Well, as I mentioned earlier, the Brekina offering is a tad pricey, but I believe it's at 1:22.5 scale.
To make one yourself, there are really two scale options; 1:18 where the models are readily assembled, die cast, with lots of opening bits and pieces, which could open at embarassing times. The other drawback is that the models are about £40, and are quite highly detailed, a bit to posh for chopping to bits.
The other scale is 1:24, where there are a few options. I bought the die cast, screw together (as in 2 screws) simple kit, which can still be found on evil bay for about £10.
There are also various ready built, die cast models at that scale, including a customized cut-down window job, and various emergency vehicles with a roof light mounted front centre - should be easy enough to dismember these by drilling out presumably just two rivets.
Also, and this is what started me off, Revell have just brought out a plastic kit at £25, and there are still some of the old Hasegawa kits on evil bay, especially interesting if you want a van as opposed to a micro bus. Haven't seen inside a Revell box, but the Hasegawa body is basically a one piece with a few doors to fit.
I felt the die cast body would be fairly resilient, as would the slightly heavier duty plastic chassis that they use.
So here we go
I first attacked the chassis. I think if I were not trying to keep to a tight budget, and use as much stuff as can be found in the spares box, I could have been be tempted to work with a 1:32 slot car chassis, which would provide instant bearing and motor mount solutions.
Never mind, front bearings are Slaters, reamed out to accommodate the Accucraft axles; I soldered small nickel silver tangs onto them, to provide a bit of anchorgae when fixing to the plastic with 2-part epoxy. Rear set up is brasss tube, soldered to brass RHS acting as a spacer, soldered to a brass plate, epoxy glued and screwed to teh plastic chassis. The motor mount is a pieces of brass bent into a top hat section, and then with side reinforcing pieces soldered on - these are a bit oversize due to the first chassis/body mod which is....
To accommodate the 45mm gauge wheels, the chassis has to be cut back a by 2/3 mm each side, and the plastic wheels arch inners have to be cut away from the seat/interior moulding.
Here's the chassis, motor is mounted at a slight angle to miss the rear seat back
<message edited by Rhinochugger on 11/02/10 03:46 PM>