Shite in Miniature II

[ambassador84]

No sooner has Matchbox Case F begun to appear at Poundland but now we have Case G at The Entertainer! Case C with the white Acura Integra has also been spotted at B&M so amazingly and for the first time in memory the UK hasn't actually missed any batches so far! Is someone in the chain finally listening! 

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

No sooner has Matchbox Case F begun to appear at Poundland but now we have Case G at The Entertainer! Case C with the white Acura Integra has also been spotted at B&M so amazingly and for the first time in memory the UK hasn't actually missed any batches so far! Is someone in the chain finally listening! 

Chevelle wagon looks a nice one.

[Datsuncog]

20 hours ago, Bren said:

I still have the first 1-75 kenworth cab over - primarily white with coloured tampos.

This one?

It's tremendous!

[Lord Sterling]

On 05/06/2025 at 13:19, bunglebus said:

I have questions, many questions. But I'm too tired and ill today to be bothered, so I'll file this under 'unsolved mysteries'.

[ambassador84]

47 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Chevelle wagon looks a nice one.

Definitely a more attractive stock alternative to the similar Hot Wheels casting.

[danthecapriman]

12 minutes ago, ambassador84 said:

Definitely a more attractive stock alternative to the similar Hot Wheels casting.

That’s the attraction I think! The Hot Wheels stuff is nice but it all tends to be hot rods, gassers, JDM yo etc etc - really not my cup of tea! 
Matchbox are much better for standard stuff.

[Bren]

53 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

This one?

It's tremendous!

This -

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, ambassador84 said:

No sooner has Matchbox Case F begun to appear at Poundland but now we have Case G at The Entertainer! Case C with the white Acura Integra has also been spotted at B&M so amazingly and for the first time in memory the UK hasn't actually missed any batches so far! Is someone in the chain finally listening! 

Literally just found that case too

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

This one?

It's tremendous!

I had that exact one when it was new

[Split_Pin]

7 series is one I'd like to find!

[ambassador84]

26 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Literally just found that case too

Thought it wouldn't take ya long 😉😉

[bunglebus]

Here it is done. Decals are a bit on the big side if I'm being critical but I like them. Colours on the originals appear to vary a lot so I'm happy enough with what I used

[bunglebus]

The results of today's raid on The Entertainer 

Sumthin' Funny with this Mustang Funny Car alright

New Matchbox case has a few interesting inclusions, including the Flintoff Special (too soon?)

I need to extract a Hot Wheels version for comparison 

I do love a Bugeye Baja

Anyone else find it jarring that Matchbox face the opposite way to the card art?

Something for the ladies

This is the winner in the G case I recon, Chevelle wagon is understated but really nicely done, almost nothing left to detail on this one except maybe blacking out the post inside

[danthecapriman]

26 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Here it is done. Decals are a bit on the big side if I'm being critical but I like them. Colours on the originals appear to vary a lot so I'm happy enough with what I used

Very nice job on that. Brown and the stickers look great to me.

I really dread to think what that manky stuff was in the first photo where the engine should have been. It’s certainly a suspicious colour😆

[bunglebus]

3 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I really dread to think what that manky stuff was in the first photo where the engine should have been

Best not to think about it, I had a couple of cars turn up this week full of that magic sand stuff that you can sculpt underwater. At least it's not plasticine, that stuff is evil once it's gone hard

[MiniMinorMk3]

14 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

 

I do love a Bugeye Baja

 

Have you seen this. Probably be silly money judging by the price of their Land Rovers. I want a red one with white wheels.

Twisted, Custom Land Rover Defender and Suzuki Jimny - UK

[bunglebus]

Yeah I did, might get one with my £200 million Euro lottery win tonight

[bunglebus]

The Chevelle is too nice to leave imprisoned 

In keeping with Matchbox tradition, there are dogs in the back 

Can't really see the Mogan through the blister either

Metal base no less

Might as well release the BMW as I found another one

Hadn't realised there's a green fleck to the paint

What a great casting, not quite sure what to do to improve it other than detailing the lights etc

Sneaky side exit exhaust

[danthecapriman]

In addition to the Matchbox bus I’ve been doing a few others just so I can go between different projects while paint/glue dries and still achieve something. 
A couple of those projects I’ve also been using as tests for some weathering techniques.

The first one is the Chevy C30 I started converting to a ramp truck. 
I wanted to do it in a dry state desert truck look with sand beaten sun faded paintwork. 
I primed the cab in red oxide primer then sprayed on the colour coat, in this case Tamiya coral green. After leaving it for a few days to harden off fully I then used some very fine grit (3000 grit) wet & dry paper used wet, to gently flat the paint back through to the red oxide primer layer. 
I did go through to metal in a couple of spots but that’s easily hidden later.

After that I added some extra colours of rust in odd places.

Pretty happy with how that turned out tbh.

The next technique is a bit different but along the same sort of lines. This one is going to be for a Kraz 256B dump truck which I’ll be changing into one resembling the ones sold in this country new as Belaz 256B’s and used in off highway heavy construction, mining etc etc. obviously these got extremely battered, worn and dirty so it needed to be a step further than the Chevy.

First step was to paint red oxide primer on again. Then once fully dry dip a cotton bud in water and randomly dab the wet bud onto the areas that need to show the undercoat/rust through. Then sprinkle salt onto it which sticks to the wet bits. Leave the salt to dry out then paint top colour coat over it all.

I was a bit worried at this stage as it looks rather shit!

 
After letting the paint go touch dry (not fully dry!) I wet the model again but all over this time and gently scrubbed the salted bits off with an old toothbrush. Basically the salt acts as a masking aid then as it dissolves and comes off it leaves a rough random patch of what was underneath, rusty colour in this case. 
It also makes that effect where rust coming up through paint makes the paint almost blister and flake.

 
Here’s a quick mock up on the truck to see how it looked.

I didn’t do this to the cab as that would have stayed a bit cleaner and not had tons of soil and rock hitting it repeatedly and scraping off like the dumper bed. 
I’ve brushed on a few rusty marks and damaged areas then later I’ll give it some washes of dust & dirt etc.

 
On the dumper bed I’ve brushed on some extra shades of rust browns to vary the look of the patches, particularly on high wear areas. I also dry brushed on some silver to high wear areas to look like bare metal in the bottom of the bed. 
The black patch is going to have a number crudely painted on once dry, but I went over the blisters to look like someone has just painted it on over the rust, then dry brushed a tiny bit of rust on where the rust is starting to bleed through.

 
Again, once it’s dry it’ll get a dirty dusty wash over. I have some Ammo Mig dirt and mud weathering stuff here too which I’ll use on this. 
Its quite enjoyable doing stuff like this and it’s surprisingly easy to do too.

[andrew e]

Some paint and primer arrived for my 1/14 Tamiya wagon (which is currently pale green!)

Let’s see which one is closest to Porsche Lugano blue! £33 to my door, primer was dear at nearly £9, cans £6.50. 

[eddyramrod]

Dan, that's just superb!

Now then... When we came to Barrow 13 years ago, the town had one branch of Poundland.  A couple of years later a second branch was opened, in an ex-furniture store on a retail park, as opposed to what used to be Woolworths on the high street.  All well and good.  Until a year or so ago, when the new branch closed.  And now, the high street branch is closing too, next week.  It already looks like it's been looted, and is only open 10-2, with a man at the door limiting the numbers.  So the other day I braved the queue and went to scour the diecasts.

Well I got one.  It was the only one I felt any want for; I expect it'll get painted in time.  Oh and I got some cake bars too.  Well everything was half price, it was rude not to.

Next day I was in Aldi.  Oh dear...

Again, these are for painting.  Speaking of which, between showers and gales I have managed to get a little outdoor work done.  This is the rinse bucket, after a stripping bath...

...and here they are drying off in the sun...

Obviously the green fantasy truck needs to go round again, that's fine.  I had to get a fresh tin of Etch Primer, because I finished the tin I had, and here are the results...

I guess you'll see them again when I've chosen colours, although in fact I already have for one or two.

Oh and today I've had a delivery from the excellent Mr @FakeConcern, thus:

Yeah OK, you can't see much like that, so let's unpack...

And a bit closer...

Then I thought I'd have a little fun...

Dodge Monaco wagon looks good hauling for a restoration shop, doesn't it?  And taking the speedboat for a weekend away in between.

Ah but: then I went to pull some bubble wrap out of the box so I could wrap them up again, and realised I'd overlooked one!

You've already seen the Dinky Austin Westminster above; now here's a little sister for it, a Corgi A50 Cambridge.  These are going to look lush when they finally reach my display shelves.  In my defence, the Cambridge was wrapped singly, and is very light, so it's no wonder I managed to overlook it when I was emptying the box.

 

[danthecapriman]

Some cracking stuff in that haul @eddyramrod 👍

And, you got Wayne!! I do love that model for some reason. Big old thing too.

[eddyramrod]

It is a big bugger, yes, and heavy.  I'm in danger of assembling a bit of a bus collection here!  That Dinky coach brings my fleet of those to four (I think; could be five!), from which I could probably actually make two decent buses, plus one for parts and one that already looks like it was burnt out in West Belfast in 1973.  The Wayne, meanwhile, is a new one for me.  And yes, I know it's nearly 60 years old; I just never had one when I was a kiddy.

[Split_Pin]

Chaps I'm blown away at all the resto and customising going on today! Super work.

[bunglebus]

31 minutes ago, andrew e said:

Some paint and primer arrived for my 1/14 Tamiya wagon (which is currently pale green!)

Let’s see which one is closest to Porsche Lugano blue! £33 to my door, primer was dear at nearly £9, cans £6.50. 

Saw these in Dunelm today, very tempting!

[andrew e]

And now for something completely different! 

Backstory to the paint is these are both my trucks, the orange Arcos is a functional tipper and 6x6 wheel driven, and as good as finished, the Volvo FH12 was a single axle kit thats now twin front steer, four axle on airbags. It’s a work in progress, and I slowly funnel some cash its way every payday (Don’t tell the Merc!).

It drove itself up there happily, though its unloaded in that picture. Below thats 10kg (half a bag of cement) on the weighbridge! 



Like I mentioned, Volvo work in progress so mechanically all done, it has a single speed gearbox as the twin steer gets in the way of the 3 speed gearbox these normally have. The body is next, it had a quick blow over, but really needs a roof chop/ channel when I get brave.

It’s a cut and shut Bruder trailer body, balanced on a box of siku, the tail ramps are now alloy and fully functional raise and lower - somebody far more talented (Piggy Taylor) machined them!  Spot the fake quad airbags, which do have springs inside them and do compress. Alloy wheels too. I know it’s not real world Lorryist, but what the hell!

 

 

 

[FakeConcern]

Nice work on the painting as usual Eddy!

And some amazing innovative work from Dan. 

Looking at the contents of that box, In should have kept some of them that are better than the ones I have haha!

 

I've not been working on anything apart from pretty basic repaints of all the shite Spot On toys I've bought recently plus a few of my childhood ones.

Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire and Silver Wraith are finished, Thames Trader waiting for me to order parts and Sprite and 1100 paint hardening.

A few more waiting for paint or for parts or both

and a few that got primer on them today

Considering what a great rep these have, the castings are pretty poor, generally I've left them rather than correcting as I like to preserve what character they have that isn't totally ruined by me painting them haha. 

[morrisoxide]

3 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Have you seen this. Probably be silly money judging by the price of their Land Rovers. I want a red one with white wheels.

Twisted, Custom Land Rover Defender and Suzuki Jimny - UK

Twisted are limbering up to do custom new Jimnys too. Think they are waiting for the 4 doors to land in the UK. I do the odd bit for them where I work.

EDIT

I took a toy  scale model to work day and modified it a tad. It's the HW new Model A on some Jimny dial faces to keep it topical.

 

[FakeConcern]

25 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Saw these in Dunelm today, very tempting!

I have used all three Colour Shifts on Corgi Stingray C3 customs and I was very impressed with the results, you need the black primer/undercoat on first.

Cosmic Blue on the Whizzwheels version.

Purple Eclipse

Galaxy Green on the Convertible.  Annoyingly I took all three out of the display case in one go, dropped this one and  chipped the hood/bonnet, touched it in with a Sharpie! I'll have to see what it looks like in daylight.

[bunglebus]

I've done colourshift paint before but took the hard route of thinning nail polish and airbrushing it. Almost impossible to capture the effect, cameras seem to see the black undercoat while our eyes see the iridescent colours