This is a 'just for the fun of it waggon'. The waggon is based on an illustration from a fantasy book called (you guessed it), Dragon World. I now cannot find any reference to that book, so I can not refer you to it or the author/illustrator.

As usual I took the basic illustration and reworked it as a model. The premise behind the waggon being a society with no knowledge or use of metallurgy, therefore the waggon had to be designed without any metal in the construction and still remain a practical working waggon.

All joints are dowelled and pined, moving parts have a replaceable leather washer between the bearing faces. The rear luggage rack is fastened in two places only, with the opposing bends in the timbers forming a tight and secure bond. Four animal or poultry pens have been placed under the waggon between the fore and hind axle.

I played around with this waggon and tried a new method of decoration - the front panel decoration is based on a Moorish screen, while the rear wall pattern is pure Victorian England, and the bands over the waggon body are Celtic. The effect was achieved by cutting the pattern into a dark veneer and then laying that over a light contrasting veneer to expose the pattern. The Celtic bands are laid over the same dark veneer to give a subdued appearance. The flower patterns under the front eaves are just that, a running flower pattern.

Danish oil was used to finish this model. The basic waggon turned into a harvest waggon is a project for another time, using this design, only with metal parts and lots of chamfering to the timbers.



The waggon bed, wheels and body framing are all Matai demolition timber, while the front and rear wall, and the waggon body are veneers of Sap-wood Rimu, laid over Kahikatea. These veneers were trade waste.