60s to 80s autos, delivery vans and greyhounds?

[Dave-the-Train]

I would like to mechanically populate my town streets of the 80s with more than just trucks, semi trailers and emergency services.

I have checked right through Walthers and I'm working my way through what they can provide.

BUT... I would like more ordinary autos... the odd panel van (such as an Econovan) and one of those 3 axle step bodied Greyhound or similar buses.

Any suggestions please?

TIA

[DSchmitt]

If its available in HO scale, this is the site to find out about it.

http://www.1-87vehicles.org/

Here's another site to try:

http://www.87thscale.info/

[edo1039]

Try here also.

http://www.truckstopmodels.com/catalog_order_forms/mek_order_bus.php

[Eriediamond]

Try here also.

http://www.truckstopmodels.com/catalog_order_forms/mek_order_bus.php

WOW!!! 65$ and wait for an HO scale unpainted plastic bus kit!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Who wouldn't, check out classic metals, they have a couple sedans,and a coupe for seventies. We need more sedans and station wagons for that time span, more big boat types;  impalas. new yorkers,devilles.'98's.ltd's,etc,  I've seen too many 55 chevys.

[bcawthon]

Modern cars are easy to make because aids like CAD files, photo references are available from the manufacturer (this is the benefit of licensing). This reduces the pre-production costs. Cars from the fifties are popular because there is a large, established market among Transition Era fans.

Cars from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are more difficult. References like drawings, engineering models and such have been discarded. This means finding a vehicle either in perfect condition or restored to showroom new so you can spend a day shooting about a thousand photos and taking measurements. Now, what's more likely to have been lovingly maintained or restored? Sports cars, muscle cars, convertibles, two-door hardtops, etc. What's least likely? The family haulers like sedans and station wagons. The exception seems to be sedans that were once police cars as there are a fair number of restored squads from that era.

It's possible to work from a larger-scale model, but once again, the models available are primarily sports cars, muscle cars, convertibles, two-door hardtops, and the like. Even in the heyday of the 1/25 scale plastic kit, there weren't that many family hauler models. And the big days of the 1/25 scale kit were over by the early 1970s.

In addition, most modelmakers also want sales to the collector market, which is primarily interested in, you guessed it, sports cars, muscle cars, convertibles and two-door hardtops. When you are ponying up the best part of the price of a Lexus for tooling, you want to be sure you have the maximum potential for sales. I have had more than one model company tell me the only way they would do a sedan is if it could be re-released as a cop car, taxi or fire chief's car. Swell if you're a big fan of Ford Customs and Plymouth Furys (Chevys are out because of GM is too difficult to work with) but kind of a bummer if you want Dodges or Mercurys or Falcons, Fairlanes, Valiants, etc.

The 1980s are a tough sell. For one thing, there just weren't that many memorable family cars from that decade, except the Taurus. The 1980s were not the best of times for Detroit and most of the family cars in that decade were either leftovers from the 1970s, like the Ford LTD/Crown Vic, Chevy Impala/Caprice and the various Aspen-based Chryslers or anonymous cars like the Chevrolet Celebrity and its clones. If you look at the larger collector market, there just aren't very many models from that era at all. This means that American model railroaders would be the primary market. Hate to say it, guys, but that's just about the kiss of death. There just aren't enough model railroaders willing to pay what it costs to produce a real HO scale vehicle model to make it a viable business proposition. We're talking models in the range of $5.00 to $10.00 or more each at retail.

And before anyone gets upset about the price or on their high horse about "this is model railroading," they should realize no one is going to argue with them. The model railroad industry will do its best to meet their priorities with products they will buy. But the range I cited above is what is costs to make a model vehicle and the industry won't make products that can't return their investment. This is, after all, business.

But you should never say never. The number of HO models and HO modelmakers is growing. There are actually now more HO American vehicle models on the market or in pre-production than ever before in the history of the scale and the larger scales are becoming saturated. Someone is bound to notice the dearth of models for this period and realize the 1960s and 1970s at least had the open auto rack, which means significant potential sales to owners of those and more sales to modeler whose layouts are set in the second-generation diesel era and later. Hopefully, someone will then notice the gap between 1979 and 1990 and start filling in a space or two there.

[GAPPLEG]

Try here also.

http://www.truckstopmodels.com/catalog_order_forms/mek_order_bus.php

WOW!!! 65$ and wait for an HO scale unpainted plastic bus kit!!!!!!!!

But this is what it looks like after your done, I did one about a year ago.

 

[edo1039]

Jerry what color blue did you use,I am about ready to paint mine .

[GAPPLEG]

Actually I sat down with as many photos of the old greyhounds I could find, and custom mixed a batch. It came out pretty close I think. You just gotta experiment.!  It was fun but it took some time to get a good match.  I'm not at home right now(at work) so I can't say what blue I started with, but I added white till it came close.  Sorry, thats all I can say.

[goldenturtle]

  I stopped at  my local Wal-mart sat. they had a few die-cast 1/87 scale early Jaguar, Porsche and old VW bugs all towing small rounded top camp trailers. they also had some '70's Dodge, Ford and Chevy vans. All were in the $3.00-$5.00 range. and all are real nice quality.

[Dave-the-Train]

Gapleg

That's a real nice Greyhound!  You've made a good advert for them

Goldenturtle

What make are the Walmart models please?  It's a bit of a long walk for me to my nearest Walmart... and wet too...

TIA

[bcawthon]

What make are the Walmart models please?  It's a bit of a long walk for me to my nearest Walmart... and wet too...

The Wal-Mart models are sold under the Malibu International, Planet Toys, Athearn and Norscot names. The cheapie cars are Malibu International, which is not sold internationally. However, the same models are offered by Schuco in their Edition 1:87 line. In the UK, Schuco is available from:

John Ayrey Die-Casts Ltd.
Bentley House 202, Market Street
Shipley, West Yorkshire
Great Britain BD18 2BY
phone [phone]
fax [phone]
[e-mail]

Some of the older models are also sold under other names at lower prices, at least in Germany. I don't know if these models are marketed in the UK.

The Athearn and Norscot models are special-production items, marketed through mass merchandisers in the U.S. Most of the Athearn stuff is licensed John Deere products. Since Athearn's license from Deere covers only the U.S. and Canada, I don't know if they would be available in Britain. Norscot models are available in the UK. In fact, Norscot has a London office which can be contacted at: 

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

However, once again, these may be the regular line of Norscot diecast, not the cheaper models available at Wal-Mart.