I’m taking you back to the '70s; Disco music, flared trousers, afro hair-do’s, Pot-Noodles and many other ridiculously weird things. But some great things came out in the '70s too: Hotel California, huh… and the famed 1/76 line of Matchbox AFVs…![}:)]
Well, this is simple enough. Locate a Matchbox kit (AFV only please!), and give yourself a whole 24 hours to build it, vehicle, diorama and all! Because the great novelty thing with those Matchbox kits were the little base with the accessories and figures that came along with those kits. Remember the little bridge that came along with the Firefly…?
It’s not that difficult to locate those kits. E-bay, Kingkit, and now Revell re-issuing them. Won’t break the bank either!
48 hours to built the kit out of the box or bring in as many improvements as you care. Kitbashing, conversions allowed as long as it is based upon the kit and accompanying base. Because that’s the catch, you have to make use of the little diorama the kit comes with…! That little diorama can too be modified, detailled, included into a larger base, whatever, but it must be in there somewhere! Without it, you won’t deserve your Mad Matchbox Week end badge…!
It’s planned for the week end of the 19th and 20th of March 2005. I’m giving you two days because my MAD experience has shown that a MAD day project is really hard to complete!
Who’s in?
Let me refresh your memory a little, though! There were some great little models in that range. Enough for all tastes!
The Matchbox AFVs are definitely my favourite small-scale kits, they did an amazing range of types including
lots of less well-known types, as with their aircraft (probably one of the reasons they went out of business).
Detail-wise they’re still very good by small-scale standards (unlike most of Airfix’s military vehicles!), fit together
well, and the diorama bases are great for displaying them at shows and exhibitions.
I’ve built the T-34/76, SdKfz.232, Humber, Diamond-T tank transporter, Wespe, Jagdpanther and Jagdpanzer, and have the Firefly, Monty’s Caravan, M-16 and Panzer II in my stack of unbuilt kits.
There are loads of them which I’ve never seen for sale, let alone at a reasonable price, though - the French tank set (Char B1 and FT-17), Priest, M40, SdKfz.11, and one or two others.
I don’t think I’ll have the time to take part in the GB, but if you want I can post some pictures of the Matchbox vehicles
I’ve done so far. (In fact I’m working on a Puma at the minute, it just needs detail painting, weathering and decals to finish)
I’ve got the 6-rad, Churchill AVRE, T-34, tank transporter and perhaps a few others somewhere. If I can dig one out, I’d be interested in participating.
Domi, you sucked me in too. Have the Stuart kit in the archives, just have to find it before then (my son has the 6 Rad, Priest and Firefly kits, but I might steal them back!)
The LHS has the Revell Lang and M16 (with figures kits) - might be an excuse to splurge.
Just to let you guys know, Revell of Germany began reissuing the old Matchbox kits recently. This will make finding a kit to build easier and may save you money since you won’t have to pay collector’s prices for these kits. The kits that have been reissued recently are:
Revell also previous released some Matchbox kits along with Revell vinyl figures. Here are some of the kit numbers:
03150 SdKfz 11 with 7.5cm Pak 40 and BMW R75
03152 Jagdpanther
03153 M16 US Halftrack
03154 T-34/76
03155 PzKpfw III Ausf. L
03157 M7 HMC Priest
03158 PzKpfw II Ausf. F
03162 A-34 Comet
Another plus side to building a reissue is the decals will be better than the old Matchbox decals. Mine always seemed to be covered in a thick waxy substance from the protective wax paper that covered the decal sheet. But alas, the new kits won’t have those interesting 3 color sprues.
Well Im in and will be doing the PzKfpw III Ausf-L. You have got love that butterscotch and blaze orange plastic its molded in wow. And those tracks the ejector pins are on steroids. I was originally going to scrounge this kit for pioneer tools and the jack for a fujimi Hetzer and Kubelwagon dio but then found out they were molded on.
I will watch with interest, just can’t take the braille plunge at this time, trying to get some builds on the shelf. My friend, back in those 70’s, had a cool (I believe) Stug III and Jagdpanther. Nice kits. the little dios were a nice addition.
