The Little World

The great days of the hot rod and custom car were…ummm…well, actually they were yesterdayand went all the way back to the 1940’s. They’ve been held over for the present and will be still continuing for the future. No-one manages to tell the customisers that they can’t do anything so they just go ahead and do it.

No more so than the 1:64 custom and rod builders who start on die cast cars and trucks from a number of makers. Of course there are commercial visions by Mattel and Greenlight to start with, but the keen hobbyist will take this as no more than an amusing canvas upon which to paint their own ideas. They are somewhat bolder than the plastic modellers in that the metal bodies they deal with need a lot more massaging to eventually change shape. And they are such little bodies to start with that you are tempted to think of the builders working like watchmakers on them.

The great thing about this scale is the reasonable prices that start the builder off – Mattel cars out of the hands of the dollar-collectors are inexpensive – So are Greenlight, and these are often available in multiple editions of one casting. You can sometimes hit close to your final target with the initial purchase – particularly if you are trying to recreate classic rods or customs.

A somber note from me – and me alone – here. I wish that the makers of the world had been able to agree to keep the diecast cars to a constant scale – and I would have picked 1:48 had I been the scale dictator. Then the O-gauge railway people and the car collectors could play nice with the model airplane kit builders and figue makers. But t’was not to be and we have this wonderful vehicle base in 1:64 with very little else to match. ” S ” gauge railroading has never had the push of ” O “. ” OO ‘, or ” HO “. You can get some ‘S ” structures but most of your dioramas are going to have to be scratch-built.

For the 1:64 customiser all they need is a basic cars and a bit of elbow room. They are going to soar on their own ideas anyway.