Glad you like it.
Definitely agree that it needs a repaint. I'm not even sure where I'm going to use mine, but I want to take a stab at repainting it to a more traditional scheme.
A scheme like this would be nice...
...and it suggests that the waterline level on the matchbox is very close to accurate!
One other shortcoming of the Police Launch it is that the figures are just standing there, but I think a brakewheel and mount from a cabbose could be glued right in to make a helm.
Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad for Chicago Trainspotting and Budget Model Railroading.
I routinely use Matchbox or Hot Wheels construction equipment and farm machinery as scenery items. The scale seems to vary, perhaps all the items are made to fit a child's hand? In any case, things like high lifts, backhoes, bulldozers and dump trucks, or some tractors and smaller harvesting equipment, aren't too far off from 1/87, and I'm not terribly meticulous about it.
I also won't spend large sums of money on vehicles.
Genesee Terminal, freelanced HO in Upstate NY ...hosting Loon Bay Transit Authority, run through Amtrak and CSX Intermodal
CP/D&H, N scale, somewhere on the Canadian Shield
Needs new paint, but that defintely works for me. It's a waterline hull, too, which makes adding it to and moving around on a scene easy. I like to reposition vehicles and aircraft on the layout to "freshen" things.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Haven't done the blog post about it yet, but here's the Matchbox Police Launch with HO items for scale comparison.
No, that was a swamp boat. Floated like a regular boat but used an engine and air propellor to move it. I always wanted to drive one of those.
Long time ago I found an unbuild wood kit for one, guess my dad bought it and never put it together. Dumas kit, I think. I had the radio and servos, plus motor, from an RC car I had, so I started building the boat and was going to make it electric. I built up the hull and shellaced and sanded it nice, but then Summer was over and it was back to school and I never finished it. Didn't really have a place to run it if I had. Now I have a nice pool I could run it in, and no boat. Was kind of fun building it, all wood flat kit, good thing they are flat hulled and don't have a typical keel and boat hull shape.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Nice improvements to the hovercraft Mike. It reminds me of Dennis Weaver booking across the Everglades with Gentle Ben. I don't think that was a hovercraft though?
TF
mlehman I did some more detailing on the hivercraft after getting the operator out of his box and making him visible to make it more of a HO scale perspective.
I did some more detailing on the hivercraft after getting the operator out of his box and making him visible to make it more of a HO scale perspective.
Excellent work. Looks scale and realistic now.
Here's another boat to keep an eye out for in used bins.
http://matchbox.wikia.com/wiki/Police_Launch
Could use a bit of detailing but the figs are spot on for HO. I've got a scale comparison pic of it somewhere if I can find it I'll post it up. Also, At the blog linked in my sig I've got alot of scale comparison pictures of HO'ish Matchbox trucks and such alongside of HO figures and vehicles.
I like it Mike, nice bit of reworking!
Just one thing, that operator better be strapped in and have googles on! or I'm telling the Safety Police! They are quite strict in here on such matters.
You have me checking out the Hot Wheels section everytime I have to go to the local Wally World.
Mike.
EDIT: Kidding, just kidding, don't want to get the SP in a tither.
My You Tube
There are still a few rough spots here and there, but it llooks good at 3'.
rrinkerFound a YouTube channel of a guy in Australia who restores them, recognized some of the models as ones I had.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, fellows.
Eilif For myself the tiny doors and a few other details make it a bit too small in scale
Good comment. True, if you think of them like that in the larger scales. I tend to see the too thick paint and the limited relief on the superstructure as vents and hatches in HO, rather than windows and doors. I considered cutting and applying some sheeting to "smooth" things out visually and may still do that.
Another thing that would help would be to reconsider the open cockpit, because a scale person would help the eye see the smaller scale "openings" as something else in the larger scale, too. I thought it would be more obviously HO, but I may reconsider and kidnap a tiny person out of the seat of some other vehicle on the layout, build a seat and give them a new job as a hovercraft operator.
Traditional Matchbox scale is actually in between, somewhere around 1/76. A bit large for HO, a bit small for S. As seen - some type of vehicles work just fine. We used to use them all the time on the old family room holiday layout. I only wish I had more of the ones I had as a kid - in the plastic carrying cases even. I took good care of them, but my sister let my nephew at them when he was little. Some of them are now worth something, if they are in good condition. I did have a large collection of the antique cars in their "Models of Yesteryear" series - those I had NEVER played with, they were all in their original boxes. Now many are missing pieces. The standard ones - I had a lot. Found a YouTube channel of a guy in Australia who restores them, recognized some of the models as ones I had.
Very creative use of the hovercraft. For myself the tiny doors and a few other details make it a bit too small in scale, but there's quite a few matchbox watercraft that would work quite well in HO.
Here's a notable boat that is currently available that would work well.
Quite a few others including the classic harbor patrol boat that even has aproxiamtely HO scale drivers.
mlehman Harrison, That NYPD (Suburban?) looks pretty good there, good enuf for me. And a very nice pic of it, too!
Harrison, That NYPD (Suburban?) looks pretty good there, good enuf for me. And a very nice pic of it, too!
The door also opens. I don't remember where it came from, probibly from my dad(who was a police officer). The truck in the forground of this photo is an old HO scale truck.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
Dave, Thanks for your kind compliment! This might come in useful for Canadian modelers, with all that back country to explore in Canada. I've been watching some videos of various cool off-road contraptions recently, such as the Argo series and the Russian-built Sherpa, and lots of the best footage is shot somewhere 'way back in the woods up North. If I ever win the lottery...
Nice! I use matchbox cars and boats on my layout, while some are to big(S scale) others seem to be just right, like my NYPD police car, which was not more than $5. I simply will not pay over $20 for an HO scale car.
That's cool Mike! I'm sure it will get lots of attention.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Came across an interesting vehicle in the Matchbox 65th Anniversary series, the H2O Glider (71/125), a fair rendition of a hovercraft. While close inspection suggests it represents a large craft that is rendered in a fairly small scale (perhaps N or Z modelers can use it like that), it is actually the size of a smaller craft in one of the larger scales (HO or S). Here's a pic of what you get out of the package.
I'm not hunting whales, so the "harpoon gun" or whatever the thing is on the front deck seemed superfluous. I cut it off with a stroke of the chisel bit on my knife. This left a stud down in the hole.
I found that some 1/4" styrene tubing would fit over the stud, help fill the hole, and provides a mounting point on the front deck if needed.
I used a piece of scrap plastic to make a covered cockpit, painting it gray. I also took a cotton swab dipped in acetone to wipe away the "Ocean Research" title.
It would be possible to just put a seat with an operator sitting in it like on an airboat, as many small hovercraft have. I just went with simple for now. I applied some paint to help the "windows" look more like vents and to highlight the fine details cast into the rear fan assemblies.
And here's the hovercraft operating up the Rio de las Animas.
Yes, a bit out of the ordinary as far as vehicles are concerned. For less than $2, you can also have an hovercraft doing search and rescue, science research or just taking a hunter out into the sticks.