The A-Team Van Matchbox Vehicle – Scratch Model Build (sort of — it’s more of a ‘conversion’)

October 8, 2023
by Jay Daniells
Current Projects (WIP), Model Making, Scratch Built Models

I’ve owned this little van since I was a kid. It wasn’t actually a Matchbox or Hot Wheels brand toy I don’t think. I found it in storage recently. I lost the wheels and base a long time ago, so I did a bit of Googling to find out what it is. According to this eBay listing, it is a ‘1970’s Bedford CF Party Van Die Cast Firebird Silver’ made by Yatming (Yat Ming).

I always thought it would be fun to turn it into The A-Team vehicle. Now that I am in my 40’s and have the skills to be able to do so, I’ve started the project.

In recent years I’ve gotten pretty inspired by all the custom Matchbox and Hot Wheels restoration projects people put on YouTube. I’ve included a few at the bottom of this blog post.

I have a few other old Matchbox vehicles that I really treasured as a kid (and still do). I’ll restore them at some point as well.

I’m in no rush to finish this A-Team van project. It’s just something I want to enjoy doing bit by bit as spare time allows. I’ll scratch-build details, use my airbrush to do the paint job and make it look as good as I can. I’m modelling it after the original van from the 1980’s TV show, not the more recent movie version.