"Boring" 1:24 Model kit cars?

[Zad]

A bit of background: I have a Routemaster Bus 1:24 kit, which is possibly one of the best kits Revell have ever made, and I'd like to make a street scene diorama for it, with a phone box, postbox etc. The period is early 1980s, which is when I have most fond memories of visiting London with my family. The diorama will basically be a shelf, not a deep railway layout, and maybe 6ft long in total.

I'm looking for inspiration in the form of other vehicles to populate the scene. There is an Italeri Transit van which dirties down and distresses very nicely, so that's a shoe-in. I got a Mk 2 Golf (Revell 07005) and the quality is okay but, crucially, it is LHD only, so that's a no go. There is an FX4 black Cab, but it is a reboxed version of the Imai kit / battery powered toy from 1979, and the reviews seem to say the scale is anything but 1:24. I may end up doing one anyway, but meh. There are a few other Golfs and BL/Austin Minis around, but I'm not sure which, if any, are the best among the selection.

I'm looking for "ordinary" 1:24 cars from the era or just before. No rally Escorts, rally Quattros, 911s, Ferraris, American cars etc. Preferably British cars, but they seem few and far between. Road spec Escorts are fine. A Cortina or even a Cavalier or 5-door Sierra would be great, but 1:24 kits of those seem not to exist. Tamiya did make an XR4i, but it seems the moulds were cannibalised to make the RS500 kit, so the remaining kits are kinda pricey.

TL;DR:

1:24 Car kit (no die cast)
Car must have been on UK streets in the early 1980s.
No racing cars, premium sports cars
Right hand drive.
Preferably European manufacturers, but that's not set in stone. So long as it was relatively common on UK streets.

Any thoughts?

[generationx]

Tamiya used to do some fairly mundane Japanese stuff (I know this doesn't strictly fit in to your brief) so worth a look, at least they'll be RHD.

If you want RHD in your Golf then maybe Scale Production do what you need to convert? I'm sure I've seen a resin kit somewhere.

Gunze Sangyo did some British sports cars too if I recall correctly.

[PH5121]

How about a classic mini, there are Fujimi ones on ebay and wouldn't look out of place in a London street scene. Whilst looking at ebay I also noticed a Heller Renault 4 (but looked to be LHD).

[Gary29]

Tamiya do a classic Mini and a VW Beetle

You may have to do some scratch building to convert to RHD though

Edited by Gary29 on Wednesday 20th June 11:23

[Gary29]

http://www.modelersite.com/en/112297/revell-range-...

[generationx]

Fujimi and Revell have done some more basic-end-of-the-range BMWs and Mercedes in the past too.

[Zad]

Thanks, that's certainly all food for thought. I hadn't realised that Revell had done a Range Rover. It seems to be an Esci kit, and Humbrol (!) + Italeri have done versions, starting life as a 3 door. Sadly they only seem to be available at a $$$ premium in Ebay USA etc. Talking of Ebay, it looks like I'm going to be setting up a few searches on there, as both the Tamiya Mini 1275 and Revell 998 are now no longer available through shops. Mind you, they are surely the sort of kit which will reappear from time to time.

Excellent point about RHD Japanese cars! I'll try to remember that.

[AER]

With a bit of scanning and 3D printing, a RHD conversion shouldn't be too close to impossible these days.

[Jader1973]

Zad said:

Thanks, that's certainly all food for thought. I hadn't realised that Revell had done a Range Rover. It seems to be an Esci kit, and Humbrol (!) + Italeri have done versions, starting life as a 3 door. Sadly they only seem to be available at a $$$ premium in Ebay USA etc. Talking of Ebay, it looks like I'm going to be setting up a few searches on there, as both the Tamiya Mini 1275 and Revell 998 are now no longer available through shops. Mind you, they are surely the sort of kit which will reappear from time to time.

Excellent point about RHD Japanese cars! I'll try to remember that.

The Revell / Esci RR is good model. I’ve got 2: I attempted to build the Revell one as a Police car and the Esci one donated the front bumper for the lights, and some other bits. From memory the Revell one was stock but the Esci one has a bull bar.

As a result I have a very shonky unfinished Police RR and an unstarted Esci one with missing bits. They are both here in Aus though.

I might dig them out and try to finish at least one of them.

[robemcdonald]

Revell do a mk1 golf. The kit is a bit of a shocker though. Tamiya and Revell do VW beetles. There are plenty out there.

[AshVX220]

How about;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-1-24-Scale-Toyot...

or

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toyota-MR2-AW11-Fujimi-...

[robemcdonald]

My mk1 gti.

Could do with a dusting to be honest, but crucially it’s RHD.

[silverfoxcc]

Slightly O/T but is that weekly RM kit still on the go?

And has anyone on here chinged out for it?

[Zad]

The Hachette one? I don't remember seeing it in any newsagents, but it is all available on their web site. At a mere £9 a week.

Interesting to see the Toyotas, although I think they are 1985+ so maybe a bit late. Nevertheless though, something I might grab if I see one, possibly not worth all the costs involved with importing etc. Looking for a UK source for them did lead me to Kent Models https://www.kentmodels.co.uk who stock Fujimi kits, including a later model Mini. They also stock an E30 BMW 325i (LHD dammit).

[robemcdonald]

Have a look through this lot. There are a lot of “boring” cars amongst the race / rally ones.
Some of the kits will include left and right hand drive variants (as the golf did)
https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?search...

[Zad]

Thanks, that was the first place I looked

( Along with Emodels, Antics, Modelhobbies, Jadlam and Wonderland )

[DubZeus]

Revell did a XR3, Airfix did a tr7, Heller do a 2cv & Renault 4 & the latest Revell Mk1 Golf is great, Why not diecast? Burago have a great selection that detail up ok, the wheels arent the best though.

[silverfoxcc]

There was a thread on here when the hachette RM came out. It had some cracking RM models in that and some links

Talk about 'Is it a model or a real pic'

Had me looking hard and long atsome of the efforts

Tried to find it but gone back 270 days with no luck

[Zad]

The XR3 kit is a tad... Well I think the designer was shown a sketch of one on the back of a cig packet. The 2CV and Renault are LHD unfortunately. Not sure how much adaptation they might need to swap things over. TR7 is a good call, definitely one to put on my growing Ebay watch list. As will the Italeri Land Rover S.3 109in. There is one up there at the moment, but it'll have to wait for my cashflow.

I'm not a big fan of die cast cars, for me the fun of models is in the building and painting. Panel thickness, windows, shut lines etc never seem as good as a well fettled kit.

For anyone playing along at home, there is a nice list someone has compiled here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/top... It is frustrating at what has been made and long since disappeared into the dusty attics around the world.

Regarding the Routemaster photos, Britmodeller has a few threads with some amazing builds

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/top...
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/top...

Has anyone used http://www.modelkars.uk/ ? It looks like a back-room business (which I don't have a problem with) but some of the photos of resin bodies are rather tiny. The sort of site where you aren't sure if the place closed down years ago.

[W124Bob]

Renault dash is just a box on shelf , gear umbrella lever is off set but the same for either sides. So the wipers and steering column would need moving. This is a review for an FX4 by a company called Aoshima it references the rc origins but seems to get a good review
http://www.finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/...
I take it the Revell kit is from the same source.

Edited by W124Bob on Monday 25th June 16:14