[Gordon Steadman]

I had no idea they were so small! But you can see that the woman above does rather show the scale.

   

[KensRedZed]

Multi directional headlamps noted. 

[JasonB]

I had no idea they were so small! But you can see that the woman above does rather show the scale.

Aye, they were dinky.

No longer than a Ford Escort, no taller than your average door, and no wider than... well, something that's 5' 4".

Looking at the drawings, it seems they put most of the engine on the left of the driver, where you'd expect a passenger's legs to be, which is quite smart. It obviously allowed them to have a large load space with a footprint no larger than a family car.

Not that I care too much about that, I just like the cute face, it looks a little bit awkward and a bit sad, but full of character. You captured it very well in your drawings. It reminds me of Eeyore, somehow.

   

[JasonB]

Multi directional headlamps noted. 

Not sure how much use a sideways pointing headlight is, but you never know when daleks are about. You need to cover all the angles.

[Gordon Steadman]

I wonder what this could be!

   

No promises at this stage, I'm sort of feeling my way through this. I don't really do flat.

I repeat....this thing is tiny!

[JasonB]

That's marvellous Gordon. Is it a Ferrari?

[Gordon Steadman]

That's marvellous Gordon. Is it a Ferrari?

Is it red?

[KensRedZed]

Due to Covid. Postal services worldwide have all invested in something to help pick up the pace. The new 800 horsepower Ferrari mail delivery vehicle! 

Guarenteed to do a wheelie! (with street-slicks of course)  

Of course it's going to be red. KensRedZed is one of the few guys that doesn't paint ferrari's red. So they say...

[JasonB]

It's rumoured that KensRedZed keeps his red paint in a box, which is never to be opened in the vicinity of a Ferrari model.

But speaking of colours, while the Master is at work doing the difficult stuff, I've been thinking about hues and tones. Hmmm, it's tough work but somebody's got to do it.

One of the interesting things about the J, was that it was first made in 1948, when I imagine Britain would probably have been a quite austere place, still suffering from the after affects of the war. But it stayed in production until 1961, and the 60s were a very different decade indeed. So the liveries available would be multiduninous, and could range from the basic Post Office van, to the more extravagent, and exuberent ice cream sellers.

There are some quite fancy paint jobs on offer in surviving examples, but to be honest, I think I prefer the more basic examples.

           

I think it maybe looks better as a slightly down in the dumps basic van that's had a hard life, rather than something that's been poshed up with a fancy paintjob, so I kind of imagine it in what I would call railway colours, burgundy, navy, or deep green, possibly with black wheel arches. Obviously it's tempting to play about with the swage lines and two tone body work, but I'm not sure it needs it.

                       

These are definitely the work of some late sixties hippies, which is just not right, but I had to check it out.

       

[Gordon Steadman]

What a shame I don't have any pink paint left