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A Prancing Battlehorse


Graham77

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Born in Modena, Italy, Enzo Ferrari grew up with little formal education but a strong desire to race cars. At the age of 10 and seeing 1908 Circuit di Bologna, he decided to become a driver of race cars. During World War I he was assigned to the third Alpine Artillery division of the Italian Army. After a number of years service Ferrari became severely ill in the 1918 flu pandemic and was consequently discharged from Italian service. Upon returning home he found that the family firm had collapsed, After his Father and Brother where killed in the pandemic. The rest though is History........... But What If instead of being discharged, an Officer in the Italian Army noticed a flare that young Enzo had for design and reassigned him to the design office to recover from the Flu and then go on to design Italian Vehicles of war with the “Ferrari” touch. In return the Italian Army would fund his racing dreams for the remainder of his service setting up their own racing team to promote the Army following the end of the Great War and to attract new recruits.

The secret design office in Bologna was a buzz as the new ideas started to flow. Italy had suffered hugely in the Great War due to its reliance on Horse drawn vehicles and artillery and were keen to start using the genius that had been found in Enzo to create powered vehicles to put the Italian Military firmly on the Map. Enzo had great ideas for vast engines that were considered science fiction by his civilian counterparts, but with the military budget behind him and his racing sideline working as a semi test bed he started a dedicated engine design team for his vehicles.

At the same time he set about working on a number of ideas to improve the function of the Army. He decided that the success of the next generation Army would depend on how fast you could move troops, supplies and weapons from battlefield to battlefield. His vision was a vehicle that would be lightly armoured and able to fight its way into an area, drop off supplies and weapons and then retreat to carry out the process over and over during the battle. Whilst the troops were not fighting it would function as a regular troop carrier and be able to swiftly move equipment from depot to depot. Most importantly it would have to have a flare, the Italian Army could not be seen going into battle in those horrendous metal monsters being used by the other European nations.

Enzo sharpened a pencil and set about creating his first Military Vehicle............

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Here is all the bits, lets see what happens. This is my first Military Vehicle so be gentle

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The Ferrari has some bits already built and the smaller tank will pretty much just be chopped up and used as and where seems good. Never heard of a Jaguar tank am I about to destroy a rare kit with this crazy plan, thought i'd ask before breaking plastic so to speak. Back to the drawing board

Graham

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Never heard of a Jaguar tank am I about to destroy a rare kit with this crazy plan

Plenty on evilBay, one for as little as £9 at the moment, so I don't think they're rare at all!

I'm intrigued as to how this is going to all come together. :popcorn:

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Cheers Mark, should have thought of checking evilbay. I am also intrigued, think GTO inspired halftrack and you won't be far off but I need another night on the wine to finish off the planning (It seems to bring out the creator in me)

Ciao for now

Graham

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This is a cracking idea, a truly Italian tank.

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  • 1 month later...

Secret Intelligence Service

War Office Aug 1920

Northern Itailian Area message decoded reads:

For C's eyes only. Italian secret tank IS under development. Designer is known as ENZO (may be a codename). Vehicle like nothing seen before. Pictures below show mock up. Cover story still holding. NOT compromised. More to follow.

Stanley Goodchap (SIS)

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Need to get a move on with this one but most of the big cuts are done. Need a day to give everything a good clean up and prime then join it all together and start building the interior of the half track bed and add some weapons. Fortunately most of it is sorted in my head just need to start cutting plastic. I am enjoying this What If stuff and also becoming a lot happier chopping up plastic and scratchbuilding bits which has come in handy for some other projects. Lets hoe the Kick Up The A£$e gets this one done by the end of Dec and it doesn't end up in KUTA.

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Got a chance to do a bit of work on this. The general gist is to use the GTO as the cab for the truck and the tank as the halftrack compartment. The hardest bit has been joining the two together which I have bow completed although there is a lot of smoothing to be done and also work on the final shape. I started with the tank base and all of the axles and wheels ( You guys and gals that build tanks have some patience) and added a false floor that will become the base of the truck bed. I then drew out where the benches will go and added a box at the end which i can attach the parcel shelf of the GTO to in order that its body meets the tank body at the correct place.

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I then added the fuel tank to the top of the parcel shelf to provide some detail and modified the rear wheel arch piece to give a good finish for the inside of the cab, fortunately the wheel arch will not be seen and i may be able to double it up as a gun position for a kneeling troop resting on the roof of the cab.

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Next jobs are to build the seating area in the back and prime the whole thing ready for paint. At the front end the engine is built and needs painting and the front axle has been removed and will be lowered to fit the truck wheels that i managed to find in the local hobby store before finishing off the cab then lots of priming and painting to get the chassis all finished off.......then the bodywork and the weaponry, but that can wait til next week. Despite the hurdles and the difficulty of getting my idea from my head into plastic I am really enjoying this cut and shut project just worried I am going to run out of time

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Cheers for now

Graham

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Good to know how this one is taking shape Graham. It's certainly an unusual and ambitious project but sure you've got all the hard shaping and blending of parts under control from what I can see.

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Thanks for the support chaps, this is prooving a lot more time consuming than I thoiught but hopefully by the end of the weekend I should have the rear seating in, the front end built up and the "cockpit" attached and everything primed so I can start painting it next week. Once that is all done and the tracks are on I can attach the body and start sorting out the join in that properly and finishin ot off. Still a lotto go but mucho fun

Cheers

Graham

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Well got some paint on it and got a start on the seating at the back, there are a lot of wheels and a lot of shades of olive and green that I am experimenting with along with various washes etc to get a reasonable finish using only what I have on the shelf. Here is the latest pictures.

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Still to do,

bench and interior to finish off

Front end to build, prime and paint

Decide on colours for exterior

Bodywork and exterior kit

Roof

Cheers for looking

Graham

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