Large Scale Central

1:18 Diecast with F Scale trains

General Discussion
#1

I wasn’t in the market for die cast cars, but got sold pretty well at a local flea market we attended with my brother and his wife. I asked the price; “$25 each” he says. “They sold for over $100 from Danbury Mint”. I’m not an expert, but I’ve heard of Danbury mint and they are pretty good stuff. Not wishing to part with that much cash I said thank you and turned to leave. “$20 each if you by two”. “No Thanks” I said and walked away. Before I got out of ear shot; “how about 2 for $20?”. I kept walking but thought that sounded pretty good. After a few minutes I came back to take him up on the offer but decided to counter with “How about 3 for $25?” He accepted so I am now the owner my first three 1:18 scale die cast cars.

Upon inspection when I got home they are definitely not Danbury Mint. Only one is branded Welly and all are from China. To be fair he, never said they were, just used them as a price point. A little trickery, but it worked for him. One does have a serial number, but no maker name. All have some blemishes and there are a few missing parts, but at less than $8.50 each I still feel good about the price. I picked up a Ford Crestliner, a Chevy Bel Aire and a Cord roadster.

Scale discrepancy to 1:20.3 has been discussed to death in other places. I can’t afford Hubley and don’t really want cars of the eras that Hubley made. They certainly look a lot better than 1:24 with my trains. Just for fun I calculated the difference. 1:18 scale is 2.3" scale inches per inch, or 11.3% too big. On the other hand, 1:24 is 3.7" or 18.2% too small. The error to 1:24 scale make it look horrible except in forced perspective. I did some test photos tonight and think they look OK, but you be the judge.

The Crestliner…

The Chevy…

And the Cord…

I need to think up some outdoor scenes then pose them for better photos.

#2

Jon,

To my eye they look good next to the trains, but look big next to the track. Good photos though and you did good on the price! JMHO (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#3

OK, but don’t forget this is narrow gauge territory. If my track was in scale (code 250 or so) they would look even bigger!

I do need to ballast indoors this winter.

#4

Hi Jon,

Great deal on the cars.

As for scale, I use only 1:18 vehicles on my all narrow gauge lines. I feel that they make the trains look smaller and more true to life.

The problem arises when others try to make a comparison and the only reference they have is in their minds eye of modern mainline equipment.

But that is just my opinion(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Rick

Maybe a different example.

Here is a 1:16 Monarch crawler loaded on a depressed flat car that was originally built in 1:22 scale and later upgraded to 1:20 scale with 1:20 scale details added. Tell me the pieces don’t look correct and in scale with each other.

#5

Gud enuf fer Gumint werk, Jon. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#6

Nice looking pieces and they seem to fit well in the photos. I’d sure use them. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#7

Jon

Those cars look great and for the price you got a deal.

I have seen a lot of modelers use 1/18th for their scenery details in Fn3. As long as you stick with it and don’t mix in other scales (especially smaller people 1/24th etc) it will look just fine.

Cars were bigger in the fifties and sixties and narrow gauge engines are small. It all looks good together. Ricky and Hollywood both make the same point and hey three knuckleheads can’t be wrong!

You also have the advantage of there being a huge selection of vehicles, trucks, construction equipment, etc available in 1/18th to choose from.

#8

Good find, Jon. I have a bunch of Hubley’s, but never remember to bring them out…:wink:

#9

The autos look fine next to the trains. I too use 1:18 scale die cast vehicles. In fact, I sometimes even use larger scale items if they look appropriate to me. Here is a 1:16 scale die cast CAT Crawler on a 1:20.3 scale Bachmann flat car. Most folks don’t realize how small the actual Crawler was and are used to large CAT equipment so it looks normal to them.

Bob

#10

Jon,

Following up on my earlier post, and staying with the theme of crawler tractors here is a shot of 1:20 scale Cat 60’s sitting on a 1:20 scale flat car. Everything matches scale wise but there is no way a casual observer would ever know that there was a difference between the two flat car loads unless told.

#11

Sheesh! What a great deal! They look great - although I would just HAVE to favor that Cord (heh…it’s the ONLY one that fits my layout!) I’m still betting that even 1:24 figures have a hard time fitting in those seats! Still, I grew up with those other models - how cool is that?

But, yeah, it MIGHT be time to think about code 250? (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)Eh, whatever…they still look dang good!

#12

Great looking flat loads Rick & Bob. And thanks everyone for the replies. I thought they looked pretty good. Saw the perfect spot in the perfect light thi evening but it was fleeting. I need to do test shots and be ready when the light is right again.

#13

They definitely look like they fit in. That’s my biggest worry, is that all the 1/24 cars I’ve built over the years will look too small with my 1/20 and 1/22.5 trains.

#14

I hear ya Mike. At one time I was buying a lot of 1:24. They might be OK with the 1:22 stuff and are just fair with 1:29, but are just too small for 1:20.3. I have a big box full in storage - need to put them up for sale to finance more 1:18 (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

#15

Seems like a popular one the 1:16 'dozer/1:20.3 flatcar combo…and never mind the buildings. I’ve done the same. What the mind does not know the heart does not grieve over. As others have said if you do not know the size of the prototypes in relation to each other then who cares ? As well as this I have a 1:16 “Fergie” tractor running as a load for my 16 mm scale Welshpool stock (does any of that last sentence make sense ?). Seems the standard “collectors model” scale for a lot of agricultural and construction models seems to be 1:16 over hear in UK/Europe - I wonder how that happened ? (Trams too). Now if only I can get my hands on a Ricko 1:18 Austin 7 “Chummy” at the kind of prices you got yours for Jon I’d be a happy man - current market prices about $120 MIB.

#16

Today, in hopes of some afternoon clearing of the sky, the railroad transported the new cars out to Coal Dump Curve where the plan was to run a late afternoon coal train for the rail-fan photographers. The overcast sky never broke so these test shots are all I have to show for the effort. If I had my tripod out there was about 10 minutes of nice indirect light from a colorful sunset, but alas, I had put everything away by then.

The work train has just unloaded the vintage cars…

Later, the coal train was run by for test angles…

I hope we see some sun soon. We were cheated out of early September weather with more wet steamy summer.