As far as I know this version only appeared in blue with a red roof. However, this lovely model has come along. At first glance it looks like the original 219 colours with a suspension base. That does make some sense as there may well have been painted 219 tops around at the time the 445 was being started and some may have been given suspension. There is nothing else that changed other than the blue and red 445 getting a lemon interior. This has the same red 219 interior.
It was part of the Wilford Collection, models from the estate of the late Percy Wilford, a Senior Production Manager at Corgi in the 1950s and 60s. It may have been a sample of the 445 model, based on 219 colours.
Comparing it to other 219s I have in stock, however, the cream is not quite the same, although the roof is exactly the right caramel colour. The base rivets look original. Although maybe slightly different to normal. The paint ‘inside’ is cream so it is not a blue model repainted on top. The only real sign of someone having fiddled with this is at the back where there is some very fine detail, far better than Corgi’s staff’s normal work, on the lights and, indeed, the inner red lights were not usually painted either. Oddly, there is some flaw in the finish on the rear panel too whereas the rest is near perfect.
I have to conclude that they put a 445 base on a 219 top and added some detailing. It is possible that they have also redone the cream and silver work but I find that hard to believe.
It is a marginal conclusion, though, and I still wonder if it is not, apart from the added detailing, an original and rare example of a 445 sample in these colours.