellow Cortina GT?  I had a full-size one 40 years ago... what I paid for it wouldn't buy a Vanguards version now.  UTF 367L...

[quicksilver]

I saw a really bad example of a pest-ridden model on Facebook recently. It was a Norev Honda Accord that some optimist was actually trying to sell despite looking like that Rekord but even more bulged and cracked. I reckon it stood a good chance of crumbling into dust the moment you touched it. Maybe Norev should have stuck with plastic models - yes they warp but they're less likely to fall apart completely.

[bunglebus]

I was told to be careful how I stored my Metosul Beetle as they don't like temperature changes, but I've just had a look and it's no different to when I bought it, thankfully!

[sierraman]

14 hours ago, bunglebus said:

WTF...Hungary? I knew about Bulgaria 

Yes they’re harder to find than the Bulgarian ones. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

13 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

The 1/24 Volvo F12 is finished

 

 

 

That looks excellent with the weathering. I also like the Michelins on the roof. 

Top Stuff.

[bunglebus]

Stuff!

Matchbox Super Kings Dodge Van in Polizei livery

Came with a passenger that I'm pretty sure doesn't belong in there!

Done some miles, going by the tyres

This one's pretty special, Siku VW T2...

Looks fairly normal?

Oh yes, radar control vehicle 

Still looks good from the back

However it's missing the sliding door, and the interior looks like there's something missing

I do have one I could sacrifice I suppose 

Lastly another VW, Matchbox Across America series Beetle 

[Split_Pin]

47 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

That looks excellent with the weathering. I also like the Michelins on the roof. 

Top Stuff.

Thanks man 😀

[junkyarddog]

Picked this up today.

1955 Plymouth Savoy.

Smoll Eddy's got a sore throat, so couldn't think of anything pithy to say.😂

 

[eddyramrod]

Poor bugger, and still having to work the pumps, in this weather!  Make sure he gets a good night's sleep.