Many will be familiar with the John Day Models range that seemed to have disappeared. Here is an update:
John Day produced a comprehensive range of approx 100 1/76 whitemetal vehicles, which included prewar and many 1940s/50's cars not produced by anyone else - and this includes the modern glut of diecasts from Oxford, Classix etc. For example - Ford V8 Pilot, Austin 8 & 16 (plus several prewar types eg 10/4 Lichfield), Riley 1.5 RMA, Humber Super Snipe II/III, Morris Oxford MO, + many more.
After John Day passed away in the Summer of 2006 the models seemed to have disappeared from the market. However, during 2007 his son reactivated the business and advertised sporadically in Railway Modeller from a postal address in London. The last advert I remember seeing was in the December 2008 issue. I sent an sae and did not get a reply so I thought that would be the last we heard of these useful and attractive models.
However, I was contacted in late November 2009 by DARYLE TONEY, who informed me that he had now taken over the business and was in the process of catching up on outstanding correspondence (including my half forgotten sae!), he had acquired the residue of the stock and hoped to eventually reintroduce many from the old range. I have purchased over a dozen of the vehicles that were on my "wants list" (Including all of those mentioned above!) and have been very impressed with the personal service offered and overall with the models themselves. I have found them to be not quite as "crisp" castings generally as the R Parker and Scale Link car kits, particularly the wheels, but with a bit of tuning, such as checking heights against prototype dimensions, with a bit of filing or adding of plasticard slivers to ensure correct height, they sit very well alongside the other makes. As a comparator, I have a JD Morris 8 Series 1 (1935) that is much better in my opinion than any other that I have seen from other makes. The Morris 8 Series E is head and shoulders better than the very inaccurate Oxford diecast and the Ford Popular E103 is much, much better than the awful abberation that Oxford pass off for one of these. On the other hand, the Ford 8 Model Y is not as good compared to the Scale Link model of the same car.
I very much welcomed the return of these elusive models and give full marks to Daryle for his enthusiasm in trying to get the range back up and running.
If anyone wants to follow up, Daryle Toney can be contacted by email and will send a pdf pricelist on request
d.toney"AT"btinternet.com (usual protection applied - delete "AT" and replace with @
Mick
Have to admit that I will use Oxford, Classix and etc., simply because I don't have the time to build and finish the kits these days, much as I'd prefer to! In the background and slightly out of focus, the die-cast stuff looks pretty good in photos!
Not John Day but does anyone know what happened to Midget Models? In the summer I bought an unmade kit for an Albion twin steer wagon, because it was there, and think it is a very nicely designed kit.
I tried Googling them (silly boy) and got a lot of very unsavoury hits!
Rod
Quote from: rod335 on December 22, 2012, 21:26
Midget Models...I tried Googling them (silly boy) and got a lot of very unsavoury hits!
This maybe: http://www.funhotoys.co.nz/Products/Midget-Models.aspx
Says they went out of prod'n in 1982. And I didn't get any...unsavoury...links on the first page of hits.
Doesn't look like the same Midget Models to me. The instructions for my Albion CX27 kit seem to be xeroxed, definitely pre-computer, but the address given is 20 Ashmead Rise Rednal Birmingham B45 8AB. The site you found, I think, implies ready assembled models but improved and appears to have New Zealand connections. The date of 1982 for ceasing trading could be right though. And I still got unsavoury links!
Rod