Corgi/Lledo Vanguard 1/43rd Scale

[Tony Davis]

I've been looking for some 1960's motor vehicles and searching on an auction site I've come across Vanguard (usually preceded by either Corgi or LLedo) at fairly reasonable prices, and I wondered if they were any good. Anybody used any on their layout and been happy with them?

 

Regards

 

Tony

[fodenway]

Generally speaking they are quite good models, usually coming with number plates and mirrors etc.  Ideally, unless they are depicted in a car showroom setting, they benefit from a little dulling down of the paintwork to avoid a too-shiny, toylike appearance.

[Tony Davis]

Thanks, fodenway. I'm going to display them as parked on a street, so will definitely be looking at how to improve the toy-like appearance, which always jars with me.

[fodenway]

I use satin varnish to dull the paint, but leave the area of the windscreen where the wipers would sweep untouched. On cars of that era which would have been over 5 or 6 years old, I sometimes introduce a little rusting on sills, door bottoms, wings etc. as appropriate - but don't fall into the "rusty Reliant" trap - they were fibreglass! You could also paint the odd wing or door a different colour, suggesting scrapyard replacement parts.  A very light airbrushing or dry-brushing of dust or mud colour around the lower areas is effective. Reference to period photos always helps. Don't forget the aerial bent up from an old wire coathanger - they seemed to be everywhere!

[Tony Davis]

Thanks, I remember those coat-hanger aerials! Urban myths told of the man who drove his (insert high-value car of choice here) into a car-wash, the aerial got caught in the rotating brushes and removed a lot of paint. It was told as a cautionary tale. I seem to recall buying stick-on Road Tax discs for my model cars when I was a child, is such a thing still available?

 

[Nearholmer]

Although "toy-like" is de-riguer on my current layout, when I was into 'scaleness', I used to follow a trick that I read somewhere, which is to smother them with black or dark-brown shoe polish, rubbing it off all the windows, panels and brightwork afterwards, leaving a dark deposit in all the door seams etc. This improves the look very quickly. 

 

Two other things to do are dull down the tyres with dilute earth-coloured paint, and rub tiny flats on the bottoms of the tyres. It looks good if you can twist the front wheels of some vehicles to look as if they have been left parked with the steering-wheel slightly "over" too. Cut the odd front window down to make it look half-open ..... no aircon in the 1960s!

[Tony Davis]

Thanks Nearholmer,  I'll give the shoe-polish a try. I used to use the flat tyre mod on my model aircraft, never thought of applying it to road vehicles.

[Nearholmer]

Here’s the result of ten minutes boot renovating polish on a cheap 1/43 toy that I happened to have to hand.

 

It needs some lighter colours in there from the underside for dust, but you can probably see what it’s beginning to do.

[Tony Davis]

That is a real improvement, odd, considering the defined purpose of “polish”. Thanks again,

[Nearholmer]

Even better than boot renovating polish, if you can find it, is something called black patinating wax. Its used by furniture restorers and fakers, to given an aged look to newly inserted wood repairs.

 

They also use some brilliant stuff called rottenstone, which seems to be very finely-ground pumice. It's meant to be a very fine abrasive for French polishing, but they also use it, and so can 'we', as "the dust of ages". It can be dusted onto a model, like pigmentation powder, and is good for building-up "crud" in nooks and crannies. Standards "antiques" trick is to dust  and rub it into things like drawer-interiors, where it does look very like the natural accumulation of two centuries of dirt.

[Fat Controller]

11 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Even better than boot renovating polish, if you can find it, is something called black patinating wax. Its used by furniture restorers and fakers, to given an aged look to newly inserted wood repairs.

 

They also use some brilliant stuff called rottenstone, which seems to be very finely-ground pumice. It's meant to be a very fine abrasive for French polishing, but they also use it, and so can 'we', as "the dust of ages". It can be dusted onto a model, like pigmentation powder, and is good for building-up "crud" in nooks and crannies. Standards "antiques" trick is to dust  and rub it into things like drawer-interiors, where it does look very like the natural accumulation of two centuries of dirt.

Do not, however, try one of the other methods of 'distressing' used in the 'antique' trade.  This involves using a shotgun to add 'woodworm' holes; a friend's brother did so, but stood closer than he should to the work-piece, reducing it to sawdust.

[Tony Davis]

I thought for one horrible moment that you were going to say he stood too close to the front of the gun and reduced himself to sawdust.

 

The Rottenstone seems to also go under the name of “Tripoli” and also seems to be cheaper because of it.

[brianusa]

My first car was a '51 Standard Vanguard.  Dinky introduced one in virtually the same blue, one of which is now on the layout.  For continuity, I also purchased a similar vintage Ford Zodiac which we drove to Norway and Sweden via the Fred Olsen Line out of Newcastle, but I have never been able to find a similar era Vauxhall Velox to complete the group.  Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, I ended up with a Renault Dauphine which actually wasn't a bad car and took us to Northern Italy and back!

     Brian.

[Tony Davis]

Dad had a Velox, it was a bit rusty and rattle, at the time there was an advert where the tag line was “shake it and see if it’s a Cox”, Our family in joke became “shake it and see if it’s a Velox” it caught fire on the way to Margate one summer. He also had a Triumph Herald Estate, then a Zodiak Mk 3, bought for the princely sum of £300 from Godfrey Davis in Neasden. I would like to have models of these on my layout as a sort of tribute 

[Hal Nail]

As an alternative to satin varnish, flattening the paint with very fine (2000 grade) wet and dry (used wet) then a bit of buffing with kitchen roll produces a more convincing finish than the original factory gloss and works well in tandem with weathering. Can equally be applied to locos.

 

Can’t claim credit for this approach but have seen some superb results in 7mm elsewhere on this forum.

[BritishGypsum4]

Some cracking ideas here for weathering. Must make a note! 

As for the Vanguard range I really like them and have a few. Although my layout is predominately set in the 1920s-30s time period it will be generic enough that it can be brought a bit more towards the 60s!
I must admit that the lack of 1930s vehicles is a bit annoying. I have seen some on eBay but the prices for them are ridiculous. It might be that they are by companies no longer in production.

[Hal Nail]

These are cheap and scrub up well with a little work.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/143385909332?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=143385909332&targetid=856569790683&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045932&poi=&campaignid=7643169306&mkgroupid=88032348469&rlsatarget=pla-856569790683&abcId=1139576&merchantid=7081424&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIt5be5eDF5wIVjMreCh35Yw0uEAkYAyABEgKBuvD_BwE

[brossard]

I found a good number of Vanguard and Corgi 1/43 models on Hatton's Pre Owned section.  Very good prices too IMO.  Still looking for a motor coach from the eastern side of the country.  Oxford have a couple of coaches but liveried for the west I think.

 

I'm not looking for a lot of vehicles, no traffic jams on the BLT I'm building.

 

In my experience, Lledo tend to be no particular scale.

 

John

Edited February 10, 2020 by brossard