Monogram Li’l Coffin

[Bill.B]

After 3 long months of sporadic fettling, my Li’l coffin is finally complete. As many of you will know, the sixties kits were nowhere near the quality of what we get these days so sometimes it really is a case of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear when one of these early kits is tackled. This isn’t a cop out for the poor quality of my finished article, but early kits really are a challenge to complete, mostly because the parts only fit where they touch and the plastic is usually brittle too. Anyway, here’s the car, warts and all so please feel free to have a chuckle. 

 

 

 

 

 

Li’l Coffin and Tweedy Pie posing with an original 60’s Esso man key ring. 

 

I think black & white photos can sometimes look better.

 

[Tzulscha]

When the Li' Coffin was released back in the late '60s it was pretty much state of the art with its opening doors (and I think, steerable wheels).

It was also called "Dexters' Deuce" on the 'Hot Wheels' cartoon show, where it was the bad guys ride.

I built both of these many (many, many) years ago but never to this level of perfection.

That paint looks terrific! The heat staining on the headers is very pretty as well.

 

Good show!

[JeroenS]

Poor quality? Ehm, I don't see it! You're being too modest, really. I think it looks great!

[Bill.B]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

Poor quality? Ehm, I don't see it! You're being too modest, really. I think it looks great!

The crudeness and poor fitting parts of the model is something to behold when compared to modern kits. As a couple of examples, and there are many more, the rear window is moulded too small for the opening in the bodywork which requires more remedial work than I’m skilled enough to do, and the wheel rims aren’t moulded perfectly circular. Again, I suppose this could be remedied by an extremely patient and dedicated modeller. Most of the original chrome has been removed off the relevant parts due to moulding and plating issues, and a Molotow chrome pen coupled with ‘Bare Metal’ chrome foil has been used a substitute. As an example of this the two external exhaust pipes have been de-chromed, sanded and wrapped in the chrome foil. The chrome pen was then used on the inside of the (drilled out) exhaust tips.  The skeleton figure was even a trial in itself as there was a huge amount of flash on the parts and the two halves of the rib cage were nothing like matched. I had to glue and then trim each rib separately due to the poor moulding. To be fair though, despite the kits many shortcomings (and there are lots!) it’s been an interesting challenge and it looks half decent when viewed through the display cabinet window next to Tweedy Pie! 

[Pete in Lincs]

Bill,

Much more than half decent.

A little cracker, groovy AND far out. Man.

[Fastcat]

Hi Bill,

            The recent mouldings (Chinese, I think) have more noticeable seams, easy to deal with on the painted parts but a bit of a trial on the shiny bits, not helped by the large gates and ejector pin marks. Add to that a few sinks and you've got a real modelling job and not an assemblers project. Good for perfecting a few techniques though and if you get a good result so much the better.

It's highly unlikely that these will ever be modelled again to state of the art standards nor will the tooling be renovated (it's done far more pressings than any modern tooling could expect) and with the recent happenings to Revell/Monogram you've got yourself a nice little slice of history both modelling and automotive.

Nice to see it kept alive.

 

Dave   

[Plastheniker]

One of those kits that are not my cup of tea. Nevertheless the model shows excellent craftmanship, particularly considering the age of the kit.