In his thread "Layout Damaged at Open Day!", Darren described the damage sustained by "Torrington" at a recent event. Part of this involved a car going missing from the scene. While I'm sure all RMWebber's will sympathise (many already have on the thread), there's not much we can do to help remotely.

Except to replace the missing car.

The car in question is a Morris Minor - normally nicknamed a "Moggie". I dropped in to my local model shop and rooted through the selection of Oxford Diecast models on offer. Sadly, there wasn't an exact match but I had the choice of a convertable version or a Traveller. The convertable seemed a closer match, and I've never liked the woodwork on the Traveller anyway, so I paid up and brought the model home.

Like all Oxford Diecast models, this is a nice looking model car. When you consider the range available at such reasonable prices compared to a few years ago, it's amazing. I remember kitbuilding a similar car where 2 roof castings were included and I had to use both as neither was long enough...

Anyway, not all was perfect. There's a blob of paint on one wheel and to my eyes, the paint is far too shiny.

The model is taken apart by undoing a pair of screws underneath. The rubber tyres are easily prised from the hubs so the blob could be removed. This left a bit of black plastic showing through so I repainted all the wheels with Humbrol cream. While this dried, I looked at the body. Removing the glazing wasn't an easy option so matt varnishing the bodywork was going to require all the glass to be masked off. A fiddly job and one I chickened out of.

My usual choice of varnish is Testors Dullcote. Until recently I'd only ever seen this as an aerosol but it is also available in a bottle and I'd picked some up from Hobby Holidays a few months ago.

Anyway, a couple of coats brushed over the paintwork has reduced the shene to a much more realistic level, all without the need to mask anything. If you are interested in brushable varnish options, I tried a few different options on my blog last year.

With the car dry and re-assembled, I thought there was one finishing touch that it deserved - some new numberplates.

Using Paintshop Pro, I made a black rectangle then overlaid the text "RM WEB 1" in 7pt Arial and then printed this at 25% on photo quality paper. Careful cutting out was followed by colouring the edges with black felt pen. The finished plates were fixed with smears of UHU.

Now the car is finished and packed to go in the post, ready to fill a space on Torrington.