Shite in Miniature II

[willswitchengage]

!!!!!WARNING!!!!!

 

I bought an AMT kit after Christmas and, now I have begun to assemble it, immediately regret this decision. The sprues appear to have been made from recycled plastic cups on Guangdong province's first injection moulding machine and the instructions are a vague, grainy image of what the thing should ultimately look like. Not a single part has gone together correctly yet and a large amount have broken. Do not buy AMT. Buy Italeri every time.

 

[mercrocker]

At least the box art warns you not to expect perfect front axle alignment...

[Junkman]

The kit is quite dated, it's been around for 40 years, but I didn't find it very challenging.

 

[willswitchengage]

Mine is a newly manufactured kit but I imagine the quality is probably down to several decade old tooling etc then.

 

I see yours has lost a few parts 

[Junkman]

It's not finished. I also built it from the new production run.

[Junkman]

This is what a German friend of mine made out of it:

 

 

And this is what a friend of ours in Oz made:

 

[mercrocker]

That weathered one is particularly delightful....

[quicksilver]

Some fantastic stuff there, it just shows an old kit can still look the part. In much smaller scale truck shite news, could this be the fleet of the SVM Road Haulage division?

 

86, 88, 89 by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

[Split_Pin]

Hey who makes the F86? Been after one for ages.

[quicksilver]

All of those are resin 1/76 cabs from Road Transport Images (http://www.roadtransportimages.com/). Loads of other goodies there too.

[Felly Magic]

Well I was bored over the weekend, so attacked that Vanguards Police Cortina, and now it looks a bit different, and some photos with my other Cortinas. Just need a mk1 for the full house.

 

Sodding drill slipped when I was drilling out the windows to paint the roof, and borked the windscreen. Tried using sheet acetate from a model box, wouldn't have it, needed to be slightly curved, had a shiters brainwave, a Pepsi Max bottle...So it was out with the cutting disc, cut out the damaged windscreen, use as a template, and job done. 

 

 

 

 

 

[eddyramrod]

Remember all that talk a while back of the Russian CSI bus in the partwork collection at Poundland?  I've wanted one from the first pic I saw on ebay, and have been chasing them ever since, but they always run over budget.  Well last week I got one, at the toy fair at Bolton that caused me such misery (so it wasn't a total loss).  Three whole English pounds, in the bubble pack.  That's the nearest I've ever seen them to Poundland prices.  Speaking of which: my local branch has a new series in, modern supercars.  So far I've seen three: Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette and some kind of Maserati (curiously the only one not painted red!).  Not my thing so I doubt I'll be buying, unless any shiter wants them and has difficulty locally.  Let me know if that happens.

[Felly Magic]

£3 isn't a bad price mate for one of them. It looks a pretty decent sized model as well. Photos required of course. I've just ordered a couple of russian partwork models today as well

[eddyramrod]

Pictures?  We can do that...

Barrow has two branches of Poundland now, so today I went in the other one, where I saw much the same selection, unsurprisingly.  However, my eye was caught by the sole example of an Aston Martin DB4 in among the Vipers and Maseratis, so I grabbed it.

So here they are in all their 1.43 glory, my DB4, Moskvich and CSi bus.

[londonm]

That weathered one is particularly delightful....

This is what a German friend of mine made out of it:

 

 

And this is what a friend of ours in Oz made:

 

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/mmtaer/photos/undefined/TT%204.jpg]

The weathered one makes me think of 'Dual' for some reason.

[Felly Magic]

Oh fuck what have I bought now? From a seller in the Ukraine

 

[oldcars]

/\ WANT !

[Split_Pin]

Ace!

[Felly Magic]

The mags are brilliant too, can't understand what they are on about, but they have nice pictures

[Partridge]

I have a friend who can read, write and speak Russian I could ask him to translate but I think know what the answer will be!

[Felly Magic]

Out of the packet  

 

[Partridge]

In Soviet Russia, diecast collects YOU.

[Felly Magic]

I've detailed them up a bit, and made the burgundy one into a 'Mini Keith'. They are great models tbh, and I've been after a 21099 saloon for a bit, and I regretted selling my MF Cars branded Samara,. This is the same casting just recoloured. Sputniktastic

 

 

 

 

[Essex V6]

My little diecast haul from this Christmas. As can be seen from my previous pics, I am a bit of a closet old skool Ford fan, and seeing as most of the real thing are out of my league price wise, I make up for it in diecast! I already have most of the Vanguards mk1 Escys, and had to have this one. I remember an RS2000 around here years ago with the sebring red/yellow stripe combo and four football sized Cibies like this one.

I missed out on most of the standard spec Vanguard XR3is when they came out, and they quickly went up to silly money. I already have the less detailed haynes version with the booklet though. Didnt really fancy a police

 

version, though they can still be had for reasonable money. So I set my sights on the Modelzone boy racer version, it made sense as I already have the rest of the Vanguards boy racer series. Pretty well observed this one, with the 'Stylistick' stripes, 'tailblazer' in the rear screen and Ripspeed sticker on the tailgate. Takes me back to 1993, when I was doing very similar to a China blue mk3 popular...

So, have to find room in the display cabinet now. Ive already had a signal green mk2 mexico waiting its turn since last christmas!

I just got hold of this one (along with a mk2 Mex) and to be honest am a little disappointed with it. To my eyes, there is something not quite right with the rear arch. Also procured a a Mk2 Astra SR which is ace

[AndyW201]

Yep, I have to agree with you there on the Escort. The problem is that obviously they have to use the same casting for standard escorts and sporty ones, so the non flared arches look odd with the lairy stripes. Ive also got the mk2 Mexico, again not a bad effort. I did fancy one of the lower spec mk2s but the horrible join at the front of the baseplate (right across the middle of the front valance) put me off. But the RS front bib on the Mex disguises it at least. Still decent value for money IMO at about 20 notes a model, as the price of Ford models by Trofeu, Minichamps etc seem to have soared recently. Especially as I think Felly mentioned on here, the quality of Minichamps has dipped a bit of late. Ive seen a few of the Whitebox models that I fancy though, they seem to be decent quality at reasonable prices. I have a lot of want for the mk4 XR3i...

 

Incidentally, I also got the Astra SR (and GTE ) a few weeks ago and am well happy with them. Not all VXLs r shit...

[Split_Pin]

Further to the previous post about Kenworths, I had been watching this come down in price at TK Maxx until today when it was a tenner. Not bad considering it was sixty quid new. It will go well with the Revell Peterbilt 359, Kenworths Anteater and all the Italeris I built over 20 years ago. I need to finish the Testarossa I'm building first.

[eddyramrod]

Still decent value for money IMO at about 20 notes a model,

This is why I'm not going to any more Collectors' Fairs.  I can't agree. 

[AndyW201]

This is why I'm not going to any more Collectors' Fairs.  I can't agree.

 

By that I mean decent value compared to other 1/43rd scale diecasts out there, it seems possible to pay 50-60-70 notes upwards for some. The models in that price range are exquisite, but out of my range. But yes, I remember it wasnt that long ago a Vanguard model could be had for £10-£12 and a Minichamps/Trofeu for about £20. No chance now though. So my model buying exploits have also been curtailed the last couple of years. Whereas most weekends I would browse the internet, think "Wow, I'll have that" and just buy on impulse, now it just tends to be birthdays, Christmas or when a supplier has offers on.

And I can't remember the last time I went to a model fair either come to think of it.

[Mr Lobster]

I'd say that Corgi Vanguards are still decent value tbh (vested interest though I know).  That they were £10-£12 a few years ago is more because Corgi had massive stocks of stuff they shouldn't have made and couldn't sell and were selling them to the trade at a fair old loss which ultimately contributed to their subsequent financial calamity and takeover.  

 

At around the £20 RRP they are sensible I'd say for what they are.  (Autoshite discount is available mind).

 

Minichamps have gone up massively though. The trade price on standard Minichamps 1:43 has roughly trebled in the last eight or nine years yet the quality has dropped and the range has stagnated. We used to have massive Minichamps stocks a few years ago - we'd routinely order at least 12 of virtually every release and they all used to sell. Back then we sold them at around £20.  Now that they need to retail at around £45-£50 we hardly stock any and tend to only buy what we know we can sell to specific customers or wait until Minichamps reduce a load of stock and buy it cheap.

 

Theres plenty about at £50-£80 for a 1:43 resin model, most of which are very good and are generally made only in small quantities. Mostly the resin stuff is pretty popular as the manufacturing process allows the more obscure models to be produced and manufacturers don't have to do a number of different colours and variants using the same base casting to make it break even.

[Junkman]

On my recent tournament across that there Continent, the Gods of the holy styrene were propitious.

 

I absorbed my late friend Roland's big scale collection:

 

 

 

Two of ICM's new 1/24 scale offerings were found in a hobby shop in Salzburg:

 

 

 

 

And while I was gone, a parcel arrived from California (a country west of the United States), containing this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decidedly un-plastic, rather wooden, is this delightful old multi-storey car-park, courtesy of my friend Maximilian from Munich:

 

 

 

I think I'm doing a stellar job downsizing my collection...