Lesney #28c-Jaguar Mark X Restoration

A favorite Lesney casting of mine to share with you tonight. The fabulous Mark X Jaguar! This one wasn't in bad shape to begin with, but it reeked of cigarette smoke and just needed a little love. 

I've been on a white kick lately for some reason, every car I can think of just looks great in white. So what do you think? I painted the interior a slightly darker shade of tan as well. Notice I kept with my tradition of leaving the chassis paint alone. :)

Lesney #29c-Denver Pumper Chassis Swap

Another Lesney Transitional chassis-swap to share today! This time, the rare #29c Denver Fire Pumper transitional. I bought this SUPER beat up one on ebay.

And after extensively straightening the chassis and axles, I put a spare body on top of the rare Superfast chassis. Then just a little chrome touch up on the wheels, good as new!

Lesney #25d-Ford Cortina Chassis Swap

Good evening folks! I've been wanting to do this chassis swap for a long time, and finally got a nice-ish regular wheel version to perform the swap. Thinking of making a convertible out of the blue one too! I like having my own homemade versions of these hard to find variations. Tell me what you think below.

The chrome on the wheels is original, save for the left rear wheel, it literally had no chrome whatsoever. I think the not-so-minty look makes the car looks much more genuine.

Lesney #53b - Mercedes 220SE Coupe Restoration

Hello!!!! I bet you all thought I'd forgotten and abandoned this little blog. Nope, just been caught up in moving to another state and starting a new job! But I'm getting settled in now, and slowly unpacking my workbench and getting it set up again. And this Mercedes is the first product of new workshop. I forgot to take before pics (or just can't find them on my computer), but it was in a pretty sorry state. I like working on the older Lesneys like this, they look great sitting on the shelf afterwards.

For this one, I decided to go with a dark metallic blue, over light grey interior to complement the silver plastic wheels. It looks great!! Not as perfect as I would've liked, but it's ok.

Matchbox Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Restoration

A little bit of vintage British luxury to class up your evening a bit. This old Roller was picked up on ebay for very cheap, and given a new lease on life!

I've always loved this casting, but never had one until now. I think its new color suits it well, as do the wheels. The wheels weren't my first choice, but I have a pretty limited supply of nice wheels at the moment.. Oh well, I like it. 

Maisto Porsche 356A Coupe - Detail and Wheel Swap

The Porsche 356 is one of history's all time greats. Great styling, a perky little air cooled engine, and fantastic competition history make for a perfect classic. I always made fun of the guys that, back in the day, thought the end times were near when the 356 was replaced by the new-fangled 911.. But having spent some time around the old bathtub Porsches, I can certainly see why one would think that way.. I'd have a hard time buying a 911 knowing that the 356 is out there...

The 356 is a car that has been sadly under-represented in small scale diecast. I have a Brumm 1/43 model, the Maisto 1/24th replica of the original 356, and a very well-worn Bburago 1/18 356 Cabriolet. That Bburago is very special to me, as it was the first diecast car I ever received as a kid.

I've wished for a long time that Matchbox would do a 356. I've heard rumors for a while that Hot Wheels is doing one, but I haven't seen it yet. So I picked up this Maisto at the Dollar Tree recently.. Nice casting, but no interior, ugly wheels, and lack of tampo detailing left a lot to be desired.

So I decided to do it up a bit... Some Matchbox wheels, and a bit of silver sharpie detailing is all I did here, but wow did it transform this car!! Now I'm hoping to find more of these cars to play with :)

Lesney #33c-Lamborghini Miura Superfast Chassis Swap

The Lamborghini Miura is an absolute classic, one of my all time favorite cars. And the Lesney version is just as good. A real gem, everyone should have one in their diecast collections.  I made a sort of reverse-transitional version. Just a chassis and interior swap with a beater purchased from ebay. As far as I know, there were never any made like this, so this is a "one-of-none" Whatcha think??

Other Miura restorations I have completed:

Regular Wheel Miura

Superfast Miura

And some of the other Miuras I have in my collection.

And some 1:1s to boot!

Amelia Island Concours d/Elegance 2015

Keeneland Concours d'Elegance 2014