Final batch of Tarn Models figures painted

Scuderia_Turini · 20th-Dec-20, 10:56 AM

Well remembered Hub, I had forgotten that.
I don't know why Lawrence stopped production, he was very good and very professional. The figures were expensive but worth it. Don't tend to see many on layouts so perhaps the time was wrong and sales were low.

Leo

CMOTD · 20th-Dec-20, 12:04 PM

It was a combination of factors which led to Lawrence stopping production but primarily a couple of redundancies which meant he had to spend most of his time looking for a new job. He was out of work for some time and although the figures sold reasonably well they were not viable as a long term income source. He also lost interest in the hobby in general and stopped racing at his local club.

Extract from some communication I had with him:
"First 5 or so figures were mastered and moulded for metal casting. The moulds lasted well, but people at the swapmeets did say that they didn't want to have £50+ cars flying off the track into lumps of metal!

Remoulded for resin, and the rest of the range likewise in resin. Metal bases were retained, as this weighted the resin figures nicely, and small parts, like fire extinguishers were also cast in metal.

Resin kills the complex mould very quickly - I was using T28 rubber from Tiranti, and for the plain figures I got perhaps 35+ figures, for the more complex perhaps only 15... and I wasn't using a vacuum machine, so the bubble rejects accounted for 20% of production most times."

Scuderia_Turini · 20th-Dec-20, 01:43 PM

Cheers Brian.
I have a few of the metal models.

Leo

rallyhub · 20th-Dec-20, 03:07 PM

Mentioning his truly amazing figures as lumps of metal is an insult to the quality he produced.
You would not expect this if someone launches a very good product, which is in high demand for years.
Presumably those people cannot put their figures out of reach of their cars, or they cannot race and that would be very sad for them.

Even sadder to read is that Lawrence lost interest in the hobby in general, but that is quite understandable after he got such a comment while he had to quickly find a new job.

What I really liked were the three figures one-piece sets Lawrence made. They were hollow from behind, but easy to fill up:

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