diablo rsv

Thanks very much guys. I'm not so sure it looks right without some weathering. These cars operated in some filthy conditions and I would like to try and portray that. I'm also contemplating building a diorama for it but it will be some time before that happens. Wayne.

Rolls Royce Armoured Car 1914 Pattern. Meng 1/35 The kit turret has been modified to represent a 1914 style lower turret. The wheels are from Copper State Models. The barricade hook, stowage boxes, drivers visor and radiator doors have been scratch built. Unfortunately I haven't had time to add the weathering. Wayne

Unfortunately time has beaten me in getting the 1914 car completely finished. There's not much left to do, mostly weathering and some odd bits of stowage. I also want to add some chains to the tyres as seen in most of the period photos, but there is no point in rushing things now. Here they are side by side, I will put a couple more in the gallery. Thanks for hosting a very enjoyable group build @Marklo and @Robert Stuart there has been some very impressive model building on display. Wayne.

Excellent work George! The finish and weathering look spot on. Wayne

Thanks Guys, The VMS varnish does seem to give a very good finish. I watched their instruction video before using it just to be sure as I had read of a few people having issues with it. It seems the problems occur if you try to use it like a traditional varnish and build up fine layers. I used a 0.4 needle and made sure that the whole model was covered in a very wet coat before leaving it to dry. I think the issue I had with the white areas on the turret was because I left my extraction running and the airflow may have forced it to dry too quickly. I went over it again with another coat of varnish before it fully cured and that resolved most of the issue. I'm not sure how well it will work if I only want to varnish selected areas of a model though and putting it on that heavily I would worry about it seeping under masks. Wayne

Spoke too soon there John, it's been a year since I last worked on this one. Where does the time go? Although I'm desperate to start a new project I thought I should really clear some of the back log of stalled projects. It's not easy picking up from where I left off but it seems like I have added some details to the rear hull and started to replace the engine deck handles. The grill seems to have not faired too well in storage but should straighten out ok. I have also replaced the idlers with the late type. These were from the set of replacement Cromwell wheels from Resi Cast which also include a replacement pistol port for the Airfix kit. The set on the left are from Sovereign 2000 the middle set are the incorrect Airfix ones and the Resi Cast are on the right. I'm led to believe that Airfix now supply corrected wheels in later releases but I'm not sure about the pistol port. Tamiya top, Airfix in the middle and the Resi Cast one at the bottom. Back on the Charioteer, I had started work on the turret and the first job was to replace the resin gun. There was a bit of a gap around the mantlet cover which needed filling. The 20pdr barrel is from AFV Club and quit an improvement on the resin AA item. I had also made some progress with the Airfix Cromwell. Apart from replacing the pistol port and wheels, correcting the engine deck and replacing some handles it has been quite straight forwards. The Centaur has required a little more effort though. My chosen subject is Sea Wolf which has the square style track guards which are somewhat bent. To replicate this I have made some out of brass sheet. The top sections are from the Aber fender set but that set didn't include the front or rear sections. Some surgery is required to the model to remove the plastic fenders. And this is where I had got to..... ..before I noticed a problem with the Charioteer turret. There is a very noticeable area on one side where the resin has sunk. I filled the problem area with an application of knifing putty and some Tamiya putty. The weld bead was reinstated with some Green Stuff putty and I will need to replace some tie down handles. I will give it a coat of Mr Surfacer and then I can carry on with the build. Wayne.

After sleeping on it I decided that I probably have got the colours wrong but life's to short to strip it and start again so I shall live with it. The next job was how to approach the black lines. I thought the pattern and the shape of the car would make it difficult to use a paint brush and that only leaves the marker pen option. I tried a few different types but the only one that really worked was the Sharpie Ultra Fine Point. It really needed a mat surface to work on so I applied some pin washes whilst the model still had the satin finish and then a mat varnish was sprayed on for the lining work. I haven't made the neatest job of the lining but neither is it on the original car although I will tidy it up a few areas. The Sharpie dries with a patchy shiny effect and needs a coat of varnish over it. My preferred lacquer varnish would react with the Sharpie ink and cause bleeding so I decided to try out the VMS water based acrylic Varnish. The process of applying it is a little daunting as it has to be put on in quite a heavy wet coat and I was concerned I might end up with runs or sags but the end result is pretty impressive apart from a couple of areas where it has dried white as can bee seen around a couple of the rivets on the turret in the above photo. I don't think I will change from my normal Mr Hobby clear coats just yet. I have now added a few more details here and there and finished scratch building the barricade hook mechanism. It is proving difficult to find clear photos of the back of the cars so I have made a bit off a guess as to what to add. I will keep looking though. I may make a few more stowage items but in most pictures these cars aren't carrying much so I think I'm pretty much done with the assembly and painting processes. The cars were clad with a mineral substance called Uralite which was supposed to diminish the effect of armour piercing bullets. I know nothing of this substance or how it would affect the paints appearance and it's difficult to tell from the photos so I will need to think about how I am going to approach that and the weathering. These cars operated in some pretty filthy conditions and I would like to replicate that but I always find it a little scary applying heavy weathering. Wayne

You've made a great Job on that one John, it's a shame about the decals though. Meng have the same car as one of their options and I have the decals spare if you want them. Wayne

Thanks Guys, I did actually get this out again the other day, the only issue I have is that I really need to replace the Eduard fenders set and unfortunately it is discontinued. Wayne

Thank you very much! Back onto the 1918 car I have continued with the camouflage. Using the same method as I did with the turret I masked of the Gray areas and sprayed the green. After leaving to dry overnight the green was masked off ready for the brown. The exciting bit is removing the masks to reveal the result. Once again the end result wasn't bad with just a little touch up to do here and there. This has been a very time consuming process. I'm not sure whether it is more difficult to match the patterns on the photos or to try to create a matching authentic pattern in the areas that can't be seen in the photos. What I did learn during the painting process and studying the patterns on the real car is that the light colour is the most likely to have been painted last preceded by what appears in the photos as the dark colour. This makes me believe that the mid tone is probably the base colour. Looking back through my reference photos I found one of some cars in Arras without the camouflage and they do appear a little darker than the Gray I have used. I believe these are painted in either a darker gray or more likely service colour ( Khaki brown ). This could mean that my subject car would be khaki brown with the darker areas being either dark brown or possibly dark green and the light colour a buff or cream colour. Looking at the above photo there isn't much green around so it seems there would be little point adding it to the camouflage. My OCD is going a bit nuts, do I start again or just go with it? I doubt this one will make the deadline anyway. If anyone has any thoughts it would be appreciated. Wayne

Nicely done, that looks great! Wayne

Thank you very much! I know what you mean about the cars looking sporty but I don't think speed was their best asset. Thanks Stuart! That's lovely feedback. Wayne

Thank you soo much Peter, that is perfect. Now I just need to figure out the best way of replicating them. They are the sort of thing that would be ideal for 3D printing. Wayne

Excellent work Stef. Looking forward to seeing some more pictures. The dusty finish looks great. Wayne

Rolls Royce Armoured Car 1920 Pattern. Meng 1/35 The wheels are DEF Models Balloon Sagged Wheel Set (1) The stowage boxes, drivers visor, gun shield and radiator covers were all replaced with scratch built items. The Lewis gun mount was modified from the kit one. All of the stowage, including the nets, have been scratch built. Paints are MRP and it has been weathered with oil paints. The work in progress can be seen here. Wayne

Thank you all very much! I really appreciate your wonderful feed back. Wayne

Thanks Peter. You're right there, rear views are very hard to find and every one seems to show a different configuration. In another view of the 11th Hussars cars they have the ball mounted Vickers, so I doubt they are my subject car but it would make sense that mine should have a light of some sort. I also thought about adding a step, as seen on a lot of cars, as the rear of the model does seem a little barren. I can't find a decent close up of the light so scratch building one may prove difficult for now so maybe I should just add some brackets. Wayne

Once again thankyou very much for your input Peter. That pretty much confirms what I was thinking. I thought I might start the painting process on the 1918 car with the turret as it seemed to be the easiest option. Using the photos as a guide I masked off the gray areas with some Silly Putty. The easiest way to use it was to put it on as thinly as possible in roughly the correct position and then shape it with a sharpened cocktail stick. I then sprayed on my mix for the green areas. I needed to let this dry overnight before masking as I didn't want to scratch the soft paint with the cocktail stick. The down side of using silly putty for the masking is that it does move over time which is why I put it on as thinly as possible. Keeping it cool also helps to slow down it's self levelling properties. Once the brown was sprayed on I could remove the masks. The result wasn't bad and required very little in the way of touching up. Once the black outlining is applied any rough edges will be covered up. Unfortunately this is quite a time consuming process and has made me realise that I am unlikely to get both cars finished by the deadline. I therefore decided to concentrate on the 1920 car as this was closest to completion. Most of these cars appear to carry a fair bit of stowage, so I thought I should make an attempt at making some for my model. On my subject model there is a box on each running board covered in rope netting. Despite depicting it on the box art Meng don't supply anything apart from a couple of non descript boxes. They appear to be more like leather suitcases so I adapted the Meng boxes as best I could. The netting was a little more difficult as I just couldn't find anything suitable. I tried camo nets, scrim tape, and medical tape but either the holes were too big or too small or the rope was the wrong gauge. I even tried old Subutteo goal nets. In the end I decided to have a go at making my own from silk beading cord. Basically I made a grid on card wrapped the cord round it and threaded the cross cords with a needle. The end result is a little scruffy as threads started to come out of the cord with handling but it's good enough at normal viewing distances. I made the sausage bag, in the picture above, and a few other bits and pieces, including the now identified water carriers ( thanks @Kingsman ) from Green stuff epoxy putty and some tarps from Tamiya epoxy putty. The weathering was done entirely with oil paints. Despite it being a longer process I find it easier to control than pigments when it comes to creating dust effects. With that I think I may of actually completed a model. Looking at the photos I can see as always there is room for improvement but then that's part of the joy of this hobby. Always learning as we go. That's probably more than enough photos for now. I will keep on working on the 1918 car, you never know I may get it done in time. Wayne

That is looking very good George. The stowage is a great addition and using PVA to fix it is an excellent idea, if only I had read this before I stuck mine down with CA. I find weathering pretty scary, I have always been reluctant to go really heavy with it but some of these newer products look quite effective. It will be interesting to see how you get on with it. Wayne

Lovely work Ed, I really like what you have done with this one. The base is a great addition as well. It may be a while before I get round to mine but yours is inspirational. Wayne

You've made a lovely job of that Simon, I'm glad you found my build helpful. I've got a half finished Italeri Mk.I sitting on the shelf of doom, seeing your build has given me the inspiration to get it finished. Wayne

You can't go wrong with a Crusader, personally I think it's one of the better looking tanks. I built this kit a little while back and thoroughly enjoyed it. The only disappointment was the amount of ejector pin marks on the track links that need to be removed and the metal barrel is completely the wrong profile but the plastic one is fine. Wayne

That is a cracking model! An unusual subject and interesting camouflage scheme which has been very well executed. Wayne

Not much progress to report really as I have mostly been doing some research. Firstly regarding the 1920 car, I have been looking at stowage options to add some interest. I have noticed on a lot of the cars in this period there seems to be some sort of weighted bags on a long strap hanging from the hooks on the hull. @Kingsman? I'm not sure if they are all of the same thing but on the car I'm modelling there seems to be some remnants hanging from the hooks. On the 1914 car I have been looking into camouflage. It would be impossible to determine the exact colours just by looking at old black and white photos so all I can do is make an educated guess and go with what I feel looks right. It looks like three colours have been used. I'm reasonably happy that the base colour would have been grey and probably a light admiralty grey, and the other two colours were most likely a green and a brown. Around the period that these cars were in France the artillery had taken to camouflaging their guns with patches of green, brown, grey and cream separated with thin black lines. The photo below is of one of the R.R Armoured cars towing a gun painted in this style. I assume that the car would have been painted in similar colours. The problem is I don't know what these colours really are. After a little research I found a contemporary painting by Capt Kenneth Forbes of his "6in Howitzers in Action". So it is these colours that I shall try to replicate. Using a piece of scrap card I tried out a number of combinations. Eventually I found something I am reasonably happy with. The green is a mixture of Tamiya XF-58 and XF-59 with a drop of X-15. The brown is AK RC031 and RC034. I may tweak them a bit when I see them on the model with filters. My next problem was deciding which tone is which colour. Film of this period often depicted red as a dark tone and as this is likely to be a reddish brown I shall assume the darker tone is the brown. This should be a fun masking project. Wayne

Lovely job with the crosses. The Silhouette cutter is one of my favourite purchases, I hardly ever use decals anymore. Wayne