Scratchbuilt 1/12th scale Van on Lorry Undercarriage

A 1/12th scale 'Van on Lorry Under Carriage', made from the drawing of J.E.Bishop, published in the January, 1919 edition of "The Coach and Motor Builder".

Changed the wheels from wooden spoked wheels to steel wheels, these steel wheels are sometimes referred to as Sankey wheels, or, what was used on a Morris Cowley and a few other English vehicles many years ago.

As time went on, the Wheelwrights changed over to different trades and by about the 1930-40's they were a bit thin on the ground. So a lot of Lorry owners started to use these type of steel wheels with rubber tyres fitted, because of the shortage of Wheelwrights to repair the wooden spoked wheels.

These wheels made the Vehicle roll a lot easier, because they were fitted with ball-bearings and they were a lot quieter as well with a rubber tyre filled with compressed air, instead of steel tyres fitted to the wooden spoked wheels rolling down a cobbled street.

Today you sometimes see these wheels fitted to a vehicle in the show ring.

I had the 1/12th scale steel wheels made by 3D Printing and they worked out quite OK.

The tyres came from a 1/12th scale plastic kit of the "Blower Bentley", only had to adjust the size of the 3D printed steel wheels, to accommodate the 1/12th scale rubber tyre.

Swiped the colour scheme for the Van from an old Ford Utility, that old time painter called Alex Hamilton, had re-painted many years ago and is in the Redlands Museum, Qld.

A few photos showing what it's made from and then a few more photos showing the finished vehicle.

Any questions then please ask ?

19 additional images. Click to enlarge.