126 replies to this topic

[Barry Boor]

Good point, Geoff, but there is a photo of Chiron, at Reims I think, that looks original and the car is blue in that, too.

[RCH]

Barry, I've had a look on the website of most major Spark dealers but can't find any reference to the Osca you refer to?

 

However, this model appears frequently, but its not from Spark.

 

 

According to the background, it was built by Villa Model based on a TW Collection kit.

 

 

 

Villa, glad to hear he is still going. He turned up at one of the fairs we did back in the '90's. Lovely man but somewhat overenthusiastic about his models, which were normally based on built kits. They were quite well presented and we sold a few. We nicknamed him Pancho (sorry!),

Talking of mistaken colours 1920's Le Mans Bentley models always appeared in dark BRG. Then Starter produced models in a rather vivid olive green, they claimed this was correct according to the man who actually painted them. The truth was Parsons Napier Green which was a little muted from the Starter colour. Then Spark, or was it Ixo, came back with the "traditional" dark BRG. I pointed out to them that this was wrong. The answer was "we know but Bentley Motors insisted we use this colour".

[D-Type]

Another one!  Yesterday at Kempton Park Toy Fair for the princely sum of £10 I acquired a Rio model of a red Itala with "Itala" on the radiator.  The accompanying leaflet said it was the winner of the 1906 Targa Florio.  I now find that the actual car was grey with no. 3 on the radiator and the sides.  AAARGH!   Well, it was only a tenner so I can't complain too hard.

In fairness to RIO, this is their model No 1, so presumably one of the first they produced.  They have subsequently produced versions of both the first and second placed cars with the correct grey colours and numbers.  I'll have to look out for one and be prepared to pay a bit more.

Edited by D-Type, 20 March 2024 - 17:39.

[dmj]

I believe RIO actually modelled this car: https://asimarket.it...p-targa-florio/

 

They mostly produced quite accurate models of real cars from Italian museums and kept them in their catalogue for decades.

Only fairly recently they made additional historic research and produced some cars like those grey TF Italas, based on the period photos.

It is quite possible that back in 1961 red Itala was actually on display somewhere, branded as TF winning car.

[D-Type]

That makes a lot of sense.  This is clearly an early model (Witness the Model No. 1).  The description that accompanied it can be read as meaning that similar cars won the Targa Florio and the Peking-Paris rather than the full sized car that this particular model is based on.

[Jager]

I appears Rio were not the only ones who got the colour of the 1906 Italia wrong:

 

 

Na sta Sicilia: Targa Florio | La storica corsa automobilistica attraverso l'arte

[pete53]

Here are three models from my collection that are less than satisfactory.

 

1. Jaguar E by Tekno (of Denmark) - the body shape is not too bad but the hardtop sits much too high and spoils the whole effect. I seem to recall the Best model of the E-type had a similar failing.

2. Chaparral 2F Marklin ( Germany)- the windscreen is completely the wrong shape and has tiddly wheels.

3. Ferrari 156 - a true shocker from the otherwise usually reliable Solido ( France) stable.

 

I suppose I can partly forgive the manufacturers as these were toys and majority of the children buying them, particularly the Chaparral and Ferrari, would not have been that familiar with the real thing. However, these makers were all capable of turning out good quality die-casts, so I do wonder what happened when they were making up the dies for these models.

 

Edited by pete53, 21 June 2023 - 17:35.

[dmj]

Well… it was quite hard back then (and it is still sometimes) to capture all the details of a model. Besides it, with racing cars it is unlikely that most of the modelcar makers had access to the real things, so they mostly produced it from the photos and if lucky, factory drawings, with somewhat unpredictable results. In line-ups of each classic modelcar brand there were hits and misses, so to say.

IMHO, the old models compared to new, computer-generated models are what the paintings are compared to photos. Representations of the spirit of a particular car, rather than faithful reproductions. That’s actually why I prefer them, at least if I consider that a master model maker managed to capture the spirit. Sometimes very wrong, cartoonish models of a car are the best for me, if that particular quality has been achieved.

Also, as mentioned, these old models were basically toys and thus should be seen quite differently than ones made strictly for collecting. But please note that even today, with all the technology and available data, it is sometimes quite hard to capture the lines of a model. Market is full of the wrongly proportioned modelcars.

I worked with De Agostini on a series of 1/43 models for the market of former Yugoslavia. Mainly reissues of existing molds but we developed some models from the scratch. Some were easy for modelling (mostly, as you’d expect today, done in China, from the computer graphic designers that never saw any example of the real cars they modelled), some needed extensive changes but a few were for some reason (couldn’t really find the pattern) so complicated that we never managed to finish and release them.

[guiporsche]

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I'm struggling to understand where Spark got the idea of painting their BRM models in a sort of Aston-Martin shiny green. Was it because they were afraid the models painted in actual BRM dark grey-green might not sell well enough? Even allowing for the quality of late 1950s and 1960s colour photos, I find it hard to reconcile what I see in those photos with Spark's reproductions of, say, the P25 or P138. They certainly look great, but I'm not sold on accuracy.

[Mal9444]

Barry Boor very kindly made this model of Moss's 1959 British GP P25 for me some years ago

 

I showed  it to SCM who remarked that 'he's got the colour exactly right...'

Edited by Mal9444, 08 March 2024 - 16:28.

[Barry Boor]

This is Malcolm's photo:

 

 

In fairness, I should point out that this is a Corgi model.  I only painted it and fitted some wheels that look a little like those used on the type 25.

Edited by Barry Boor, 08 March 2024 - 16:37.

[guiporsche]

Beautiful all the same, thank you for sharing! As time goes on, I find these old models ( Corgis, Solidos, etc) ever more intriguing, even the Corgi 1970s F1s. However crude in detail, they take you back to those times.

[Henri Greuter]

The worst one in my collection:

 

the March-Porsche 90P by Onyx in their 1:43 Indy 500 starting field collection

Shape resembles the 1989 type 89P that was only used in practice (did not start in the race) and the model lacking the centrally located exhaust pipe and protective heat shield on the engine cover that made the 90P so unique.

[timf5000]

My brother bought me for Christmas last year a model of our F5000 March 76A (and one for himself!) after I'd noticed it on eBay. The base reads "VILLAMODEL, March 76A Ford, Chris Cramer. Loton Park 1976".

 

BUT, the car is running a (sort of!) V8 DFV and the colour scheme is exactly as we raced it at Oulton Park in August 2014! Right down to the aluminium rear wing, airbox and numbers!!

 

Still, it's the only model of any our cars we have.....

 

Sorry, but don't know how to post a picture!

[RCH]

The base reads "VILLAMODEL, March 76A Ford, Chris Cramer. Loton Park 1976".

BUT, the car is running a (sort of!) V8 DFV and the colour scheme is exactly as we raced it at Oulton Park in August 2014! Right down to the aluminium rear wing, airbox and numbers!!

When I was running Model Garage selling model cars we had occasional visits at events from "Pancho" Villa and bought some models off him. He was a lovely, friendly guy but maybe not too reliable. He would buy batches of kits and build them, marketing them as Villa Models. You were lucky to get them that personalised! "Pancho" was our own nickname for him so don't quote me!

[nexfast]

I still buy a lot of models from him through online auctions. Not perfect, but he models cars not easy to get anywhere else, style Merzarios, Makis or McGuires

[brucemoxon]

Hot Wheels have announced a Lotus 49. I'm afraid of what might be coming - starting with hugely-wide wheels. 

Still, it's just a $2 toy, isn't it?

 

 

 

BRM

[brucemoxon]

Not a competition car, but...

How is their research this bad? How can it be a 'Mercedes'-Benz?

 

Argh!

 

Also, their claim that it's the only such model - well just yesterday I ordered a 1:24 scale kit of the Benz Patentwagen. We'll see. 

 

 

https://www.bradford...nz-diecast.html

[D-Type]

Well, I suppose it was the "World's First Racing Car" on the premise that motor racing was invented the day two drivers of horseless carriage met on the road and one tried to overtake the other and an impromptu race resulted.  But the Bradford Exchange's inaccurate description missed that.

[Macca]

Hot Wheels have announced a Lotus 49. I'm afraid of what might be coming - starting with hugely-wide wheels. 
Still, it's just a $2 toy, isn't it?
 
 
 
BRM

(apparently at a trade show, so maybe pre-production version)


Paul M

[brucemoxon]

(apparently at a trade show, so maybe pre-production version)


Paul M

Gee, they're really not too bad at all!

 

 

BRM

[blackmme]

Gee, they're really not too bad at all!

 

 

BRM

I think they look terrific, I might get a bunch of them and repaint / mod them to depict the 49’s long life.

 

Regards Mike

[Sterzo]

I last owned one of these Dinky Toys Maseratis sixty years ago, but I've been agonising over what it was intended to be for nearly seventy years. Opinions would be welcome. The photo is from a current advert on Ebay, the advertiser being Acme 3000.

 

 

I'm pretty sure it's intended to be an A6GCM, but was any of the cars really equipped with a radiator intake that small? I haven't seen a picture of one much like it. Yes, I know it was a cheap toy (I had two), but I suspect it has to go on our list of inaccurate models. And my childhood was blighted by the uncertainty of what it was supposed to be.

Edited by Sterzo, 21 July 2024 - 16:05.

[Tim Murray]

It’s a long time since I last saw mine, but my recollection is that it said ‘4CLT’ on the base.


Edit: My memory is playing me false: just ‘Maserati’ on the base. I still think it’s a 4CLT.

[Sterzo]

For years I thought it was a 4CLT, but the twin exhaust and smaller radiator would point to the early A6GCM. That's assuming the model-maker knew what he was modelling, rather than worked from pictures of different cars...

[werks prototype]

They are having another stab at this one, this time at a budget, 1/64 Scale.

 

[D-Type]

Well, Mercedes DID race the 300SL during the currency of the  "Blaues Wunder".  But not with #54.  The nearest is #34 driven by Wolfgang Von Trips in the GT class of the sports car Swedish Grand Prix but as the 300SLRs were also entered, it is unlikely that a 300SL travelled on Uhlenhaut's baby.