THE ROAD TO RUIN

I'M prompted to write having read the letter in the March issue by Robert Walker, regarding paint defects on his Oxford Diecast Austin Princess AP007. I searched for mine and found that it also had the same mottling, but mine was all over the car. Being a model maker (of sorts) I took off some paint and found out it hadn't received a primer coat in the factory, thus causing the paint to react with the bare metal. I noted that he bought his from Keith's Cars of Derby, where I buy all of my models, and asked if he had any knocking around. He did, so I sent for another Princess and a hearse. The Princess had the same problem but the hearse is perfect and blemish free. I intended to create a diorama of an abandoned country undertakers, or a scrapyard, which I remembered from 1972, when, on Sunday mornings, my dad and I would go looking for parts for his 1939 Wolseley 12/48 and Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 234. I would have been 12 in 1972 and really loved these times with my dad. I can still see, in my mind's eye, the two Austin Princess limousines and a sister hearse rotting away in a field. Oddly, they were only 15 years old then, but I expect the fuel prices back then put paid to lovely large cars of the time. If you would like a step-by-step guide through how I achieved the model in the enclosed photo, I am more than happy to type out my techniques - that's if you're interested, of course. I thought some of your readers might like to see the exact opposite to what normally fills the pages of Diecast Collector. Would you please credit Clive Brown of Artwrite art supplies (www.artwrite. co.uk), Hythe, who took and printed the enclosed photographs.

Chris Pearson, Hythe

ED Wow, Chris! What a great job you've done there, so different. And yes please to a write up – that would be most interesting. Robert kindly sent me his faulty model and it's in my stash of ‘projects' to do something with, so I could take some cues from your instructions and try to replicate it.