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Car scale for miniatures


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Is Dollar Tree equivalent (as far as cheap, 1/43 cars go) to Dollar General? I think I've seen 1-2 Dollar General in SoCal, but I've absolutely no recollection where. Dollar Tree, however, are on about every other block...

 

Dollar General is not a dollar store.. it's kinda like Big Lots. It depends where you are in SoCal. I'm closer to central Cali but I saw a Dollar General out at Fresno. In San Diego I had the best luck finding 1/43 Diecast at Rite-Aid and other general purpose drug stores. They usually have a display on a toy aisle or at the front. Dollar Tree rarely has appropriately sized cars and when they do it tends to be a plastic kinda like tupperware sorta. I picked up a pair of SUVs from an actual Dollar Tree and they're not anywhere near the quality of most diecast. The doors don't open, the wheels are detailed like Happy Meal toys, a lot of details like headlights are actually stickers. Oh.. and.. it's covered in those stickers so that's a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean up. However, they were the correct size and make great wreckage or with a bit of work could even serve as an actual vehicle. (disassemble, insert clear plastic sheet from packaging for windows, paint job, maybe replace tires).

If you end up wanting to detail a vehicle google up zinge (I think it's zinge industries or zinge models or something). They have a TON of mechanical bits for order, including tires, engines, lights, railings, etc.

 

Another note.. 1/43 is a very common size for slot cars and 1/48 is an extremely common size for military models, particularly aircraft.

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Bell of Lost Souls is reporting that the GW game "Dark Future" may be next up for their throwbacks--this time scaled for 28mm.  I did not see a timeline.

 

It probably won't be closely scaled to 28mm, but it could work if the vehicles are generic enough.

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Is Dollar Tree equivalent (as far as cheap, 1/43 cars go) to Dollar General? I think I've seen 1-2 Dollar General in SoCal, but I've absolutely no recollection where. Dollar Tree, however, are on about every other block...

 

 

Dollar General is not a dollar store.. it's kinda like Big Lots. It depends where you are in SoCal. I'm closer to central Cali but I saw a Dollar General out at Fresno. In San Diego I had the best luck finding 1/43 Diecast at Rite-Aid and other general purpose drug stores. They usually have a display on a toy aisle or at the front. Dollar Tree rarely has appropriately sized cars and when they do it tends to be a plastic kinda like tupperware sorta. I picked up a pair of SUVs from an actual Dollar Tree and they're not anywhere near the quality of most diecast. The doors don't open, the wheels are detailed like Happy Meal toys, a lot of details like headlights are actually stickers. Oh.. and.. it's covered in those stickers so that's a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean up. However, they were the correct size and make great wreckage or with a bit of work could even serve as an actual vehicle. (disassemble, insert clear plastic sheet from packaging for windows, paint job, maybe replace tires).

If you end up wanting to detail a vehicle google up zinge (I think it's zinge industries or zinge models or something). They have a TON of mechanical bits for order, including tires, engines, lights, railings, etc.

 

Another note.. 1/43 is a very common size for slot cars and 1/48 is an extremely common size for military models, particularly aircraft.

A lot of construction-type vehicles are 1/50.

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Bell of Lost Souls is reporting that the GW game "Dark Future" may be next up for their throwbacks--this time scaled for 28mm.  I did not see a timeline.

 

It probably won't be closely scaled to 28mm, but it could work if the vehicles are generic enough.

I cannot imagine GW producing generic vehicles in ANY scale. Skullmobiles and a Mad Max line, maybe.

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I cannot imagine GW producing generic vehicles in ANY scale. Skullmobiles and a Mad Max line, maybe.

 

Touché, sir.

 

According to BoLS, GW are thinking about directly tying the Dark Future story into the the rest of their story somehow. So, what does this urban police car need?  MOAR SKULLZ!

 

But I remember those olden days and a number of the Matchbox/Hot Wheels (or other die cast) that found their way into 'Eavy Metal and I remain curious.  Not hopeful, but still will be interested to see which way this goes.

Edited by strawhat
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I'll be honest, I had never realized how BIG 1/43 cars are  :rock:

 

A sedan style car tends to be roughly 5"

 

 

 

 

Is Dollar Tree equivalent (as far as cheap, 1/43 cars go) to Dollar General? I think I've seen 1-2 Dollar General in SoCal, but I've absolutely no recollection where. Dollar Tree, however, are on about every other block...

 

Dollar General is not a dollar store.. it's kinda like Big Lots. It depends where you are in SoCal. I'm closer to central Cali but I saw a Dollar General out at Fresno. In San Diego I had the best luck finding 1/43 Diecast at Rite-Aid and other general purpose drug stores. They usually have a display on a toy aisle or at the front. Dollar Tree rarely has appropriately sized cars and when they do it tends to be a plastic kinda like tupperware sorta. I picked up a pair of SUVs from an actual Dollar Tree and they're not anywhere near the quality of most diecast. The doors don't open, the wheels are detailed like Happy Meal toys, a lot of details like headlights are actually stickers. Oh.. and.. it's covered in those stickers so that's a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean up. However, they were the correct size and make great wreckage or with a bit of work could even serve as an actual vehicle. (disassemble, insert clear plastic sheet from packaging for windows, paint job, maybe replace tires).

If you end up wanting to detail a vehicle google up zinge (I think it's zinge industries or zinge models or something). They have a TON of mechanical bits for order, including tires, engines, lights, railings, etc.

 

Another note.. 1/43 is a very common size for slot cars and 1/48 is an extremely common size for military models, particularly aircraft.

A lot of construction-type vehicles are 1/50.

 

 

Be careful with this. Some that are listed at 1/50 are definitely smaller than 1/50. This is especially true for Hotwheel listings that show as 1/50. I bought some of the Elite series 1/50 hoping for some cool cheap cars.. They are so small I am probably going to use them for 15mm instead.

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I picked up a couple of vehicles from Walmart today.

I didn't have any minis with me but one vehicle stated 1/43 scale while the other looked a bit bigger but no scale was marked. I figured they both looked pretty close to what I needed so I got them.

FullSizeRender_zpsipew6jwc.jpg

FullSizeRender_zpsxowxojnm.jpg

Turns out that my minis vary so much that some look better with the larger vehicle while others look better with the smaller one.

Think that I'll just have to live with the slight variance if I'm ever going to get this table started.

Edited by Darsc Zacal
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Did you see the 1/43rd scale tractor trailers for $10 each? They had a tanker, a standard freight trailer, a cattle hauler and a dump truck with a trailer.

They're called Adventure Wheels Big Rigs.

I have one each of the top two. And I'm seriously thinking about picking up the other two.

419g-JXHcpL.jpg41cLh4AuTqL._SX300_.jpgs-l300.jpg41svaoKSkAL._SX300_.jpg

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Did you see the 1/43rd scale tractor trailers for $10 each? They had a tanker, a standard freight trailer, a cattle hauler and a dump truck with a trailer.

They're called Adventure Wheels Big Rigs.

I have one each of the top two. And I'm seriously thinking about picking up the other two.

419g-JXHcpL.jpg41cLh4AuTqL._SX300_.jpgs-l300.jpg41svaoKSkAL._SX300_.jpg

No. I did not see those, although I admit I was pretty focused on looking for the smaller vehicles and may have overlooked them.

I hope the Walmarts up here carry them cause I want one now.

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I have noticed that along with the generics there are a lot of region-specific police cars.

 

For example, in Darsc's post yesterday the car on the left says "RCMP" (can't read the one on the right).

 

When I was in New York the toy police cars said "New York", and in Chicago not only did they say "Chicago" but they had the distinctive Chicago livery of white cars with a single horizontal baby blue stripe.

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