The world’s leading model makers apply their touch to the “most famous car in the world”
     
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Bristol, UK, the 4th of July 2023
The automotive artists of Amalgam Collection today revealed the first images of their Aston Martin DB5 Vantage model, the most recent development in their 1:8 scale flagship range. Often billed as the “most famous car in the world”, the Aston Martin DB5 has been precisely replicated in the workshops of the Bristol-based company in its most iconic shade of Silver Birch, and Amalgam are now accepting deposits for the first batches of models nearing completion in the coming weeks.
Working from CAD data developed from a digital scan of an original DB5 Vantage, the artisans develop a prototype, meticulously scaling down the data to ensure that the details are brought to life in miniature. Moulds are created for the individual parts, with metal, carbon fibre and rubber used to create each piece of the intricate construction, while some parts are produced by 3-D printers. The DB5 Vantage model necessitated over 5000 hours of development and the resulting prototype only received the approval of the designers and engineers at Aston Martin once they were fully satisfied with its accuracy of representation. Measuring over 57cm (22in) long, each subsequent model will take 500 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and assemble, capturing every last detail of the car. The model is strictly limited to just 199 pieces, and features opening doors, engine cover and trunk, revealing the authentic detailing of car’s 3995cc naturally aspirated straight-six engine and all-black interior.
Amalgam’s Director of Brand, Sandy Copeman, said “The target is to produce a model that looks exactly like the real car. There should be nothing that gives the game away. If you can take a high-resolution photograph and put it in front of somebody, and they have no idea whether they’re looking at a model or the real car, then we’ve done our job.”
Aside from the strictly limited edition of 199 models, owners of the real car can also commission a perfect replica of their car’s specification through Amalgam’s exclusive tailor-made service. Utilising their deep relationships with the engineers and historians at Aston Martin, the artisans have access to historical specification data and archive imagery to allow the most faithful representation of a client’s vehicle in all details. From the exterior paint colour and license plates, right down to the wooden-rimmed wheel, every visible aspect of a car will be perfectly reproduced in miniature. Every bespoke Aston Martin model is unique, so every client can be assured of complete exclusivity in their purchase.
Amalgam’s astonishingly detailed and realistic large-scale models are already well known to many classic and luxury car owners worldwide, and the DB5 Vantage model extends the cooperation between Amalgam and luxury automotive manufacturer Aston Martin. The relationship between the two marques stretches back over fifteen years to the 2000s, when Amalgam produced limited 1:8 scale editions of the road going DB9 and Vanquish, and Aston Martin Racing’s DBR9 and LMP1 24 Hours of Le Mans entries. More recently, Amalgam released a series of models based on the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato known as ‘1 VEV’, exactly as it was raced at the 1961 RAC Goodwood Tourist Trophy in the hands of Roy Salvadori. Copeman continues: “Without emotion, without passion, we couldn't create the objects we make. The Aston Martin brand generates so much excitement and is consistently deemed the coolest automotive brand in the world. It has been an honour to work closely with them, replicating their most iconic cars over the last fifteen years. I look forward to our future collaborations.”
The Aston Martin DB5 is widely considered to be amongst the most beautiful cars ever made, and is renowned as being among the most desirable and sought-after classic Aston Martin model. Certainly, it is one of the most beloved, thanks largely to its now eternal association with a certain agent of international espionage. Copeman adds “The DB5 has become a byword for timeless style and sports car desirability. We feel immensely privileged to be collaborating on a such a project and are delighted that our model captures every aspect of the original so precisely.”
The Aston Martin DB5 Vantage can be purchased from www.amalgamcollection.com.
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High resolution images can be found here >
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Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com
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ABOUT AMALGAM COLLECTION AND THEIR HISTORY
- Amalgam are recognised worldwide as makers of the finest hand-made large-scale models. Their work is unique in its attention to detail, with a focus on creating models that truly capture the style and spirit of each car. They have dedicated all their skill and passion to achieving a level of excellence that raises the impact and value of each finished piece to a level far above anything previously created.
- For owners of cars they have already modelled at 1:8 in a limited edition, for which the tooling already exists, they offer a tailormade service, customising a model to perfectly match the specification of the real car.
- For owners of unique very high value cars, Amalgam Collection offer an even bigger 1:5 or 1:4 ‘one-off’ model build from their UK workshops in Bristol, England. They will digitally scan the car wherever it is in the world and take up to a thousand pictures of every detail, allowing them to perfectly and accurately replicate everything at scale. Given the significant number of hours required to develop a unique model the costs are high, so the model is built at a very large scale to maximise the impact and detail, and to deliver the ultimate finished piece.
Amalgam Collection’s design, management and development heart is in England, with extraordinarily skilled and dedicated teams producing the bigger editions in Hungary and China. They are a multinational, multicultural team of crafts-men and women, dedicated to creating the world’s most precise, beautiful and exclusive models. Inspired by the F1 teams and iconic luxury car marques of England and Italy that they serve and partner with, they take huge pride in their mission to perfectly capture the designs, and honour the designers, drivers and creators of the automotive art they love.
Originally a partnership of four talented model-makers formed in 1985, from the start Amalgam created finely tuned models for the most important UK and German designers and architects. Working closely with Norman Foster’s team on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and on the Hong Kong Airport project was a fast, steep learning curve which quickly opened their eyes to subtle aesthetics and refined engineering. Working with such gifted architects their passion and desire to model the very best designs was ignited, which in due course led them to Williams F1 and Adrian Newey who were dominating the F1 championship in 1995, then on to Maranello and to the massively important design heritage of Enzo Ferrari in 1999, and latterly to the works of Pininfarina and Ettore Bugatti.
The seminal performance and luxury car designers of the early to mid-20th century were obsessed with achieving ever higher speeds, lighter and more powerful engines, more streamlined bodies, an impassioned quest that inevitably resulted in elegant and beautiful solutions as a consequence of stretching the supreme excellence of the craftsmanship and engineering to the very limits of what could be achieved at the time.
The companies that today bear these iconic names continue to be inspired, and their creativity is still fuelled, by the extraordinary passion and genius of their founders. Amalgam Collection too find inspiration in the creations of the founders and their companies who continue to design and create automotive artworks.
Recognising the beauty and importance of these designs Amalgam Collection have utterly dedicated their energy and passion to modelling these cars to a level of accuracy, precision and excellence that raises the finished replica to a level far beyond anything previously created. Amalgam have chosen to work at a scale of 1:8 which is widely acknowledged to be the most satisfying scale to comprehend the entirety of a car’s design at a glance, whilst in addition showing the most minute details.
To create perfect scale replicas of modern cars they use original CAD data supplied by the manufacturer and work closely with the design team to perfect their rendition of the interior and exterior finishes.
With regard to classics, in their quest for supreme accuracy and authenticity Amalgam’s team goes to great lengths to locate the best examples of original cars and digitally scans them to capture the precise shape and proportions of every part of the car including the chassis, engine and drive train. In addition, 600 to 800 photographs of every aspect and detail of each car are shot, to ensure a complete understanding of the finishes and detailing. The resulting models beautifully and precisely capture the entirety of the original and are impossible to discern from a real car in photographs.
Amalgam is the only maker of model cars in the world that can be considered alongside a maker of luxury watches like Richard Mille or Hublot. In fact, Richard Mille is an Amalgam patron who recognising a shared passion for engineering detail and perfection has commissioned from Amalgam Collection many unique models of his own cars and those he sponsors.
HOW THE MODELS ARE CREATED
- The patterns are created using original CAD from the manufacturer, or extraordinarily accurate digital scans and hundreds of photographs of an original classic car.
- The patterns are used to create silicon rubber moulds that capture every detail.
- Prototyping resin is used to cast the parts from the silicon moulds. Around 20 to 30 parts can be cast from each mould and then a new one must be made.
- Each model is built from thousands of parts: castings, photo-etchings and CNC machined metal components.
- Genuine car paints and manufacturer or archive colour references are used to spray the bodywork.
- It takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours to develop the tooling for each model.
- It takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build each model.
Every Amalgam Fine Model Car is made entirely by hand from thousands of parts. Detailed original CAD data is supplied by the car's manufacturer or the race team of the car to be modelled. The process of developing each model and creating the master patterns takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours of skilled work depending on the complexity of the car, with classic cars taking the longest.
In the case of the classic cars an extremely accurate digital scan is made of the car, and hundreds of photographs of all the details of a carefully selected original car are taken, to ensure complete accuracy and adherence to the authentic finishes and materials. Many parts of the model are machined from metal with the major components hand cast from prototyping resin. Each model is individually assembled by a small team of highly skilled model-makers. In total the time taken to machine, cast, hand fettle, paint, polish and assemble each model is between 250 and 450 hours of highly skilled work depending on the complexity of the car.
The finished model is a very precise scale replica of the original car with every detail perfectly and authentically represented at an 8th of the original size. This is modelling elevated to such a high level that it becomes an art form.
Since 1995 Amalgam have been admired and hugely respected by leading designers and engineers in the European automotive industry, as well as F1 designers, drivers and team principals. Amalgam's models appear on the desks of CEOs and presidents of the world's most important car companies. Due to the extreme accuracy and authenticity of Amalgam's creations, made in small limited editions, they are also much sought after by devoted collectors of fine handmade objects across Europe and in the USA.
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