Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

Remember the Matchbox Astra with busted windows?

I decided I could improve it a bit, with the help of a tatty My First Matchbox I picked up at the weekend.

Trimmed the roof lights off and opened up the side windows, as it looked a bit weird with them staying in place and the doors open...

Then discovered the sneaky gits had moved the locating bit inside the roof

Still, it came together ok after a light polish of the glass and touching up the many, many paint chips using some Poundland paint and permanent markers

I suppose I could rob the glass out of my really tatty one when I find it, but the blue works quite well with the decals

[Split_Pin]

Looks great Rich, I had that one as a kid and loved it.

@danthecapriman the minibus looks great. We had one of those in the workshop in the 1990s. The boss was a member of various churches and this particular example, in what was quite close to Ford Maritime blue belonged to Blackburn (West Lothian) Gospel Hall. We called B745 JFS the Bible Bus 🤭

It was pretty ripe by the mid 90s and had a hole in the bulkhead and various other places. The last I remember it was languishing in the top shed, out of use.

[Spottedlaurel]

Got these in a local collectibles shop last week:

And these from Aldi today:

Great to finally get the XJ-C.

[danthecapriman]

17 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Looks great Rich, I had that one as a kid and loved it.

@danthecapriman the minibus looks great. We had one of those in the workshop in the 1990s. The boss was a member of various churches and this particular example, in what was quite close to Ford Maritime blue belonged to Blackburn (West Lothian) Gospel Hall. We called B745 JFS the Bible Bus 🤭

It was pretty ripe by the mid 90s and had a hole in the bulkhead and various other places. The last I remember it was languishing in the top shed, out of use.

That’s what happened to our old school bus one. The school had it absolutely ages, long after I’d left that school. I’d still see it around though. Then it disappeared for a few years. 
Then one day I was walking past a church near where I lived and spotted it again parked outside the front of the church. The blue paint had faded much more but it was definitely that one as it had the ghost image of the old school logo on the front doors. 
The church had it a long time too but by this time it was old and really looking sorry for itself. It’d just spend most of its life sat in the church car park, probably used once or twice every couple of months. 
The last time I saw it, it was absolutely rotten and it disappeared after that never to be seen again! Poor thing! 
Id have had it tbh if I’d known. Although I’ve thoroughly scratched the Transit itch now with that ex BBC one I had.

[SilverMachine]

my package from Tenmil all arrived this morning! perfectly packaged and undamaged

very happy

was also very happy with the chevette i purchased from Danthecapriman for my mates birthday a few weeks ago too! 

will get them pictured with some of my others hopefully on wed! then i can start getting some supplies in to do some restorations over the winter - so i will probably strip some then look for advice on paints and painting! i know spraying will be best, but wondering if i should look into a little airbrush setup for colour ? 

[bunglebus]

I'd stick with rattle cans at first to be honest, I find Halfords, Paint Factory and Holts ones pretty good. I'm sure several of us will be happy to advise as you get cracking!

[barrett]

On 07/09/2025 at 17:06, bunglebus said:

This is one of my best finds this weekend, the same seller I got the black part work Taunus from recently had more this time, I have no idea who made this but I don't think there can be many representations of the Taunus coupe in die cast!

Spotted that in your group shot straight away – what a great find. Figured it must be South American in origin and a quick google reveals it's a Galgo, apparently

https://www.maronline.org.uk/history-of-galgo-part-5-143-cars/

[Tenmil Socket]

15 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Remember the Matchbox Astra with busted windows?

I decided I could improve it a bit, with the help of a tatty My First Matchbox I picked up at the weekend.

Trimmed the roof lights off and opened up the side windows, as it looked a bit weird with them staying in place and the doors open...

Then discovered the sneaky gits had moved the locating bit inside the roof

Still, it came together ok after a light polish of the glass and touching up the many, many paint chips using some Poundland paint and permanent markers

I suppose I could rob the glass out of my really tatty one when I find it, but the blue works quite well with the decals

I was going to say that the blue glazing works very well with that model. I was lucky to find one of those in very good condition.

[bunglebus]

Finally found out who made my two Taunuses

https://modelcars.mbeck.ch/model.php?lang=e----&mode=search&herst=Dicoys&info=herst

It seems Dicoys were first, and Guiloy obtained their moulds. Not a lot online about them but there are pics on Flickr showing various ones that are more familiar to me as Guiloy. Only the wheels seem to give it away

[bunglebus]

While the battery charger is on the Passat 🙄 I thought I'd stick the replacement engine in my blue window Pi-Eyed Piper, that came out of the more common Red Rider. It's had a tickle with the Molotow pen and a couple of chips touched in as I had the blue Sharpie out

[Remspoor]

23 hours ago, bunglebus said:

🤔

I had one as a kid. Th thought they were made by Airfix.  IMHO at 30 squids  that is priced way too high

[sheffcortinacentre]

11 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Finally found out who made my two Taunuses

https://modelcars.mbeck.ch/model.php?lang=e----&mode=search&herst=Dicoys&info=herst

It seems Dicoys were first, and Guiloy obtained their moulds. Not a lot online about them but there are pics on Flickr showing various ones that are more familiar to me as Guiloy. Only the wheels seem to give it away

They were avl in several scales but being from South America as you say nothing online.

[bunglebus]

I spotted this Matchbox Super Colour Changer Pontiac Firebird lurking on Vinted

[danthecapriman]

I got a load more of my tow truck done. Not bad going for something I had no intention of doing really! For something I didn’t plan on doing at all it was actually pretty good fun building.

I wanted it to be quite a loud colour scheme. Like a tow truck that’s been built as a one off then spruced up with things like the hub caps etc etc. I’ve added a few parts I had laying around like the Jerry can, fire extinguisher and a vice!  
Grill was for the Renault/Saviem version of this cab design but I’ve replaced it with one of the cast resin MAN ones I made earlier this year. It’s not quite as sharp as the original I made the mould from but it’ll do.
Underlift arm has been rusted and dirtied up as if it’s been scraped on the ground and a bit battered from lifting dead trucks and buses. 
I’ve got some beacon lights coming for it so that’s still to do. I need some more silver paint too as for some reason mines gone all weird and leaving a gritty finish now. No idea why!?

I need some ‘recovery’ decals for it too from somewhere.

[Lord Sterling]

Right, last day in Brussels. Dumped the Jag in some again, delightful underground parking and popped to Fnac, which is a neat shop that sells records, CDs, books and some toys:

Then onto  toy shop called Joué or something, next door. They had more of a choice.

I really liked the 1/43 Majorette cars, but there wasn't anyway I was chucking 24 € up the wall for one, no matter how nice they are.

Siku generally has a good presence here in western Europe:

But I've not been into them since the mid 00s when the sizes went bigger and despite the wheels looking more detailed, you could see they were made of unpainted plastic. I just don't like the general weirdness of them these days. They are now more firmly a cheaper playtime car than something revered by oversized and over aged kids like us.

As I was walking from the parking to Fnac, I noticed a small Renault boutique and decided to look at their model cars and toys they also offered:

Yeah, a bit pricey for me right now.

So, what to say about this trip? Although I have come away with a lot more than I normally do, it has been generally disappointing. 

I have noticed a massive lack of Matchboxes, it seems like the tables have turned on Europe, every shop I landed in had little to no Matchbox cars, but HotWheels have hit the big time here, I'm not sure why, some of their stuff is great, but a lot of their stuff is also utterly rubbish, whereas Matchbox have held onto the side of reality. However, the availability of them is very hit and miss. I've previously regaled at how easy and nice it was to get new stuff. But this time, I saw nowt. No new Jags, no new E36 BMW 3er by Matchbox, nothing.

The only thing I did manage to get was a red Fiesta XR2 which was nigh-on impossible a few months back.

Anyway, here is my final haul. I finally managed to run out of holding folding and I think that's enough of buying models for a while now*

* I mean, I say that, but then look at my track record.

[Split_Pin]

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I spotted this Matchbox Super Colour Changer Pontiac Firebird lurking on Vinted

I had that one for decades and never knew it was a Colour Changer. I might still have it actually...

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

I got a load more of my tow truck done. Not bad going for something I had no intention of doing really! For something I didn’t plan on doing at all it was actually pretty good fun building.

I wanted it to be quite a loud colour scheme. Like a tow truck that’s been built as a one off then spruced up with things like the hub caps etc etc. I’ve added a few parts I had laying around like the Jerry can, fire extinguisher and a vice!  
Grill was for the Renault/Saviem version of this cab design but I’ve replaced it with one of the cast resin MAN ones I made earlier this year. It’s not quite as sharp as the original I made the mould from but it’ll do.
Underlift arm has been rusted and dirtied up as if it’s been scraped on the ground and a bit battered from lifting dead trucks and buses. 
I’ve got some beacon lights coming for it so that’s still to do. I need some more silver paint too as for some reason mines gone all weird and leaving a gritty finish now. No idea why!?

I need some ‘recovery’ decals for it too from somewhere.

That is beautiful. It looks like the cherished flagship of a small garage recovery service who built it in their own workshop years ago and take very good care of it. I love the colour scheme too - is that BL Tara Green?

[eddyramrod]

@danthecapriman that's lovely!  I'm going to have to raise my game...

[bunglebus]

There I was, taking the p*ss out of this Welly Golf on the WhatsApp group for its silly decals - and then I bought it

McDonald's edition indeed.

Came with several others of the same make, including a frankly awful 2CV

A Beetle I'm not even showing (the usual pull-back 1303 offering), and this Jag XJ220, which isn't a bad effort other than the too wide track

In a separate envelope 🙄 was an early Majorette K70 with the nice push-in hubcaps

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

That is beautiful. It looks like the cherished flagship of a small garage recovery service who built it in their own workshop years ago and take very good care of it. I love the colour scheme too - is that BL Tara Green?

Thanks!

Thats exactly the kind of truck I had in mind for it. 
The colours are actually both Tamiya shades. Light metallic blue and metallic green. Both from the TS aerosol range meant for plastic kits, but so far I’ve had no problems using them on metal. The metallic green is very similar to Tara green though.

I was actually on the fence about the colours to begin with. It’s actually similar to SSE’s old livery which is what gave me the idea. I think it actually works though for a small independent outfit type truck.

Should I add a boom mounted winch and cable though?? 
Also, there is a second recovery truck ‘in hand’ although this one’s a bit more of an old skool type unit! It’s built (mostly) but I can’t make up my mind about colour(s).

[morrisoxide]

Finally found a Broadspeed Jag.

I didn't know about the 928s, so that was a nice find.

I'm on the look out for another Jag to paint green like Steed's.

[bunglebus]

Got sent to graff-city.com via a Facebook ad - they apparently have huge stocks of Halfords spray paint, and are offering it at £1.75 to 99p a can, depending on how many you order, random colour choice. Got to be a good deal for customisers Shirley?

There are a few other Halfords paints also at seemingly bargainous prices too

https://www.graff-city.com/spray-paint-c128/spray-paint-cans-c76/halfords-spray-paint-random-300ml-p6317

[barrett]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

There I was, taking the p*ss out of this Welly Golf on the WhatsApp group for its silly decals - and then I bought it

I've got a real soft spot for those Welly pull-back cars as I had the Golf (plain red), Corrado and Calibra in the 'super racer' guise, which I think were probably petrol station coupon freebees. The Vauxhall in particular struck me even then as an unusual subject, and I liked that they were fairly decent representations of ordinary cars that I'd see on every street corner. Not sure I'd bother seeking them out now, but I think I'd struggle to resist one if I saw it at a boot sale...

[bunglebus]

Yeah I've acquired a few Super Racers over the years

Most have unbranded cars inside though

[Spottedlaurel]

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Got sent to graff-city.com via a Facebook ad - they apparently have huge stocks of Halfords spray paint, and are offering it at £1.75 to 99p a can, depending on how many you order, random colour choice. Got to be a good deal for customisers Shirley?

There are a few other Halfords paints also at seemingly bargainous prices too

https://www.graff-city.com/spray-paint-c128/spray-paint-cans-c76/halfords-spray-paint-random-300ml-p6317

I wondered what happened to the old, specific paint range they did before they went over to the new stuff. I was surprised not to see it available in the shops on clearance, but the must have thought there was too much to get rid of that way and just flogged it off to this lot.

I liked how there'd be some old colours that must have sold very slowly, I picked up a few 1970s-90s shades. Got to think of something that needs Ford Daytona Yellow! Tempted by the idea of a random 12.....

[FakeConcern]

8 hours ago, barrett said:

I've got a real soft spot for those Welly pull-back cars as I had the Golf (plain red), Corrado and Calibra in the 'super racer' guise, which I think were probably petrol station coupon freebees. The Vauxhall in particular struck me even then as an unusual subject, and I liked that they were fairly decent representations of ordinary cars that I'd see on every street corner. Not sure I'd bother seeking them out now, but I think I'd struggle to resist one if I saw it at a boot sale...

I have the Golf and Corrado, I didn't know there was a Calibra. I'll have to look out for one now!

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I liked how there'd be some old colours that must have sold very slowly, I picked up a few 1970s-90s shades. Got to think of something that needs Ford Daytona Yellow! Tempted by the idea of a random 12.....

I've ordered 12 - it's slightly cheaper to buy 12 individual cans than their 12 can bundle deal! I rate Halfords paint, and as most of what I do are customs, the colour choice is fairly irrelevant. Hopefully I won't get 12 cans of Russet Brown...

[danthecapriman]

10 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Got sent to graff-city.com via a Facebook ad - they apparently have huge stocks of Halfords spray paint, and are offering it at £1.75 to 99p a can, depending on how many you order, random colour choice. Got to be a good deal for customisers Shirley?

There are a few other Halfords paints also at seemingly bargainous prices too

https://www.graff-city.com/spray-paint-c128/spray-paint-cans-c76/halfords-spray-paint-random-300ml-p6317

Thanks for finding that. 24 cans me up!!😄

It does say there’ll be a good mix of colours so just have to see what turns up.

[eddyramrod]

I've just had a look at Graff-City, and couldn't find the specific colours I need.  So I used their online chat and asked.  They don't have details of car paints to supply specific colours.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[junkyarddog]

Gave this recently acquired Hot Wheels MR2 a makeover. 

Body in white.

Primed.

Painted!

Turned out ok,certainly better than it was.

Again,no real details besides the jewelled spot lamps,as I really can't be arsed these days.