Mk1 gun carrier scratchbuild

[Alpha Juliet]

This is an extraordinary build - fascinating.  Your WIP snippets are a mine of information.  Thanks for letting us in on the inner workings of your mind.  I'm sure you will be saving folks a lot of time and money in their builds.

 

AJ

[Model Mate]

Thanks AJ, and Colonel - gratifying to hear you're enjoying thid build almost as much as I am.

 

I've been musing more on something Bertie raised a little while ago about using only the simplest of tools, and I was rummaging through my spares box last night, only to realise that I haven't sourced anything from it for ages. I really like the challenge of engineering something so it can be built using the bare minimum, and I've even got to the point where I really resent not being able to completely scratchbuild parts. I could have, for instance, got some aftermarket track links, but somehow it seems like cheating now. The same applies to tools to some degree - a lathe would make lots of my stuff much easier for example, and although that wouldn't feel like cheating, I really like being able to come up with a way to work without one. This does make my builds go on for quite a while, but I love being able to look at the finished article and say to myself "you made ALL of this"

[Model Mate]

I couldn’t resist popping in a second post in one day, having got the gun’s sight finished off together with all the rivets, so gave it a squirt of primer.

 

 

There are still a few more wheels, rods, levers and so on to go, but I’ll get the base colours on first, while I can still separate the two main parts.

[ColonelKrypton]

Looks good with the primer on.

 

Regarding my comment on model railroad hand wheels, seems the proper term is to search for is brake wheel. Various sizes and shapes from N scale on up - O scale would probably in the right size range. Another possibility to search for architectural mode making supplies for hand wheels. 

 

There is a pleasure in rolling your own however and yours do look the part.

 

cheers, Graham

 

[Model Mate]

A lovely Easter break enabled me to get quite a lot done on the gun carrier as well as getting out to enjoy the sunshine.

 

First up is the chipping test. I sprayed one of my silver painted test panels with cheapo hairspray, and applied it using a brush on the other. I then sprayed both with Tamiya XF-64. After a few hours, I hit both with a stiff brush and a bit of water. Thy chipped really easily (a bit too easily to be honest), but the brush applied version was a mistake I think – it’s all too easy to scrub off everything up to the edge of the hairspray, leaving rounded edges to the chipped areas. I think I’ll stick to the overall-sprayed technique after all.

 

After leaving them for a few days to dry off completely, I applied a fresh spray coat of hairspray and then XF-72. Again this was chipped off. Looks ok, but a bit heavy still. I’ll have to be careful to maintain restraint when I get to the real parts.

 

I got back onto the main vehicle and started to tackle the mass of rivets and plates/brackets and so on. This included making up a selection of rivet strips – an exercise in tedium!

 

Thankfully, the upper hull and parts of the front cabs covers quite a few of the perimeter rivets, so I’ll be able to omit those.

 

I’ve been struggling to come up with a strategy for the cab interiors. The seats, levers and so on obviously need painting before they go into the cabs themselves which would leave me with a masking headache when it comes to painting the overall vehicle. I decided to cut out a strip at the rear of the cabs where the rear hatch closes. This will allow me to slide the seat strips into place after the cabs are fitted and all painted. With this in mind, I glued the right hand cab in place and added a bit more detail to the steering wheel seat unit.

 

Back to the gun….

 

I made a start on the wheels. I drilled a 42mm hole in some scrap MDF and glued in 3mm wide strips of card. I worked out this concentric ring method when I was building the wheels for my Pierce Arrow AA truck, but ended up not using it when I realised just in time that I was working to the wrong scale. The outer strip is pushed into the hole and then smaller rings are glued to it as they’re placed inside. You need to be really precise in cutting the right length and it can take a while to get this right, but it’s very satisfying when a strip clicks firmly into place. The gun has two sets of wheels – the main carriage wheels plus outer rims, presumably added to spread the load and make dragging the guns through the mud slightly easier. The outer rims are slightly smaller in diameter, so for these, I was careful not to get any glue between the outer ring and the subsequent inner rings. This left me with a second set of wheels 1mm smaller in diameter than the main ones – perfect!

 

The spokes are a challenge. They appear to be fluted, with the connection points to the hub and rim wider than the main leg. I cut some 3mm card and started shaping it with files and sandpaper. I started to lose a bit of definition on the wider connection points, so glued some scraps of 0.5mm card to the ends and carried on sanding. I’ve made one, that looks ok-ish, but I need 32 and don’t think I’ll be able to make two the same. I’ll try casting a few milliput copies using blue-stuff and then make a resin mould for further duplicates.

 

On the subject of casting, I’ll also need LOTS of ammo. Photos I have of a carrier called “Darlington” show the boards between the cabs and the upper hull stacked high with shells. I stuffed some milliput into the ends of 4mm tubes and when dry, sanded them to shape. These will also be copied using resin.

 

I faired in the axle supports on the gun carriage using milliput and added the last of the brackets for now; in this case the brake wheel holders. I made up another control wheel (for the brakes) ready to be attached after painting the main gun.

 

The gun was sprayed using neat XF-62 and then highlighted with a drop of XF-14 added to the mix.

 

And so to the camo. I hate brushing Tamiya acrylics – they spray beautifully, but are a real pain to brush paint. They dry out very quickly and I ‘ve not had much luck using a wet palette with them. Nevertheless, I’d left most of my extensive Vallejo paint collection at my girlfriends’s flat, so had to make do, using my not so extensive collection of 7 Tamiya colours. After a couple of coats of brown-red (XF-64) and bile-green “sand” (XF-4 with a dash of XF-72) I was able to do the outlining with lovely Vallejo black and a thin brush.

 

This will get a squirt of Klear before the oil washes and so on.

[ColonelKrypton]

Starting to look really good.

 

Scratch building just the gun itself looks like an interesting project in itself. I must take a closer look at Landships again and give it a thought. Of late I have been thinking of building just an artillery piece of some sort.

 

I like your idea for making the wheels. I am going to give it try when I get back to my Poplavko armoured car build.  I had tried wrapping strip around the outside of dowel and building up by adding layers. Worked OK but I was never really happy with it. Making a large hole and working inwards - brilliant. Sometimes the simplest solution seems to elude.

 

cheers, Graham 

 

[Mike]

Looks great! There's something very industrial about the plate'n'rivet style of the early armour

[Bandsaw Steve]

Really top grade work! Especially those wheels. That method has really got my grey matter working;  I think it just might have wider applications…🤔

[Model Mate]

thanks All, very encouraging comments!

 

The "wheels in wheels" technique is very handy I admit - you can essentially get any size you need by placing "former" rings around the outside and only gluing from the point you want to start

[Bertie McBoatface]

This is very impressive throughout.  

[Maginot]

Starting to look the business now.

[Latakia]

Amazing work, cant wait to see the finished model   

[Model Mate]

Only a small update today I’m afraid.

 

I finally got the last big component cut out and glued together – the left hand cab. In previous shots I used a duff version that had large rather than small rivet holes, so now that one can be consigned to the bin. A few internal bracing strips and rivets were glued in and the cab was fixed into place on the lower hull. The seat units should slide nicely into place once everything is painted. The upper hull box is also loose and may well stay that way once everything’s done to allow a clear view of the internals.

 

I also continued with detailing the lower side plates – specifically the series of rod and tube supports for the plates that run along the lower edge. I guess these are something to do with supporting the internal running wheels. As you can see, this lead to the loss of a few of the larger rivets; being glass(?) these nail caviar rivets don’t glue in particularly well, so I’ll be relieved once they’re all done and I can get some primer in place to help fix them a bit better.

 

The gun is pretty much done for now, barring some additional levers, rods and wheels, so I gave it a wash and dry-brush.

As mentioned in the recent discussions on the tiger superthread, I have a method for this:

 

1.       Spray with Klear floor polish (50% water). This doesn’t have to be super-gloss, just shiny enough to prevent the washes digging into any grainy, matt paint finish too much.

2.       Overall “slosh wash” using very, very thin burnt umber – 99% thinner (white spirit) with just a hint of colour. This is followed up by a second pass using slightly thicker burnt umber around the details.

3.       After resting for a day or so, I followed up with a pin wash using black and burnt umber. It needs to rest and dry a bit before this, or the new washes tend to wash-away the previous ones, leading to the exact opposite of what we want from a pin wash.

4.       After a few more days to dry out further, I drybrushed using a soft, but stiff flat brush very slightly damped with white spirit to clean off the highlights.

5.       It looked ok at this point, but to make the rivets and details really pop, which will be advantageous in what might end up the relative gloom of the belly of the beast, I mixed up some pale tan/sand Tamiya acrylics and drybrushed this on. I think the trick with drybrushing (as with most techniques to be honest) is to take it gently and slowly build up the effect, to try and avoid going over the top.

 

 

 

 

Once the final bits are all in place, I’ll spray a matt coat and add some metal silver and brass scuffs and highlights, but this sub-construction can take a rest for a bit while the rest catches up.

[APA]

The stuff you chuck in the bin is better than anything I'll ever make 😳😎

 

Andrew

[Model Mate]

6 hours ago, APA said:

The stuff you chuck in the bin is better than anything I'll ever make 😳😎

 

Andrew

Haha! Thanks Andrew, but trust me, the bit I threw out just wasn’t fit for purpose. One of the joys of scratchbuilding is that if it goes wrong; bin it. No great loss, and most stuff can be remade pretty quickly. If I screw up a kit part (which happens quite often) I’m really stuck and dismayed, but when a scratch bit goes awry, you know there’s a 99% chance you’ll make it better second time around, and all it’s cost is 20sq cm of polystyrene and an hour or so.

Your stuff is excellent; I’m loving the Bedford. There’s a really a refreshing mindset that comes with scratchbuilding - I’d highly recommend you give it a go; you clearly have the skills.

[APA]

17 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Haha! Thanks Andrew, but trust me, the bit I threw out just wasn’t fit for purpose. One of the joys of scratchbuilding is that if it goes wrong; bin it. No great loss, and most stuff can be remade pretty quickly. If I screw up a kit part (which happens quite often) I’m really stuck and dismayed, but when a scratch bit goes awry, you know there’s a 99% chance you’ll make it better second time around, and all it’s cost is 20sq cm of polystyrene and an hour or so.

Your stuff is excellent; I’m loving the Bedford. There’s a really a refreshing mindset that comes with scratchbuilding - I’d highly recommend you give it a go; you clearly have the skills.

 

Thanks Modelmate, glad your liking it 😁👍🏻

I know what you mean about the no risk element to scratch building. I tend to do quite a bit in my builds, apart from the weathering it's why I do it, and I more than often do things twice since the first time is usually literally the first time I've tried to make a particular accessory. I also think a WIP is a very good tester for a build. You can stare at a build for hours and it will look ok, take a few pictures and you might spot some things but send those pics out into the wild for all the world to see and suddenly you see a dozen things that need fixing.

 

Crack on...... 😎

 

Andrew

[Bandsaw Steve]

On 26/04/2022 at 07:24, Model Mate said:

. One of the joys of scratchbuilding is that if it goes wrong; bin it. No great loss, and most stuff can be remade pretty quickly. when a scratch bit goes awry, you know there’s a 99% chance you’ll make it better second time around, and all it’s cost is 20sq cm of polystyrene and an hour or so.

 

Completely true! 

[Model Mate]

Another tiny update I’m afraid – I’m selling my boat and buying another – if they were in the same part of the country it’d be easier, but of course they’re not, so lots of car trips and faffing about between the two.

 

I carried on with adding all the plates, brackets and so on to the lower hull, but forgot to take any photos; sorry.

 

I carried on with the gun wheels, making up the remaining rims and filling the faces using thin sausages of milliput, smoothed over with plenty of water. While I had the milliput out, I used my blue stuff to make a copy of the single spoke I carved.

 

I hope to make a few copies this way, and then mass-produce them using a silicone/resin mould.

 

The cabs are festooned with doors and hatches, and the numerous photos I’ve seen of “Darlington” (publicity shots I suspect) show many, if not most, of them open. So it was time to get cracking on these doors using 0.5mm card.

 

That’s it for now folks!

[Maginot]

Grouse work!

[APA]

What do you use as a try square? All the small engineering ones I've seen seem too chunky and thick to me. 

 

Andrew 

[Model Mate]

1 hour ago, APA said:

What do you use as a try square? All the small engineering ones I've seen seem too chunky and thick to me. 

 

Andrew 

Strangely enough, I bought a little one just recently from an antique shop, but to be honest, I don’t use it. I just measure both ends of any cuts and use a metal ruler. I do a lot of small cutting “by eye” rather than measure or using a square.

[matti64]

9 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Strangely enough, I bought a little one just recently from an antique shop, but to be honest, I don’t use it. I just measure both ends of any cuts and use a metal ruler. I do a lot of small cutting “by eye” rather than measure or using a square.

I found that an Engineers Protractor  worked very well with  thin materials such as plasticard. You need to set it and periodically check it f with a set square but they are the best solution to the promlem that I've found.

[Model Mate]

oooh - that does look like a useful piece of kit!

 

I realise that my previous statements might make me look either a bit smug (I just cut it all by eye!) or sloppy (I just cut it all by eye!)

I should point out that as I draw CAD plans to use as templates for the various parts, I don't have to worry too much about parts being square - as long as I can cut a straight line on the printed templates, everything is pretty much square to start with.

[Model Mate]

Minor progress….

Here are some of the lower hull additions I made and forgot to photo last time. The running wheel axle connector(?) arrangements will get some wire “U” bolt clamps added. I started doing these using 0.2mm silver wire, but it’s a bit too thin, so I’ll use thicker lead wire instead.

 

I also added some mesh to the inside of the radiator openings in the rear and staged another full-model lash up including the painted gun.

 

And talking of the gun, the wheels got a bit more attention. By the application of a bit of O-level maths, I calculated the circumference of the 43mm diameter wheels and then divided this by the number of spokes (14). Drawn out on CAD, this was printed off together with a bunch of similar strips for the centre hub. I’m not sure how big this will be yet, so I did a few to suit 12, 10, 8 and 6mm diameter hubs. The strips were taped onto the rims and 0.7mm holes drilled to take fixing pins for each spoke. I also drew up a “target” jig to make aligning it all a bit easier hopefully.

 

[ColonelKrypton]

Your wheels are starting to look quite good.

 

I have played around with your technique of laminating several strips of plastic into a round wheel shape and it does work well. I also had the thought that paper ( i.e. card stock or similar ) would also work well - millions of paper card model builders do very well with this material. Paper card has an advantage over plastic in that it can be glued together with simple PVA; even CA would work well - soak the piece in CA after initial shaping and it would become one homogenous solid piece that can be easily worked with knife, sandpaper, and files. Another thought was to make one rough piece and then cast a few to work to finish shape and finish - so many ( sometime too many ) options. 

 

cheers, Graham