Mini Muscle

For a car in production for such a short time – about a year – Ford’s XW model Falcon GT-HO Phase II certainly generated plenty of model interest. Let’s start with our cover car, the Diamond White press car. Well, Classic Carlectables produced a lovely

1:18 example in this very colour. There were 2750 examples made in this colour, so maybe the prices for this 2008 release are not totally stupid.

And of course, there are plenty of other road versions – Grecian Gold, Brambles Red and Starlight Blue; 1000 each of the former and just 650 of the last. These three were released between 2014 and 2018. I found a few of the blue cars on Ebay for about the original retail price – $259 seems the common asking price. So they’re out there. And hey, they’re a nice-looking model.

Of the racing cars, well, there are certainly a few about. Let’s start with the obvious, the Allan Moffat 1970 Bathurst winner. Now, Classics released this in 2007, making 6500 of them – a huge production run for a model in this scale. And because there are lots of them, the price is not insane – south of $300 even. Considering that this was Moffat’s rst Bathurst win, it’s an important model for his fans. He won the Great Race four times in eight years – 1970-77. That’s a fairly marvelous achievement.

Interestingly, I didn’t nd (in a very quick search) any examples of the 2011 release of the 2nd place car that year, that driven by Bruce McPhee. How odd – but then even though McPhee’s car was part of factory Ford one-two, without a 1977 ‘form nish’ and the pics to go with it, it’s an achievement that’s been a bit shrouded by the mists of time.

There are plenty of Fred Gibson/Bo Seton cars, though, this being the third of the works Ford entries that retired after just 33 laps. And that’s all the Phase II racers made in the big scale by Classics. There’s a 1:43 of the winning car, and I reckon you should pay between $50 and $100 for that.

Down the road at Biante pickings are a little slimmer. Biante, along with Aussie Road Ragers, made a 1:64 of these cars. Biante also made 1:43 Moffat and McPhee cars. You can nd the Road Ragers car for under $20 at www. cooeeclassics.com. They’ve also done a precrash Bill Brown XY Phase III – hmmm. It’s a pity that’s about all we remember Bill for – he had a long and splendid career in sports cars.

Trax did a Diamond White road car in 1:24 scale. This is the ‘American’ scale so if you have lots of cars from the Land of the Free this might be a better t for your collection. Trax did a McPhee car in 1:43 car and have done a few road versions in that scale.

Some interesting cars not modeled (yet – let’s keep our ngers crossed) are the Tony Roberts car that was running so well until rolling off the top of the mountain with just a handful of laps to go. It was suggested that if he hadn’t landed in an apple orchard, he’d have kept rolling forever. As one who’s climbed that slope, let’s just say it’s a long, long way down and very steep. Roberts was bloody lucky to walk away from that one.

There was also the John Goss/Bob Skelton car that was third Falcon home in ninth – and got fastest lap. Will we ever see these, even in a smaller scale? Of course, perhaps someone has done their own – again, and as always, we’re very keen to see your projects.

I check over at Pattos Place (www. pattosplace.com) showed decal sheets for several of the Phase II runners including the three Factory cars so there’s your Bruce McPhee model. If you’re like me and are both cheap and have a preference for small things, we’d start probably with a Road Ragers 1:64 Bruce McPhee car (their only Phase II) and strip off the paint, respraying and applying Patto decals.

Patto has decal sheets for all 16 of the 1970 Bathurst Falcons. Even the Nick Petrilli/Mike Savva car that didn’t start! I’ve found the quality of his decals to be the equal of any major kit maker like Revell or Tamiya (which is to say, ‘good, very good’). And the prices are pretty reasonable – contact him via his website.

Of course, you could stump up the cash for a bigger model and do the same thing – a bit more of a challenge, of course. Again, we’d love to see your results. With so many of us locked away at home, there’s lots of time for such projects. I started an AMT Shelby GT500 kit a while back – did you see those in Aldi as one of the weekly specials? Anyway, it showed mostly how far kits have come. I probably have it 7/8 nished and it’s all back in the box. So much of it didn’t t properly and I screwed it up as a consequence. Maybe I’ll use it for a diorama at some point.

Seriously – modern kits from Tamiya, Hasegawa, Italeri and the like are a quantum leap ahead. So I’m working on a Tamiya kit of a car that would have the blood of most Australian MUSCLE CAR readers boiling, so we’ll say no more about it…

An interesting car not modeled (yet – let’s keep our fingers crossed) is the Tony Roberts car that was running so well until rolling off the top of the mountain with just a handful of laps to go. It was suggested that if he hadn’t landed in an apple orchard, he’d have kept rolling forever.

Patto has decal sheets for all 16 of the 1970 Bathurst Falcons. Even the Nick Petrilli/Mike Savva car that didn’t start! I’ve found the quality of his decals to be the equal of any major kit maker like Revell or Tamiya (which is to say, ‘good, very good’). And the prices are pretty reasonable – contact him via his website.

Of course, you could stump up the cash for a bigger model and do the same thing – a bit more of a challenge, of course. Again, we’d love to see your results. With so many of us locked away at home, there’s lots of time for such projects. I started an AMT Shelby GT500 kit a while back – did you see those in Aldi as one of the weekly specials? Anyway, it showed mostly how far kits have come. I probably have it 7/8 nished and it’s all back in the box. So much of it didn’t t properly and I screwed it up as a consequence. Maybe I’ll use it for a diorama at some point.

Seriously – modern kits from Tamiya, Hasegawa, Italeri and the like are a quantum leap ahead. So I’m working on a Tamiya kit of a car that would have the blood of most Australian MUSCLE CAR readers boiling, so we’ll say no more about it…

An interesting car not modeled (yet – let’s keep our fingers crossed) is the Tony Roberts car that was running so well until rolling off the top of the mountain with just a handful of laps to go. It was suggested that if he hadn’t landed in an apple orchard, he’d have kept rolling forever.