Last week’s trip into the 1:43 world saw us discussing a mysterious and sinister, evil in fact, van, dressed up as a carpet fitter’s wagon, in the hope that people would be thrown off the scent. Desperate measures in late ’50s Soviet Russia.
Today, well, it’s a Taxi. Short of making up some kind of nonsensical story about the GAZ-3110 body being used to camouflage certain hyper-secret MIGs during pre-flight testing, there’s not really away to dress it up. Ladies and Gents, the GAZ-3110. It’s a taxi.
The GAZ-3110 was popularly employed, in Russia, as a Taxi. The model presented in these photos is a 1:43 scale model of the GAZ-3110, presented in the distinctive livery of a taxi. They weren’t all, of course. Some were just normal cars. Some were police cars, too, but I don’t have a model of any of those.
The 3110 shape of GAZ Volga was produced for seven years, from 1997 to 2004, and was a topped and tailed evolution of the GAZ-24, which itself dated right back to 1968. After ’04 it was facelifted yet again, adding even more unseemly swoopiness to the mix, with teardrop shaped headlamps and a fiercely ill-juxtaposed grille. By contrast, the 3110 was somewhat less bizzare.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Volga, one of those few cars which has managed to go on for year after year with just the occasional reinvigoration to iron out the wrinkles. A bit. I’m reminded of the Ford Falcon, the 1962 version of which managed to remain in production until 1991 in Argentina, experiencing countless ghastly facelifts over the years and ending up with Ford Cortina Taillights. Gah!
This model, well, it’s a mixed bag.
The casting itself, as you can see in the side view, is very nice indeed. The door shuts are nice, the paintwork good and the printing mostly impeccable. The details of the chrome-highlighted rain guttering, the doorhandles and the emblem next to the cabin air extractor vents on the C-Posts. The wheels, too, are plenty detailed.
Round the back the superb detail continues, with the model designations being accurately depicted above the two rear lamps and an accurately modelled exhaust, albeit a black plastic one. However, you can see that the rear axle is strangely too wide for the car, and one or the other rear wheel protrudes somewhat. Odd.
Unfortunately, the final assembly isn’t quite as high as standard as they would have liked. Detail components are installed in the right places, for sure, but not always at strictly the right angles. The rear bumper has quite a major gap between it and the body, and the grille looks a bit stuck on.
But it’s a pleasant enough model of a car which doesn’t get modelled all that often. eBay, again, is your friend, just bear in mind that the quality variation you find makes purchase sight unseen a bit of a lottery.
[Images: Copyright 2014 Hooniverse/Chris Haining]
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