The Mossman Family Website
Although not in a dreadful state this bus was a little tired. Having plenty of red buses, I thought I would go for a yellow bus. Yellow buses are common in Bournemouth. Just to make the bus current (and date in the future) I made a decal for the upcoming Top Gun film.
This is how the bus looked before I set to work on it.
Two Matchbox Thames Trader Wrecker Trucks restored, these both came with different issues, both were in a poor state – wrecked in fact.
I had to install a new hook (daming the end of the arm trying to get the stub of the old one off). I also found that the arm had been glued in, the paint stripper broke some very old glue. The axels were bent and the wheels had rusted to them. I reattached with 10ba screnw. The before pictures…
The Second Truck. The axels were also bent but wheels were free and the plastic hook reused. This must have been a later variant as the first model had the remains of a metal hook where as this came with a plastic one. I choose not to remove the hook having had problems with the first model.
This Ford Transit inspired ambulance had lost it’s sound and flash as well as looking a bit worse for wear. After removing the base and change the two batteries (not straight forward as these were not designed to be user replaced) it was a case of strip, paint and add my own decals to ready this ambulance for front line service.
Before
What started out as a smiple restore turned into a customisation project. When taking this model apart, one of the bottom rivets is loated just behind the cab making it too easy to drill through in the pick up bed. Once I had made this mistake, I decided to customise the pickup by adding Windows, a cab interior to allow me to screw the base on, some wooden blocks (“Builders Supplies”) to be delivered to a 60’s building site.
The Windows were made by cutting up the front of a HotWheels blister pack. The interior was taken from a RealToy car scrapped some years back so that it’s wheels could be donated to an earlier restoration project. A lot of cutting and filing was needed to shape the interior fo the J2 Cab area, plus allow sufficient clearance for the wheels.
After market decals and replace wheels and axels complete the project. Although not perfect, the model is displayable and looks good if you look from a distance.
Another straight restoration of a worn model. This is a regular wheels to superfast conversion which will date the model to 1969 to early 1970’s. Decals are after market. Unable to remove discolaration from lower deck. These models can be tricky to separate the rivet sits under the rear window, however, careful use of a small drill bit works!
Restored this Alvis Stalwart, after market decals and canopy aling with new tyres and axels.
While not in a terrible state, the GT-40 had seen better days. As the Gold/Black combination of this vintage Siku is quite common, a Blue version seemed more interesting.
Acquired in a sorry condition with multiple paint chips, cracked rear window and damaged light unit (and no fire chief stickers), the model suffered an unfortunate accident while tapping for screws as the drill bit went through the boot. After sitting around for two years, the model has been restored as 70’s adapted car. The roof luggate is a replacement for a Matchbox Fiat while the boot now has a 70’s CB Aerial. Not the best customisation but one that solved several issues. Wheels were sourced from “no brand” model. 
This 350SL was picked up for £1 at Eastleigh Chritmas Toy Fare in Dec’19. It mostly likey spent much of it’s life on a model railway as this standard yellow exmple was dirty but oddly had almost orange paint work on the boot and bonnet while the lower part of the car was standard Lesney yellow. Some polishing showed the discolartion was unfixable so off the to paint stripper. Katie decided she liked Tamiya Orange so this became the new colour for the car.
Charity shops often have Hotwheels and Matchox cars for sale. Many are “beaters” and restoration projects but occasionally have unusual cars with minor damage. Going rate is around £1.00 for three, at £0.33p each, a few chips are very acceptable. Pre-Christmas rummaging produced several good finds, but these McDonalds cars were the pick of the bunch. The two light up cars need new batteries as can be seen worked perfectly these were fitted.
