Shite in Miniature II

[FakeConcern]

I've not got much done with my ongoing model projects lately, the bonnets and boots that I'm working on have more filler and sanding down (no pics) so some progress made. I've been painting a couple of old Corgis with mixed success as the paint on a Cowley that's to to be two tone reacted with the first colour.

Very annoying.

We did go to Ford Market on Saturday and I bought some shite

Anything you want @eddyramrod?

The Polistil 1303 is pretty nice, just missing front bumper and the exhausts broken off so should be an easy fix

We popped into Arundel afterwards and as usual some nice stuff in the junk shops, several here I fancied, but couldn't decide before Mrs Concern got fed up and missed the chance for now!

Very tempted by the Pilen 204

Also The R17

Chrysler 150

Simca Bagheera

Polistil 504 Coupe

Not so tempted by the Corgi Mini Mostest

I forgot we went to Brighton last week where I spotted this Hot Wheels 1/43 Trans Am, it was one of those annoying cabinets where the price is not visible and you need to ask them to get the key and I CBA to do that

 

 

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, FakeConcern said:

Polistil 1303

As much as I like Beetles, those enormous external door hinges just give me the ick on that casting! There were two really nice ones at a recent toy fair, but I just can'took at them 🤣

[morrisoxide]

Leeds market throws some odd ball sellers some times. This chap was trying to sell some absolute toot for silly money, then sold me near mint crack ups go for a quid!

"£2 for big ones" i.e. the CX.

 

[eddyramrod]

@FakeConcern stand by for PM  

[flat4alfa]

For the first time since August 2024, I actually visited a local car boot sale

Got this lot

I really shouldn't be allowed out on my own.

[bunglebus]

8 hours ago, morrisoxide said:

near mint crack ups

They're a hard find due to their nature, and sell for good money on eBay.

Glad it's not just me that buys weird Beetles too 

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Got this lot

What's the bonnetless one?

Nice Redlines too

[FakeConcern]

55 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

What's the bonnetless one?

 

Dinky Holden

[Tenmil Socket]

It won’t let me react to posts… is anyone else having issues?

[Tenmil Socket]

Seller: Right so I’ve got this excellent condition 40 year old die-cast car to post to a buyer. I need to find something suitable to use for packaging to protect it. Let’s see what I’ve got… kitchen roll, no. Bog roll, no (must remember to buy some though!). Newspaper, no. Carrier bags, no. Sponge, no. Aha! A coin bag, perfect. Should be fine in this Jiffy bag that looks like it’s been through a mangle.

Buyer: Cheers M9.

 

[flat4alfa]

On 13/04/2026 at 07:21, bunglebus said:

What's the bonnetless one?

Dinky no.196 Holden Special Sedan, currently with an air-cooled motor.  

I have an (almost) nicer but complete one, so couldn't walk away from it at just £2.  They were produced 1963-70, which is some while for Dinky, yet I found it to be a bit of scarce find.

I think I saw more real examples pottering about and turning up to shows, when I lived in W.Australia for a year. They are know as the Holden EJ over there.

Apparently Dinky modelled the colour scheme on the Holden Millionth car

 

Quote

Nice Redlines too

Sadly not. They are both Tin Toys, the FIAT Abarth 2000 Scorpione. I don't think Mattel ever modelled it?

Glad I got one (two!) now though. Concept cars of the era appeal somewhat.  Gabriella agrees:

[FakeConcern]

3 minutes ago, flat4alfa said:

Dinky no.196 Holden Special Sedan, currently with an air-cooled motor.  

I have an (almost) nicer but complete one, so couldn't walk away from it at just £2.  They were produced 1963-70, which is some while for Dinky, yet I found it to be a bit of scarce find.

I think I saw more examples pottering about and turning up to shows, when I lived in W.Australia for a year. They are know as the Holden EJ over there.

Apparently Dinky modelled the colour scheme on the Holden Millionth car

 

 

I agree that the Dinky Holden is pretty scarce, but I believe I've found three with the bonnet missing, so that must be a weak point. I intend to use the interior of one of them for an even more scarce Dinky no151 Victor 101.

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Sadly not. They are both Tin Toys, the FIAT Abarth 2000 Scorpione. I don't think Mattel ever modelled it?

A better find than a redline then IMO. I was guessing from the colour, Mattel did all sorts of weird stuff in the early 70s, the original 16 are easier to find than almost anything made in the following ten years I reckon

[bunglebus]

What have I been working on today?

[bunglebus]

8 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Cheers M9.

The Mrs bought herself a job lot of cars as she'd spotted another Lupo. Didn't message the seller as all their feedback said well packed:

Hopefully your wrecker is OK, that's an unusual one 

 

[Datsuncog]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

What have I been working on today?

Oooh, Superfast MB68 Chevy Van? 

[flat4alfa]

16 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

I agree that the Dinky Holden is pretty scarce, but I believe I've found three with the bonnet missing, so that must be a weak point. I intend to use the interior of one of them for an even more scarce Dinky no151 Victor 101.

It's a good idea, as your example is otherwise pretty good paintwise.  Which means...

WILL IT FIT? 

Dinky #196 Holden Special Sedan [EJ] vs. #151 Vauxhall Victor 101 [FC] : 

Looking at the interior pieces, surprisingly the Vauxhall’s is wider, you can see the dash and parcel shelf here.  Still, any interior is better than no interior..

You can also see that the scaling is wrong, as in real life, the Holden is a larger car.  After all, they ran inline six cylinder engines across the range.

The Holden EJ model was aimed at the Ford Falcon XL in size

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

It's a good idea, as your example is otherwise pretty good paintwise.  Which means...

WILL IT FIT? 

Dinky #196 Holden Special Sedan [EJ] vs. #151 Vauxhall Victor 101 [FC] : 

Looking at the interior pieces, surprisingly the Vauxhall’s is wider, you can see the dash and parcel shelf here.  Still, any interior is better than no interior..

You can see the scaling is wrong as in real life, as the Holden is a larger car.  After all they ran inline six cylinder engines across the range.

Up close Holden EJ was aimed at the Ford Falcon XL, in fact the quick & dirty spreadsheet calcs just now show the Holden being 11% larger over the Falcon.

Definitely a look of a Vauxhall Velox about that. 

[flat4alfa]

11 hours ago, sierraman said:

Definitely a look of a Vauxhall Velox about that. 

Well it was all GM, locally designed and produced but with Detroit calling the shots.

The designer stated original influence for the Holden EJ was from the Opel Kapitan P2

Whoever signed-off the Vauxhall PB was on the same sheet as Holden though

[bunglebus]

11 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Oooh, Superfast MB68 Chevy Van? 

Yep I've had it kicking about for a while wanting to do a custom, just couldn't work out how I wanted to paint it. In the end I just rummaged through my cans and found something I thought would work, although I've realised it's very similar to another custom van I did not so long ago.

Casting was a bit of a mixed bag, one side was good but the other was full of pits, and it's not an easy one to sand thanks to lots of swage lines etc.  Just got to polish the glass and detail the lights etc today

[Tenmil Socket]

17 hours ago, bunglebus said:

The Mrs bought herself a job lot of cars as she'd spotted another Lupo. Didn't message the seller as all their feedback said well packed:

Hopefully your wrecker is OK, that's an unusual one 

 

Even the worst condition cars I sell get sent in bubble wrap. 

[bunglebus]

Several months ago I bought some Ammo Wet Effects paint, as recommended by a YouTuber for getting a gloss effect on rear lights etc. Ever since I've had it, I've been really paranoid that I'll knock it over and spill it everywhere. I don't know why this particular one gives me the fear, but it does, and today was the day. ⅔ of it all over my cutting mat, thankfully missing the MB van I was just finishing. 

I thought I'd get that out of the way before revealing it. The usual stuff, got rid of casting lines, polished the glass, detailed everything as best possible ( Molotow chrome is great but thick, can't get a thin line of it no matter what), paint was two Maston rattle cans from The Range, pretty pleased with the effect as it seems to change colour depending on the angle you look at it from. Wheels were pinched from a Hot Wheels Indy car, they look like the Turbines fitted to the A-Team van to me, and I like the white lettering as it fits the 1970s styling. Bumpers had a centre strip moulded in but I polished them flat for a custom look, along with the side pipes.

Before:

Paint is quite similar to the Corgi I did a while ago

 

[Tenmil Socket]

30 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Several months ago I bought some Ammo Wet Effects paint, as recommended by a YouTuber for getting a gloss effect on rear lights etc. Ever since I've had it, I've been really paranoid that I'll knock it over and spill it everywhere. I don't know why this particular one gives me the fear, but it does, and today was the day. ⅔ of it all over my cutting mat, thankfully missing the MB van I was just finishing. 

I thought I'd get that out of the way before revealing it. The usual stuff, got rid of casting lines, polished the glass, detailed everything as best possible ( Molotow chrome is great but thick, can't get a thin line of it no matter what), paint was two Maston rattle cans from The Range, pretty pleased with the effect as it seems to change colour depending on the angle you look at it from. Wheels were pinched from a Hot Wheels Indy car, they look like the Turbines fitted to the A-Team van to me, and I like the white lettering as it fits the 1970s styling. Bumpers had a centre strip moulded in but I polished them flat for a custom look, along with the side pipes.

Before:

Paint is quite similar to the Corgi I did a while ago

 

Lovely job!

[AndyW201]

Day off today but still had to perform Dad's Taxi duties, giving the daughter a lift to Teessude Retail Park. There's a Morrisons there so nipped in to check their Matchbox 5 packs. All old packs again. Bah.

There's a B&M across the way from there so went in there. A pretty desperate selection of diecast considering it's a large retail park store. Not even the usual two pegs of dust-gathering Terra Treks like the B&Ms nearer us... But I did eventually find a stand with some Matchbox mainlines. Most of them I already had, but I've never seen these this one before,

Although it is a new for 2026 casting. I would have preferred a civilian version, but still looks good in Polizei trim,

And I finally found the grey version of the Tranny Custom I had been looking for,

Seeing as Stockton isn't far away from there, I had a quick run up to Smyths. Nothing much of note, apart from some Modern Classics Porsches in there now, but I saw the F&F Roadrunner I've been dithering over getting for a while. I'm glad I waited, because today it was £3 in the clearance section.

The Roadrunner is my favourite of the mad muscle car era. Hot Wheels did a pretty good job of it, but it's a shame that when the real car was customised, they didnt give it the factory stripes which feature the cartoon Roadrunner with a dust trail behind him leading to the rear vents.

But there is some nice detailing on it and I'm certainly not whinging at a premium for three quid.

They'd put some more Silver Series Vintage Club stuff out, so I got the Alfa GTV6 that I missed the first time.

Always room in the collection for one of these, a great casting.

[Spottedlaurel]

Working backwards through the remainder of the recent purchases:

Black Prelude was a surprise find, hadn't seen it anywhere. Didn't know about the CRX until I saw another on here. I think the Century looks good in this grey colour, I think they first did it in black?

Randoms from a 4 for £1 box (the rest was too miserable to bother with a fourth). Only really got these for the Novacar 605.

This lot from @bunglebus. Inevitably I found another 1/43 Skyline a few days later. Will probably build the Majorettes at some point, the packages take up too much room!

 

[bunglebus]

On 12/04/2026 at 16:36, bunglebus said:

Borrowed from FB, apparently the RAV4 and '97 Integra come in LHD or RHD

Dunno if I'm having my leg pulled, every one of these is LHD

[Tenmil Socket]

16 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Dunno if I'm having my leg pulled, every one of these is LHD

Why are the wheels different?

[Datsuncog]

9 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Dunno if I'm having my leg pulled, every one of these is LHD

No, there really are LHD and RHD versions - Castle Court Poundland had about twenty RAV4s on the pegs last Friday - of those, two were fitted with RHD interiors (so like a 90/10 split, from a totally unscientific survey sample of one shop). 

I'd heard about this variant on forums and was a bit sceptical too, but it truly is A Thing.

The one I bought at Abbeycentre back in January is, predictably, the common LHD version. 

EDIT: should have taken some pics, probably. But if I see another RHD version, I'll grab it!

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Why are the wheels different?

Someone was doing a custom and noticed there are two lots of pedals fitted, so realised there must be LHD and RHD

[bunglebus]

A few job lots have come my way recently, one the Mrs bought but just kept the Lupo and gave me the rest. 

Badly decorated Graffic Traffics aplenty

These 1500 Beetles have a few unusual variations, such as this V cast into the rally plaque mount

Clean two pack Cattle Truck duo

Mainly wanted the unusual colour Roller, one day a really good one will emerge

Lotus is also quite a rare one, JPS logos are long gone

Ha ha!

Erm...

Late Cuda is very nicely done

Only non-Matchbox is this Aviva Snoopy