A very brief history

AEC (or Associated Equipment Company) was a fairly early producer of vehicles being founded in 1912 and lasting up until 1979. Initially focusing on buses their first prototype commercial vehicle was based on a bus chassis but with the outbreak of the first world war they were ideally placed to produce lorries for the army. After the war lorry production continued right up until the companies last days.

In world war 2 they produced something like 10,000 vehicles for the war effort and readers familiar with Airfix kits have likely come across the Matador model at some point. the company acquired a fair few other companies during its time with Crossley Motors, Park Royal and Thornycroft being just a few of them. They were taken over themselves in 1962 by Leyland Motors.

Leyland fitted their own ‘Ergomatic’ cabs to the AEC line of lorries but they retained the AEC branding. So Ercomatic is a type rather than a model covering Madator, Matador, Mercury etc (the lorry models always began with the letter M).

The Models

So the victims both picked up cheaply from ebay. On the left Atlas editions and on the right from EFE. Both are similar in a way. Both have nicely done cabs with rather rudimentary bodies and slightly odd looking wheels. The proportions of the Stobart example look a little odd as well.

Having looked at pictures of the real things I decided to shorten the chassis and tipper body. The ribs were beefed up a little and a new hood fabricated from plasticard. The hydraulic ram came from my spares box.

The livery was stripped form the cab (as its all metal nail varnish remover is ideal for this and the wheels replaced with some from RTI. Below shows the model after painting and weathering.

The body on the Mammoth was metal and to be honest im not sure what its supposed to represent. I think its some sort of pressed steel effort but I binned it and made up a new body to represent a planked body instead. The strapping is from the mainly trains etch.

I decided to keep the livery on the cab this time and just gently sanded the sign writing off. Wheels again are from RTI. The usual matt varnish and light weathering finish it off.