[Mad Viper]

Does anyone know if any company made the following two cars as plastic kits?

Hillman Minx IIIA Saloon Deluxe
http://librapix.com....ars.com/187.jpg

and a Volvo 142 from 1974


Been toying with the idea of making both for some time now.

[MoFo]

Tricky.

Lots of cars are made in a year, but very few get kitted - you tend to see only the most desireable vehicles from the biggest names. Muscle cars. Italian exotics. That sort of thing. The only mainstream, injection Volvo kit I can think of off the top of my head is the early 90's 850 estate, from when they were dominating touring car races.

*BUT*

If you're willing to go off the beaten path, and put in some work, it may be possible. 1/43 is a popular (outside the mainstream) scale for cars. It's one of the main scales for die casts, and for the auto modelling equivalent of limited run/cottage manufacturers (ie. if Classic Airframes did cars, they'd be in 1/43). Doing a bit of digging, it seems that 'Arena' has just started releasing a series of Volvo 142 rally kits. They should be pretty decent- resin bodies, PE details - and a good basis for converting to a road car. You'd probably need to replace the interior, and possibly the rims, but it's probably the best start you're going to find. And depending on the time/money/effort you want to put in to the project, there's also a resin model (think die cast... but resin) of a Volvo 145, which you can probably rob the interior and wheels from.

The Hillman is a little more straightforward. Somerville Models do a white metal kit of a Minx Saloon. May not be the right year, may need some trim changes, but hopefully it's close. Barring that, there's a few other die cast optionsthat you could look at - break them down, clean them up and rebuild them like any other white metal kit. You'll have to do some rummaging around Google (and eBay, I'd suggest) to see what there is, though.

Other than 1/43 die casts, resin kits and conversions though, you're going to be out of luck. There's nothing 1/24 and mainstream out there.

[Mad Viper]

Wow, that's more answer then I expected. Thanks for your time. That resin volvo model looks nice, to bad its small but certainly worth keeping in mind. To bad I can't find any inbox review to see if the wheels match with my 1:1 scale car. Interior in the real car is also a mix off everything and really not stock, so that would be a nice scratchbuild project. To bad about the Hillman, I can recall a conversation with a guy some years ago who said there might be a Airfix Model of it, searching reveals something but not much, http://www.briansmod.../thread/562622. Ah well, then I'll stick to working on the 1:1 scale.

Thanks again for your answer.

This post has been edited by Mad Viper: 28 April 2012 - 01:46 PM

[MoFo]

Hmmm.... hadn't considered 1/32. That's a popular slot car scale, so you *might* find some stuff there, though a quick Google search didn't turn up much. Might be worth digging, though. Maybe someone has done a full slot chassis of the cars. Maybe someone's done just a vac lexan body. Either way, you're probably looking at a sizeable amount of work to turn it into a proper scale model, but it shouldn't be all that hard, and could be pretty fun.

Speaking of digging, according to this, the Airfix Minx is really a Sunbeam Rapier. (you'll have to forgive me - 1950's British cars are way out of my expertise!) But if small scale will suffice, looks like this might be an easy conversion project, though I've no idea how good/bad Vanguard's stuff is.

Volvo... the wheels on this LOOK like they're the same, but I'm no expert on Volvo rims, so the details may be out.


As I said, unfortunately, mainstream/large scale kits just don't exist for most cars. Heck, even with major, modern stuff like Veyrons and Paganis you're stuck with either 1/43 resin or die casts.

[Mad Viper]

Quote

Speaking of digging, according to this, the Airfix Minx is really a Sunbeam Rapier. (you'll have to forgive me - 1950's British cars are way out of my expertise!)

Well Hillman and Sunbeam were both Rootes car brands, so that they look almost the same isn't a surprise.

Quote

though I've no idea how good/bad Vanguard's stuff is.

we already have a vangaurd Hillman Minx IIIA in the house, two exactly But doesn't represent my dads car 100%. There nice little cars, actually my dad used the model car to duplicate the paint for the 1:1 scale car.

Quote

Volvo... the wheels on this LOOK like they're the same, but I'm no expert on Volvo rims, so the details may be out.

Yeah, I agree, they look the same, spokes between the holes look too narrow. But can't judge exact with a tiny photo. Can't find any hi-res photos of those kits.

This post has been edited by Mad Viper: 04 May 2012 - 08:26 AM

[ross blackford]

, Hi MoFo and Mad Viper,
The Sunbeam Rapier was actually a 2 door coupe and convertible, the Minx was a four door sedan, the Husky was a 2 door wagon (sorry estate car) and the 2 only had common A-pillars, front fenders, bonnet and radiator support panels with very different grilles.

I think you'd find it a real chore (like, nye on impossible) to convert a Rapier to a Minx as the Rapier Coupe had a different C-pillar from the Minx and also different rear fender panels and tail lights as well as slightly longer doors and no B-pillar. From memory the boot (trunk) lids were the same. I'm still interested in these cars as my first car was a 1966 Hillman Gazelle. They were only marketed as a Hillman here in Australia for some strange reason.

Everywhere else they were a Singer Gazelle but by that stage the 1500 cc OHC Singer engine had disappeared and the Gazelle was powered by the 1725 cc OHV engine, albeit with a twin throat carby. Mine was one of the first Hillmans with the Chrysler badge on the lower front fender. This was just after Chrysler had purchased Rootes Group. It was a shame they decided to can the bigger Humber range as these were good middle luxury cars, especially the Super Snipe. A quick google search should show you the differences between the two.

HTH.
,
Ross.

This post has been edited by ross blackford: 08 May 2012 - 06:51 AM