Making 1:76 model cars less toy like.

[Re6/6]

Advice please on the method(s) of changing the toy like appearance of this.  As police cars were usually pretty clean, I had thought about a mist over with Humbrol acrylic matt varnish. I've 'turned' the front wheels. Changing the very much oversize blue light would probably help.

 

Does anybody suggest a better method please?

 

Thanks all.

 

[Erichill16]

I’ve found Matt varnish too ‘Matt’, I use satin, though I use Tamiya.

Left Matt, middle satin and right as purchased.

 

[Re6/6]

Many thanks for that vey useful comparison. Just what I needed to know. 😀

[MPR]

Looking at photos of Anglia patrol cars, I think that the black window edging is much less pronounced or entirely absent. 

Also, I vote for matt!

[Johann Marsbar]

This preserved Anglia appeared at a GCR event last year. Don't know if its a genuine original or a conversion post-preservation, but the blue light does look rather large!

 

 

 

[Dunalastair]

17 hours ago, Re6/6 said:

 I've 'turned' the front wheels.

 

Turning the wheels certainly helps. 'Flattening' the tyres a little can also make a surprising difference to how it 'sits' on the road.

[SRman]

18 hours ago, Re6/6 said:

Advice please on the method(s) of changing the toy like appearance of this.  As police cars were usually pretty clean, I had thought about a mist over with Humbrol acrylic matt varnish. I've 'turned' the front wheels. Changing the very much oversize blue light would probably help.

 

Does anybody suggest a better method please?

 

Thanks all.

 

I have turned the front wheels on a few of mine also. This is equally effective on buses and lorries as well. I was still working on the bus in the photo, and it's not quite sitting correctly, and the number plate is hanging off too, but it illustrates the idea.

 

I have "flatted" the paint on a few too: for a really weather-beaten model, matt varnish is the go, with some rusty edges to panels and doors, and even the odd different coloured panel. Satin is better for a vehicle that has been on the road for a while but is still clean or well-used.

One other thing that always strikes me is the width of the tyres on Oxford diecasts: they really need to be thinned down, but I haven't figured out the best way of achieving this yet.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by SRman

[Neil]

I will often strip the car down, which is a bit of a faff, and dunk the metal body in Nitromors to remove the over thick factory paint; the body usually looks far better for this. Of course you then need to repaint and any lettering or sign-writing is lost but it's not difficult to create your own waterslide transfers. Here's one I did earlier.

 

 

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, SRman said:

 

I have turned the front wheels on a few of mine also. This is equally effective on buses and lorries as well. I was still working on the bus in the photo, and it's not quite sitting correctly, and the number plate is hanging off too, but it illustrates the idea.

 

I have "flatted" the paint on a few too: for a really weather-beaten model, matt varnish is the go, with some rusty edges to panels and doors, and even the odd different coloured panel. Satin is better for a vehicle that has been on the road for a while but is still clean or well-used.

One other thing that always strikes me is the width of the tyres on Oxford diecasts: they really need to be thinned down, but I haven't figured out the best way of achieving this yet.

 

 

 

 

Seeing the picture of the rusty Renault4(?) did anyone notice the rusting Lotus Elan in a recent HM article on creating a back street car workshop?

[PaulRhB]

I flat the paint and turn the wheels too but I also add some rust along sills etc using a pin as an applicator as it was pretty common on older vehicles before rust proofing became a thing  

 

The van reminds me I need to paint the window rubbers in to the glazing!

 

 

I also open out back, side and even front doors. It can mean sacrificing one vehicle to get the front doors to do two others but I think it’s worth it. 

Edited July 27, 2023 by PaulRhB

[BernardTPM]

4 hours ago, MPR said:

Looking at photos of Anglia patrol cars, I think that the black window edging is much less pronounced or entirely absent.

It would depend on the trim level and year of manufacture. Rubber trim would be appropriate for the base 'Standard' model where that rear window was fixed, but that had a different grille to that on the model. As shown on that 'real' police car the frame surrounding the hinged window was normally body coloured.

[Right Away]

There are many older release 1:76 models of larger vehicles, whose appearance can be drastically improved by the addition of some very tiny adornments where not fitted - i.e. wing mirrors and windscreen wipers.

Perhaps it’s me, having spent many of my earlier years driving HGVs, but the omission of wing mirrors alone makes a big vehicle virtually impossible to drive and it is this, albeit tiny, fact that I set about to remedy.

 

Reference to preserved vehicles can be helpful, although in a few cases details are, by necessity, differing than those that I remember “ back in the day”.

 

I cut some thin (1.5mm) strips of brass which will form the mirrors from etching offcuts and soldered these to some 0.45 nickel silver wire (brass wire can also be used) which will form the bracket. The “mirror” then  is trimmed and filed to shape and the wire bent as appropriate and cut to length. A 0.5mm drill in a pin vice is used to make fixing holes in the model and the wire “bracket” is fixed with a minute dab of  superglue gel on a pin. Screen wipers are again, just 0.45 wire.

I do struggle with finer detail and therefore apologise if the results in the attached photos are left somewhat wanting; at “normal” viewing distances the visual improvement outweigh any downside.

 

I’ve not attempted putting mirrors on 1:76 cars and other smaller vehicles as apart from the fact they were not mandatory for the period which I model, the smaller size would be almost too much for my eyes and fingers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[westernviscount]

 

I'm working on an oxford van. 

I have found a coat of matt varnish is the main way to uplift the model. Here I ja e also bent the front wheels, added wing mirrors and replaced the glazing with clearfix.not the best finish but flusher than the moulding. 

 

Not apparent in this photo is gently heating the tyres and pressing onto a flat surface to give the impression of the weight of the vehicle. I am yet to perfect this. 

[stewartingram]

Pedantic mode, they are not wing mirrors, but door mirrors. And a van of that age would be more to have wing mirrors

[westernviscount]

13 hours ago, stewartingram said:

Pedantic mode, they are not wing mirrors, but door mirrors. And a van of that age would be more to have wing mirrors

Thanks Stewart. There are pics of these vans with the side mirrors mounted on the doors and wings, one or two with both wing and door mounted mirrors.  Of course, most pics are of restored vehicles which one has to be aware of. 

 

Chrome, wing mounted mirrors would fit in with idealised representations of the 60s of  course which many are aiming for.

[Kylestrome]

 

There are obviously varying levels of modification one can apply to 1:76 die-cast vehicles. This Corgi Ford Transit was completely disassembled and stripped of paint and it was quite surprising how much fine detail was hiding behind the thick factory finish. After a respray it was given a couple of airbrushed coats of Klear, which gave it a nice semi-gloss shine.

 

The window moulding was dipped in Klear and left to dry under cover to avoid dust settling. One mod that really lifts the model is to drill out the headlights and finish off with a small countersink bit. The ‘glass’ is a small drop of 5 minute clear epoxy applied with the van held steady, with the lights uppermost, until set. The last details are wire windscreen wipers, etched wing mirrors and other details picked out with appropriate paints.

 

David

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Kylestrome
Controversial sentence removed.

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, Kylestrome said:

Turning the wheels has become a bit of a cliché which can be done with some vehicles, but not all IMO.

It’s still fairly rare so I wouldn’t call it a cliche until it reaches the bus on bridge level 😆
Like anything its context and variety, I’ve done a few probably only a third of detailed ones, you don’t have a queue of cars with turned wheels but ones that have been parked in a tight spot or parallel parked may have. I turned the wheels on the Audi because it’ll be posed on the slipway narrowly having missed the ferry with appropriate signs of tortured tyres. 
 

[Right Away]

On 08/08/2023 at 20:01, stewartingram said:

Pedantic mode, they are not wing mirrors, but door mirrors. And a van of that age would be more to have wing mirrors

The firm I worked for had one of these in the ‘60s - Reg No WPM26. Sizeable rust holes appeared in the front wings (a mirror disappeared through one!) and I, as a passenger, would lean out and watch the front wheel in motion with a degree of fascination.

 

Below is a photo of my own “Moggie” in the mid ‘70s in much better “nick”. (The O/S mirror is there but does not show up too well in this scanned image).

Edited August 10, 2023 by Right Away
correction

[westernviscount]

On 09/08/2023 at 18:44, Kylestrome said:

Turning the wheels has become a bit of a cliché which can be done with some vehicles, but not all IMO

No bigger cliche than a ford Transit van on every layout 😀

[Enterprisingwestern]

8 hours ago, westernviscount said:

No bigger cliche than a ford Transit van on every layout 😀

 

You can only play with what you've got!

 

Mike.

[Kylestrome]

11 hours ago, westernviscount said:

No bigger cliche than a ford Transit van on every layout 😀

Did you read the whole sentence? 🙄

[westernviscount]

49 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

Did you read the whole sentence? 🙄

Yes, but I responded to the bit where you describe a modelling choice of mine as cliche. It isnt of course, which is why the second part of your sentence seems to row back. 

 

Wheels turned on a vehicle is no cliche as hardly modelled...transits however. 

[57xx]

I think a dark pin wash in the panel lines, especially around the doors helps break up the slab of colour look to the models.

[PaulRhB]

23 minutes ago, 57xx said:

I think a dark pin wash in the panel lines, especially around the doors helps break up the slab of colour look to the models.

Thing is do you see a great big black line around the panels?, certain products of BL possibly but I don’t see dirty great dividing lines around panels in photos of the 80’s etc let alone today 😉 I think this gaming style over weathering is close to a cliche too. Panel lines are much thinner than what you get with a wash in a diecast model panel join. A slightly darker wash of the body colour might do it but very few cars exhibited the extreme weathering that’s getting common with thick panel lines and more akin something that’s been cross country in a coal field 🤣

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by PaulRhB
Spooling errors

[BernardTPM]

Lines should be very thin if done, perhaps using a slightly darker shade of the vehicle's colour rather than straight black. Most panel gaps are way overscale on 1:76 models. Here's a light coloured car (in surprisingly good condition for a 7 years old one 1972) where the only really obvious line is the one at the bottom of the doors. By contrast, dead side on the lines can be more obvious as shown here.

Incidentally, the second picture shows how the Austin A30/A35 body was designed as a 4-door with a fill-in panel for the 2-door version, the join being very visible.