On which scale this is?
The best of the original vintage Corgi toy Bond Aston's. This is the one with tyre slashers, revolving number plates etc. Quite a rare one with gold trim instead of chrome.
When you say gold trim, I assume you mean with a gold paint job, right?
I actually had the gold one as a kid, I believe it was the "Goldfinger" exclusive version or something like that. I later spray painted it silver, because the car in the movie was silver not gold. Stupid me, now the gold one is probably worth a lot more. Doesn't matter, I have no idea what happened to that car.
The other Corgi diecast I wish I still had was my original '60s Batmobile, which was also lost in time.
@Mspeedster
This is a little project I've just finished, since I haven't got a watch project ongoing at the minute!
In the 1939 Triang Minic catalogue was an artists impression of an ambulance model that was intended for release. The model never went into production as the factory was turned over to war production.
No one has ever found this model in the wild, it's assumed none were produced and it only existed as a drawing.
So, me being me I decided I would make one using the standard chassis and an entirely scratch built body. It had to be made from tinplate and I was determined to use the exact methods of production Triang used at the time. This meant no glue or solder, everything had to fit and be secured using the tab and slot method.
So I did some drawings and took a lot of measurements.
I then made card templates including the positions for the necessary bends and folds.
This was then scribed out on to tinplate sheet and cut and folded to suit.
I made separate templates for the roof box, gas can on the running board and rear doors which open and close.
Below are photos during construction.
I made my own decals too.
Everything from the cab back is scratchbuilt.
In primer, looking good 👍
The finished model.
Long after I'm gone someone will probably find this somewhere and think it's the pre war factory prototype! 🤣
I even made the wooden benches inside and a stretcher made from tinplate as in the original drawing.
Amazing!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Nice work. Wonder how many here have seen a Mini Marcos let alone sat in a rally prepped version, lusted after one just like it, until the chance of a Clan Crusader came along, still a totally non practicle car, fortunately someone else came along to look after it and wife was happy again.
I used to do quite a lot of car and motorsport paintings too as well as old ships and that sort of thing. I haven't done any for a few years but i've been planning to do one of Lauda,Senna or De Angelis for ages. It will probably end up being Lauda in the 312,fewer sponsorship details to paint lol
I just need to find the motivation to start it !
Outstanding! You should start a new thread, maybe call it automotive art and post more of your work. 👍
I've done quite a few pencil drawings of cars, nothing recent though. Now you have me thinking about where I filed those old drawings or if I even still have them. 🤔
That takes me back to wet, muddy service parks where the water ran in the neck of the waterproofs and out the ankles, oh happy days.
At least there was a chance I could repair that and not need a laptop. Ah the folly of youth.
Anyway, I started collecting more Cheetahs and started restoring them, at some point I had the biggest collection Cheetahs in the world.
Lots of work, which you can understand.
Not only finding parts as these became pretty rare (and expensive!) but in rebuilding and painting them as well
I thought of showing my models in order of age so let's start with the oldest one.
I've had the Tamiya Porsche 934 (first RC car for Tamiya), the 935 and 936, all sold unfortunately.
I still have the P34 Sixwheeler from 1977.
It was sold too but I bought it back after a fellow collector and friend decided to sell it, he asked me first, lol.
A no brainer.
I bought it around 20 years ago in a sorry, incomplete state.
Not the correct motor, no transfer case, no speed controller, tires rotten/dried out, damaged chassis, missing parts etc.
Even at that time it was pretty hard to find an original RS-360 motor with the original transfer case and the original speed controller.
To find the two original plastic battery boxes was also almost impossible to find so I decided to use the period-correct hop-ups from the list in the Tamiya catalog:
SP1023 For the bigger 540 motor.
SP1013 To accommodate a NiCad battery pack.
SP1054 An alternative speed controller.
And the Tamiya RS-540SD Black Motor which was one of the fastest motors at that time (1979), now very collectable as well.
For the restauration I used mostly NOS parts (New Old Stock).
The painting came out nice too if I say so myself so I'm very happy to have this car in my collection (again).😇
Painting the tire logos was a true nightmare though....🥴
To give you guys an impression what these models are all about today I picked some stuff from eBay.
Ok, these are asking prices but you'll get the idea...
From L to R:
-Built model, looks good, roughly the same like I got it, $650.
-Wheel set, genuine, NOS, very rare, 4 rims and tires, $100.
-Body set, genuine, NOS, including stickers, $345.
-NIB Sixwheeler, $1350. New,
unbuilt kit, just crazy....
And that's all stuff you can actually find, parts are getting even more rare today.
To be continued.
