When I was little, my uncle used to sit me on his lap and we’d look at car books. He had a lot of them, and he’d use them and models to teach me about cars, their parts and how they work. It’s not a surprise then, that I have more than a passing interest in cars, let alone model cars, eh? We also used to go to car shows and museums a lot, and I used to get to see a lot of Brass Era cars. I always thought they were neat, but that they all looked kinda the same.
Well, except for one kind: the Stanley Steamer! Even I could recognize a Stanley in a field of other Brass Era cars, thanks to its unique shape. I’ve always thought they were cool, but never thought I’d find a kit of one. I mean, I know there are kits of them, but finding one has proven difficult.
However, I did manage to get my hands on an ancient Renwal 1/48 Stanley at a model show, and I thought it would be neat to take a look at it. Check out what’s in the box at the link below! If you’ve ever built one of these little Renwals, let me know how it went, too!
Thank you for the link to your most interesting article.
Just like the Stanley Steamers themselves, Renwal’s attempts to create a new format of car model, the miniature 1/48 “display model” was an interesting take on things, but doomed to eventual failure as larger scales dominated the model car market. Still, it’s nice that Renwal tried, because it leaves us with quirky little items like this kit that remind us
I think the real problem was that the models were too close to the well-established 1:43(.5) scale, the principal use of 1:48th being by U.S. “O” (“0”) scale railway modellers in the era the kit was produced. While very useful for some of them, it probably wasn’t a sufficiently large market to support, or grow, an injection-moulded range. Although 1:48 is now in much more common usage we are still mostly stuck with either military-vehicles-in-civilian-use or civilian-vehicles-in-military-use. This little beauty later escaped as a solo release but is long OOP, rare as Hen’s Teeth and costs not merely an arm and a leg but several major internal organs…
part 33 is a “Carbide Generator”. I know that has something to do with the lighting system, but that kind of arcane knowledge is not something that I’m really immersed in
Actually, it’s the Carbide which is immersed (or at least has water dripped on it) to produce Acetylene gas…
At the bottom of the backside of the instruction sheet is both the list of Renwal kits
I wonder if these were all released, or like those in the Eaglewall ship boxes, were more of a wish list.