sammym:
… You will all laugh and take the micheal.
No Sammy, not at all.
After getting my HGV licence, there wasn’t much work around, so I did my first Euro in my own MK I Luton Transit.
sammym:
After I’ve done that once or twice I’d be able to know what I was doing a bit more and go up to something bigger.
Same here mate… after a year or so doing Euroland in the van, I did 12yrs Euro on artics.
I used the van whilst some of the newness wore of my HGV licence, the van also helped me by giving me the opportunity to get some stamps in my passport so it looked good when I applied for the job on artics.
I winged it at the interview, the passport and the HGV licence appeared to be consistent (timewise) with each other, then the boss put 2 + 2 together and came up with 5!!
Next thing I knew, I’d got a mountain of paperwork, the keys to an artic, and instructions for my delivery to Barcelona. 
Although my first faltering shenanigans were back in the early 80s, it sounds like you have a very good plan, which might even still work today! 