tjlglass wrote:Colour trial is not always a production colour, could be just that, a trial!!
Yes, it could. However, the combination of what might be a low-pressure casting of the first-type body (i.e. no decal location guides) and a non-standard colour could point to it being a pre-production. Having said that, we know that the model had three different colours during its lifespan, so a colour trial remains a definite possibility.
One other thing to factor in, and that is the fact that it has flathead axles - something else pointing to it coming from early in
the model's timeline.In this context, I have just gone over all my 38a models with a fine-toothed comb (in the form of a magnifying glass).
What i have found is that almost all of them have a casting defect in the cormer formed between the rear face of the rear nearside (i.e. left) mudguard, the chassis rail and the body, resulting in a small amount of infill in that area. This damage to the tooling seems to have happened sometime during Nick's variation code 2. However, the new model has a perfectly formed casting in this area which, taken together with the flathead axles, therefore places it right at the start of the model's production (i.e. Nick Jones variation code 1 equivalent).
)