Shite in Miniature II

[eddyramrod]

Two of those Plymouths were the taxis used towards the end of classic farce It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Peter Falk was one of the drivers...

[vulgalour]

Coral pink and malachite green is a horrible combination, I'm glad we don't see it more often.

[Squire_Dawson]

Two of those Plymouths were the taxis used towards the end of classic farce It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Peter Falk was one of the drivers...

 

What a great film. I can't say I have a favourite scene because they're all action packed with cars. I had no idea Peter Falk was in it but yes, now I can see! But if I had to choose a favourite moment it would be when Russell and Terry Thomas were trying to shake off Sylvester and that '58 Caddy bellowed its horn as it swerved off the road.

[Squire_Dawson]

Coral pink and malachite green is a horrible combination, I'm glad we don't see it more often.

 

Complimentary colours, like the grey and orange Packard. Lovely.

[vulgalour]

Grey and orange and I'm okay with, pink and green should only be found in a prawn cocktail, or salmon on a bed of lettuce, not a car.

[Felly Magic]

My collection is starting to look like Billy's wet dream, another bloody Vauxhall in 1/43 arrived today, this time a right hook Corsa 5 door. I need Fords to stop this nonsense LOLOLOL

[DoctorRetro]

Started a few of my bodge job / restorations. 

 

First coat on the tanker. Got a plan in mind, just wait and see. 

 

Primered up a Fiat Panda... This is going dark green. 

 

Next project is the Lada 110 I recently acquired. Stripped it and lowered it. This is being made into a civilian car in deep red. 

 

[vulgalour]

You need to put a dashcam in the Lada and a driver that has a speech bubble with either BLYADT or YOURBUNNYWROTE on it.

[Felly Magic]

Corsa family including a resprayed Tigra. Right hook swapped the 3 door for a project.

 

 

 

[Felly Magic]

I am aqaiting a pair of Corgi 1/36 scale Metros to add to the collection too as both me and the Mrs both had A series rotboxes as our first cars, mine was an early MG1300 and hers was a mk2 1.0L

[Squire_Dawson]

Any interest in the AEC before I poo it on eBay? 

 

Yes please much like.

[DoctorRetro]

Any ideas what to do with this? I've lost the bag/box I stored the lights and bumpers in.

 

 

[Junkman]

Make a Banger Racer out of it.

[DoctorRetro]

Make a Banger Racer out of it.

Sacrilege! I'm a Lada fan you know?

[MorrisItalSLX]

Put it in a box, put that box away, rediscover the missing trim, lose the body, put trim back in box, put box away, rediscover the missing body, lose the trim, repeat cycle until you kick the bucket.

[Junkman]

Sacrilege! I'm a Lada fan you know?

 

So are the banger racers.

[egg]

Details of this year's Maidstone Vintage toy fairs, which may be of interest.

 

http://www.maidstonevintagetoyfair.co.uk/

[quicksilver]

Who was it that mentioned the Airfix kits in Aldi? My local store never seemed to have any and as that was several months ago I forgot all about them and didn't expect any.to still be available Today my folks were at another Aldi, which still had quite a few kits now reduced to £3.95 so they picked up a Jeep for me. Good value as it looks a nice kit and includes a tube of poly cement, four little pots of paint and a decent-looking brush. I haven't built a plastic kit for a very long time (plenty of resin though) so this will be a good little project to practise on. I intend to ignore the paint scheme in the instructions though as I'm no fan of olive drab - I'm thinking of a nice bright gloss demobbed civilian Jeep.

[Jon]

About 18 months ago, Mrs_Jon dropped her phone in a body of water (I won't say which but you could well imagine....) and despite fully retrieving it quicksharp, it didn't much like the experience and would turn on but that was your lot. Fast forward to last week when we decided to start it up again in order to download the photos she'd taken on it and lo and behold, it now seems to work fully!

 

Now, since it's way more modern than my current phone, I'm considering taking it on, though I thought it best to test out the camera first; so what better way than to test out its marco abilities, than to take some snaps of some 1/64 rammle?

 

Let's see what it can do....

 

 

 

I must add that most of these subjects aren't great specimens and may well have featured on here before, so apologies in advance. Camera's not too bad on the close-up detailing of the SAAB, though I do wish Matchbox had released this without the body kit, as it is rather naff, especially with all the colour coding where there wasn't any on the standard models. Very of its time though, I suppose.

 

 

 

This is about the grade of Tomica's I can warrant the cost of - well played with. Gull wing sides is an interesting solution to accessing the load but it does seem to have a lot of limitations. I've seen plenty of Japanese import trucks with gull wing bodies for sale over here but I haven't actually seen one in use. I reckon they'd make a very interesting base for a camper conversion, though.

 

 

 

I think this must me scaled at about the HO equivalent for cars, whatever that is, so I suppose the photo detailing here is quite passable.

 

 

 

Here's my Bulgarian issue Golf, in that fancy* copper plate they offered. Nice workmanship here, a real fine eye for detail. Not so keen on the picture grain here.

 

 

 

Everyone's favourite Pony car here, again a Tomica but a repaint, with a very dirty interior. I think this would be an ideal candidate for a makeover but I'm really not sure I possess the botherdness, tbh. I think the grain actually adds to the atmosphere, in this instance.

 

 

 

Thought I'd have a play with adding a bit of foreground detail - can anyone identify what it is? The phone camera seems good enough to pick up the dust sitting on the station wagon, as it seems that a 2 second wipe on a t-shirt is not the most effective dusting measure, amazingly. I love that Matchbox still release stuff like this but it does go to show how excellent the 50's and 60's castings were, in comparison.

 

 

 

The only info on this Chevy camper's base plate is 'Made in Hong Kong', so I've no idea if this was an original or copied casting. Must admit, I feel that the camper body is way better executed than the truck itself and also makes it much more interesting as a thing, hence why I picked it up. And it was only 50p.

 

 

 

I thought this one came out quite nicely. I know Vulgalour is currently de-lifting one of these Couriers but has anyone seen the camper body from the standard height one, added to the jacked up one? I reckon that'd work quite well.

 

 

 

Another Bulgarian casting (they really churned out some random tat, didn't they?!), with a 60's issued Muira in background, for a compare and contrast. Shame I don't have an original issue GT40 for best comparisons, tbh. Got to admit that the bright colour and 70's-on Superfast wheels actually works for me.

 

 

 

I think it's safe to say that this is a very well played with Muira. But just look at the sharpness of the casting details! If you ignore all the scratches and pitting, of course. That said, look at the awful loss of picture quality in the background, where the shaded areas lose all their definition and turn to digital mush.

 

 

I'm not quite sure this is much of an upgrade, tbh. The images all seem wider, which does help and it does seem to cope with macro detailing. But the rest all seems a bit crappy and I'd invariably turn the camera mode off when pressing the screen to focus, etc. However, I find that phone images in general are best viewed on their own back lit screens and that the quality degenerates when transferred to other media, so I suppose I shouldn't expect too much. Therefore, the jury's out but I also wonder whether a bit more light on the image will help improve the quality. I'll keep plugging away and see what I can do.

[Split_Pin]

Nice photos there, love the Tomica lorry in particular.

[eddyramrod]

I know someone who will be all over ebay now looking for Tomica Mustangs!

[Volksy]

 

Everyone's favourite Pony car here, again a Tomica but a repaint, with a very dirty interior. I think this would be an ideal candidate for a makeover

 

I will just leave this here for a makeover inspiration

 

 

 

Yes Yes Yes.

[vulgalour]

It's time for another Ramrod Repatriation update!  It's always fun getting a batch from Eddy because I've asked he doesn't tell me what's going to arrive, the contents of the mystery boxes that get shoved through the letterbox every time are always a surprise.

 

I now have my very first Budgie diecast.  They're one I've been aware of for a while, I've just never gone out of my way to get them.  This is a Seddon Diesel tractor unit, they had several different trailers, somehow this one has lost the front axle and wheels.  Not sure what I'm doing with this one yet, for now I like it for being so different to my other stuff.

 

Another Rolamatic for the collection.  I'm tempted to take it apart just so I can chrome one side of the flashing* beacon, which I suspect was the intention at Matchbox originally since that would certainly make it a lot more effective.  These always seem to survive in really good condition, they seem very robust.

 

A favourite from the mad 70s era.  It's lost an exhaust pipe but is otherwise in great shape.  Keeping an eye out for a tattier one rather than doing anything with this one.

 

Anyone got any R17 doors?  It's a shame the original doors have been snapped off, something I've not seen anyone manage before with Matchbox of this era.  Shame too, it's in pretty good shape otherwise.

 

Almost complete Husky Zephyr, the tailgate is slightly damaged.  Repairable, as far as I can tell, so I intend to do that.  This is one I tend to miss out on when trying to acquire so it's nice to have one in the collection now.

 

My third one of these now.  I'll get a new screen surround for it since they're available and then repaint in the same scheme, including mismatched front wing, because I actually like it that way.

 

Another one I kept missing out on, I've got the high-roof variant (with original doors, no less!), and was having trouble scoring a low-roof like this for a while.  Doors are available new, but the casting isn't great so they often don't fit.  Given how simple they are, I'll probably try my hand at making some doors with plasticard and paperclips.

 

SCENE YO.  Another one I kept missing out on, and another that the regularly missing part (decklid in this instance) is available for new.  It's not a rare variant, as far as I can tell.  What's amazing is that someone has managed to bend the axles as if they were spindly little Hotwheels wires, no mean feat on one of these early Lesney cars.

 

Speaking of Hotwheels, and to round this little update out nicely, a Beatnik Bandit.  This is the only Redline I own, and I intend to do my best to restore it to look like the original Roth car.  It'll be tricky to get that copper and white paintjob right at this scale, so I'll have to get my thinking cap on.  I reckon I can make a clear plastic canopy for it too so that I can replace the cracked blue original.

 

Cheers, Eddy.  You're a star.

[MarvinsMom]

remember that Triumph Herald?

 

well it now looks like this

 

it has taken some effort just to get the flippin' thing to ths state,  and yes, it been all one colour is a kop out, but it is more suited to my (lack of) skil;l with a wet brush.

 

where did we start, i DID have a go at 2 tone paint, aaaand it looked gash!

 

so, it got stripped back to bare metal, and we tried again. this time i had decided to go with mainly blue bodywork, but with a white hard top/roof thing, as in real life the herald could be altered easily and converted from convertable/coupe/saloon if you wanted to do so.

 

BUT, the addition of beer, and paint didn't end well, with the car ending up on the floor while still tacky. so, the moral of that sorry tale is kids, don't drink and paint, cos things end up covered in fluff.

 

i stipped the damn thing back to bare metal again, and we tried for a third time, and this time deciding to stick with a plain colour scheme, based on this

and here it is at home

[eddyramrod]

Have to say, I'm loving seeing what people do with "my" cars.  Keep showing us, won't you?

 

Jo: lovely Herald there.

[Junkman]

Some of you might remember this.

 

 

 

However, the flowers were deemed too ugly and hence restoration was ordered by Junkdaughter #2.

And she wanted me to make it into a proper blood box again.

 

 

 

 

 

Body snatcher is now also painted in the spirit of back then.

 

 

 

The interior is now Asylum Green.

 

[Datsuncog]

That Daimler looks stunning - colour choices and subtle detailing are fantastic.

 

Not that it didn't look, erm, very striking in the 'before' pictures...

[mercrocker]

If anything deserves the title "blood box" it is one of those DC Daimlers.......Reckon you've nailed the 50s horror of that one, JM.   An old fella at work told me he got knocked down at Hyde Park Corner as a kid.   Apparently they backed one of these up to him, left the motor running, chucked him in the back with a dressing (which he had to press against his wound), slammed the back doors and whisked him away Winkworth-ing like hell all the way to some blackened hospital building.   He was obviously still traumatised by the bloody thing.....

[Datsuncog]

Tiny Transit is coming along this week, with its regime of daily oven-cleaner baths:

Day 2:

Day 4:

I'm hoping that tonight should see it Humbrol-free.

I managed to lose the light from the roof while attempting to remove it (pinged it across the room; no idea where it landed in the deep-pile rug) and, as expected, the hazard markings on the bumpers have also come off with the cleaning product - so it's not going to be going back to factory finish anyway.

Open to suggestions for colour scheme - knowing now that I can strip it back as/when I bugger it up is very helpful...

[Frogchod]

Another addition to my reverse rake rear window collection, another bloody Ford.

This takes my total to three, an Anglia,this, and I count all my Amis as one.

What next ?