Haulage Contractor Hansen's Bedford (1/35)

In Nystrup haulage contractor Hansen was the prime mover of gravel from Nystrup Gravel to costumers that didn't have the possibility to pick up gravel in their own vehicles. The gravel was loaded into lorries at the ramp at Nystrup. Hansen had a small fleet of lorries of quite a varied origin. In the mid 1950's Hansen still had some old ex. German army lorries, a postwar Chevrolet, while the pride of the fleet was the new Bedford O tipper bought specifically to offer fast and easy delivery of gravel. No need for hard work shovelling gravel from the lorry!

Hansen's Bedford O-tipper driving unloaded from Ubehage to Nystrup to pick up a load of gravel.

I started assembly of the Roadcraft Models' kit back in March and finished building in June. After the primer was dry, I air brushed bonnet, cab and rear body with Vallejo 967, Verde Oliva. Front bumper, radiator and front mudguards had a layer of glossy black while the chassis was given a coat of matt black. I applied custom decals from 'Skilteskoven' and they went on very fine, despite a quite demanding surface with metal strapping and rivets on the tailboard. I used Mr. Hobby's decal solutions to help the decals soften and adjust to the surface.

Basic colours applied to the lorry. Next is decals. In the background some of the old 35 mm film canisters I use for mixing and thinning paint. Good thing I kept a bag of them when I switched to digital photography!

I managed to destroy decals and paint on the cab doors when applying matt varnish. The Games Workshop varnish normally works fine on Vallejo paints (and did so on the tailboard), but on the doors something clearly went wrong. I just hate when things like that happens. Particularly when there is no obvious explanation. The doors were stripped of paint and primer and I started all over again. This time I chose to use Vallejo varnish to avoid further nasty surprises.

The license plates are the yellow 1950-1958 type with a single letter indicating which county the lorry came from. After painting I fitted a windshield wiper from the spares box.

I kept the weathering to a minimum. Basically a few washes with thinned oil paints and a light dusting with powdered pastels to represent dust. The rear body inside was weathered somewhat more and I applied a little dried gravel in the corners.

The Bedford O apparently parked on the ramp from the viaduct taking the road between Nystrup and Ubehage over the gravel line. At least no driver is to be seen in the driver's seat?

I peviously built Hansen's Chevrolet lorry and perhaps another lorry from the company will show up on the layout in the future?

Lorries made up a good percentage of the automobiles on Danish roads in the fifties. Almost a third of all automobiles were lorries. It reflects that only a limited number of Danes had the means to buy a car in those years.

Another scan from my collection of the 'Who, What, Where' year books. This time the 1950 issue.