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I started this as a "quick" out-of-the-box build while waiting for a spare part for my airbrush. It holds a special interest for me as my grandfather was a driver with the Army Service Corps in Dar es Salaam during the war, and I remember him telling me how he drove one of the first "American built ambulances, which were left hand drive" and forgot about the spare wheels stuck on the outside on the right. The result was that he turned in to a hospital a little too close to the wall and the spare wheels knocked the wall down! I don't know whether that was a 1917 model or an earlier one, but this is the only one I can find in this scale. It's a pretty typical short run kit, here's what's in the box: 2 small sprues of parts and a sheet of decals covering quite a few options. I had already removed the main body parts when I took that shot, so here they are. As I mentioned, it's a fairly typical short run kit - detail of the body sides... Some nasty sink marks, and if interior detailing is required, a lot of sanding to clean up the inner faces! Those edges should be straight as they for the sides of a box, there's a separate part to glue over them for the front face! The wheels are not bad, but definitely a little clunky, as are all the smaller parts such as the headlights (at right here). Needless to say the first thing I did was design a new wheel and print some out as a test. I think those will work! So what else needs some remedial work? The list is rather long I'm afraid, so I started with the forward body section. There is a large blob of plastic under both front mudguards which needs removing - you can see it here on the left, I had already done the right side in this pic. I scraped them off carefully with a scalpel blade and the result is acceptable. The curve on the bottom of the front mudguards is not right, in fact there is no curve, but I'm going to leave that with just a little sanding to reduce the sharpness of the transition. Getting the curve right and blending it in to the rest of the bodywork would be a major job. Before going any further I fitted the radiator and bonnet panels. The bonnet panels need a little sanding to square up the edges. I glued them to the radiator first, then attached the whole to the lower floor panel and adjusted the back ends of the bonnet panels to get them square before it set too hard. Once it was dry I attached the front cab panel, which again is not correct - the sides should be straight, but the kit parts taper inwards at the bottom, again I'm not going to bother with that as it's barely noticeable. What is noticeable though, is the bonnet. The 1917 model should be curved but the kit has the older angled panels. A little PPP and some sanding sorted that out. Once the cab front was added I could deal with the next issue. which is this. That straight edge, an extension of the floor, should not be there. Some fine and slow work with a scalpel blade reshaped that to get a better curve and blend it in properly. You can also see in that shot the small strip of evergreen that I have added behind the cab front as the floor sloped at the front where the foot pedals are. The rear body parts all needed a clean up around the edges, and I did the same for the lower side box fronts. The upper boxes needed quite a bit of sanding to square them up and get them to fit below the upper framework, but nothing difficult, just time consuming. The result when they are fitted is not too bad, and that was done before putting the rear body together. The instructions would have you build the rear body on the floor section, which also makes up the cab floor. You can see from the pic above that I didn't follow that route and fitted that floor to the front end assembly. This will enable me to add detail to the cab without the bodywork being in the way. To put the body together without the reference of the floor was fairly simple. The front part has the backrest for the driver on it, which extends in front of the side panels and touches the top of the driver's side cutouts, so it gives a perfect reference for the positioning of those 3 parts. Once they were glued together, but before the glue set hard, I placed the rear body over the floor to ensure that the sides were correctly spaced while they dried. Once dried, the rear panel was added. A dry fit of the body looks good! They will be painted separately to ensure I can get to the lower body behind the side boxes. Next up, the chassis assembly. Well, that helps - I don't think! The forward cross member braces to the gear box will be replaced with brass rod, the rear axle braces are missing completely, so brass rod will be added there too. Brass rod will also replace the brake actuators, steering rack, and exhaust, so pretty much all of the chassis/running gear parts will be brass. The drive shaft and rear diff are 4 separate parts! Needless to say they aren't as round as they should be! I thought about 3d printing it as one unit, but may just drill the diff and insert a brass rod all the way through to mount the wheels on. I think that would be stronger so will probably go with that (but I reserve the right to change my mind!). I will 3d print the steering wheel though. Well, that's brought this up to date, it was a very fruitful weekend at the bench! Thanks for looking in, Ian

While I have a load of partially built kits on, around, and under the bench, I've recently been suffering from a lack of mojo. So I figured I'd pull the Revell 1:16 Model T Ford (1912) out of my stash. Despite it being a larger scale kit (1:16) it is lacking in detail. There is no engine included, but looking at the chassis mouldings there appears to be space for an electric motor / gears and drive shaft. So perhaps the original release was a motorised kit, as per the original Airfix 1:12 Blower Bentley? Anyway, it should build up to be a nice model. Obligatory Box and Sprue Shot: Dry fitting a few bits together: (lol, the doors are inside out in the photo above!) Looking almost like a Model T Ford! Hopefully I'll get my airbrush back in action and give this kit a decent paint job. Only thing is I need suggestions for repainting the gold chromed part, as by the time you remove them off the sprues, there are obvious marks on the gold chrome...