Wolseley CP armoured car

[Courageous]

In hindsight, with the springiness of the plastic, would brass sheet be a better alternative? Anyways, mudguards are done and primed now and the lower half is looking really smart. Good show.

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

Two updates in one day – must be a slow workday!

 

More fiddly bits…..

 

I added door handles from some of the iron wire I used for the fender supports.

 

These look a bit thick, but they’re on now and I don’t think they’ll be coming off.

 

The bonnet got some catches made up from scraps of plastic rod. These are difficult to determine from photos, so they are a bit of a guess to be honest.

 

Lights......

 

One of the best photos I have show a vehicle with no lights attached. This is quite tempting; firstly because I wouldn’t need to make any of course, and secondly because the truck looks a fair bit tougher than with the lights.

I’ll have a go anyway though and decide later.

 

A few slices of plastic tube were cut and lengths of sprue were rounded off (using a drill and sandpaper).

 

These were glued together, but the main headlights didn’t look sufficiently domed to me.

 

I tried another couple of techniques.

 

First I pushed some concentric sections of tube onto a spare piece of sprue and applied a little milliput, using the tube to define the widest, round section of the light dome. I repeated this, giving me two milliput lumps on the sprue length. This will be cut down and each piece will be mounted onto my domestic DIY drill as a makeshift lathe. I’ll sand both the domes down to a hopefully similar profile.

 

 

I also tried applying milliput to the rear of the two lights I’d already made, smoothing them with water, and I’ll sand them once dry.

 

All this effort makes me think that this is one occasion where I wish I had a well-equipped spares box with some unused aircraft bombs or drop tanks. I’ve really got nothing unfortunately, having only recently got back into this hobby meaning pretty much everything needs scratchbuilding.

 

The brackets to hold on the wooden side boxes/blocks were made from wine-bottle top foil. This isn’t the usual soft lead or aluminium type, but a stiff, sharp metal from the neck of a screw-top bottle. It’s very sharp and takes a bit of cutting, but this does mean it’s not too soft for this kind of detail.

 

Strips of this were folded around/over the boxes and cut to length. I then drilled a pair of 0.7mm holes at each end and superglued in some 0.8mm nail caviar rivets.

 

 

Along with the chassis, these and the engine hatches got a squirt of primer.

 

I gave the interior (that could be reached by brush) a lick of ancient Revell white enamel. It’s so old that it’s gone a nice creamy off-white colour; perfect for old tanks I reckon. The engine compartment interior got the same treatment.

 

The chassis in the area of the engine got a localised brush coat of Humbrol 150 enamel which will be the base colour for the whole car.

 

So, a bit of drying time (paint and Milliput) and I’ll be able to button the whole thing up – exciting!

 

 

 

 

[Model Mate]

1 hour ago, Courageous said:

In hindsight, with the springiness of the plastic, would brass sheet be a better alternative? Anyways, mudguards are done and primed now and the lower half is looking really smart. Good show.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart and good call - Brass sheet would probably be better. Unfortunately I haven't got any though, and the front fenders definitely have a thickness to them that would require a folded lip/edge (which is how the real thing is made as far as I can see) that could be tricky to do in brass. The thicker plastic allows me to cheat this a bit.

 

I am considering getting a soldering iron to make up the light brackets from copper wire, so a bit more metal may make it's way into this (and future) builds.

[Courageous]

Another way of doing lights is 'plunge molding', I used this technique to make cowl vents for a boat build.

 

Stuart

 

[Model Mate]

Another great suggestion Stuart, thanks. I haven't tried plunge moulding for years; I must give it a go soon.

 

I did consider casting them in resin, but as I only need two, and I'd have to make one as a master anyway, I just did the pair. The "milliput on the back of the first attempts" seems to have gone ok thankfully.

 

[Model Mate]

Finally it’s paint time!

After a bit of intensive compressor DIY (see……

 

....I’m in a position to start painting.

 

I gave the hull another quick blast of rattle can primer and then preshaded using humbrol satin black enamel. I use enamels pretty much all the time, particularly for airbrushing.

 

Here’s my paint consistency top tip….. I usually spray on a sheet of newspaper, mixing paint and thinner (either white spirit or cellulose thinner) in the airbrush cup with a paint brush. Each paint type/manufacturer and each colour varies, but usually around two brush loads of thinner to one or two brush loads of paint. I then brush the loaded paintbrush on the newspaper. If I can clearly see the news-print through the paint stroke, then it’s too thin. If it’s opaque, then the consistency is about right.

 

I got a pair of Historex horses ready. These beasts are notoriously on the skinny side, so they were fattened up by adding 0.5mm plastic card faces on each mating surface. This was roughly trimmed back and the new, fatter halves were joined. A bit of sanding and filling followed of course.

 

The ponies got the usual (actually not that usual for me) rattle can primer and then onto shading/painting. I have a plan for the horses’ coats: I really like the faintly streaky, satin sheen finish that can be obtained using neat oil paints and a fairly stiff brush. As we all know, applying a dark brown on top of a light tan colour can give a convincing wood grain effect, but I think it could also work really well for a horse’s coat. So all the painting that follows is just deeply involved, colour preshading really.

 

Here’s one of the primed horses with the bridle scraped off (I'll use metal foil instead) and the hair missing. This will be added later:

 

I don’t have many paints really, and some are almost as old as me, so it can be a bit of a lottery when opening them (hence the satin rather than matt black for instance) but I managed to assemble a motley collection of brownish enamels in progressively lighter tones:

 

First they got satin black on the undersides, around each hoof, nose and generally deeply shaded areas (bum crack, between the legs, under then neck etc.) - oops, slightly low airbrush pressure - keep pumping!

 

This was followed by dark brown on the lower sides (as opposed to upper sides if you see what I mean):

 

Next the “mid” sides:

 

The upper sides:

 

And finally the top surfaces using a light grey:

 

It’s a bit hard to see in the photos, but here’s quite a transition from dark to light and overall they are quite light in tone. The dark brown oils should darken them quite a lot. In retrospect (so far, as I haven’t applied the oils yet, so this is a bit of a guess) I’m thinking that three colours would have done it – black, pale brown, cream basically.

 

Back to the car….

 

I sprayed Humbrol 150 over the hull and chassis (the chassis got a bit of black preshade too of course). The photos below make the preshading look horrific, but really, it’s quite subtle in real life and weathering (even though I'm aiming for a relatively clean finish) will tone it down.

 

This was followed by a lightened base colour (using a dab of pale grey) application to the upper surfaces:

 

So here’s where things stand:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gorby]

Excellent work so far, on the modelling and the painting. 

[GerryW]

Brilliant. 

 

Gerry

[Model Mate]

thanks chaps. The horses should be interesting - a new technique, so I'll see how it goes

[Courageous]

Lovely work.

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

Back to the fiddly stuff.

 

One of the techniques I tried for the headlamps seemed to work, so there’s no need to press my drill into service as a makeshift lathe. I might have a crack anyway, just for future reference, but for now I’ve got two headlamps and two sidelights/spotlamps I’m happy with.

 

They do need brackets to fix them to the car though and from what I can see from the photos, the headlamp ones aren’t that straightforward.

 

I invested in a cheap soldering kit:

 

And soldered together a few bits of copper wire and offcuts of etched brass “sprue”:

 

The brass “sprue” baseplates were drilled and 0.8mm nail-caviar balls were superglued in as fixings. The lights themselves were drilled and fitted onto the brackets. The smaller sidelights were a bit simpler than the main headlights.

 

They got a lick of paint and I did some work on the lenses, using the corrugated section of a biscuit wrapper. This will be fixed in place with a droplet of microscale krystal clear.

 

 

I cut out and fixed the last bits of bodywork (which I should really have done before painting). A pair of armoured side skirts designed to protect the gearbox I presume, and a plate of the rearmost exposed section of the chassis. I knocked up the pair of steps on either side too. The big hole isn’t an optimistic escape hatch by the way, it’s where I poked a large paintbrush in the bottom (ooh err!) to hold while spraying.

 

My experimentation with horses continues (please don’t tell the RSPCA or the pony club).

 

I got hold of some long fake fur samples. At 99p each for 100x100mm squares I felt flush enough to get a few different colours, from black, grey and browns to a couple of shades of green. I want to experiment with using these for long diorama grass and horsehair. If my paint experiments for the horses’ coats works out, it’d be a shame to plonk lumps of painted plastic where their manes and tails should be if there’s a better way. 

 

In order to test them and not ruin perfectly good model horses, I massaged some milliput into prosthetic necks and a bum:

 

I know they don’t exactly look convincing, but I only need to use them to experiment with fixing and styling the hair. Snippets of fake fur were attached using superglue, trimmed and then styled with diluted PVA into the mane and tail shapes – it may not contain nano-hydrogenating-poly-nutri-carbo-multi-tides or whatever the latest advertising jargon dictates as a must for sensible hair-care, but man does it offer “firm hold”, enough to experiment with a wind-blown action mane!

 

Once dried, it looks like this:

 

It looks a bit rough in the photos, but in real life I think it’s pretty convincing. Cheap and easy to do, plus with the PVA you get plenty of styling time.

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Good work on the lights and the horses mane looks realistic too.

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

thanks Stuart, the horse experiments are going ok so far - I'm not sure how anyone else does them so I am winging it a bit!

[Model Mate]

It’s coming together!

 

The radiator and engine fixed in place with superglue.

 

After a couple of brush-applied coats of Klear to the painted body, chassis and wheels, I sloshed a very, very thin mix of Vandyke brown oils over everything followed by a black pin wash to selected bits – mostly on the chassis. I’d normally dry-brush after this, but the rivets stand out pretty boldly anyway. This could be because:

 

A - they’re a bit big

B – because the use of primer, plus the old paint drying extremely matt and slightly textured meant that the wash stuck very well to the whole of the body rather than comfortably settling into nooks and crannies, leaving the relatively smooth rivets clean.

 

The effect is more pronounced on the photos than in real life, but nevertheless, I want this vehicle not to be too weathered and/or overly modulated so I’ll quit before it turns into a wash and filter harlequin.   

 

The engine panels and wooden box/plate brackets also got a lick of green, and a Klear coat ready for washing. I added handles to the side panels. They’re a bit too thick, but this was also the case on the main doors, so although two wrongs don’t make a right, they do stop the wrong from looking too obviously wrong – I hope that makes sense!

 

The side boxes/plates got a wash of various brown oils, with the darkest (raw umber) being concentrated on the sides/edges.

 

Finally, the horses got their top, oil paint coats. I was quite pleased with how they turned out; the brush marks stand out reasonably well and the paint is sufficiently translucent to allow the undercoats to show the highlights and shading underneath. They’re a bit shiny at the moment, but they’ll get a satin varnish coat later to calm them down.

 

 

 

 

[Model Mate]

On the final straight now! (for the car anyway…)

 

I tried spraying the tyres pale gray, and whilst the paint adhered very well to the rubber, finding an effective way of holding them eluded me.

I masked the wheel hubs:

 

And fitted the (partially painted) tyres. They’re a pretty snug fit so didn’t need glue.

 

With a cocktail stick fixed to each of these, I was able to spray them properly.

 

The wooden boxes were given a further wash with black and vandyke brown oils.

 

They were superglued to the hull and their brackets fixed on with a brown oil wash to match the rest of the bodywork.

 

I applied some mud-brown pastels to the underside of mudguards and around the bottom of the car. Rather than rely on proprietary mud and dust pigments, I just grind up some black, rusty-red and ochre pastels and mix them to get the colour I need. Rust colours were applied to the exhaust in the same way. Dabs of white spirit fixed these in place.

 

I added some scratches here and there using dark grey enamel dabbed on with a piece of sponge.

 

I stuck a few cigarette papers together (a skill I learned in my miss-spent youth!) and applied a good dousing of watered down PVA to make some tarps to stick on the back bench. I’ve no photos of the rear of this car, but it seems logical to use it as a storage area. I ran a length of thread through PVA too to use for fixing rope.

 

I also made up a large duffel bag from a piece of white tac (aka blue tac, but white) and covered this with another rizla paper.

 

These will all go on the back like this:

 

These got an initial coat of well thinned brown oil paint mixed with varying degrees of white enamel to get some slightly differing colours.

 

[Model Mate]

Very brief update:

 

The wheels are on… without well defined attachment points it needed a good dose of araldite and long drying time, but they’re on and reasonably straight. Most of them touch the floor – result!

 

I misted some reddish brown mud/dust enamel to roughly match the pastel mud I’d already applied onto the lower part of the car, and flicked some lighter brown on to simulate mud splashes. These seemed a bit heavy handed, so I used a damp brush to blend/streak these on the sides of the body to tone them down a bit:

 

Just the gun, lights and luggage to go! Then it's on to the figures, horses and base.

 

[Andy350]

That is a masterclass build and I've enjoyed watching the progress. 

[Model Mate]

Thanks Andy, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I've had a great time and I really appreciate the feedback. This project has been pretty fast compared to my normally glacial progress - the positive side of lockdown maybe, but also because this has honestly not been that difficult - slab-sided, with no tricky tracks and fiddly multiple wheels - find something basic and give it a go!

[Courageous]

Very nicely done.

 

Stuart

[somtec]

J

ust spent the last 20mins sudying this build ,learning some excellent tips on the way, had never thought of looking for a paper model and using it as a template for plastic. Cracking job, looking forward to more installments and any future builds along these lines.

[Model Mate]

Thanks for the positive feedback - have a look at the landships2 website - there are lots of card templates to work with.

[Model Mate]

another small update - as I get near the end, the final little bits take an age to complete!

 

I decided that my headlights were a bit too crude. The plastic tube I’d made them from was a bit too thick as a bezel/surround, so I glued thin wire circles onto the fronts and painted them to match the rest.

 

I cut circles from aluminium tape and placed these in each light. The tape was burnished into place with a cocktail stick and horizontal stripes were rubbed onto/into them.

 

I then pooled some microscale Krystal-clear into the lights to form lenses. I did this in three separate coats to try and avoid them going milky. They’re still wet in this picture, so white. They should dry clear.

 

I mixed up a “gunmetal” colour using some rub-n-buff, humbrol 67 and white enamel. This was heavily dry-brushed onto the machine gun which had already had a black oil wash. It might be a bit OTT – maybe I’ll add another wash when it’s all done.

 

The luggage on the back got a similarly heavy dry-brush with a sandy/linen colour and was superglued into place

 

I'm just (patiently) waiting for the headlight lenses to fully dry - it's taken a few coats to get them built up - and then I'll call it done. Look out for an upcoming "ready for inspection". I'll carry on here as well with the horses and figures and so on, but the car itself should be finished very soon.

[Courageous]

Looking great but didn't the Vickers have wooden handles .

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

oh damn! thankfully they're well hidden now it's installed!

[Model Mate]

ohh, sorry; I mis-read that.... Yes, I have painted them wooden now, and installed the gun. Still can't be seen anyway, but at least we know it's right!