HRG from Swedish website.

I found this while looking for more reference:



My own Hurg is coming along slowly...

HRG Revisited

Over time there were a few things about my original HRG that began to bug me. Eventually I decided to have a go at re-doing the shell as I felt that I could do a better job of it. I only had one useable shell which is the one that I had painted, having sent off the original master with the silicone mould to Graham Poulton who used them to create his own delightful version of my model. I stripped the shell using Castrol Super Clean and set to work.

I am presently working on the rear end, having moved the spats back and also lengthened the tail section slightly so that it is more in line with the prototype. This has had the effect of freeing up some space just forward of the spats in order to make the doors wider, which is great as I have always felt that they were too narrow on the original shell.

It looks pretty rough at the moment, but of course will slowly look better as I finish defining the shape and smooth it all out. After the rear section it'll be the turn of the front area, and this time I'll be doing a slightly different version with different shut lines on the wings. The wings need some work as to the shape, and also the body height needs to be adjusted.

This will form the buck, from which I will form a master for the final mould.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this version turns out. I'm enjoying it, which is a good sign.

SLOW...

Nothing much happening here. I've been working on the D-Type from time to time, but it's going so slowly. I replaced the side panels at least...

SHORTNOSE D-TYPE Current Project

Here's one I'm working on right now, well, on and off anyway. It started off as a Minialuxe D-Type from the early sixties. Minialuxe was a French company who produced mostly 1/43 plastic vehicles, similar to Norev. They made a few 1/32 cars, of which this was one, together with a Mercedes and a Gordini. MRRC distributed them as slot car shells, and they could be seen featured in some of their magazine ads from around that time. Over the years these shells become badly warped, and this one was no exception. I tried to have a go at one before but it failed when the paint stripper I was using melted the plastic. See here:
http://slottysalad.blogspot.com/2009/04/minialuxe-d-type.html
I originally gave this shell to Charles Lawrence out in Seattle, but he kindly returned it when I asked him if I could have a go at making something decent of it.
I was going to just straighten out the shell,but I think I've gone a little bit further than that now! It'll be far from perfect in the end, but much better than the sorry state it was in. I first straightened it out as much as possible using steam, then made cuts in the body to straighten it out further. I then removed the "hump" from behind the drivers' seat, as it wasn't in line, and also filled in the cockpit area because that needed to be redone too. There's not going to be much left of the original Minialuxe when I'm finished I think...

HAND CARVED JAGS

hese two hand-carved Jaguars, a C-Type and a D-Type were probably carved sometime in the late to mid fifties. They are well detailed, and feature SMEC wheels and steering wheels. All I did when I got them was rub a bit of 3 in 1 oil onto them to bring out the shine and that's it.

RAIL CARS

Here are some photos of a few rail cars I was lucky enough to win on ebay a while ago. Actually I already posted these photos on Slotforum, but here they are again for your enjoyment. They all came with Merit BRM bodies, and there are two chassis, one aluminium and one stainless steel, with the other rail car utilizing a Scalextric sidewinder motor (same as the ones used in the early tinplate cars) that fits inside the Merit shell, which unfortunately, is broken. They are in pristine condition, even the motor wires look like they've never actually been soldered to the motor brushes. The tyres look unused too, but there are some faint traces of use on the wipers. They are superbly crafted, one could say over-engineered actually. Note the attention to detail in the design, e.g. the machined blocks with grub screws for holding the business end of the motor on the singe-motored chassis. The tyres are a mix of Tri-ang and Alf Walshaw, one of the pioneers or electric rail racing in the U.K..
There is also a very unusual steering mechanism using what looks to be a model railway solenoid with a connecting arm that fits onto the kingpin of the steering linkage. Some form of remote steering experiment?
They were originally found in a box in a charity shop! One can't help but wonder what wonderful stuff may not have made it that far and was binned?