24xt and 539 Ford Vedette 1953 taxi (1956-1960)

Hello friends.Here is a new topic on a french Dinky. This car recieved 2 roof colours : light cream and dark cream. You can see it : in the box there is one light cream. Coming back soon with another items. Richard

Nice one! Lovely crisp trade box too, makes you wonder where this stuff's been all these years. Didn't know about the roof colours either. Cheers, Chris Warr.

Just to show the unpainted baseplate and to compare with a black painted one. Kind regards Richard

Hello Richard, on closer inspection, do you believe that the coating has never been applied, or could it have gradually disappeared in the course of time because of poor adhesion? I have one or two models (a 501 Foden shown below) which show a (almost) disappeared base plate finish. Are any remains visible still on your Vedette taxi? Kind regards, Jan

Hello Jan. I did not find any paint traces, even under the rear axle. it's difficult to look to the inside face but it seems to be identical. But, now, there are so much excellent forgers that, perhaps, the baseplate was removed and scoured. I join two other photos to study. Kind regards Richard

It is known that the base plates and many other parts were not made at the Bobigny factory but sub contracted to other companies. The base plates were stamped from pre painted or pre anodised tin plate reels. Richard's unpainted base plate may have been made from the very begining or end of a reel which could not be treated. We know that Meccano never scraped anything which could be used and this may be the case.