My thanks to Mike Sacco in New York for reminding me of this great video of a Fiat 1800 being produced at the Corgi factory near Swansea in Wales in 1960 from a cauldron of mazak through to dealer packs on their way, oddly enough, to Italy! I thought you might like to see this so have shared it here for your enjoyment.
The query that gave rise to this was whether the factory used spraying apparatus or paintbrushes for the silver paint on bumpers and radiator grilles and elsewhere. The answer, of course, is 'both' as can be seen here, with the little dabs of red, silver or whatever couldn't be easily catered for by a mask, being applied with a brush. Both changes in positioning of the masks and the varying skills of the workers with a paintbrush led to no two Corgis ever being exactly the same, something which cannot be said for the somewhat less charming (but still excellent in other ways) re-issues.
I am also not a great fan of restored models as I find that nine times out of ten people seem unable to resist the temptation to add something, be it a silver door handle or boot catch, orange indicator or, as is often the case, red tail lights when there were none on the original. It is nice, though, to see models not being discarded and given a new life. My own preference is to see them re-appear in a completely new colour or style as very few attempts to re-create the original are that successful, many colours being so hard to match now and that silver paint is seldom quite right! No-one can match the random Corgi factory ladies' skills!
I wonder whether the Corgi Model Club people could get hold of a video of how the latest re-issues get made in China!
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