Matchbox, Hotwheels! I reckon almost everyone would have had some as a kid. I sure had my fair share. Strangely enough, these metal miniature replicas of civilian vehicles don't necessarily lead to scale modelling. At least I dont think it did for me. My scale modelling addiction was kicked off by a tamiya 1/35 sas jeep kit back when I was 14.
Fast forward to the present. I re-discovered some youtube channels on "hotwheels" racing and custom diecast which ignited an interest in doing some for myself. The culprit channels are:
So as you can see, there is a large variety of subjects within this cultural toy genre that appeals to me. All directly related to my miniature bug affliction - a desire to create miniature versions of everyday and not so everyday things.
Hotwheels and Matchbox are generally scaled to 1/64, but obviously these toys are scaled to fit to the roughly 1" x 1" x 2.5" boxes, so scale accuracy is not a major concern. These toys are also designed to be played with by young kids and therefore you won't get small fine parts that can snap off and potentially hurt children. Not your typical scale modelling subject for sure. For me, this presents an opportunity to break away from being bogged down by endless hours of research and trying to add an infinite number of details. It's also a chance to model civilian topics in a smaller scale rather than the industry standard of 1/24 for cars and trucks. There will be very little need to spend time assembling and painting, instead, I can skip straight to weathering and adding extra details like stowage. I'm planning to make some small diorama scenes as well, but will need to source for figures and accessories, I suspect 3d printing will play a big part.
Here's my first project, a matchbox crop master tractor:
First, I drilled out the "rivets" that hold the parts together. This allowed me to paint the silver plastic piece red (Tamiya Acrylics). I added a couple of 3d printed headlights. I cut off the molded disk steering wheel and replaced it with white metal steering wheel. I also stuck 3 strips of thing copper tape to each front wheel to represent tire threads. Everything was reassembled and the rivet wholes were covered with epoxy putty. Weathering consists of Tamiya black panel liner wash and dust from the Tamiya weathering master set (makeup for modellers). Next step is to make a small base to set this into a farm scene and hoping to get a figure to go with it.
