Excuse me, Mr Hornby, is that your van?

I am a bad modeller. All the photos I found of an Austin C van showed them painted in a single colour. Despite this, mine is two-tone.

Why? Because it looks nice that way. I'm sure someone felt the same about the prototype. If they didn't, they should have.

Painting the model by hand worked fine, masking the back was a bit fiddly and I haven't got it perfectly straight but no-one has mentioned it yet. Vac-formed glazing is included but I prefer Krystal Klear for this sort of job and didn't even try to fit it.

Final jobs include writing the numberplates which I will do at some point. The format would be very different from modern ones as well as colours, so I need a bit of research.

Stood on the layout, the model looks lovely. Those wire wheels impart a delicate air to it and make the price worthwhile. I could see myself doing another vehicle of this age, well if I didn't have a million other things to do.

The figures are whitemetal and that really is Frank Hornby on the right. You can read more about him and his miniature on the MRL website. Maybe I'll find a suitable set of Hornby transfers for the van one day, or perhaps he just likes to travel incognito.