Hot Wheels Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Custom

Good evening folks, sorry for the long time in between posts. There's been a lot going on for me lately. All good things luckily! But I'm back, and with a few customs finished. The first of which is Hot Wheels' excellent model of the Ferrari 612. I wasn't a huge fan of this car when it came out, I thought the styling was horrible, and was a poor replacement to the sexy 550/575. But time has been kind to the 612, and now I think it's a great looking car.

The color choice for this one came from a 1/24 scale plastic model version of the car I'm building. It's been years since I've built a plastic model, and this one has reminded me why I gave up that side of the hobby! Immensely frustrating, I got the model nearly finished, but the final assembly phase went all to hell. So I put it away in a box, and made a 1/64 version of it until I feel like getting back to the bigger model. But here is my 1/64 612 in all it's green glory.

Lesney #15d-VW 1500 Saloon Restoration #2

Evening folks. How about a Beetle tonight? I love some classic air-cooled VW goodness, and was happy to get a Regular Wheel version of the classic Bug into my collection. This one arrived from ebay in a right state...

Luckily it had all its tires. That's the biggest problem with these old Matchboxes, the hubs shrink over time, and the tires tend to go missing pretty easily. 

Just a simple repaint and the old 'dub was good to go once again. 

I decided to go for a nice simple dark metallic blue, I think it suits the car well. I liked the originality of the chassis, so I left it alone. No doubt a mother somewhere put a dab of red paint on the bottom so little Johnny could tell his cars apart from the neighbor kid's cars. That tells the car's story, and I don't like to erase that. Hope you like it! Drop me a comment if you have anything to say :)

Lesney #67b-VW 1600TL Restoration

Good evening y'all!! I hope you are having a lovely first week of December. Here's my latest project, a copy of a rare variation of the #67 VW casting. It's a copy of the early transitional Superfast model, with the original regular wheel red body. Vintage British Diecast puts the value at about $250 mint in the box. Not completely outrageous as far as Lesney values go, but still not bad, and definitely out of my budget!!

Here's what I started with. Shame about the black brush paint, the metallic purple paint underneath was in great shape. But I know of no way to remove the black paint without taking it all off. Oh well!

The roof was a little bent, but some light hammering in critical places took care of that. (Jeremy Clarkson would be proud...)

In great shape otherwise! Mint windows, and the chrome on the wheels was almost mint. 

Here it is now..

Lesney #05e-Lotus Europa Restoration

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. Hopefully you have a great day filled with turkey, pecan pie, and family!

Here's a restoration I finished not too long ago. I got it on ebay for cheap, it advertised that it had a "new paint job" haha. You be the judge of that...

It was kind of a weird purplish gray color, and needed to go!!!

With this cool old Lotus, I decided to break out my airbrush for the first time in ages. It could definitely be better, but I'm happy with how the paint has come out. It's a Tamiya copper color. Gorgeous color!! A little chrome detailing on the wheels and it's done..

Might do an extra bit of detailing at some point. What do you think?

Lesney #34a-Volkswagen Transporter Van

This one has actually been finished for quite a while, but has been waiting on decals. I've given up on the prospect of finding any, so it's finished for now. I ordered a set from my usual supplier, but turns out he didn't have them anymore, so I'm out of luck.
This was another car that had been treated to a repaint prior to me getting it. A rather creative repaint...

Electricity Services? Haha I love it!!!

Here it is after a little TLC..

What do you think? Any comments would be appreciated!

And if you know of a place to get decals for it... Do let me know!

Lesney #33c-Lamborghini Miura Superfast Restoration

Since I'm broke, the only way to get rare Lesney variations on my shelf is to make them.. Or to get lucky, but generally making them is a better bet haha. So I grabbed a big lot of beater Superfast Miuras, so I figured making a rare version would be a good thing to do! Here's what I started with.

I didn't like how the left hand door fit, I think it had some hidden damage. Possibly a bend in it. I swapped on an extra door I had, and it fit much better!

The version I decided to go with is the Miura painted in the earlier Regular Wheel yellow, and the later ivory interior. VERY rare model, worth $700 or $800 in real life. This one fits the budget much better. :)

Hot Wheels Datsun 510 Wagon Custom

Here's a quick custom I did of the newly-common Datsun 510 Wagon. I'm so glad this casting made it to the mainline, as I never found the Boulevard version. I'm not a big JDM fan in general, but I do like the older stuff, and this is such a cool car.
I went for a stock look with the Matchbox disc wheels, and a bright orange color that I imagine was pretty common on these cars back in the day.
The front end of the chassis sits a bit high, as it moved out of place as the JB weld set up, and I can't do anything about it now! What do you think of it? What should my next 510 Wagon custom be?

Lesney #46c-Mercedes 300SE Convertible "Restomod"

This was a fun little project. It started as a very beat up Mercedes with a bent and broken roof. I thought making it into a convertible would be fun! I've already shared a lot of these before pics on my last 46c restoration, which you can find here.

But after some cutting and painting, here's what I ended up with.