model trucks, vans and cars
Other models
Dioramas
A diorama is the best way to show off your models. Here I illustrate two. (They contain the same vehicles because I made these pictures for a greeting card for a particular person with Sussex connections. Yes, I know it's a Great Western van but I don't care.)
The harbour view is a very small diorama just 50cm wide and set into a picture frame I found on the local dump. The narbour wall is a thin piece of polystyrene packing, scored with a ball-point pen and painted with water colours. The ocean is polyfiller, roughed-up & painted. I made the little red-brick hut from a cornflakes box and painted the background. You'll probably recognise the row of shops as one of the earliest "Superquick" low-relief cardboard models.
The street view (just a quarter of the whole thing) is a long strip of hardboard sitting on top of my bookcase. I made up the "Superquick" buildings and painted the background. The tree is a twig from a tree, with some green sawdust stuck on. It's not difficult.
China Motor Bus (Hong Kong) Guy “bank vehicle”
A fortified ex-bus, licensed as a goods vehicle (see the black, registration-details square near the doors — these are not found on buses registered to carry passengers). Designed to
carry money (cashboxes). The lower deck windows, side front and back, are protected by wire mesh.
NOTE: I wrote the paragraph above before I discovered an obscure website, which may or may not last. In case it does not, here are some really interesting notes about the model the manufacturer calls the "bank vehicle", and they give a much better account than my vague guesswork: "Guy Arab Mk V AC4717 started life as a single decker in 1965, and [was] converted to a double decker during … 1970, and receive[d] a fleet number of S10. It [was] converted to a fare box transporter in 1983."
The picture of the inside of the upper deck shows that nearly all the seats had been removed. This detail didn't bother the modelmakers (Best Choose), who have left the upper deck of the model fully equipped with seats, no doubt as an economy because they market another model on this casting — but we've found them out.
The website shows a picture of another, similar vehicle, with: "AC4726 (S22) also have a same history as the AC4717(S10). (2000/12/24)" I am certain the webmaster wouldn't mind if I repro'd his pictures of this vehicle:
There's one interesting detail I'd like to know more about. In one of the front views you can see that the original headlamps, which were originally close-in to the radiator grille, have been blanked-off, and new ones fitted further outboard. (The left-front mudguard is not the standard shape, so it's been easy to mount a headlamp in it instead of on it.) I wonder why they bothered to do that? (You can see the standard headlamp position on the Guy on the next line.)
(Return to the Arab Mk 4 models, Red CMB)
Mobile pie stall
Hattons were selling one very good model, a 1940s Daimler utility double decker operated by Douglas Corporation, very cheap at £7. I bought three and made a single-deck mobile pie stall out of one of them. (I still don't know what to do with the left-over top deck, but I'm thinking of a railcar.) It was difficult to paint over the beautiful paintwork and transfers, but, at £7, I could afford it. The model looks quite authentic because the paintwork is rough, and the whole thing looks knocked-about and daggy, and the access door is hanging off, just like these stalls always were when I saw them by the side of the road in the 1960s. I simply cannot write small enough to make genuine signs, but the writing on the blackboard and the sandwich boards looks better in real life than it does with this camera's close-up lens.
Heavy road tractor
This is an example of how you can use up bits and pieces you have left over from cutting up other models for other projects. I had a tank transporter trailer, the floor from a builder's truck (with tools, tarp etc.), a radiator grille, a pair of double mudgards from the rear wheels of a 6-wheeler, six wheels taken from cheap plastic supermarket toys, and the roof from a WW2 military ambulance. Everything else is thin cardboard, bits of paperclips or other odds 'n ends. The pictures at the top shows how I painted it to match a standard Lledo Scammel heavy haulage tractor.
Soft drink pallet truck
Like the pie stall and the heavy road tractor, this is an example of my building my own body on a model designed for something else. I bought a 50:1 Corgi removal van, removed the body, and built this body from scrap. The end bulwarks and the side panels below the waist are sanded from balsa, the pallet dividers cut from cardboard, the pallets from matchsticks and card, and the crates from balsa wood. It took many tries to paint the Coca-Cola white wavy line, and it's still not right. I cut the "Coke" and "Coca-Cola" signpainting from the plastic labels on Coke bottles thoughtfully cast aside by young people. The paint scheme is based on the original truck in Hong Kong (below), but I did my own front-panel color scheme because it was too difficult to do theirs. Now I see them together, I think mine is better.
I wanted this type of vehicle because I was the fleet sales manager of the Bedford dealer in Hong Kong from 1969 to 1979, and sold plenty of these, many to Swire Bottlers, the local Coca-Cola bottler. I sold the one in the picture, a 1970 Bedford KHL diesel, early in my career there. Later, Swire Bottlers asked me to supply trucks with the American Alison automatic gearbox. The Bedford factory in England said they couldn't do it, so Swire bottlers bought an Alison gearbox from me, and, to prove a point, their local mechanics fitted it perfectly after a few experiments. I went to England to tell the factory that this was a bit embarrassing, especially as none of Swire's mechanics had even been to school, and would they try harder, please? Bedford got down to it, and the Alison automatic gearbox became a regular production option after a few months.
Bedford was once one of the world's best-known commercial vehicles, and I find it hard to believe that the factory no longer exists. Their trucks do, however, especially in India and Africa.
Do-it-yourself tractor
I bought three 76:1 tractors as a set for only $6. But they were modern-looking and wouldn't fit on a 1950s railway layout. You can see the original design (green). I sawed the entire top off the red one, then drilled a hole from each side to give me a straight-through drivers floor, then a hole directly into the back to make it open like the old tractors were, then stuck a broken plastic man in the "seat". I chopped off one arm and arranged it in a natural way, then fitted a steering wheel, which is a rivet glued to the end of a piece of wire. Awful, right? But it fits.
BMW m/c + sidecar
The only reason I included this is to show just what good value you can get for $6. (Pity about the front wheel spindle, though.) And it's 76:1!
Jensen Jen-Tug mechanical horse
I include this because there was a Corona soft drink depot near me in South Norwood, London (next to Stanley Tech College), and because it was an odd thing for Jensen Motors, who were famous for expensive sports coupés, to make. I know they made an odd truck or two, with the letters JNSN cut out of the front panel to make a radiator grille (very ugly), 
but I do not remember this little number. The model is made by Classix (Pocketbond) and is good value for a 76:1 collector, at £7. I have bought two, and both arrived with a broken set of the little resting wheels at the front of the trailer.
AEC (ex-STL) tower wagon
One of many types used for servicing trolleybus and tram powerlines, and made up from decommisioned buses.
Melbourne W6-series tram
I've included this because (a) it's "Crafted in China" for an Australian company, Cooee Concepts Pty Ltd (b) it's a good little model (76:1) and (c) the no.8 does not go to Melbourne. It runs between Toorak and Moreland. Such a daft mistake. It's just as easy to stick on a transfer that says "Moreland". It's also a pity that there is no tramways crest on the side. I bought this from a splendid shop called Model Mania in Elizabeth St, about a block or two up from Flinders Street Station. The shop is a bit shy and you have to hunt for it. No big signs.
London Transport 1931 Feltham "streamlined" d/deck tram
In 1929, Union Construction Company (UCC), based at Feltham in Middlesex were asked to construct their first tram — the very successful classic tramcar - the
'Feltham'. A total of 100 cars were built, 54 for M.E.T. and 46 for L.U.T
and went into service in 1931. In 1933 they were taken over and renumbered
by the London Passenger Transport Board who susequently between 1949 and
1951 sold 92 of them to Leeds. the third prototype 'Cissie' was sold by the
L.P.T.B. to Sunderland in 1937. Two of these magnificent tram cars are in
preservation and can be seen at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden
(MET car 355) and at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, Derbyshire (Cissie).
I used London trams a lot until I was eleven (1952), at which time they were withdrawn. I loved
them as they were really fast on the straight, and, when sitting up the
front on the top deck, the weaving from side to side was startling, as the
distance down to the rails made it look like you were going to go off the
rails. Also, when we went to the city, we went down Dog Kennel Hill in
Sydenham, and that caused excited expectations as one or two had gone off at
the bottom. I think the rails joined there so that, instead of 4
rails (that is, two in each direction), you had 3, so that one tram couldn’t
come up if one was going down. I’ll try to find out.
I didn’t ride on the Feltham type, which was quite a late introduction. The trams on my routes
were the older models for which there’s no model. For the record, they
looked like this, and my favourite spot was up the top, bang in the middle
under that white square. They had a kind of bay-seat that fitted into the
bay window.
Guy/Sunbeam 6-wheeled trolleybus — London Transport (red), and Cardiff Corp (wartime grey)
My school was in Selhurst, Croydon, but our rugger pitch was in Waddon. Every time we played rugger, we took the 654 trolleybus. They were huge, silent and had a superior air. I was really sorry when they were taken off (in the late 1960s?). Now we are all falling over each other to get electric vehicles back and I know that Croydon has reintroduced trams, which must have cost a fortune. Why not use trolleybuses, but fitted with big batteries so that they can come off the mains now and then? I believe that quite a few people, with less-than-perfect hearing, stepped off the kerb and were spiflicated by these silent knights.
Sunbeam 4-wheeler trolleybus (Maidstone & District)
Wartime utility body, wood-slat seats.
From Hattons
From 1904 until 1928 Maidstone Coproration used trams for its routes to Barming, Loose and Tovil Road. Trolleybuses replaced tramcars on two routes, but diesel buses took over on the Tovil run. Until 1964 the trolleys seemed reasonably secure, having had several extensions to the system since the Second World War, the last being the erection of wiring along the new Bishops Way. The decision to abandon the system was taken the same year, with replacement by diesel buses scheduled to take place over the next four years. During the transition program buses were slotted into the trolleybus services, and the final withdrawal came on 15 April 1967.
This model is 50:1, but Corgi do a 76:1, and the notes from Hattons read thus: "Number 56 (GKP 511), is a Sunbeam W new in 1944 with a Park Royal Utility UH30/26R body, rebodied by Roe (H34/28R) in 1960. This fine vehicle is now preserved at The Sandtoft Transport Centre, near Doncaster." As my model has registarion letters GKN, it's very close to the one described.
Passenger-car models in 76:1 scale
In 2006 I wrote this: "You can buy thousands of beautiful 76:1 buses, trucks, railway locomotives coaches and wagons, platform people, and even a few vans. But what about passenger cars at 76:1 scale? Hardly any. But an R. Parker of Malvern, UK, who is so wonderfully old fashioned they don't have a website, does some 76:1 models the old-fashioned, labour-intensive way, which is why they are expensive. This pic of a 1956 Ford Consul Mk 2 shows how well detailed these models are, but also how hard it is top get an R. Parker model looking good unless you are an expert spraypainter. Still, it looks better in the flesh, and I have bought a dozen of these models. Good on you, Mr, Mrs or Ms Parker."
Now (I write in early 2008), manufacturers have woken up and gone zooming off to China to produce almost more models that we can fit on our model layouts. You can now get a good selection, from Classix (Pocketbond), Oxford Diecast, Base Toys, and one or two from Corgi/Lledo, and I expect poor old R Parker will now be left high and dry after soldiering on for years as the only supplier. It's not very nice, but that's business.
Corgi/Lledo ("Trackside" range)
Base Toys
Classix (Pocketbond)
Oxford Diecast
The best of all the 76:1 model cars
When you have hundreds of models, it's hard to have favourites, but there are a few examples of outstanding value for money. Until September 2008, my "best value for money" award went to the Corgi model of the Southdown Bristol Lodekker. Then that model was equalled or even overtaken by this Oxford Diecast model of a Land Rover.
The reason for its outstanding value is its tiny size (76:1, or 4.5cm long) and its tiny price (airmailed from England, it cost under $6). I have several other Oxford Diecast, and they're good value, but this one takes the prize.
Lledo "Trackside" 76:1 commercial-vehicle models
I put these in to show what good value you get from the Lledo "Trackside" 00-gauge range. They're a bit big for the scale, but OK. Typically, you can get them on special at about £3 or £5 and, although some models may never really have existed just like the models, it's a great way to decorate a layout. At these prices, you can buy five or six, weather them, and use them for a brickyard or building scene in a blank corner of the layout.
Base Toys brand 76:1 model trucks
Also a bit big for 00-gauge, mut not much, is another great (new to me in 2007) range of brilliant value-for-money models. They're about £4.5–5.00 (VAT-free) plus a little bit of freight. So far, they're all trucks. An advantage is the screw fixing of body to chassis, allowing you to remove body and modify or replace with your scratch-built one. For example, the first horsebox shown here (a Guy) looks like a bright orange log cabin, so I removed it and made a new one out of paddlepop sticks. Rough, but real wood, and looking worn out (lower pictures).
Few Base models have signwriting. For a railway layout, an ideal way is to buy five or six of the same, say tippers, then heavily weather them and put them to work in a quarry.