Minix (and other) car improvements

[Merfyn Jones]

Looks a lot more like a Mondeo than a Sierra, well done Adam

 

[quicksilvercoaches]

In between other things I had a go at another Humber kit, John Day's 1948 Super Snipe Series II. The colour scheme is inspired by the cars at the now-closed Humber museum in Hull and both colours are sprayed so the masking was quite tricky! The whitewall tyres were done as an experiment with a white Posca paint pen.

 

 

[ianmacc]

On 03/06/2020 at 14:39, quicksilvercoaches said:

In between other things I had a go at another Humber kit, John Day's 1948 Super Snipe Series II. The colour scheme is inspired by the cars at the now-closed Humber museum in Hull and both colours are sprayed so the masking was quite tricky! The whitewall tyres were done as an experiment with a white Posca paint pen.

 

 

Very good. I always thought (having lived for a few years adjacent to the old factory) that the Humber name came from Humber Road in Coventry rather than The river Humber? Hence wondering why there was a Humber museum in Kingston upon Hull!

[BernardTPM]

It came from it's founder, Thomas Humber. They made cycles before they made motor cars.

[quicksilvercoaches]

Mr HubNut has just bought a Mitsubishi Delica. Strangely enough, despite being an obscure Japanese Domestic Market vehicle there is a model Delica in OO, an outwardly crude plastic one by Kentoys sold in emergency playsets consisting of three vehicles (Delica, VW van and Toyota Landcruiser) and the usual assortment of oversized figures, cones etc. I bought several of these sets from the local market years ago so I dug one of the Delicas out and threw some paint at it. It's actually a nicely-detailed and quite accurate little thing although they do suffer from distortion and poor moulding around the windscreen and I didn't realise how bad it was until I finished the model. The bullbar is cut down from a 3D printed one for Scania trucks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by quicksilvercoaches

[BernardTPM]

I remember those sets. The Mitsubishi 'Space Gear' Delica seems to have been surprisingly popular for a 'grey' at one time. Still occasionally see them around. Other smaller vehicles Kentoy Teamsters did were a Mercedes E class estate (same model as the Cararama one, but smaller, near to true 1:72 IIRC), a BMW 3 series and a 'new' VW Beetle.

[steve1]

Nice work on the Delicia. That's just the sort of 'ordinary' vehicle we need more of on the RTR market. Supercars and classic sports models are all well and good but don't fit regular street scenes. Endless rallies of such vehicles get a bit boring...

 

We need more pickup trucks and vans that aren't just Transits too.

 

steve

[fodenway]

i also had several of these playsets  at £1 each from Poundland back when. I have a Delica painted up and with the wheels moved inboard a little, a great improvement for a little effort. The VW van can also be turned into something quite acceptable with a bit more work, and there was also a 1990s American Ford pickup which portrays the bulky appearance well at 1/76, just a careful paint job does wonders for it.

[fodenway]

Here's my Delica and two versions of the VW van, along with the untouched original.

[fodenway]

Another conversion from a cheap toy, The Kinsmart pull-back 1955 Chevy 3100 pickup. It measures up exactly to 1/76 scale, and needs only a change of wheels and a few painted details to make a realistic standard truck. I had already done one that way, so decided to convert this one to the 'Cameo Carrier' , the wide-bodied style soon copied by Ford and Dodge. Ironically, the load area was exactly the same width as the familiar stepside.

[steve1]

2 hours ago, fodenway said:

Another conversion from a cheap toy, The Kinsmart pull-back 1955 Chevy 3100 pickup. It measures up exactly to 1/76 scale, and needs only a change of wheels and a few painted details to make a realistic standard truck. I had already done one that way, so decided to convert this one to the 'Cameo Carrier' , the wide-bodied style soon copied by Ford and Dodge. Ironically, the load area was exactly the same width as the familiar stepside.

 

I have 2 of these in off white. I had always assumed they were too big for a 4mm layout. Thanks for putting me right!

 

steve

[fodenway]

That was my initial thought, but a check with the calipers reveals a wheelbase equating to the 114" of the prototype at 1/76 scale, with other dimensions being pretty accurate too. It's amazing how it seems to shrink when the wheels are changed. The more ambitious modeller could use the cab as the basis for the heavier truck models in the Chevy/GMC range at the time, even shortening the bonnet and front wings for a cabover-type heavy truck.

[PhilJ W]

I have a couple and one is marked '1/64' on the base but when I checked the dimensions it turned out to be 1/76. There are some other vehicles in the range including an American Ford 1950 'woody' estate and a PT Cruiser. I have a couple of examples of the Ford which is a bit under scale at about 1/80 scale but the PT Cruiser is reckoned to be 1/76 scale. All of these models sometimes come attached to key rings like some of the Universal Hobbies tractors and can be found on e-bay.

[fodenway]

14 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I have a couple and one is marked '1/64' on the base but when I checked the dimensions it turned out to be 1/76. There are some other vehicles in the range including an American Ford 1950 'woody' estate and a PT Cruiser. I have a couple of examples of the Ford which is a bit under scale at about 1/80 scale but the PT Cruiser is reckoned to be 1/76 scale. All of these models sometimes come attached to key rings like some of the Universal Hobbies tractors and can be found on e-bay.

 

I hadn't seen the small-scale PT Cruiser, so I have no idea whether it is 1/76 or not. I looked for one on ebay, at present they're all from American sellers at prices from £2 to £4, which is fair enough, but with postage to UK anywhere between £16 and £52 I don't think I'll bother !.

[PhilJ W]

A couple of US traders had them in their ads in Railroad Modeller about 10 years ago but they sold out pretty quick. The PT Cruiser was illustrated with the others in the range and looked to be 1/76 scale or very near. I obtained mine at a toy fair (pick up and Ford woody) about the same time as the ads. 

[PhilJ W]

I had a look in e-Bay for key rings and found this:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Joblot-Mini-Vehicles-Diecast-keyrings/392860825218

£5 the lot + £3:10 postage so I had to grab it. Two each of the pick-up and Ford woody and no less than three Chevy Corvettes. Going back to look for more shortly.

[fodenway]

Wow, that was a lucky find. The Corvette should have a wheelbase of 34mm (102") and an overall length of 56mm (168") to be accurate 1/76 scale, likewise the Thunderbird should also have a 34mm wheelbase but with an overall length of just over 58mm (175.3"). The Ford woodies are, as you say, slightly underscale. The yellow Dodge Viper is another one I haven't seen before (assuming it's a Kinsmart), and looks like another possibility. 

Well done!

[PhilJ W]

I didn't know what the yellow one was, thanks for the info. The black cab looks as if its an Oxford Diecast. The VW beetles and Transporters could also be Kinsmart.

[quicksilvercoaches]

On 03/07/2020 at 23:08, BernardTPM said:

I remember those sets. The Mitsubishi 'Space Gear' Delica seems to have been surprisingly popular for a 'grey' at one time. Still occasionally see them around. Other smaller vehicles Kentoy Teamsters did were a Mercedes E class estate (same model as the Cararama one, but smaller, near to true 1:72 IIRC), a BMW 3 series and a 'new' VW Beetle.

I've never seen the Merc or BMW but I do have a Beetle acquired second-hand. Delicas and the Toyota Estima/Lucida were very popular in the big grey import boom of the early 2000s; a lot have been scrapped but there are still a fair few around.

 

On 04/07/2020 at 08:22, fodenway said:

i also had several of these playsets  at £1 each from Poundland back when. I have a Delica painted up and with the wheels moved inboard a little, a great improvement for a little effort. The VW van can also be turned into something quite acceptable with a bit more work, and there was also a 1990s American Ford pickup which portrays the bulky appearance well at 1/76, just a careful paint job does wonders for it.

I forgot about the Ford even though I have a few of them; that was the fourth vehicle in the emergency sets, each of which had three of the four. You might think the ground clearance of the Kentoys Delica is excessive but if anything it's actually too low and should be jacked up a bit as they're big chunky things.

[fodenway]

Delicas did indeed have good ground clearance, a consequence of the four-wheel drive system. They were quite capable off-roaders too - a friend of mine had one and said he was very impressed by it.

[BernardTPM]

The last one I saw had a ladder up the side (not the first time for that, either).

Another Kentoy 'Teamsters' vehicle was something Ferrari like. I've not yet found an exact match with those side grilles though.

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

24 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

The last one I saw had a ladder up the side (not the first time for that, either).

Another Kentoy 'Teamsters' vehicle was something Ferrari like. I've not yet found an exact match with those side grilles though.

 

 

 

Ferrarish!

 

Mike.

[BernardTPM]

11 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Ferrarish!

 

Mike.

Funnily enough that's the name I gave to the attachment...

[Enterprisingwestern]

10 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

Funnily enough that's the name I gave to the attachment...

 

Great minds think alike!

 

Mike.

[PhilJ W]

Another cheap job-lot with potential.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Realtoy-Diecast-Joblot/274419610144