The last entry I made some time ago was the CC1 'booster' loco. Unfortunately I ran into problems with designing and cutting the roof successfully and it lay abandoned and subsequently trodden underfoot in the everyday bid for survival. I've been pre-occupied with trying to get the house up together and ready for sale so haven't had much time to think about railways. However I did find time to buy a book about British Railways' road vehicles in particular the Commer Q25 van which first came into service in around 1946. It was used extensively by BR for its parcels operation.

Due to its boxy shape I thought this might provide a relatively simple model to make in card, using my silhouette cutter. Having no direct side view of the van it was left to me to sort out the general profile so the shape may not be true to the original but will be a representation of the original. ( he adds hastily in an attempt at warding off the rivet counters).
I drew up the design in Inkscape, cutting the parts as they were drawn up and trial fitting them dry, with necessary adjustments until they fitted ok.

The part on the left is the outer side and the one on the right is the inner side, 5 of these were laminated to form a sanwich in which would run the sliding doors, unfortunately this hasn't worked as the build has progressed due to my making the doors too thick, not allowing for the glazing.
next came the base which was fixed at right angles to one side.

then a partition behind the cab to add rigidity

The other side fixed made the thing seem stronger, after which I fixed a support for the roof which unfortunately had to be in two halves due to its length being too long to get on to A4 size card, then I made up the contents of the cab, dash, steering wheel, seats, engine block ( both from balsa ) etc. I glazed the windows using a plastic croissants box.

The back was then attached; after sizing the back doors. I had thought about hinging these but due to the fairly fragile nature of the card it might prove difficult to attach hinges made up from scrap brass, so for now they only have a single layer of card sandwiched into the layers which I think be vulnerable to damage.
When I came to making the front mudguards I found my first mistake. I hadn't really thought about the shape of the front too well, I had thought of the whole thing as a box and made the base rectangular. When offered up, the mudguards looked wrong, for the wheels front and rear to be inline the front wheels needed to be on the same plane as the inside of the wheel arches I'd fitted so nothing for it but to get the razor saw out and cut a wedge out of the base/wheel arches and then fold the lower sides in and refix them to the adapted base.
I tapered the front panel from the bottom of the windscreen downwards, it now looks much better.
I've made up one wheel, I designed this as a series of 3 rings all sitting inside each other, which when laminated formed the hub, wheel rim and tyre.

So that's it for now, I'm going back to the UK so there'll be a break, but when I come back I hope to show you the conclusion.

bye for now,

Roly