Small-scale Classics
June 16, 2019
There’s something special about a model car. The attention to detail, the dedication to ensuring the small car is just as beautiful as the big one, and of course, there’s the fact that model cars allow us to own vehicles we never thought possible. The fact we can’t actually fit in them is beside the point.
Many of these models, even high-quality ones, are simply stamped out in large numbers by an uncaring machine. That’s not what you’ll find at Bath-based Brooklin Models though. Instead, upon entering the premises, you’ll find actual people all working busily away on model cars. Yes, every car that leaves the Brooklin building is hand-finished, and that’s remarkably impressive. And what’s more, the models are created here from sketch to furnace to paint to final assembly, it all happens under one roof. Not only is that, as we say, impressive, it’s also a way for Brooklin to ensure quality is always at the utmost. That’s why the models on offer are nothing short of exquisite.
Brooklin Models started in Brooklin, Canada way back in 1974. Making these models was something of a passion for John Hall, who was working as a design engineer at the time. He had a vibrant passion for real American cars from the ‘30s to the ‘60s, but he wanted a way in which he could have all the cars he could dream of. Creating 1:43 scale replicas seemed like the logical answer.
The initial models were crafted from resin, which was easier for John to deal with at home. You have to remember; it was just a hobby at this stage. That said, the resin wasn’t yielding the results John wanted, and instead the models were crude and lacking detail. After looking at trends in the modelling world, John switched to white metal in 1977, which allowed him to cast in far more detail.
It was in 1989 when John and his wife, Jenny, moved back to the UK from Canada. It was also then that the making of models became a business. The rest, as they say, is history. Though over the years the workforce has grown to around thirty, the premises (the same one as today) was acquired in 1984. In the late ‘90s a management buy-out saw the staff take over, and since then the business has been on the up and up. In fact, it’s now recognised as being the premier manufacturer of 1:43 scale hand-built white metal models, but when you look at the models in question, it’s not hard to see why.
As we were walking around the premises, we couldn’t help but be taken aback by the amount going on. At 5,000sq foot, this isn’t exactly a small building, however, every corner has been utilised. Everywhere you look there are models, there are parts or there is machinery used to make the models. This includes a furnace in which the white metal is melted down before being poured into the moulds. There is a spray booth akin to what you’d find in a full-scale bodyshop in which the models are carefully painted in their shades of ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s period correct colours.
The highlight of our tour, however, was the room in which all the original moulds are kept. The shelves are stacked high with what was once a test but has since become a line within the Brooklin range. Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Studebakers, the list goes on. And in the same room is the drawing board, on which the designer pens out ideas for models, checking dimensions before doing the maths to scale down. The walls are deep with drawings and sketches that serve to show the creative process at play here is one that never seems to stop.
Then, in the middle of it all, there are the people who assemble models. Each one is made by hand, and they are skilled hands. If you’ve ever built a scale model, you’ll know how fiddly and difficult it is. Here though, the hands are trained and steady, and as such, the models go together with enviable ease. Each model also has tiny little details, again all made in house, such as chrome bumpers, the headlights, the ‘glass’, decals, chrome trim. It’s like being a giant and walking through Detroit in its heyday.
When complete, the models have to undergo quality control. To a backdrop of posters and other imagery of cars of old, be they ones Brooklin has scaled down, or ones they want to, a worker carefully examines each model for accuracy and consistency before final approval. Then the models are shipped out, all around the globe to no doubt thrilled customers.
