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This model is of the Fun Ho! #37 Aveling Road Roller in dark green.
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There are no opening parts on this model. All features are cast into the metal of the model. The model appears to be based on an Aveling Barford "GD" Road Roller . At the front of the Fun Ho! Road Roller there is a cast representation of the engine covers, Steering frame and front roller. Behind this is the cab area with roof, cast driver, driver's seat and steering wheel. Both sides carry cast body lines and representations of the side engine covers and fuel tanks(?). The rear is cast to show a small tow hook. There is no interior as such, simply the cast driver, etc. There is no glazing. The front roller appears to be two pieces, unpainted metal, mounted on a steel domed axle that has been fitted to the separately cast steering frame. The rear rollers appear to be cast, as one piece, in metal, and are attached to a steel axle that passes through the body casting. There is no base plate, but the underside of the casting is marked "Fun Ho! No 37, Made In, New Zealand" on three lines below the engine covers. |
 Aveling Barford Road Roller, Newcastle, 1965 Newcastle upon Tyne City Engineers diesel road roller in Lyndhurst Avenue with Lyndhurst Gardens railway bridge in background. Not long after the last steam rollers had been pensioned off, so this machine would have been quite new at the time of this photo. [Source: NE2 3PN on Flickr] |
This casting was used between 1978-82. During its lifetime, 417,000 Road Roller models were manufactured with a paint finish.
The scale is unknown but thought to be around 1:53. My reasoning is that the only length for a larger G series roller I can find is for a "GF" at 126 inches (3.200 metres) and the "GD" model is said to be the largest of the series so I've decided to use an arbitrary length of 144 inches (3.657 metres) to calculate the scale. Given the Fun Ho! Roller has a length of almost 2.75 inches (68mm excluding the tow hook) (3657/68 = 1:53). If we accept the GA length as a standard length (since the vehicles were sold as ranging from 5-15 tons and may not have had longer wheelbases) then we get a scale of 1:47 (3200/68 = 1:47).
Item: 3979