Custom Projects

I enjoyed working on these projects, they started out a few years ago when I realised that
over the 10 years Micro Machines had been around, other than for farm vehicles there had
only ever been two different trailers: the original boat trailer in 1987 and the large caravan
in 1991 (since then a Micro Machine horse trailer was released in 1997), so I decided to
create a number of trailers which could be pulled by the numerous cars and vans which
have tow hooks. This then developed into creating various different collections to go with
each vehicle and trailer.

The Utility trailer was the first trailer I made, constructed from sheet plasticard, creating a
simple box and frame to support cargo. The wheels were taken from old Micro Magnifier
Planes (I regularly cannibalised Micro Machines' rivals - cheap parts!). I then needed
something to pull it, and decided to use the 1998 GMC pickup ("#26 Ranch Riders") which I
took from the 1998 "Super Pack 1", however I made a substantial modification to it. I
replaced the small (out of scale) wheels with regular Micro Machine wheels, which required
me to enlarge the size of the wheelarches which I accomplished using a modelling knife.
The Tractor and Trailer were taken from the 1996 collection "#19 Ranch Riders".

The Ford van was taken from the 1996 collection "#13 Newsmakers", I removed the TV
transmitter unit from the roof and filled the holes. I also added a tow hook to the rear to
pull the trailer which I made from scratch using thin metal rod and Plasticard, bending the
rod to make the frame and basic structure and adding Plasticard pieces for the "metal
plates" which the car sits on.
In addition to this I also made a pair of ramps which could be hooked to the back or stored
underneath (see above right). The wheels are a pair of the small sized Micro Machine
wheels used on some vans, pick ups and for the front wheels on funny cars, dragsters and
buggies. The AC Cobra is from the 1995 collection "#2 Worlds Quickest", and the only
alteration is the addition of a roll bar behind the drivers seat. The Buick Regal stock car is
from the 1990 collection "#15 Pro Circuit Racers" and remains unchanged.

The Dodge Ram is the standard Micro Machine from 1996 ("Mud Truckin"), the trailer I
made from the same thin wire/rod used on the car transporter, bent into a simple frame
with cross members glued in place. The wheels are a wide axle set from an old
Micro Magnifier also used in the horse box, mounted in wheelarches made of Plasticard.
The Surf Woody and surfers are from the 1999 collection "#33 Beach Party" and the
speedboat is a Micro Machine, but from unknown origin (collection and year).

The horse box was particularly interesting to make, as I made it from scratch using the
same sheet plasticard I use in a lot of my model making. I began by making a card mock up
template to get the shape right, I then cut out the shape from plastic, heated it along the
lines that needed to be bent to give the curves between the roof and the sides, to this
I glued a base and mounted wide axle wheels taken from old Micro Magnifiers. The opening
doors were harder to make as they were very small and delicate, they are basically pieces of
plasticard glued to a small piece of metal rod/wire, held in place at either end by brackets.
The Chevy S10 Blazer was taken from the 1999 collection "#4 All-Terrain" and had a tow
hook added to the rear, the Ford Ranchero was taken from the 1996 collection "#15 Service
Masters" and the cowboy and horse are from the 1996 collection "#19 Ranch Riders".

The Camper is unchanged from the 1999 Collection "Landspeed Record" Micro Machine, the
trailer however, I built from scratch as with all of the trailers. Its a basic box with a fold
down ramp at the back made in the same way as in the horse box and wheels taken from
an old Micro Magnifier Plane as in the utility trailer. The motorbikes are from the 1989
collection "#21 Hotbikes" and the dune buggy from the 1999 collection "#33 Beach Party".

To me the size and scale of the lorries have always been too small compared to the cars, so
I set out to make a range of bigger, longer trailers. The first trailer I made was a low loader,
inspired by Lorries passing my house carrying various construction equipment as they
extended the housing estate up the street. I made drawings of these lorries and began to
construct the trailer out of Plasicard, using special pre moulded plastic I beams for the
sides, to give the impression of the metal structure.
The three sets of wheels were the smaller size Micro Machine wheels, the same as used on
the car transporter (with Ford Van), and the cab was taken from the Lone Star Tanker in
the 1996 "#15 Service Masters" collection. To lock the trailer to the cab, I took the "peg"
and front section from the horse trailer in the 1996 "#19 Ranch Riders" collection and glued
it to the front of my trailer. To make the trailer complete I wanted to have folding ramps at
the back, this was a little more complicated to make. I made the two ramps and glued them
to either end of a piece of metal wire/rod, I then attached the rod to the trailer using two
brackets just inside the ramps, which held them in place, but still allowed them to rotate up
and down.
The back hoe is also a conversion, the main vehicle taken from the Mirco Machines Earth
Exploration series, with the circular plate removed from the end and a bucket added
instead, creating a back hoe.
The Bulldozer and workers are taken from the 1996 collection "#12 Heavy Haulers" and are
unchanged.

After using the cab from the Lone Star Tanker on the low loader lorry and the tanker
undercarriage on the extended flatbed lorry, I had a spare tanker trailer top. I also had
another complete tanker lorry spare from one of the "Terminator 2" collections (the liquid
nitrogen lorry). Looking at these spare lorries, I had an idea, to combine the two tanker
trailers into one and to add a third axle, creating an extended tanker.
I cut the rear off one tanker and the front off the other, carefully sanding the two ends to
get them square, the two tankers were then glued together and the join carefully sanded
smooth, this was then sprayed chrome. Modifying the undercarriage was easier as it only
required cutting up the liquid nitrogen lorry's base and extending it in a similar way to that
used on the extended flatbed trailer, but this base could still be screwed to the tanker top
as I preserved the positioning of the screw holes.
The cab was the standard cab from the liquid nitrogen truck, but I removed the deflector
from the roof and extended the sleeper section upwards using plasticard. I slightly modified
the front of the wheelarches and then repainted it.
The Tow Truck was taken from the 1998 "Super Pack 1" (also found in the 1998 collection
"#26 Service Masters").

Articulated Lorry (Semi Truck) with Extended Flatbed Trailer

This lorry is a larger extended version of the Micro Machine flatbed lorry. I used the cab from the horse lorry from the 1996 "Ranch Riders" collection and the base/undercarriage from the Lone Star petrol tanker from the 1996 "Service Masters" collection. I took the base and cut it into three pieces, cutting between the axles and in front of the axles, I then stuck two pieces of Plasticard, one either side of the box which contains the axle mounts lengthening the box to accommodate the third axle. I cut three notches out of each piece of Plasticard on each side of the box, two notches on each piece were in the same places as the original notches on the box, the third lay between these (see diagram).

Once I had modified the base I added a top; the flatbed and safety rails on the side and rear.

Articulated Lorry (Semi Truck) with Shipping Container Trailer

One type of lorry I thought would be interesting to make as a Micro Machine is a Lorry that carries metal shipping containers.
I started with the cab from the crane lorry taken from the 1996 collection "Heavy Haulers".

Dodge Viper GTS

This was basically the Viper RT/10 Micro Machine from the "Worlds Quickest" Collection in 1995, which I then added a roof and rear window made of modelling putty to, carefully shaping the roof line and marking out the window edge. I then repainted it in metallic blue with a double white stripe.
I recently found out that a Micro Machine Dodge Viper GTS had been made several years ago, as part of the 1996 "Indy 500 Starting Grid" Collection, used as the pace car. But when I acquired this collection and looked closely at the Viper, I thought that the conversion I had made looked more like the real Viper GTS than the pace car did. The proportions of the pace car had been changed from the original RT/10, with shorther overhangs and a generally squarer, block like shape.

1972 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Bullnose

This is one of my favourite conversions, the donor vehicle - a 1978 Trans Am, remains largely unchanged. The main alteration was remodelling the front end to create the distinctive Bullnose, using a two part epoxy modelling putty. The rear window was also altered to change from the wrap around style to the earlier square window.

1965 Ford Mustang Convertible

The modifications made to this Micro Machine from the original 1964 Mustang Coupe were substantial. It involved cutting off the roof, carefully leaving the front window intact, then the internal structure needed to be trimmed to accommodate the interior which I took from a Mazda MX-5 Micro Machine.
Once the donated interior was trimmed to fit, I created the back seat from Plasticard to fill the gap, and created the folded roof out of modelling putty.

Dodge Durango

After I bought a duplicate 1999 "All Terrain collection" of Micro Machines, I decided it would be interesting to convert the Dodge Ram into a Durango as they were quite similar vehicles. I began by carefully cutting out the rear wheel arches and moving them further back, filling the gaps with modelling putty.
The next stage was to build on the pick up bed i.e. extend the passenger compartment, turning pick up into SUV. I achieved this by building a basic box of plasticard on the back, which would form the surface for the windows. The pillars and roof were then modelled and sculpted on top of this using epoxy putty. The roof rack was made from strips of plasticard and glued in place.

Chevy Custom Pick Up

This was a simple conversion, taking the existing Chevy custom pick up, removing the spoiler and building a hard top over the pick up bed. After that I decided to make a couple of other alterations, I raised the rear suspension (dropped the wheels) and remodelled the front grille and headlights.

Chevy Pick Up

Ever since 1991 when the cab-over camper micro machine was released, I thought it would be good if the pick up which the camper was based on was available as a seperate vehicle, so in 1999 I bought a duplicate of the "Landspeed Record" collection, with the intention of removing the camper from the pick up. When I did, I found that only a minor amount of work was needed to fill the holes in the pick up bed, and the result was a decent pick up.

1985 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28 Iroc

One of the more recent conversion I have been working on is this Camaro Z-28, based on the Camaro convertible Micro Machine from 1995 ("Decades: The 80s"), I added a roof and rear window in the same way as for the Dodge Viper GTS.

Chevrolet Caprice

Probably the simplest conversion here, I took the Caprice Police cruiser, trimmed the wing mirrors, removed the aerials and light, filled the holes and repainted it.

NYC Yellow Cabs

As with the Caprice car, I took two Police Caprice Cruisers, removed the aerials and lights and trimmed the wing mirrors. This time I created taxi signs on the rooves to fill the holes, and then repainted the cars yellow.

UPS & USPS Vans

These two vans both started out as 1996 Police S.W.A.T. vans and only involved repainting in the correct liveries and application of logos to the sides (thanks to my brother Tim in Boston for getting me the USPS logo and livery).

Land Rover Defender 110

I decided to turn the old Land Rover Defender into the modern version - Defender 110.
I started by filing down the spare wheel on the bonnet and the canvas back, then using modelling putty, I filled in the recessed grille, added pillars and window frames to the sides and a hard roof on top. The back needed a little more work, to create the door and the small rear circular lights. The new front grille and headlights were the final addition, made separately and then glued onto the front.

Land Rover Discovery

After having made the Land Rover Defender, I thought it would be nice to make another British vehicle (as Micro Machines are mainly American), believe it or not, the Land Rover Discovery started out as a Ford Explorer, I had a few spare Explorers and realised that the size and proportions were very similar to those of the Discovery, with one exception, the rear axle (and wheels) needed to be brought forward.
So the first task was to cut out the wheel arches (intact) and move them forward, a technique used later on in constructing the Dodge Durango (above). Once I had done this, I added height to the rear of the roof and added an extra sunroof, added raised sections to the bonnet and to the sides (lower door) and shaved the front bumper. The most extensive remodelling was that of the back end of the car, with edging, a new rear window, registration plate, tow hook and a spare wheel. Once painted I was pleased with the transformation, it no longer looked anything like a Ford Explorer.

Tow Truck with Fold Down Car Carrier

One thing about Micro Machines that I noticed, was that none of the tow trucks could actually tow a car properly, so I set out to modify an existing tow truck to incorperate a fold down arm onto which the front wheels of a car could be placed, making it possible to actually tow a car. The arm is made from thin metal rod/wire bent and formed into the desired shape, hinged on another piece of wire/rod, attached to the rear of the truck.