24c Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I posted some images of #24c, the Silver Shadow saloon, in the "Most valuable bangers" section and upto that point, I never had a model for that category, a chance purchase done through a forum member, suddenly saw me owning something I could post there. I class it as valuable because of the fact it is the 'Regular Wheel' body casting, but with 'Superfast' wheels and because it is a body from the earlier range, it still has the waistline 'Trim-Strip' along the length of the body, just like the real car. However, not long after the model was converted to 'Superfast' status, the 'Trim-Strip' mysteriously vanished from the side of the model, but the wheels were still of the narrow design (wide wheels not fitted to this model until 1971), so it was not that version.

What Lesney had actually done was to design a whole new body casting for #24c, and it does not have the 'Trim-Strip' detail along the side of the model, additional to this, the door handles are further forward and it has opened up wheel-arches for the wider wheels (delayed for some reason until 1971), and with other minor detail changes, the new model directly replaced the versions in Cherry-red with the 'Trim-Strip' and was painted in what I class as Cherry-purple.

"Motorman" has asked for some detail pictures of the models showing the difference between the two, I will do some clearer pictures for the benefit of other members who may not be clear about the variation, but for now, I am posting an older image that may help to point out the difference.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

You can see on the real car the very fine chrome plated 'Trim-Strip', this runs along the whole length of the car and Lesney did very well in representing this detail on their model, surprising then that they never gave the model a petrol filler flap, or the side indicater light on the front wing, ahead of the front door!

Just found some more pictures...Small wheel-arch and 'Trim-Strip'.
...Large wheel-arch and 'Trim-Strip'.
...Large wheel-arch , NO 'Trim-Strip'.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

It has often been assumed that when the model had the opened up wheel-arch, that's when the 'Trim-Strip' was removed, but as you can see from the three pictures above, the wheel-arch was modified on the 'Regular wheel' body casting, not the 'Superfast' Body casting, and both versions can be fitted with smooth hollow wheels or treaded solid wheels.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

This is my 'Most Valuable Banger' and my most recent purchase. It has the small wheel-arch and the waistline 'Trim-Strip'. The wheels are of the all smooth hollow design, the large-arch model in the middle picture above, has treaded wheels on the front and smooth wheels on the rear, a very common practice for these models at this time with the first year of full production of 'Superfast' models.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[motorman]

Kevin

Thanks very much for all this information and the excellent images, it certainly helps explain the differences in this SF model. That also means a lot more hunting to track down all these different castings. Dont you just love it

[SMS88]

.............................

What Lesney had actually done was to design a whole new body casting for #24c, and it does not have the 'Trim-Strip' detail along the side of the model, additional to this, the door handles are further forward and it has opened up wheel-arches for the wider wheels (delayed for some reason until 1971), and with other minor detail changes, the new model directly replaced the versions in Cherry-red with the 'Trim-Strip' and was painted in what I class as Cherry-purple..............................

GHOSTHUNTER.

Somebody would have to open up some RW & SF versions to prove your assumption. They havent designed a whole new body,merely changed the design of the sides. The original tooling could have gained new sides rather than a whole new tool cut. Models like the #55 Mercury Police wagon and #73 Mercury wagon were made with one mould that had different roof sections bolted on depending upon which model was being made.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Having inspected the body castings very closely before making my statement, I have seen two different front and rear windscreen frames and if you measure the two bodies, the one without the 'Trim-Strip' is shorter, there is a casting fault on one of the bodies not present on the other, which when displayed as two rows of models like the #69c Silver Shadow DHC, as 'A-Line' and 'B-Line' models, that particular fault is only showing up on the one line-up.

I had always been puzzled as to why the 'Trim-Strip' was missing on later models, removing this detail from the tooling would explain why the door handles are in a different position, but not why all side window frame detail is different, the 'B' pillar being the easier to see and is a different size. If it is not a whole new body casting, then it has received some substantial re-working, enough in my mind to class it as a new body, when compaired to the previous body.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Looking inside at the casting numbers and their positions would easily confirm or disprove whether or not just new side panels were added to the original tool.Lesney had a large master model that was used to create the scaled down tooling if the tooling was completely remade then so to would the master model.We know the #6 Ford pickup master model was changed in the 1980s to create new tooling and the #50 Kennel truck was remodelled into the #57 wildlfe truck.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Next time at a toy fair, I will have to get a couple of 'Beater' models to take apart and look around inside.

Thank's SMS88,
GHOSTHUNTER.

[nearlymint]

Here are a few of my ones. Very used condition but the bottom model took quite a while to find. J

24c

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