Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

5 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I was some sort of demented museum curator crossed with a Womble.

Legend.

[sierraman]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

 

4 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

@DatsuncogGot one of these with an eye missing, a bit dusty, tatty box and in 'rally' livery... free. Just pay postage if you want it?

Aw cheers for that - I made a decision last year that my heart's just not in 1/18 scale stuff and offloaded the last of it, so probably best that it goes to someone who really wants it.

Someone who may be lurking on these pages...

 

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Luckily at our infant school we had a (now demolished) car track built from concrete into a banking, it had tunnels, bridges made from wood etc. Distinctly remember bringing into school a Jaguar Sovereign Superkings Police Car, a Corgi Lotus Elite and a BMW M1 to school. Don’t know at the time how it happened but the Jaguar wasn’t accounted for at the end of the day. Wankers. 

Most of my peers were into cars, remember playing with some Skybuster type aircraft in the lower playground and a really thick kid called Craig ended up with an F14 Tomcat or similar landing nose down into his head causing bloodshed. 

Cor, that track sounds amazing... the best we could manage was whizzing Superfasts off the steps in the infants playground near the boilerhouse.

Though yeah - wankers for nicking your Jag. I had that one too - really nice

 

It’s no problem I brayed the thieving fucker round the head with a wooden brick. 

[eddyramrod]

I'm so old I can remember having Spot-Ons from new!  Not just the odd one either, but several, and indeed I still have some.  I well remember the Humber estate, that lost its windscreen early-on; Austin 1800 which I later converted into a Maxi to represent the Maxi I owned in 1986; several Zephyrs, including the Z-Cars edition. which quickly lost their opening doors; the A40 which I painted to represent my 1960 A40 from 1978; and others.  In my Pending Projects box I know there's a Fiat 500 and there may still be a Rover P5.  They were, as someone said above, delightfully chunky in the hand, although some were better-proportioned than others.  Ford Anglia, for example: just too darn fat!  Dinky's version was positively lithe in comparison.

If anybody wants some battered Spot-On projects, I'm sure I could dig some out, but be warned, there is going to be work in them.

[flat4alfa]

The LandMaxi sounds interesting

[eddyramrod]

MaxiCrab and A40 are in my "Cars I've Owned" subset, so they will be with me for life.  A quick rummage in the Pending box has unearthed a Bentley, partway through a Humbrol repaint to beome Jason King's car; the aforementioned Fiat 500, and an Austin Healey 3000, plus a delightful caravan that by some miracle still has a door, unlike my Dinky caravans!  There will be more, I've seen some, I just have to find them again.  Oh and randomly on my shelves, I have a Triumph TR3 from a kind Shiter, and a BMW Isetta.

I had an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, which has gone to Marvin's Mom, and I now think the P5 went out as part of a job lot.

[sierraman]

Forgot to mention, on the market Monday there were a roofless Austin Maxi, a bonnetless Capri and a fairly complete Mk1 Cortina by Airfix. No idea what he wanted for them if anyone wants me to have a look next week if they’re there. About 1/36 scale I’d say. 

[ETCHY]

The Spot on Anglia sounds cool. I had an Anglia many years ago a 997cc deluxe.

[bunglebus]

Blue bug is a Spot On, thing the police one might be too

[eddyramrod]

Just now, sierraman said:

Forgot to mention, on the market Monday there were a roofless Austin Maxi, a bonnetless Capri and a fairly complete Mk1 Cortina by Airfix. No idea what he wanted for them if anyone wants me to have a look next week if they’re there. About 1/36 scale I’d say. 

They would be 1/32.

Just now, ETCHY said:

The Spot on Anglia sounds cool. I had an Anglia many years ago a 997cc deluxe.

I had (typically!) a 1200 Super!  But really, the Dinky was the much better model.  Vanguards is pretty good too, and comes in assorted colours.

Just now, bunglebus said:

Blue bug is a Spot On, thing the police one might be too

That Police car looks more like a Corgi to me; it clearly isn't the same casting as the blue one.  I'm not an expert, as I never had many Beetles.

[egg]

I started restoring this spot on minor last year, but it was in a field I believe for years before my grandad found it when I was a lad, so it is heavily corroded, and is parked on the to do list for now

[egg]

I did restore my uncle's spot-on jag though. And I sold it on the bay. Perhaps a mistake, but it had some negative memories associated with it, so wanted gone.

[bunglebus]

16 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

That Police car looks more like a Corgi to me; it clearly isn't the same casting as the blue one.  I'm not an expert, as I never had many Beetles.

It's a Husky. I never used to photograph bases which trips me up sometimes 

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, egg said:

It was in a field I believe for years before my grandad found it

The young lad who lost it must have been distraught 

for that reason it must be painted but with pitting left intact

[flat4alfa]

On 12/3/2019 at 8:25 PM, sierraman said:

Forgot to mention, on the market Monday there were a roofless Austin Maxi, a bonnetless Capri and a fairly complete Mk1 Cortina by Airfix. No idea what he wanted for them if anyone wants me to have a look next week if they’re there

Yes please, if sensible.... ?

I have enough Cortinas now, but yes to any Capri and as I can fabricate bonnet out of spares. 

The Maxi, well...  I do have some spare roofs for two door US cars courtesy of Eddy Rodder. Carson-Top Two-Door Maxi conversion anyone?  Missing Link, etc

PM me on the day when they are nearby? and I will scurry back to the phone with an answer. Thanks

 

[flat4alfa]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

MaxiCrab and A40 are in my "Cars I've Owned" subset, so they will be with me for life.

Pictures of MaxiCrab required so I can sleep soundly

[eddyramrod]

You won't be sleeping tonight then, sorry!  I'll try and remember to shoot some pics tomorrow.

[barrett]

The one Spot On I'd really like is the Morris Minor, as it's the best period casting of a 'car wot I've owned' and therefore is allowed in my deliberately limited collection. If anyone finds one going cheap, please send it my way. I should really take a photo of what I have already...

[barrett]

Okay, here's what I have. I'm missing Bond Equipe (doesn't exist), Herald 1200, Standard Eight (doesn't exist), Allegro SIII (really expensive white metal only), Palladium (doesn't exist), Heron (doesn't exist), Ford Model A (did anyone make a 1:43 of this?), Morris Minor four door and possibly a couple of others. Humber Sceptre is on its way to me now.

[Datsuncog]

I've never seen a 1/43 diecast Model A, funnily enough, despite selling in huge numbers - though models of its Russian clone, the GAZ A, do seem to be available...

https://www.model-car-world.co.uk/scale-size/1-43-scale-diecast-model-cars/magxgazbk.html

I sold a Vanguards Herald 1200 last year and all. Dammit.

[FakeConcern]

4 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

I'm so old I can remember having Spot-Ons from new!  Not just the odd one either, but several, and indeed I still have some.  I well remember the Humber estate, that lost its windscreen early-on; Austin 1800 which I later converted into a Maxi to represent the Maxi I owned in 1986; several Zephyrs, including the Z-Cars edition. which quickly lost their opening doors; the A40 which I painted to represent my 1960 A40 from 1978; and others.  In my Pending Projects box I know there's a Fiat 500 and there may still be a Rover P5.  They were, as someone said above, delightfully chunky in the hand, although some were better-proportioned than others.  Ford Anglia, for example: just too darn fat!  Dinky's version was positively lithe in comparison.

If anybody wants some battered Spot-On projects, I'm sure I could dig some out, but be warned, there is going to be work in them.

You and I both have a similar past...

I had quite a few from new including the BMW bubble car thing, but one of my uncles stood on it on the Christmas day just after I got it so got put in the bin.

I just happened to have these pics on my laptop...

Jaag Mk2 repainted in Humbrol to match original, I expect the rest of it is in box somewhere...

A40 again repainted. I remember the suspension being so soft on this...

Ford Thames Trader, was light blue originally...

Last pic I have is the infamous Landcrab. I repainted mine to go with the 1968 London to Sydney rally Hunter. It looks like it actually competed...

I'm pretty sure I still have a TR3 (or 4?) a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, and an Armstrong Sidley Saphire. I used to have the Ford Zodiac (or Zephyr Estate Police car, but don't seem to have it now.

When I moved out of my parents home, my mum chucked away a lot of stuff including quite a few 1:32 Airfix slot racers which comprised among others an MG 1100, Sunbeam Rapier, Lotus Cortina, Aston DB5 and some F1 cars (Lotus, Masarati, Ferrari, Cooper, Vanwall etc)  and I still haven't forgiven her haha!

[Tenmil Socket]

I bought a bundle off eBay purely for this Escort

[Tenmil Socket]

I think the proportions on this Solido model are great. There was also a smiley face Corgi Transit in there so for £2.50 it wasn't too bad! The rest of the bundle was generic crap... they will be given to my nephews...

[sierraman]

Weren’t Spot on models a good deal more expensive new than Dinkies etc? 

[Datsuncog]

19 hours ago, sierraman said:

If it’s any consolation the Mk10 got repainted red and now sits at my dads house on display 

Heh, that's good to know - funnily enough, I also painted it red and silver using Humbrol enamels, and to be fair it looked pretty good (for a nine-year-old) - but the paint very quickly chipped off in my big bucket o' diecast so I scraped it all off with a Stanley knife blade and then did nothing with it for the next thirty years.

I'd like to think that Miss Massey has since forgiven me, though I'm fairly sure she suspected I was hanging back after class to dip into her diecast box of 1960s Lesney.

In a retributive karma event, loads of my Matchbox and Corgi ended up in my mum's classroom (at the same school, though she wasn't teaching when I went there) and then got left behind when she retired, so... circle of life, wheel of fortune, and all that...

Some wee toerag has probably long since made off with my Superkings Matra Rancho and Plymouth Gran Fury.

 

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I bought a bundle off eBay purely for this Escort

Now that is nice... well bought! Lovely proportions, and not one I've seen before.

 

31 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Weren’t Spot on models a good deal more expensive new than Dinkies etc? 

Yeah, I think they were quite a bit dearer... Lines Bros positioned them as kind of the pinnacle of toy cars, and seemed happy to go for quality over volume - and I understand it gave Dinky a bit of a scare, forcing them to increase the scale and detail of their models to avoid looking small and inferior in comparison.

But once Lines Bros bought out Meccano and hence Dinky in 1964, the Spot-On range seemed less necessary and, as the smaller-selling brand, started to be wound down for new releases. The loss of tooling in the 1967 fire at the Belfast factory just hastened what was probably going to happen anyway.

I'll see if I can find some same-year price lists for Spot-On and Dinky, just to see what the price difference was for similar models (e.g. the Anglia 109E mentioned above).

[sierraman]

I’d love to have wandered round these factories before the bulldozers came in. Imagine say at Lesney in about 1982 all the piles of unused parts or preproductions left in old filing cabinets etc. 

[egg]

New job lot arrived today, of which this is the highlight

[Datsuncog]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 4:46 PM, bunglebus said:

Mercedes trailer, not sure what it's from

20191202_150934 by RS, on Flickr

Think you may have answered your own question with the 1985 catalogue scan...

[Bren]

25 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Think you may have answered your own question with the 1985 catalogue scan...

Originally pulled by a covered mercedes lorry

[Lord Sterling]

3 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I bought a bundle off eBay purely for this Escort

Wow. A Solido model? I used to have a similar Solido Alfa Romeo GTV6 with similar-type wheels.

[Datsuncog]

Weirdly, the trailer spent its first nine years as a standalone mainline model (MB2), but yes - always in a complementary colour to whatever the MB1 Mercedes Truck was painted in.

It then survived for another 16 years as part of various twin packs, clocking up an impressive 25 years in the range (1967-1992).

Seems that BB's yellow version only ever came as part of the 1985/86 Unimog Snow Plough twin pack.

https://matchbox.fandom.com/wiki/Mercedes_Trailer

Although it was still badged 'Mercedes Trailer', its final outing saw it being pulled by a Dodge Commando as a twin pack for the 'Big Top Circus' range.