Discovery 1 in development by Oxford Diecast

The recent announcement that Oxford Diecast is adding the Land Rover Discovery 1 to its line up, at both 1/43 and 1/76 scales, has created a lot of excitement. Lyndon Davies talks about the development process in his blog.

Lyndon states, "Finding a suitable vehicle may sound easy, particularly a Land Rover, but you have to be careful as on older vehicles modifications could have taken place. We also need to consider any variants that may be required, police cars need light bars or recovery vehicles like the AA or the RAC need banners. It makes the design process lengthier but the biggest crime is trying to add them at a later stage.

"The first step is to 3D scan the vehicle. This creates a ‘point cloud’ that can then be triangulated to create a surface. We used the scan data to create both 1/76 and 1/43rd vehicles. These will not be the same design or construction. We use the scan images or the original vehicle CAD as the basis for our line drawings. These are critical for the production process."

The first 1/43 model, confirmed as No 43DS1001 in Foxfire Red, is currently priced to launch at £24.95. At 1/76, No 76DS1001, also in Foxfire Red, is on Oxford's website at £7.95. Both are tagged as "Future" and in the current economic climate, this price could change. For more information, visit Oxford's website at www.oxforddiecast.co.uk and search by product number.