7 replies to this topic

[nicanary]

A few months ago I saw a model advertised on e-bay which I didn't recognise - neither did the vendor. It was a good quality model of an HRG Aerodynamic  painted in blue and yellow, rather like Argentinian racing colours. The model was complete with box and I think the asking price was circa £15/20. I didn't bid and the whole matter is lost in the ether.

 

I have since then investigated the makers, because an auction house had a similar model for sale a few years ago. It turns out that it was made by the above, who offered a range of Grand Prix and sports car models. They appear to be good representations (which can't be said of all models). Does anyone know more, such as the scale used? I have seen a photo of the Alfetta and it looks top quality for the prices expected. At auction 2 cars fetched £55, 3 cars £70. They don't seem to come up for sale very often.

[Sterzo]

I have no idea of the full history of SMEC, and it may be that they produced finished models or modern-style kits. However, this is what I do remember of them:

 

In the fifties and sixties they sold very basic 1/32nd scale kits, which consisted of a piece of softwood (harder than balsa) ready cut to the side and top profiles of their enclosed plan, but not shaped. You had to do that yourself! It also included four turned alloy wheels, which inspired the later MRRC wheels commonly used on slot cars.

 

They were mentioned in D. J. Laidlaw-Dickson's book "Model Car Rail Racing" from about 1957, as being a good basis for a motorised car.

 

I recently gave away two of the unmade kits; at least one lacked its wheels, which I'd pillaged for other purposes!

 

My own view was they were barely kits at all. I prefered using balsa wood and a Model Maker or home-drawn plan. Cutting the initial profiles was the easy bit which took very little time. But of course, SMEC's prominence in the book, and in Model Maker at the time, was because they were all there was, apart from about three Airfix kits.

[nicanary]

Thanks for your reply. The models I have seen on Google Images were far better than that. They certainly looked made of some kind of metal. The company now makes turntable equipment for hi-fi and apparently at one time produced quality medical equipment. It gave me the impression that the models would have been quality items. Maybe somebody paid a lot of time and attention to finishing their balsa kit !

[RCH]

This rings a bell. Aged around 9, in maybe 1959, I was given a load of old Autocars. Advertised in the back were some kits of racing cars, send an SAE for a catalogue. My SAE was duly returned with a letter explaining they were no longer making the kits. My father said that the kits were actually simply blocks of wood which needed to be shaped although I've no idea how he would have known. 

[nicanary]

Thank you both for your interest and assistance. Now I understand the nature of these models, I think I'll give them a swerve. My eyesight and hand control would result in cars akin to Fred Flintstone's.

[Geoff E]

"During the 1950s SMEC produced a variety of model cars under

the Hobbycraft and Autocraft trading names, which became popular

with enthusiasts worldwide and have since become highly collectable."

 

A book - https://www.woodfiel...teyning-UK.html

[Sterzo]

You can read a little more about them on this slot car forum thread, complete with good photos. Though, like all good forum threads, it wanders off topic!

 

https://www.slotforu...m-until.207499/

 

And here is my own set of SMEC wheels, pillaged from a kit. They're not really recognisable as I've fitted them with celluloid inserts wound with fuse wire spokes, rather obscuring the black SMEC inserts with their printed spokes. The model is scratch built from balsa - probably less work that using an SMEC kit's harder wood!

 

Edited by Sterzo, 30 August 2024 - 21:11.

[Roryswood]

When Gearys , toy , model and bicycle shop was closing down on St Stephen's Green in Dublin was closing down in Dublin in thd 1970s stock was cleared I bought an unmade HRG aerodynamic SMEC kit , which I duly sold to someone in the UK having seen an advert in Model Cars magazine looking for SMEC kits , some years later I bought a built SMEC kit at a UK swapmeet which I still cherish