Israeli Improvised Armoured Car.

[Bullbasket]

The Panzerart wheels for the half track, have slightly different hubs to the ones on the Scout Car. Fortunately, Italeri supply separate hubs which are fairly good. The hubs on the resin wheels will, with a little bit of persuasion, pop out and leave a nice round hole, the same size as the Italeri hubs.

As Peter pointed out, the front hubs are slightly different to the rear ones in so far as the front ones protrude out past the wheels, but the rear ones are slightly recessed. The front were no problem, I just super glued a piece of thick card to the back of the wheel, and was then able to glue the hub in place. But the rear ones were more of a problem. The way that I got around this was to cut out the complete wheel centre from the kit's rear wheels and super glue it to the back of the resin wheel with the kit hub in position. Job done.

 

Left to right; Panzerart wheel as supplied, with hub removed, front wheel complete and rear wheel complete.

 

The a/c with it's new boots just push fitted. By some miracle, all four wheels touched the ground. They would be removed again for painting.

 

Next up, the armoured bodywork.

 

John.

[Kris B]

Nice.

[Bullbasket]

I started work on the sandwich armour using .5mm card, strengthened with 1mm card glued to the inside. It' a little bit like the eye of a fly, multifaceted. I started with the two main side pieces and the rear piece, taking the measurements from the drawings, but also from the kit itself, as there was a discrepancy between the two in some places.

 

 

 

The two pieces over the doors were next, followed by the front plate. Before this was glued into place, I added the driver's armoured shutters. These were made from 1mm card scored down the centre with hinges made from scrap card and rod. Also, on the rhs is the hood for the MG34. Again, this was made from .5mm card, and once assembled, I added bolt heads, using a Waldron Punch and Die set.

Before going any further, I glued some pieces of thick card inside to act as supports for the roof.

 

 

It's getting there, slowly but surely.

 

John.

[Hamden]

 

Progressing nicely 

 

 Roger

[Bullbasket]

The roof was going to need some support, so I glued a couple of pieces of thick card (80thou thick) to the floor for the roof to rest upon. Then the rest of the structure was cut out and glued in place. Before anyone pulls me up over this, I'm not claiming 100% accuracy in this build, as there had to be a trade off between the discrepancies between the plans and the kit. Some of the panel lines on the drawing between each piece of amour plate was 1mm wide which can throw your measurements out by quite a bit.

There were a few gaps between some of the pieces, but Milliput took care of that.

 

Next up is the turret. As far as I know, there were two types of turret carried on these armoured cars, eight sided and nine sided. I went with the eight as that is the one depicted in the drawing of the Type 4. Construction consisted of a base, sides, an internal frame to support the roof and the roof itself. The front plate was made in a similar way to the front MG hood with the bolt heads.

 

 

On five of the faces there is a slit, so to make sure that they were all on a level, I marked each face out and cut the slits before separating them.

 

Once assembled, gaps were initially filled with thin pieces of card and then Milliput (yet to be done).

 

 

 

Hopefully, I'll get some more done to it over the next few days. Thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

 

[PlaStix]

Excellent progress John! Really coming together beautifully. 

Kind regards,

Stix

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Will you be using a known vehicle for the camouflage ?  

Edited October 15, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Kris B]

Super scratch build. 

[Hamden]

 

Superb workmanship looks like the worst is done!

 

 Roger

[Redcoat2966]

That's some real nice tight scratch building there John.....especially with all the angles that have to meet up........enjoying the ride on this one so far....nice build and subject.

 

Simon.

 

 

[stips]

Very, very nice work, congratulations 👍
The level of detail is high.
The work is very neat and accurate.
I can hardly wait for coloring.

Best regards

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Excellent progress John! Really coming together beautifully. 

Kind regards,

Stix

Morning Stix, and thank for the comments. I have to say that this build is really giving me a buzz. I may do others in the future.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

16 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Will you be using a known vehicle for the camouflage ?  

Hi Dennis. Not sure where this one is going with regards to the finish. The colour will be a faded Israeli OD, but whether it will be marked in any way is dependent on finding suitable photos. In the Mouse House book, there are only a couple of photos of this version (Type 4 a/c) so I'm limited in my options. Careful research are the watchwords here as even the one at Latrun in Israel has the markings for a Type 1, when it is (I think) a Type 3. We'll see.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, Kris B said:

Super scratch build. 

Thanks Chris.

15 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Superb workmanship looks like the worst is done!

 

 Roger

Thanks Roger. Basically, yes. I picked the Type 4 because it was probably the easiest as it uses most of the Scout Cars bodywork. I hope to do a Type 1 at some point which means almost total new bodywork, and more angles.

 

John.

[longshanks]

Watching & learning.

Love how you are developing this

 

Kev

[Silenoz]

nice progress, soon you won't need a basekit anymore...

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Redcoat2966 said:

That's some real nice tight scratch building there John.....especially with all the angles that have to meet up........enjoying the ride on this one so far....nice build and subject.

 

Simon.

 

 

Thanks Simon. It wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, but Milliput has certainly helped.

 

John.

1 hour ago, stips said:

Very, very nice work, congratulations 👍
The level of detail is high.
The work is very neat and accurate.
I can hardly wait for coloring.

Best regards

Thanks Stips. I appreciate the comments.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

20 minutes ago, longshanks said:

Watching & learning.

Love how you are developing this

 

Kev

Thanks for the comments Kev.

 

John.

9 minutes ago, Silenoz said:

nice progress, soon you won't need a basekit anymore...

Thanks Silenoz. Any future builds of these A/C's will NOT be using this kit. I'll buy either the Hobbyboss version or the new one from Tamiya.

 

John.

[Kingsman]

Deep pockets needed for the Tamiya one.  They're currently pushing £50, about twice what you can get a perfectly adequate HobbyBoss kit for - especially if you're going to do a Type 1 with the cut-down bodywork and hide the interior.  Remember that in value for money terms the excellent is the enemy of the perfectly adequate.

 

The wheels worked out well.  I think the Scout Car and the M2 half track shared front wheels, at least at first.  M3 wheels were different, but all were interchangeable.  In that context you probably want the "late" HobbyBoss kit.

 

The turret looks like a real pain.  Maybe I'll re-think doing an Otter with one of these ...........  I read on another site that the lower panels actually sloped very slightly outwards from the bottom, but if they did it's hard to see (and a pain to do!).

 

Did we ever establish where the plans came from?  I'd like a copy in case I ever do summon up the courage to do an Israeli Otter.

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

The turret looks like a real pain.  Maybe I'll re-think doing an Otter with one of these ...........  I read on another site that the lower panels actually sloped very slightly outwards from the bottom, but if they did it's hard to see (and a pain to do!).

Shhhh! Mine don't, but if you don't tell anyone, nor will I. The wheels worked a treat, thanks to the centre hubs just popping out. Trouble is, because they are for the half track, which only needed two, I had to buy two sets. Actually, I needed another as I wanted a spare wheel for the back, but the cost of this was escalating, so I've resorted to using one of the wheels from the kit and "adapted" it. I'll post what I've done in a couple of days.

The plans are from the Mouse House book and are by JL Rue. They cover the Types 1 - 4 as well as the Type 3 with the 37mm Hotchkiss gun, taken from some Syrian tanks. The other drawing that I have is from the MAFVA magazine Tankette, and is of a Type 1, and IMO is the better of the drawings.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

Home straight.

Once all of the joints were rubbed down, I added the small details such as the lugs on three faces, which are the outer parts of the internal traversing mechanism for the turret. These were made from slithers of sprue, about 3mm diameter, topped of with a bolt head. Seven of the eight faces needed a bolt head adding to the middle of the lower edge. A periscope was positioned at the front of the roof and I took this from one left over from an M5 Stuart kit. One last job to do was to make the ring that is on the roof of the A/C, which the turret sits within. I did this by first cutting a disc from 1mm card, the size of the circle. I then cut a length of pewter foil, 1.5mm wide and wrapped this around the circumference of the disc, super gluing the ends together. This was then placed over the exact spot on the A/C roof and tacked to it with super glue gel. Once it was set, I removed the disc and ran some thin super glue thin all the way round.

 

 

 

After attaching the tow hook to the rear plate, I turned my attention to the spare wheel. When I bought the wheels for this build, I didn't buy a spare, as that would have meant buying another complete set, so I decided to do something with one of the kit wheels. After gluing the two halves together and rubbing the joint down, I cut a circle from thin card, about 1.5mm wide, using an Olfa P Cutter. It took several attempts to get it right. This was then glued within the inner rim of the wheel and then I added an inflation valve and the 18 bolt heads missing from the kits wheels. On the Type 4, the method of securing it to the vehicle appears to be simply mounting it on a spigot and holding it in place with a small plate and a nut.

The Israelis used a lot of British equipment in 1948, and most, if not all of these Scout Cars carried the No.19 radio sets. The aerials were mounted in a number of positions, one of these being the rear sloping plate on a bracket, which I made from scrap etched brass, bent to shape and super glued in place, followed by the A set aerial base from the Cromwell kit. Also added here are the two British pattern sand channels, which are etched brass from Hauler.

 

 

Just a few jobs now to finish off. These Scout Cars frequently had their bumpers replaced, an additional one added to the existing one or just left as they were. I went with replacement. A new bumper was made up from three strips of 10thou card, made into a channel and then fixed in place at the front. The two brackets in the kit which fit onto the top had to be adapted, and once done, they were glued in place, along with the towing hooks. The Israelis removed the right hand headlights and the brush guards.

On the roof above the driver is a horse shoe shaped vent, similar to the ones seen between the hatches on a Sherman. I was going to use one from a Sherman kit, but it's too big, so I made one from two layers of 10thou card.

Finally, (unless I find something else to add), there are a few bolt heads around the edge of the sandwich armour which I punched out using a hexagonal punch. I added the second MG.34 before putting it aside for a while to see if it was really finished. I could add some stowage, but the jury is still out on that.

 

I don't think that I will tinker with it any more, so now it's a case of giving it a wash and then tomorrow a primer coat.

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

First coat, as always, was Halford's grey primer, followed by a coat of Mig's IDF Green, then a spray of Tamiya Clear (X22). The Clear coat was basically to protect the paint during weathering as there are very few, if any, markings to be added. The few photos that I have of Type 4 A/C's do show serial numbers, but unfortunately they are unreadable, so I decided to go with no markings. I believe that some existed like this.

So this is where I am with it; painted, gloss coated and ready for weathering.

 

[robgizlu]

This has jumped ahead since I last looked in

Fab job - some really nicely rendered angles there - Not easy!

Looks great

Rob

[Bullbasket]

11 hours ago, robgizlu said:

This has jumped ahead since I last looked in

Fab job - some really nicely rendered angles there - Not easy!

Looks great

Rob

Thanks Rob. The angles were a bit of a trial but enjoyable. Nearly done now.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I applied Migs Dark Wash and once it was dry, I used a hairy stick (wide variety) to apply a coat of Daler and Rowney's matt acrylic artist's varnish. It produced a nice matt finish which was the ideal surface for the Carr's weathering powders. I used the coal black to get into all the corners and recesses and then I used Mig's European Dust to give it an all over dusty appearance. As these weren't in service for a long period of time, I kept rust to a minimum, just running some streaks down the sides from the sand channel's attachment points. To give it a bit of colour/contrast, I painted white walls on the tyres as a few of them were so fitted. Ideally, I should have sprayed the white on first and then painted the tyres and wheels, but in the end, I had to resort to brush painting the white, because it was an after thought.

Finally, to finish off, I painted the two mg's with Revell's anthracite, added an aerial to the back, and two width indicators to the front mudguards. The Israelis used ones with peculiar little spear heads at the top, and I made these from 40 thou rod and thin card.

The one thing that I'm not happy with is the headlight. I will be doing another of these Improvised Armoured Cars, and for that I'll use the Hobbyboss kit, so therefore I'll pinch one of the headlights from that kit.

 

Next stop, RFI. Thanks for following the build.

 

John.