Shite in Miniature II

[bunglebus]

I have also been braving the cold in the loft. Mainly putting stuff in new storage boxes, but also got to compare the Cougar dragster with the Majorette tampo with my other example

so it's also a different colour. Confirms I was right to buy it

[Split_Pin]

Cars have been frozen solid for almost a week so can't do any work on them. I therefore decided to get my old German 1/43s out that still have their boxes.

[Shite Ron]

I decided to get my models out of their boxes last night to put them on display. I started with as close as possible to the current fleet, there are some variations with spec. and colour, also some saloons substituting estates but this was as close as I could get:

The finished display:

[morrisoxide]

Back from the Oxide paint flash overs "you scuff em we paint em".

Loosely held together with bluetack for now. I'll get some better pictures when it's daytime and fully together.

Also the interior looked ok until the blue window tints make the interior look too blue.

 

 

[bunglebus]

That looks decent!

[Amishtat]

Nice bit of work there. And why didn't I know there was a model Horizon until now?

[Lord Sterling]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Cars have been frozen solid for almost a week so can't do any work on them. I therefore decided to get my old German 1/43s out that still have their boxes.

Och aye! Good vid!

I have the BMW e30 cabrio but not the coupe. I didn't realise the coupe looked as crude on the front!

I also have the exact same Opel Ascona/Cavalier but no box.

You are correct about the Gama/Schuco Vauxhall range. It is a bit strange.

The Vectra Bs came as hatch, saloon and estate. I have all body styles (here at mine I certainly have the hatch and estate.

For the hatch, I had a different box and a plinth:

I think I might have another hatch (in Green I seem to remember) somwhere as I had a big collection of model cars but mostly now packed away at Ma_Sterling's in Birmingham where the saloon might be too.

[flat4alfa]

Back to IDEAL Motorific, from back a page

Two here

Because the selling point was having interchangeable chassis (bodies were sold separately too), the body scaling had to vary and keep within the standard wheelbase.  Take these two, the Triumph TR3 works out to be approx 1:33 and the Plymouth Barracuda to 1:40.

The later, blue chassis has a slot track pin that turns the steering as well, as what Ideal did later was sell slot sets similar to Matchbox Motorway in that you just sat and watched until the battery died.  The earlier, black chassis does not - you set the steering to what you wanted it to be.  [Ignore the slot track pickup brushes, it's been -ahem- 'converted']

Likewise, ignore the wiring, as it runs to the pickup brushes underneath.  Normally, you would flick a switch underside and it would run the motor, seen on the black chassis.  Each car was individually battery-powered by two AA cells (HP7 to luddites like me).   Notice also the design is very similar to the Tri-ang Magicar chassis (shown up the page); I wonder if there ever was a patent squabble?

Hadn't noticed until now, but the the wing detail strips aren't paint ....it's wire, wrapped over and tacked home at each end !  Labour intensive.

Sorry for going on a bit.

[jon.k]

On 1/23/2021 at 8:40 PM, flat4alfa said:

Probably the Britains Ford 5610 

And the Range Rover

I’ve PM’d you too but could you confirm whether you’d like these. They’re all packed up and ready to go if so.

 

[eddyramrod]

Some more showing off from my 1/18 collection.  Surprisingly I only have three Cadillacs...

L-R: 1963, from Scarface; 1959; and 1955, the car Elvis bought for his mother.  I'm always up for a Cadillac!

And now, two of the same casting!

1974 Dodge Monacos: the Bluesmobile and Nevada Highway Patrol.  I know there are other liveries on this casting and I would like to find some.

Now two that aren't quite the same casting...

Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams.  The black 79/80 stands for the car in Smokey And The Bandit 2, and the white one is a 1973 model so I have both ends of the production run.  I would quite like to find a gold one from 1974-77, to be Jim Rockford's car.

And finally, two of the same casting again.

1991 Chevy Caprice, in Chicago and New York liveries.  Again, I know there are several other liveries available on this model and would like to expand my collection.

The Caprice and the Dodge are the only castings I have in duplicate at this scale.

[Sudsprint]

55 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

 

 

Sill Street Blues..

[Frogchod]

More Buicks 😁

A matchbox buick super... 

And Kojaks Buick Regal, this one needed a bit of paint... 

[155V6]

On 20/01/2021 at 9:47 PM, flat4alfa said:

Don't know.  Not been to a supermarket since Dec 20

Anyone else?

I called into Tesco on the way home today.No single Matchbox cars,although the price label was still on the shelf.

The only Matchbox cars there were about 573 of the Top Gun 5 packs 😂

[RoadworkUK]

5 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Some more showing off from my 1/18 collection.  Surprisingly I only have three Cadillacs...

Oooh, mucho jealously. I'd love to have more 1/18 yank stuff; I have a smattering, including;

This Pontiac Le Mans SJ 428 by ERTL:

This '65 Corvette Sting Ray by Maisto:

And, rather smaller and less glamorous, this Pontiac Fiero by YatMing:

There are others, but I've not yet pointed a camera at them properly.

One I DO like rather a lot, though, and also by Yat Ming, is my Studebaker Golden Hawk, about which I ill-advisedly made a video once upon a time.

The 1/18 collection, largely attic-bound, numbers something like 120, all there for such a time as I can play with them again.

[eddyramrod]

120!!!!!  That's a collection!  I have about 50 and apart from a handful, they live in four glass cabinets in the dining room.  I don't have any of those you've shown.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, 155V6 said:

I called into Tesco on the way home today.No single Matchbox cars,although the price label was still on the shelf.

The only Matchbox cars there were about 573 of the Top Gun 5 packs 😂

Just been into Tesco Ipswich.  20 or so Matchbox, last year's.  Overflowing box of Hot Wheels, all of which I've seen before, lots of 5 packs of both brands, 10 packs of Matchbox with the red/yellow VW T3 and lots of monster trucks including three of the sought-after Beetle. Bought nothing

[flat4alfa]

52 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Bought nothing

Cured!  😃

[RoadworkUK]

56 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

120!!!!!  That's a collection!  

It's a problem. As it was for many, my introduction to the scale was via a Bburago E-Type (I unwrapped two of them during Christmas 1989, wisely elected to keep one boxed and untouched, but extensively played with – and basically destroyed – the other). It was love at first sight.

Never previously had I been exposed to anything so accurately representative of the car it was based on. Brilliantly, the same Christmas I had received the Collins Gem book of Sports Cars, which had the same E-Type, in the same colour in its pages. I spent a lot of that day asking my grandfather to tell me what the different bits were and what they did. It was on that day that I learnt what SU carburettors look like and how they work.

Two problems with 1/18s, though. They take up too much flipping space for one thing; I'd love to have some of mine displayed, but I have absolutely nowhere to do so. The other problem is price. I've gathered a lot of mine over the last five years or so by chucking opportunistic last-minute bids on eBay. Bargains are increasingly rare, though. If something's genuinely worth having, it tends to end up going for a price that reflects that. But there's also a massive amount of low-end stuff absolutely saturating the market – nice as it is, the Bburago 1993 Dodge Viper is the 1/18 scale equivalent of LLEDO/Days Gone, and is frequently priced on the basis of "that's collectable, that is".

My favourites are the forgotten gems. There are quite a few 1/18s that are far, far better than their price (or the reputation of their maker ) suggests. The Corvette pictured above – I bought it for £8 (plus postage, admittedly), yet it looks like this under the bonnet:

Also models that people don't know the existence of. Among those I include the Ford StreetKa and Peugeot 206CC (the latter with working roof), both by Welly. They're rare, but not sought after, and as such even paupers like me can afford them.

[Amishtat]

Oddly enough, or not depending on your viewpoint, my first 1:18 was the green Burago E-type from Langleys in Norwich in about 1988. Box is long gone I think but still have the model. Always impressed me that the gear lever actually goes into gears,that and the bonnet catches. 

[flat4alfa]

I sold/gave away the Bburago Corniche collection as 1/22 was too much.  A multiple 1/18 collection scares me...   I mean, they look fantastic but they're only 18 steps away from 1/1 and I can't go there again, it nearly broke me and the wife and neighbours were having kittens over it all

[eddyramrod]

I'm another one given to the last minute bid in the hope of a bargain.  Often without success, as I so often bemoan on these very pages.  There's an awful lot of ambitious pricing going on.  And yet, a Viper or Ferrari can be picked up for next to nothing (my kind of price, lol; shame they're not the droids I'm looking for!).

[flat4alfa]

* goes to eBay and looks up 1/8 model selections *

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Cured!  😃

Bought all the ones I wanted already. I think lockdown/port delays/Brexit have all contributed to not a lot of new stuff appearing. Got a few interesting eBay finds en route though 

[Split_Pin]

Gents, be aware when inadvertently ordering models from a European seller on eBay. I got a message yesterday from the seller of a Cavalier with a picture of the postage label dated 25th January. It looks Italian. The estimated arrival time is 17th February....

I heard some stories of people ordering car parts from Autodoc, based in Germany (whom I use from time to time) with parts never arriving at all, being lost in the new and confused regime. 

Sorry to get political here, but, yeah, cheers for that!

[flat4alfa]

No different from buying from the US or elsewhere

[eddyramrod]

I bought a couple of models from the US when I was in Cyprus, and got hit with Duty, so now I just buy from UK sellers.  Shame, as there is so much variety on the American market!  Just have to try and find the money for another Road Trip and make sure I scour the stores over there.

[flat4alfa]

I also had duty to pay (or course) but that's why I tend to buy in bulk to make up the weight

I've only ever experienced good service from US sellers, a lot of the time the parts/models are less expensive to start with; so it balanced out

The biggest headaches have been with (some) French sellers who seem clueless and disinterested, most likely part of that is because of the deterioration of their postal services.  If you think Royal Mail has flaws, it's nothing like as poor as La Poste.  I had to hand-hold and bully to get them to send, and that was before the point-of-sale VAT and duty change.  It was easier to get French sellers to send to my sister in France and then she put the lot in one box and relay that across. 

[Split_Pin]

I haven't bought anything from a French seller since 2007. As said, disinterested and in absolutely no hurry to post despite me paying immediately. Avoid.

[sierraman]

8 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I haven't bought anything from a French seller since 2007. As said, disinterested and in absolutely no hurry to post despite me paying immediately. Avoid.

The French are awkward at the best of times. 

[flat4alfa]

 INNOCENTI TUESDAY

We all have Corgi Minis.  But for some reason I sought-out an example of the Italian derivative of the BMC/BL product.  So, to add to the small collection of Minis there had to be an Innocenti Mini in there somewhere.

Spotted the middle one had been converted for slot racing (not by me) by gluing it over a 1970s Scalextric chassis.  Assuming it was Bburago or similar, bought it a while ago off a Dutch seller and fees were doable as it came with a few other odds and sods including (IIRC) a Lucky Toys Alfasud been after for years.  Despite being diecast, goes well enough despite its skew-whiff front axle.  But it's probably unique; I'm sucker for one-offs.

Many months later, went into a Toy Master and found a tray of them!  Doh.  That was when I found out the body is a recent Welly model made in China, imported and re-stickered over the top by Peterkin UK.  It measures to 1/28 scale, pull-back motor too.

So one was picked up for the hell of it and another was found later in a charity shop for a Pound.  As you can see, they have the Italian build quality authentically licked - the lights keep escaping!

If you know your Minis you'll very likely already know about Innocentis, but if not, here is one in the wild

Apparently, they rust just as well too.