You gotta love a clear out...

I was having a bit of a clear-up in the workshop, mainly in case Chris wants Christmas decorations from the well hidden doors.  Well hidden by my stuff and a selection of huge gorillas for which we have no room, but which Chris will not get rid of.  Long other story....
I was already getting jitters about where the DH 89 master had disappeared to and where my newly acquired aviation snips might be resting, when I came across a box I'd forgotten about, in which was another old "Guild" models box, one of the 5x2x2 maroon things that my old series of kits came in years ago.  It was very heavy, so white metal seemed to be what I'd find inside and sure enough this was in a bag.

"What the bloomin' Hell is that pile o' junk", I hear you say.  Well, it's a 1/43rd scale Raysoncraft.  I made the master years ago for S.A.M.S. Models up Hull way.  It was a very popular American sports and racing boat.  We had an old but accurate AMT kit of it in 1/25th scale, so I scaled it down and produced this in brass.  S.A.M.S. was one of the few companies that ever sent me cast examples of my masters. Indeed, somewhere in another heavy Guild box, I have a built one in metallic purple!...Somewhere.  I also have the custom 4 wheel trailer for it in the showcase, so these parts will be all put and brought together to make a rather dashing addition to one of my dioramas, either the Tony Moss garage or Lantern Yard.  I will be finishing it more in a British fashion than candyapple, vreeble, flip-flop, metalflake like our Yankee chums are wont to do.  More your Oulton Broad or Windermere Motor Boat Racing Clubs then Tri-County Speed Week.  Cream and Cambridge blue, I think, with some Windermere Numbers.
Quite a few of these were imported, contrary to popular belief, along with Chris-Crafts and even the odd Gar Wood Baby Gar (the bones of one can still be seen at King's old yard on Wallasey Island)
Although the drag boat version (we also did the comfy sports boat) would have been unlikely in Britain, I can always pretend that this one was on its way to Windermere Records Week, one October in the early 60s.  I have a Bristol 400 as a tow car.  One of the earlier Mikansue Models I also did the master for back in about 1973!
Here you can see the detachable sponsons that go on the hull to make it a drag boat, along with a blower, stub exhausts, etc. for the small block Chevy power plant.
Here's the rest of the bits:-

And inevitably, I haven't a clue what they all are!

And in the box with the boaty stuff was this:-

A second generation Dinky toy in 43rd scale...one of those made by Corgis about 20 years ago.

In this age of endless Chinese die casts covering all sorts of subjects, it's easy to forget that not that long ago it was a real event to see a useful addition to the road vehicle stock.  Being a Bedford CA fan and being at the time keen on making Code 3 models from new die-casts, I just had to have a go at this one.  I grew up near Seven Kings (in what is now considered East London) and while my Dad would be fixing radios and TVs for a friend's shop, I would train spot and look in the large windows of the Essex Speed Centre (every town had one in those days) up on the station bridge.  So it was a no-brainer to hand paint the van in Essex Speed centre's livery (as imagined).  They were dealers for the companies I painted on the side. Aquaplane were huge goody manufacturers for small Fords, Derrington did everything from Austin 7 to VW Beetle and Speedex are what became Marcos.  In fact I saw a set of Speedex alloy wheels in the window in 1960 and finally have a set for my Austin 7 Cambridge Special, 53 years later!

The careful weathering is what's known as..."dust"!

Gotta love a clear-out.