VBD2 is closed. Please go to https://vbd3.co.uk instead.

If you watch Marty's Matchbox Makovers, he recently did a YY horse drawn bus. This one was similar as it had a broken draw bar and a missing horse. Poor Marty ordered the wrong drawbar from Tony's RecoverToy and had to do some serious modification to get it to work (much too much work actually). He ordered the early single pin mounted bar and his bus had a double pin draw bar. I had both a single and a double in my reproduction spare parts bin and since this is an early casting with a fully open foot board on the rear, it has the single pin mount draw bar.

I got the replacement draw bar casting cleaned up and installed on the base of the model pretty darn quick (again, poor Marty and all he had to do to get his draw bar installed). I too was missing a horse, and I was able to find a replacement in the spare parts bin and got that sorted out. The original Lesney decals on the old model were pretty good so I soaked them off and later reinstalled them. The boiler buffed up very nice and looks pretty good. I did the horses in the rare "gray" (again another issue I have with color descriptions as there is nothing "gray" about them) and I matched that dirty cream color pretty well. A little harness, mane and tail detailing and the horses were ready to go. The driver had long since gone AWOL and the one lone remaining fireman looked like he had a run in with the French King and was headless.

So, I still need a driver and two firemen. Steve Flowers is closed again due to Covid, my friend Rob across the channel is on holiday until August and Tony Howden down in OZ wants over twice as much for the three men as Steve does (plus his shipping is more expensive). I decided to look on epay and see what's available. Wow, some guy from Canada must think these things are made out of gold! he wants $27 USD for the firemen and his shipping is as much as if they were coming from England. Steve charges $1.35 USD each for the firemen - who can afford $9.00 USD for one little plastic fireman??? OK, back on topic ... the wife says that whenever I do get the firemen, I can NOT list this one on ebay, she wants it for her TinMan Matchbox collection I gave her my "asking price" and she asked if I would accept a check from our joint account

Looking good
Gary

Yes it is looking good so here comes my 10/10 again.

Ghosthunter.

You need a tin of that old gold paint Joe, it's a wee bit darker than what you use.

Pretty close Joe, but the horse colour is a bit rich.
This is the real thing, but an earlier example without the guide ribs for the decal.

Moyboy wrote:You need a tin of that old gold paint Joe, it's a wee bit darker than what you use.

I'm using "gold Leaf paint" that has real gold ground up into it. It's a medium priced bottle that I've been working out of for several years now. The carat rating of the gold was fairly high and it's of good quality. I suspect Lesney was using paints that had fine ground solids that approximated Gold leaf paints (I.e imitation gold paints).  Like all oil based enamel paints, the colors tend to darken over the years. Some of the metallic solids can even tarnish making the finish grow darker (which doesn't happen with real gold leaf paint). I keep that bottle going by adding a bit of xylol to it from time to time to keep it fresh and maintain the viscosity. 

YYS4BOB wrote:Pretty close Joe, but the horse colour is a bit rich.
This is the real thing, but an earlier example without the guide ribs for the decal.

Fantastic model, thank you for posting the photos of it.

I never had a really nice example of this model in my collection. The best one I had was a later issue with the black horses and a replacement driver. The foot board for the driver never fully formed or was knocked off in fettling. I suspect it failed to form as the tips of the supports were smooth and fully painted. When I sold my collection, the "error" or negative variation model went to a collector in Germany who was excited to obtain it. I never had a white horse model, much less the so called Gray horse rare variation. My color choice for the horses was based on photographs I could find on nicks web site.

I considered removing the decal guide lines and decided against doing that. There isn't much on this model to detect it might be a repaint. The decals are original Lesney. The body color is matched to the original color that was on the model. The small axle ends have been spun down (because they are so noticeable on this model). So the gold trim and horse color being off is fine by me. I don't have plans at this time to sell it, but sooner or later it will change hands. When the men finally do arrive, it will be the nicest Shand Mason I've ever owned.

Thanks for the positive comments. This one was especially fun to work on and I'm pleased it's turning out nice.

Tinman wrote: When I sold my collection, the "error" or negative variation model went to a collector in Germany who was excited to obtain it.

I probably know him. There are two specialist Shand collectors in Germany, and another in Russia who have over 150 Shands between them!

Nick lists a "bronze" horse variation. Does anyone have one of those or even a photo of one? That's something I've never seen.

Bronze on the left. It's a very subtle difference, but noticeable when side by side in good light. incidentally, there are two different castings for the black horses. Later examples have a strengthening ring cast around the mounting holes where they are attached to the shaft.