Ford Transit Mk1

Andy bought me a Ford Transit kit from Pendle Slot Racing for Christmas and I've finally put the finishing touches to it this morning.

The resin bodyshell has been extremely well cast and unusually the kit also has a resin interior and resin chassis.  The parts went together perfectly.  The bodyshell was primed in grey and then sprayed gloss white around the middle of the van.

The middle band of the bodyshell and the radiator were then masked off before spraying the rest of the van in British racing green.

The wipers, lights and bumpers were then hand-painted before applying a few coats of lacquer.

The painted interior and driver were then fitted, along with the rest of the chassis and wheels.

Add a number plate and it's almost finished...

The final step was something new for my cars - home-made decals.  I've previously made number plates by printing onto adhesive white paper but that would be too thick for decals.  This time, I bought waterslide transfer paper suitable for inkjet printers and made up a transfer for each side of the van.  After printing, the transfer has to be lacquered a few times or else the ink will run as soon as the transfer is immersed in water.  Once it is dry, it can be applied just like a waterslide transfer from a commercial kit like Airfix.

Since the Transit is more of a workhorse than a racehorse, I thought that making it a maintenance van for my circuit would be an appropriate choice.