Mailbox Finds - April 4th 2015

This Lesney lot arrived from ebay-land today. A bit lot of beaters and a few very nice pieces too! Price was about $17 shipped, which I think is a pretty good deal. Here's the beaters.. You'll be seeing quite a few of these again soon! I've got 4 or 5 already taken apart and in the paint stripper..

And here are the minters:

I think $17 would be worth it for the 4 nice cars, so the beaters are a bonus! They absolutely reek of cigarette smoke unfortunately, but I'm still happy with my little lot. 

Lesney #31c-Lincoln Continental Restoration

The Lincoln Continental is an all time American classic. With the debut of the new concept Continental, I thought it would be appropriate to showcase this custom one I just finished. Hope you like it! 

I bought this one as a cheap ebay beater in need of a better life. 

These old suicide door Contis just look sinister in black, so I knew what color I wanted to paint it... Gloss black, contrasted with a white interior, I think it looks perfect!

Pretty good looking, huh?

I'm getting quite a nice collection of this casting built up. Check out the Archives page for articles on the other custom Lincolns in these pics:

New Diecast Finds April 3rd, 2015

Found some great stuff over the last couple of days, finally. This has been a real slow spell for me, absolutely nothing new in stores for what seems like ages now. The first set of pics was found at Walmart yesterday.

And these next pictures were ebay finds that arrived today. First is a cool vintage Lesney Matchbox puzzle.. Not sure of the history behind it, but it was too cool to pass up! And the rest of the cars were bought in one big lot, and came in at less than $1 each shipped. 

I'm Moving Out... Let the packing commence

In about a month, I'll be graduating college, and moving to Kentucky to take a job as a flight instructor, and occasional charter pilot. It's going to be a great opportunity to kick start my flying career, and I can't wait! In the meantime though, I'm starting to pack up my apartment.. Quite a mammoth task, as my small apartment somewhat resembles a flea market stall.. Full of books, matchbox cars, and who knows what else! Here are a couple snapshots of what all I have to pack...

Let the fun begin!

Hot Wheels "So Fine" Buick Custom

Well... This one didn't come out quite as well as I was hoping, butI still love it!! I really need to work on my two-tone painting technique. Buick is one of my favorite US brands, and the So Fine, one of the best HW castings ever. I have a lot of extras saved up for customs, and I decided to tackle one of them.

I ended up going with a nice light tan, and dark metallic green roof. I don't know if this color combo was originally offered on Buicks of this era (I bet someone around here could provide some insight to that), but I think it works well on the car!

Matchbox Vauxhall Astra GTE Restoration

Good afternoon everyone, today I want to share with you a custom that has taken me ages to finish. I kept having paint problems with it, had to strip and repaint it three times I believe.

I came across this poor old Vauxhall in the "local" junkyard, and thought it looked worth saving. So I loaded it up on my trailer and took it back to the workshop!

Here's what I found when I got it back to the workshop and had a closer look:

And after a few weeks, and a new paint job, interior, and wheels, here she is!