The other Lambos

Say the word 'Lambo' and most motoring enthusiasts think 'Lamborghini', but there's a scooter-loving sub-culture out there to whom a Lambo is a Lambretta. While I don't currently own a scooter, I am planning to buy one, so in the meantime I have been amusing myself by building a 1/43 white metal kit of a Lambretta with a sidecar. Here it is.

It's tiny, just 4.5cm or 1.75 inches long.

The kit itself is very simple, just ten parts: three wheels, two
axles, sidecar body, sidecar seat unit, scooter body, the
handlebar unit, and the base.

I found the colour scheme in an online search for photos of
similar Lambos, but I couldn't find the colours I wanted
already mixed, so I mixed and blended my own cream and
the pale minty green (with assistance from my wife Pam, who
is an accomplished artist). Her big tip was that I didn't
just need white to tone down the medium green I was starting
with – I also needed a few drops of blue to change its hue.
Thank you, Pam! I then used an airbrush to apply the paint.

It needed a fair bit of touching up with a fine OO brush to
tidy up blemishes once I peeled away the masking tape.
One of my mistakes was to not wait long enough to let the
enamel paint dry. I thought 48 hours would be enough,
but not when you're applying masking tape...

Finally, I am toying with the idea of going back to riding scooters on the road. Right now I ride a very nice Moto Guzzi 750cc V7 Classic, but I rarely get the chance to take it out into the country. I tend to ride around the city and suburbs when I do go riding. And while selling the Guzzi will be hard to do, the temptation is to get a scooter to have fun with around town.

Back in the 1980s I worked as a road-tester for some local
Australian motorcycle magazines, riding anything and
everything, but the two-wheelers that none of the lads wanted
anything to do with were scooters. So I put my hand up and
loved testing them at the time. This is a photo of me at speed
on a Vespa PE200, back in the day.

Ideally, I'd love to get an old two-stroke scooter. I loved their pop-pop sound, and those little two-stroke engines had plenty of grunt. But getting a nice one will be difficult, and I don't want to spend all my time maintaining an old, worn-out one, so I might have to settle for a modern four-stroke. However, I am getting ahead of myself, I haven't sold the Guzzi yet, and that will be a difficult thing to do!

Scooters & microcars: little gems

Today is my 24th wedding anniversary, and not only am I a very lucky man to be married happily to a wonderful woman, but I am also a lucky boy to be married to a girl who loves to buy and give gifts. My girl Pam is a legend in our family for her gift-buying, gift-wrapping and card-choosing skils, and she always seems to buy gifts that people really like and treasure. She knows me too well, and so when she saw this book on scooters and microcars she knew I had a love for both of them – and have several examples in my collection – and so I thought this is a perfect topic for another blog posting. First, the book, then the models and a few dioramas.

Michael Dan has done a superb job with this book,
producing a social history, a celebration of style,
an authoritative mini-encyclopedia on his topic,
and best of all an enjoyable book that you can pick
up, open it at any page, and be entertained.

This scan of the back cover includes the web address
of the publisher, and also shows very well the
wonderful array of images, advertisements and
information within the book's 256 pages.

My own association with scooters goes back to the 1980s,
when I worked on a motorcycle magazine. I loved scooters
and got to do all the roadtests on scooters, as none of the
other guys were very interested in them at all. As a joke,
they even changed my job title to 'Scooter Editor'. With the
huge popularity of scooters now, I can with satisfaction
look upon this photo of me, above, as an action shot of
a man who was simply ahead of his time!

I loved that Vespa 200 a lot, and I had
thought of a heading for my roadtest of
'Mighty Tough' and then was inspired to
take a photo of the Vespa beating me up!
All I had to do was put it into first gear
so it wouldn't roll back, then the photographer
Greg McBean helped me hoist the scooter
into position, and he took the shot. It's
still one of my favourite bike photos.

 

I don't have that many scooters and microcars in my collection
but I do have some, so here they are. A pair of Vespas in
1:32 scale, by New Ray, a 60s model on the left and an earlier
50s model on the right.

Scooters with sidecars have always appealed to me, and I
have three examples. Right front is a play-worn Matchbox
model of a Lambretta outfit (which cost about $10, the mint
condition ones in boxes go for more than $100). On the
left is a Zundapp 'Gino's Ice-Cream) outfit made by Premium
Classixxs, and at the back is a white-metal model of a
Vespa with a Swallow Sidecar assembled by me.

And here's a little British seaside diorama I did quite a while
ago, featuring Gino's Gelato outfit.

Maybe it's just good luck, but there's a guy who lives near
me who owns and regularly drives his Messerschmitt bubble
car around town. It goes great, too. And so when I saw this
model of a Tempo Matador 'Messerschmitt Service' van,
complete with Messerschmitt needing attention, I snapped
it up very rapidly. The model is lovely, in 1:43, made by
Schuco, one of my favourite pieces in my collection.

Maybe it's the idea of a small van with an even smaller car
that gets me, but when I saw this BMW Isetta Service combo
I was hooked. This is tiny, in 1:87 scale, made by Bubmobil.

Bubmobil isn't obsessed with accuracy; rather they attempt
to create an homage to the spirit of the model. There's no
glass in the windows, and the shapes remind me of the
children's books about Noddy and his cars. Still love it!

Sure, rough around the edges, cute as a button, though.

On holidays recently in an Australian country town I spotted
some models for sale in a shop, and no-one there seemed to
be interested in the dust-covered box with this 1:43 scale
model of a BMW Isetta, so that became my holiday souvenir.
This is made by the Chinese outfit, Cararama.

One night I was watching an Italian movie in which the old
priest slowly motored down to the village market in this, his
Piaggio Ape, and so I went looking for a model of one.
 All I know about this is that it's 1:35 scale, don't know who
makes it, but it did lead me to do a farmyard diorama.

 

The old priest in the movie had a pig in the back
of his Piaggio Ape, so I added one to my dio.

If you go to Bangkok on holidays, you'll probably do what I
did and ride in a Tuk Tuk sometime. This model is by Altaya,
and this rather primitive diorama is one of my earliest efforts.

Holiday season snacks

Let's face it, far too many people eat too much crap all the time, but even the most conscientious people eat a bit of junk food during the holiday season. Here in Australia, with the festivities taking place in the middle of summer, the temptations to eat ice-creams, hot dogs, burgers, chips and other threats to Western Civilisation are just about everywhere – at home, at the beach, out on the street – we're surrounded by it. And so I thought I'd do a little diorama celebrating World Junk Food Day, whenever and wherever it occurs.

The models used here are, on the left, a 1:76 railway scale model from Oxford Diecast, of
Bob's Hot Dogs (with a suitable bunch of healthy young people about to be led astray).
On the right is a 1:43 Premium Classixxs model of a Gino's Gelato sidecar outfit, powered
by a Zundapp Bella 204 scooter.

Now, I've always been a bit of a scooter fan – owned one a one stage and have ridden many, and so there was always going to be room for scooters in my diecast cabinets. As soon as I saw my first diecast scooter with a sidecar attached I decided they were what I wanted to buy, and so far I have managed to accumulate three of them.

On the left is the Zundapp Bella Gelato seller, from Premium Classixxs. In the foreground
is an old Matchbox Lambretta, in play-worn but OK condition. I got quite a shock when I
ventured onto eBay to find one of these. In mint condition, in an original box, they can fetch
over $200. My price range is more around the $20-$30 mark, and so the trick is to buy one
that is a bit knocked about, not in its box, but still looks good from three feet away.
I finally found this one for about $30, and it's great. In the background, at the right, is a
dreadfully botched job (by me) of assembling and painting a 1:43 white metal kit of a Vespa
with a Swallow sidecar. If you're not familiar with the Swallow name, go look up the
history of Jaguar cars and you'll find they started out in life (in the 20s & 30s) as
coachbuilders, and one of their lines was sidecars for motorcycles.

Finally, an action shot of me on a Vespa PX 200E, back in the 1980s. This isn't the scooter
I owned – I had a Honda Lead 125 for several months – but I loved riding Vespas when
I got the chance. They reminded me of the big twin BMW bikes of the times: very very
solidly built, with clunky gearboxes, quirky but basically sound handling once you learned
to ride it right, a grunty engine and a comfy seat. 

 

There's a whole fascinating history behind Vespas which I guess I can make
the subject of a posting here one day, but right now that's it from me. I think I have a bit more junk food to eat. It is the holiday season after all!