Wolseley CP armoured car

[Bandsaw Steve]

42 minutes ago, Courageous said:

wonder if this is possible in 1/72?

 

Stuart

1/72 scale caviar? Sounds very small. And very expensive.

[Model Mate]

depends on how small your rivets need to be I guess.

 

0.6mm x 35 = 21mm dia rivet

0.6mm x 72 = 43mm dia rivet

 

As long as your "real" scale tank rivets are 40 or 50mm in diameter, 0.6mm should work ok.

anyone know how big the rivets are on a Mk VIII for instance?

[Model Mate]

I’ve constructed a rudimentary engine, based on a photo of a (hopefully) similar civilian Wolseley/Vickers truck. A few bits of plastic tube glued together started it off. I find that this tube (ABS) doesn’t stick very well with liquid glue, but good old tube cement seems to do the job.

 

Here’s the reference:

 

I bunged a load of tubing, wiring and so on onto it so hopefully it looks sufficiently like an engine and knocked up a basic radiator – I’m not sure how much will be visible on the final model to be honest.

 

And after a bit of painting and chipping – washes to come:

 

The shape of the armoured car front in comparison to the civilian truck seems to suggest that the radiator would be angled backwards. I’m assuming this to be the case, and also assuming that apart from its mounting angle, the radiator wouldn’t really be any different from the civilian one. The top of the radiator won’t be visible, but the front panels of the armoured car appear to be hinged, with the lower section having the capability of flipping up. Presumably in desert conditions (or anywhere warm for that matter) having a steel plate right in front of the radiator wouldn’t exactly help the engine keep cool.

I’m toying with a diorama idea – the car has broken down (overheated of course) and is in the process of being towed away by a pair of horses. I can flip the radiator shield up, show some bullet damage to the radiator maybe, and have the engine access panels open. I like to open doors/panels where I can, but for the main car, I have absolutely no clue as to what’s inside, so the engine seems to be my best bet.

 

And so onto the bodywork.

 

I cut out and pre-drilled the main cabin for rivets then glued it together.

 

The doors and side hatches were scribed into the card rather than added on top. The photos appear to show them flush. Hinges from small pieces of thin plastic card were added. Rivets are yet to be added of course.

 

This thing has a number of small “windows” on the side, and a large one on the back. I’m assuming they had internal screens that could be flipped/slid into place, so the holes were all backed with scraps of plastic card.

 

The chassis got some more plumbing – an exhaust, steering linkage, gearbox (exactly that; a box) and some other minor bits, and the bonnet got glued together.

 

 

It’s starting to take shape!

[Old Hand]

Hi Model Mate,

I've sent you a PM , I may be able to offer some help with your build.

[Model Mate]

Up 'till now I've been reliant on just two grainy, lo-res photos of the beast, but thanks to Old-Hand, I now have a few more! He's also pointed out that my rear end is a bit too wide (!) and could do with going on a diet.

 

I was sorely tempted to put my fingers in my ears and repeatedly shout "I'm not listening!" but the truth was out there and can't be ignored, so sincere thanks to Old-Hand. He also mentioned that the Wolseley shared much in common with the Pierce-Arrow armoured truck, so I scoured the web for further pictures which have revealed a host of answers to my (sometimes un-asked) questions.

 

Actually, a diet isn’t quite enough, so drastic weight-loss surgery was called for. Thankfully, the 0.5mm sheet I made the body out of was easily opened up with a fresh 10A blade.

 

The slimmed-down body got stitched back together reasonably well, with only a couple of strips of stretched sprue and off-cut card needed to plug the new joins that were created. I had to drill new rivet holes on the rear plate and open up a few others that had sealed themselves with all the liquid glue sloshing about.

 

The engine has had a few oil paint washes in black and brown and a dusting with rusty pigment (ground up pastels), fixed with white spirit.

 

The rivets started going on the body, sitting in their pre-drilled holes.

I also fixed the bonnet to the main body and added a bit of detail to the firewall with some thin rod and scraps of card. This allows a mock-up at last to get a feel for the whole thing.

 

And the beginnings of a diorama layout:

 

 

[Andy350]

This has been really good to watch, anyone that can scratch build takes modelling to a level I can only dream of.  I struggle with OOB builds.

[Model Mate]

A couple of bits have moved on, though progress has been a little slow of late.

 

Firstly the turret. I constructed the basic circular tub, but where the machine gun cut-out resides, there’s a natural tendency for the edge to bulge or “point”, meaning the whole thing isn’t perfectly circular. Not that it was or would ever be perfect anyway, but it’s definitely a bit too pointy. This turret tub needs to be fixed down to a flange plate and that makes the pointy bulge more of a problem as there is now an inconsistent exposed edge of the flange. I’ll have to install the rivets on this flange edge first and then see if they can be used to squeeze the tub into shape as it’s fixed down. ….the above may make no sense, but all will (hopefully) become clear soon.

 

I cut out and stuck together the top machine gun housing including pistol ports which aren’t on the card-model instructions, but are clearly visible on photos. These will get internal blanking plates. Holes are drilled, but rivets haven’t gone on yet.

 

The tub got its top rivets, and I also fixed he bottom band. This needs yet to be drilled and rivetted.

 

The body is now fully rivetted!

 

It’s still time consuming, but they seem to be staying on, and it’s a definite improvement over my previous technique.

 

There are a couple of vents on the sides of the bonnet. These appear in the card instructions to be in the form of a mesh surrounded by/covered by a raised plate with two lozenge cut-outs. All the photos I’ve got show only very vague detail of these and I wasn’t convinced that mesh was the way to go, so I decided that louvres were more likely.

 

I drilled and cut out the lozenges on a piece of 0.5mm plastic card, trimmed them down and then added tiny (2.25mm long) pieces of microstrip at an angle to form the louvres. Fiddly!

 

My eyes aren’t what they used to be….                         ….they used to be my ears!

 

These were fixed into place. If I do find that my guess is wrong, then I think I’ll be able to get them off and replace if necessary.

 

Coming up – machine gun…..  should be fun!

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Lovely looking lozenge Louvres laddie!

[Bullbasket]

Great work on those louvres. I know from scratch building my A/C how difficult some of these smaller parts can be.

 

John.

[Model Mate]

Machine gun!

 

This exercise makes me ponder the question – “why scratchbuild?”

 

I know that for a few quid I could get hold of a beautifully cast plastic, resin or whitemetal Vickers gun that would be better than anything I could make. Maybe even a 3D print.

 

I chose this armoured car because it looked pretty easy to make, not just because it was un-kitted, though that was a factor. My last scratch job was a whippet and there are good kits to choose from for that subject. These days, with so many great kits and aftermarket stuff available, one of the main reasons to scratchbuild is largely gone.

 

But then, I can travel in my car from point to point in minutes where walking the same distance would take me hours. The thing is, I like walking. My narrowboat’s top speed (legally) is 4mph. shuffling old folks with zimmer frames overtake me as I cruise, but I love chugging along the canal.

Life’s about the journey, not the destination. And for me, that means the joy of tackling the challenges of modelling something using only the most basic of ingredients.

 

Ok, philosophical detour over, let’s get on with the gun!

 

I took a piece of 3mm plastic tube and glued on a series of thin plastic rods, starting with four, then adding intermediate ones, and finishing off with a further series of intermediate pieces giving me 16 rods in total.

 

The air-cooled jacket of Vickers guns has fluting that starts a little way into the length of the barrel at either end. The whole jacketed barrel length scales at 16mm, so I cut some masking tape 14mm long and wrapped it around the centre of my barrel. I then fitted more pieces of rod to the exposed ends to fill in the remaining gaps. These didn’t quite fill to a round profile, so a few drops of tippex were dabbed over.

 

The exposed ends were then sanded down to meet the level of the masking tape. Once done, the tape was removed and voila!

 

A bit more sanding and a brush over with extra thin cement….

 

And it’s ready to be cut down and the various bits and bobs added….

 

A lick of humbrol 67 dark grey….

 

It’ll get a black oil wash, drybrush with a lightened grey and a touch of graphite plus a touch of brown oils on the handles for the wood.

 

I guess I should really make a mould for resin copies – hmm.

 

see you next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Murdo]

Y'know, you massively boost scratchbuilding up to a whole new skill level!

 

Fabulous work!

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Excellent little machine gun and an excellent exposition on the real reason behind scratchbuilding.
 

A few months ago I was discussing my next project with some modelling buddies and I told them I was thinking about scratchbuilding a 1/32 XYZ jet. ‘Trumpeter does one of those in 1/32’ added the local expert, thereby indicating that there was no point in me wasting my time carving one out of wood. But for me that’s not the point, for me the point of the exercise is the enjoyable process of making something; as you say ‘it’s the journey not the destination’. I’m not knocking kit sets or kit set builders - I’ve built many myself - but I do derive a deep satisfaction from building my own imperfect hand-made stuff and also perhaps from keeping some old-time skills alive in this mad modern world.

[Courageous]

Wow, now that is neat/

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

thanks for the feedback chaps - keep scratching!

[Murdo]

Yep, there's something uniquely satisfying about scratch building an item, especially a whole vehicle / ship / plane etc.

[Model Mate]

Small update I’m afraid. I’ve had a problem with my elbow – some sort of infection – and it’s only just starting to return to normal size after the application of anti-biotics.

 

Anyway, I had a think about painting and final construction. I’d really like to be able to add the turret after main painting, allowing me to fit the machine gun (which is likely to be rather delicate) at the end of the build from inside the turret. Looking at photos, the flange base of the turret appears to be fixed onto the hull top, with the rotating turret mounted into/onto it. Also, this flange seems in photos to overhang the sides of the hull very slightly which should also help with my “not quite round” turret problem.

 

So, if I add a curved inner strip to the turret bottom and ensure a corresponding circular hole in the flange plate and hull top, I should be able to fit the turret whenever I need rather than glue it in place and it will be pinched into the circular hole, making it a little rounder.

 

The hull top hole was enlarged. An easy enough job, but it did put a bit of stress on the hull panels – a few joins opened up and some rivets pinged off. Easy fix though.

 

The turret itself got a few more rivets fixed onto the machine gun housing, and an inner sleeve added at the bottom to allow it to fix to the hull.

 

A new, slightly larger flange plate, pre-drilled for the ring of rivets around its circumference, was glued on to the hull top. The rivets were glued in and the now 2-layer hole was sanded to open it up very slightly until the turret slid snugly in.

 

And there we go! Removable (and movable) turret – hurrah!

 

This should also allow me to slosh a bit of paint around the inside if it proves necessary later.

 

Tune in next time!

 

[Courageous]

Coming along great but I'll be glad when you get some primer on 'cos those bleedin' rivets are playing havoc with my eyes .

 

Stuart

[Bandsaw Steve]

Looks wicked mate!👍

[Model Mate]

yes - the rivets are driving me nuts too, but at least it's easy to spot when one goes AWOL!

 

I promise to start priming soon.

[Model Mate]

The riveting is done (mostly - there may be a few replacements to come yet as they ping off), so onto some of the smaller bits.

 

The limited photos I’ve got show large wooden pieces fitted to either side of the hull. As I can’t see any hinges, latches etc. I’m assuming these are solid blocks - primitive sand ladders perhaps, for bunging under the wheels on soft ground?

I made these up from a large wooden stirrer (from a resin casting set) and coffee stirrers on the rear, as I only had the one large stirrer to play with. These were sanded square:

 

They’ll fit onto the body like this:

 

I’ll fix them after the painting’s done with metal foil straps.

 

Onto the driver’s visor. I was expecting this to be equipped with vision slots, but no; I can’t see any on the photos, it appears to be a solid plate. It seems the crew had the stark choice between movement or protection - could explain the rarity of this particular vehicle!

 

Curved end plates were cut from a thin plastic card circle.

 

0.7mm holes were chain drilled to form the sliding fixing.

 

The holes were joined and opened up with a scalpel.

 

The curved end plates were glued onto the visor.

 

And this was fixed into the rectangular hole in the hull.

 

The four hinges got a bit of detail added.

 

Back to the wheels....

 

I started with the hubs. Circles of 0.5mm plastic card were drilled around their circumference with 0.7mm holes and plastic rod inserted to form the bolts.

 

The front hubs are slightly smaller and too small to hold easily, so they were glued onto the wheels first.

 

Pieces of plastic rod were glued to the centres, with rod stuck inside.

 

As a reminder, the wheels were made from slices of plastic heating pipe with plastic card faces fixed inside. The rear wheels in particular were less than perfect, being made from plastic card cones, and it took a fair bit of patient sanding to get them anywhere near decent. I gave them a quick lick of paint to see how they were in the end. Not perfect, but they’ll do for me.

 

And finally, I took a Sunday afternoon trip to Halfords…. No more dots!

 

That’s all for now.

 

[Courageous]

Nice work on the visor and the now the primer is on, those bloomin' rivets look great. Well done.

 

Stuart

[Model Mate]

The fenders have been something of a challenge, involving trial and error, head-scratching, re-planning and more trial and error. Here’s what I did (largely as a salutary lesson!)….

 

As I don’t have any photos of the rear of the vehicle, what happens to the rear fenders is a bit of a mystery. Now I have a tapering body, should I have correspondingly tapered fenders? I decided to make two sets (they’re only bent plastic card so no great sacrifice) to see which looked most likely in situ. I also cut a pair of front fenders with their rounded leading edge.

 

I curved them all by the “parcel-ribbon” method – that annual festive activity of running ribbon between fingers and a stiff implement to impart a curve in order to assist those who deem it vital that all presents get fully dressed-up and to therefore maintain domestic harmony.

 

This seemed to work reasonably well. Lengths of fairly thick plastic rod were glued onto the inside/underside of each fender, corresponding to where each would cross the chassis frame, and holes were drilled in the chassis to take them.

 

I dry-fitted the new fenders, only to discover that my curving exercise hadn’t been as effective as I’d hoped. The spring in each overcame the stiffness of the plastic rod, and they all straightened to some degree, bending the rod supports. Not good… not good at all.

 

 

Hmm. Ok, replace the plastic rod with something more resilient. Metal wire. I cut some lengths of (iron?) wire – florist’s wire I think. These were run through the chassis holes, from one side of the vehicle to the other. Not strictly accurate, but much stronger than individual ones for each side.

A dry-fit of the front wheels revealed that these needed bending upwards to raise the fenders clear of the wheels.

 

Though the rear ones were ok to stay straight.

 

Running from one side to the other also caused a clash with the underside of the engine, so a slot was cut into this to allow the wire to pass through.

 

In order to receive these bits of wire on each fender, the original plastic rods were cut off and replaced with short sections of plastic tube. I started with quite long tubes, but these were trimmed as far as possible later as a clash with the wheels became apparent.

 

I also tried dipping the fenders in boiling and then cold water whilst held in tighter curves by elastic bands. This did improve things slightly.

 

I tried dry-fitting the bodywork, and settled on the straight as opposed to tapered fenders. Photos clearly show the fenders separate from the hull, and in fact the wooden boxes/boards on the hull appear to run between the fenders and the side of the body, so it seems to me that straight is the way to go. A dab of superglue on each rod connection and they were fixed.

 

The front of the vehicle has a bumper formed of a piece of metal tube or rod. This is held in place by a pair of splayed brackets. These were cut from plastic card and glued onto the front horns of the chassis with a piece of plastic rod run through holes drilled in the brackets.

 

As this pretty much completes work on the chassis, I got the rattle-can out again and gave it all a squirt of primer.

 

It's getting there.... a few more little details, some internal painting to allow me to fit the engine and get the body and chassis fixed together and it'll be painting time!

 

 

 

[GerryW]

Amazing demonstration of skills and patience. 

 

Gerry

[Bandsaw Steve]

Excellent progress!
 

Under a coat of primer those rivets look outstanding. Be warned, I’m going to copy that that ‘nail caviar’ method sooner or later.

[Model Mate]

Yes, go for it. I'm really happy with the results. I've found that the 0.6mm are quite inconsistent in size whilst the only slightly larger 0.8mm ones are much more regular, so use those if you can. They don't glue in brilliantly - I think the glue just softens the plastic locally enabling them to be held in place which mostly works but they can be prone to pinging off during handling. I think the primer has helped a lot though (Halfords plastic primer). as well as being easier on the eye!

 

I keep meaning to try the rivets with plastic weld to see if that does a better job, or even superglue of course. At the moment it's not bad enough for me to need to find a better way, but im sure there are improvements out there.