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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, - it's up on some wheels ...


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I have been following the fabulous scratch builds of @Model Mate and @Gorby  of WW1 AFV's and was smitten with the itch to scratch. 

 

Following  @Model Mate lead of turning card model designs into plastic scratch built models, I had a good look at the free to download card model designs on http://www.landships.info/landships/models.html  

 

I was looking for something with simple lines that shouldn't be too difficult or take too long as there is an upcoming group build starting in March that I want to participate in. After much thought the die was cast and the Poplavko Jeffery armoured looked like an interesting subject.
 

p?i=bb8daf6cb2cf0157af5ff9f74188c3ae

 

I decided that I would have a go at scratching a Poplavko Jeffery armoured car. It's design met my criteria and as a bonus there didn't seem to be too much reference material around which should lessen the desire to add infinite layers of extra details. In fact, after spending a lot time looking at the designs of these early WW1 armoured cars I seem to have developed a desire to build not just one but quite likely several more.

 

The card model is a design by Andriy Romanchuk. It is quite well done but there are no instructions which will require a bit of extra thinking on how all the bits and pieces will fit together once converted from card to bits of sheet styrene. It was also in 1/43 scale so required scaling to make in my chosen scale of 1/35.

 

http://www.landships.info/landships/models.html#

 

A bit of background - in a nutshell and some links

 

This armoured car was developed by the commander of the 26th APV, staff Captain Victor Poplavko and the first prototype built in November 1915, and deployed on the South-Western Front.

 

It was an improvised armoured truck was based on the American Jeffery Quad 2-ton 2x2 truck chassis. The Jeffery Quad was also known as the Nash Quad. The Quad became quite popular during World War I and was used by the USA, Russia, France, and Britain and was built in quite large numbers; apparently over 11,000 in 1918 alone. There were 31 examples built of the Poplavko Jeffery armoured car.

 

Lukgraph in Poland made not only a nice kit of the Poplavko Jeffery armoured car, they also produced a couple of different kits of the Nash Quad as well. 

 

https://lukgraph.pl/en_GB/p/Jeffery-Poplavko/100
https://lukgraph.pl/en_GB/p/Jeffery-Quad-Ammunition-truck/96
https://lukgraph.pl/en_GB/p/Nash-Quad-Artillery-truck/76


http://derela.pl/jeffery.htm

http://icvi.at.ua/forum/87-374-1

https://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1/russia/Poplavko-Jeffery.php

http://pioneerflightmuseum.org/vehicles/quad.html

For my build I will be using the Evergreen kit 

 

First Steps

 

First step was to scale the 1/43 scale card model to 1/35, an enlargement of approximately 122%. Once the enlarged drawing was printed I could begin cutting outing various bits and pieces as patterns and try and figure out how everything will fit together.

 

p?i=03691222ffe7af72e47d6e55f1ab3b8f

 

And then onto cutting some sheet styrene.

 

So far my enthusiasm is running high. Simple design should make for a simple and relatively quick build.

 

Will I be able to maintain that high level of interest long enough to finish this build? 

 

Will I get stuck on some minor detail and endlessly fuss for days and get nowhere?

 

Stay tuned - to be continued in part 2.

 

cheers, Graham

 

Edited by ColonelKrypton
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Excellent! It’s great to have someone else picking up this particular baton! 
These card models are a great start, but be aware that the card they’re designed for is likely to be a fair bit thinner that what you’ll be using. You’ll end up with butt joints at corners which can push out the overall dimensions by the card thickness. This can sometime cause a few fit problems, so you may need to trim panels slightly (by the card thickness basically). I generally use 0.75mm which is thick enough for most shapes without much in the way of bracing etc. But also thin enough to not cause too much trouble with fit and overall dimensions.

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11 hours ago, Ted said:

What a great project. What's your plan for making the wheels?

 

That is one of the head scratchers and likely cause me to spin my wheels for a while ( pun intended ).  At the moment I am thinking plastic CPVC pipe for the outer rim bits and styrene for the inner part likely with a bit of putty of some kind to shape. Whether I make one master and cast four or just make four will depend on how easy it is to make the first.

 

cheers, Graham

 

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On 2/6/2022 at 5:09 AM, Milan Mynar said:

The paper model it is good , I have this one in my stock.

 

There was another paper / cardmodel of the Poplavko Jeffery armoured car that I found here  https://www.wak.pl/samochod-pancerny-jeffery-poplavko-wnuk-n-8.html  designed by Michal Szklarczyk and is also quite well done. It is a larger 1/25 scale with good instructions. I found this one after I had already made a start using the other card model design.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

 

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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, chapter 2

 

Some of the contents of the kit box

 

p?i=ec0f0baf626d34db69d049ea15ebd388

 

After gathering the Evergreen kit bits and pieces it was time to start cutting styrene but first I needed to spend some time laying out the paper templates to see how everything fit together and adjusting the dimensions to account for the chosen plastic thicknesses.  0.75mm and 1mm sized sheet should suffice but I will likely use some 1.5mm wherever a bit more body is needed. 

 

Thereafter a pile of styrene bits, pieces, and shavings quickly appeared after a few of hours of playing with paper templates followed by a flurry of knife and ruler wielding and some muttered carefully chosen words - but no cut fingers. 

 

p?i=2241c041dc87965e5691bea639b1dee5

 

Let the assembly begin!

 

Where to begin ... Best place is to always start with something square and work to keep it that way. The rests should fall nicely into place once you have a good square reference point to work from.

 

p?i=f2a667b46d51b074a63bf9f2c5d46d4c

 

Those big chunks of metal are called 123 blocks - 1" x 2" x 3" These are fabulous bits to have on hand when building models. They are square and have a bit of weight useful to hold things in place while gluing. Not expensive - can be found on eBay and Amazon for $20 to $30 for a pair; you don't need the very expensive high precision tool room types.

 

In the picture you will also see one of my big nuts.

 

I have a small jar of these - both square and hex. This one is 3/4" square and is quite handy to use as a small right angle or to hold small pieces in alignment while the glue dries. As a mass produced common hardware item  these large nuts are rather good at being square on all sides and faces; get the the largest you can find.

 

A couple of hours later and the armoured car is starting take shape.  I purposely cut some of the pieces a bit oversize so that once glued together and the cement thoroughly dry I could then carefully  block sand to shape with particular care to keeping everything square as it should be.

 

p?i=4562c38c50e4620f8acc04889aa518e8

 

Time to take a break and think through my next steps.

 

So far my interest remains high but will it continue to be so?

 

So far I have not been sidetracked fussing over some small detail better left for later but who knows what lies around the corner!

 

To be continued in Chapter 3 - stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel!

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

 

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  • ColonelKrypton changed the title to 1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, Chapter 2

Excellent progress Colonel! Looking nice and square so far. I’ve found it easier to drill for rivets before I cut out the parts, but this is mainly an issue with particularly thin or delicate pieces where the plastic can distort and tear if it’s drilled after cutting out. If you don’t have this worry, then you should be fine. 
for wheels, I found that speed fit plastic heating pipe work is a good start - the pipe is around the right diameter for the rims (if you’re lucky) and the rubber o rings are pretty much perfect for tyres; at least that’s what I found for my Wolesely armoured car.

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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, chapter 2 continued

 

I a couple of hours reviewing the few reference photos I have so far found for this vehicle and noticed something that bugged me a bit.  The card model designs and the Lukgraph kit all have a wheel well area for the rear wheels - that is, and indent and in the case of card model the fender extends into the sides of the rear of the vehicle with a portion of the fender underneath. 

 

This photo in particular is what caused to have a rethink of how this thing was put together. 

 

p?i=78672c9fa4160a04ab6db83e24a7a639

 

The wheels look as though they are well proud of the sides and the fenders do not appear to extend underneath the backside in way. Thinking about how I would have designed this thing and using the KISS principle, I would have had only enough of an opening in the sides for the axles to extend out to attach to the wheels, that why the sides could be simple flat plates. They were not making a fancy passenger or race car after all and during wartime expediency and simplicity is always a good thing.

 

Another thing, I have not found a photo which shows the underside of the vehicle so it is unclear whether the armour plate on the sides just ended on the bottom edge and the undersides were open or whether the underside was also enclosed. To keep my model simple and hopefully the quick build I wanted, I chose to enclose the underside; KISS again.

 

The rethink meant that I now had to fill back in the wheel well openings I had already cut out. Thankfully as I always keep all the trimmings I still had the cut outs; I just needed to dig through the pile of cutoff bits to find them. Quickly fitted and cemented in place with a bit of reinforcement on the inside and job done. The fenders will be made from thin card with a rim on the inside which will be fitted to the side of rear end and will cover any of the seams left from gluing the cut outs back in place. 

 

p?i=e203ec1c7da98d2b8bf2b1bf3e4b0f73

 

And as can be seen, the block sanding and truing has commenced.

 

How do you true up the edges of plastic card for a good fit? 

 

Anyone who works with sheet styrene knows that you don't cut all the way through when making cuts - you score and bend till the plastic snaps along your scored line. This does leave a less than perfect edge however which requires a bit of work to true up and provide a good fit to whatever it is intended to fit up with.

 

This is what I use:

 

p?i=8a20247bd0289603b276344f4aa92395 

 

I have three sanding blocks made from 1x2 lumber about 4 inches long as are most of my sanding blocks. One of the edges is angled so that when place on the workbench as shown it can be used to sand a straight and true angle on the edges of the plastic card. Do note that the one not in use marked 60 degrees is really 30 - the other true 60 degree sanding block is hiding somewhere on the workbench on not shown. Of course, you can also flip the sanding over and use it for 90 degrees as well. The cutting mat is double sided taped to the work bench to keep it from moving around. 

 

Construction of the cab has commenced with the rearward portion which just happens to have the largest and most square construction of cab. If I can keep it square I should be able to move forward fairly quickly.

 

p?i=f103fbd561d8a82b2e4c6be956d0a058

 

Now it is starting to look like something. A preliminary count of the expected number of the very prominent rivets has been done - somewhere close to 500.

 

Time for a break but I may get back to the bench again later today otherwise - stay tuned for the continuation of chapter 2 ( assembling the basic vehicle ), same Bat time, same Bat channel.

 

cheers, Graham

 

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  • ColonelKrypton changed the title to 1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, Chapter 2 continued
On 2/8/2022 at 7:36 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Be careful though; after the first one it can be hard to stop!

 

Indeed.  I making stuff for 60 years. Many of my early models where from found materials - bits of wood and cardboard and whatever. I never stopped.

 

I get far more pleasure out of kit bashing and scratch building than just simply building a kit

 

cheers, Graham

 

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51 minutes ago, Model Mate said:

Excellent progress Colonel! Looking nice and square so far. I’ve found it easier to drill for rivets before I cut out the parts, but this is mainly an issue with particularly thin or delicate pieces where the plastic can distort and tear if it’s drilled after cutting out. If you don’t have this worry, then you should be fine. 
for wheels, I found that speed fit plastic heating pipe work is a good start - the pipe is around the right diameter for the rims (if you’re lucky) and the rubber o rings are pretty much perfect for tyres; at least that’s what I found for my Wolesely armoured car.

 

I had considered pasting the templates to the plastic and marking out and drilling for the rivets before cutting. That would have worked but decided otherwise - six of one, half dozen of another sort of thing. 

 

As for the wheels, I have some 3/4" schedule 80 CPVC pipe and fittings which turn out to be the correct diameter for the wheels and should provide a good start. Failing that I have lathe which gives me a great deal of flexibility to use whatever material I have handy including wood or even brass.  It is unfortunate that the Evergreen line of styrene tubes does not go as large as one inch as that would be very handy.

 

I had seen your very well done Wolseley build and how you made your wheels has provided some ideas. 

 

cheers, Graham

 

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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, chapter 2, assembly of the basic vehicle, continued

 

Just a quick update today.

 

Most of the front part of the vehicle has been blocked into place and it's now really starting to look like something. Still looking a bit rough around the edges but with a couple more pieces and some more truing up of joins and trimming some more block sanding can get started.  

 

p?i=9b1ab177b94a86ae3ddb57b85be2af52

 

Once the block sanding has been done the fun part of riveting can then commence and what a riveting tail that will be. 

 

I will be using Tichy Train 0.030" ( 0.75mm ) rivets for the bulk of the very prominent rivets. In some places I will using something different for some of the smaller rivets and hinges where appropriate

 

The Tichy Train rivets are like small rivet head blobs on the end of a small diameter bit of sprue.  You first drill a #77 size hole ( a wee bit smaller than 0.5mm ) and then the sprue tail bit is pushed through hole leaving the rivet blob on the surface. The process actually works quite well is not that difficult, just time consuming - so many holes, so many rivets; a preliminary count puts the total near 500 rivets.

 

Chapter 2, to be continued, stay tuned - same Bat time, same Bat channel.

 

cheers, Graham

 

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On 2/7/2022 at 4:17 PM, ColonelKrypton said:

In the picture you will also see one of my big nuts.

 

And that made me spit my stew on the table! 

 

This is a fascinating build and I have a fearful feeling that it might lead me into places where I have never yet dared to tread....

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21 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I have a fearful feeling that it might lead me into places where I have never yet dared to tread....

 

Bertie,

 

You are already half way there what with all the scratch bits and bits of wear and tear added your builds.  There is always room for more.

 

cheers, Graham

 

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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, chapter 3, a riveting tale

 

Much of the basic construction was finished and riveting began in earnest.

 

These are the Tichy Train Group http://www.tichytraingroup.com/SearchResults.aspx?Search=rivet rivets that I will be using - 0.025 looked too small, 0.035" looked too big but 0.030" ( 0.75mm ) looked just right. 

 

You will find a pretty good article on riveting in the August 2011 issue of the Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine ( all issues available online )

 

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/5601

 

p?i=3d9e6e919ad0fe1ac6ca6cc1d68cda1d

 

they are used by drilling a #77 ( 0.018" a bit smaller than 0.5mm ) hole, the rivet is cut off leaving a bit of a tail, and the tail is pushed into the hole until the rivet is flush with the surface. A wee drop of extra thin cement on the rivet or from the inside on the tail will fix the rivet in place.

 

p?i=6e5b3d27f34621f8761aaaa4f416763c

 

Backend mostly rivetted and oh so many more to go.

 

The door has been framed in using some 1.5mm wide plastic strip that was stripped from 0.015" plastic sheet and riveted using 0.025" rivets. It is difficult to tell in photos of the actual vehicle if the rivets used around the door are the same size as though used elsewhere throughout the vehicles construction. I could have used 0.030" size but chose the smaller size just to add a bit of visual difference. 

 

The door is hinged to the body of the vehicle using a pair of large hinges each of which were riveted to the body using much smaller rivets. For those much smaller rivets I used a difference technique.

 

You may have one of those sets of jewellers beading tools that have sold as model rivet making tools. I tried for quite some time to use this tool and finally figured out a way to make easy repeatable rivets.  I tired using thin plastic card, aluminum tape, and lead tape but nothing seemed to work. In a bit of sideways thinking I discovered that I could punch nice rivets out of a thick paper which could be fixed in place using extra thin model cement.

 

The numbers on those beading tools do have a meaning. Each larger size is 0.05mm larger than previous smaller number. The 03 size beading tool is 0.4mm in diameter and 15 is 1.0mm.  The challenge is to use a suitable surface under the paper when you punch out the rivet. For the larger sizes you can use a piece sheet styrene, larger than size 08. Smaller than this an it is too easy to push the tool too deep into the soft styrene so something a bit firmer is required.  I tried a self healing cutting mat - too soft, hard rubber hockey puck - too soft, piece of wood - too soft, piece of plexiglass/Lucite - too hard. The best material I found was a piece of hard plastic / nylon cutting board which was just about right. 

 

The technique is to push the tool into paper with a twisting motion to "cut" the rivet from the paper. The domed shape of the beading tool compresses the paper and makes a nice rivet. The best paper to use is something around 90 to 100 lb drawing or sketch paper - anything thinner is just too thin and anything much thicker is just too thick.  I use the paper from an inexpensive sketch pad I found at a dollar store. Heavy index card is just about right too. 

 

Once you have your rivet punched out, you can pick it up and place where required. The easiest way to pick and place is to use a something like a toothpick that damped with a bit of water and use surface tension to pick up the paper rivet. Sometimes the rivet will just set into place where you want it, sometime you will need to fuss a bit to get it to release from the toothpick.  I make simple pick and place tool from an old plastic paint brush handle where the end has been drilled to hold half a toothpick. The toothpick can be sanded and sharpened which seems to help.

 

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 this is a side view of the cab with door and hinges in place:

 

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The hinges are not quite as symmetrical as I would have liked but from a short distance away they do look better.

 

Most of the riveting is now complete after a couple of days of marathon drilling, riveting, and spot gluing and it is really starting to come alive and look something like it should.

 

p?i=993d776948b4e7440e2246bed6a8455c

 

Still much to do, mostly smaller details but at least the bulk of large bits is done.

 

 

to be continued so stay tuned - same Bat time, same Bat channel.

 

cheers, Graham

 

 

Edited by ColonelKrypton
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  • ColonelKrypton changed the title to 1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, Chapter 3, a riveting tale ...
35 minutes ago, Model Mate said:

I like your paper solution for the tiny ones - very inventive.

 

It was a bit of an epiphany to try paper.  Sometime ago I had discovered that it was possible to glue porous non plastic material to styrene. The solvent cement softens and dissolves just enough of the surface o the plastic which is then wicked into the porous material making a decent bond. Cloth, tissue and other sorts of paper, cotton thread, and so on. I am starting to find various places to use this technique when adding small details like wrapping fine cotton thread around a control handle, steering wheel, or exhaust to simulate the use of something similar on the full size vehicle without resorting to using messy CA or PVA both of which would not only glue everything together but a bit too much and it would fill the material making it less cloth like.

 

here is photo of a few examples and just to show it makes a good bond, that piece of 1.5mm plastic card is hanging on a piece of thread which was glued to it using extra thin plastic cement.  The other bits are craft tissue paper ( purple ) and heavy weight  brown paper bag, and common craft paper.  Typical computer printer and copy paper works but the smoother the papers surface to less well the technique works. And, if the paper or material is a bit too coarse, you can use something like Tamiya white cap cement which contains polystyrene resin which will partially fill the surface.

 

 

p?i=99bc12b90bdf25aad7eaa8eaeccedcd9

 

Lots of possibilities - seat belts, simulate leather or cloth covering on something, create delicate surface texture, etc.  Like other techniques it is not a do everything thing but just something else to add to your toolbox.

 

cheers, Graham 

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1 hour ago, echen said:

Useful for stowage straps, perhaps?

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I haven't tried that yet but that is a good suggestion.

 

Sometimes you just need to follow your creative imagination and see where it takes you.

 

cheers, Graham 

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1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, chapter 3, a riveting tale - the end is in sight ( finally )

 

Still plugging along but the end is in sight, at least for the riveting tale.

 

I have not spent much time at the workbench this past week. The weather has been up and down and it seems that I spent a few hours every day outside shoveling snow or chopping ice. Nothing unusual with that for this time of year. The signs are there in late February that Spring is not so far off - warmer days, sunshine feels warmer but also a move to a more dynamic convective like weather. This time of year we see frequent weather events commonly referred to ( at least in Canada ) as Alberta Clippers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_clipper  One day the temperature will be around 0C and overnight the temperature will plunge to -25C with a high the following day of -15C or so, repeat for several days in a row. 

 

What time I did find to spend at the workbench let me reach the point where almost all of the riveting is complete. There will be a wee bit more as I continue to add smaller details and the wheel wheels.  Total count so far is just shy of 600 rivets. 

 

 

p?i=f3a60cff5a306503564bcce16b719017

 

Some of the smaller details are starting to fall into place and the armoured car is looking more and more like what it should. In fact I have started fussing over how to make the wheels and just what colour it should it painted. 

 

The wheels are quite unique and not something I could just copying from an existing kit. I have found a couple of good photographs of the wheels including the wheels used on the Jeffery Nash Quad truck on which the armoured car is based. It will be just a matter of how best to carve out of styrene or some other suitable material. Make one master and cast four or just make four?  Descisions, decisions.

 

p?i=af8885c594b6a46c134ae4a3fedb5c09

 

What colour should this armoured be?  Made in Russia during WW1. Some where captured and reused by the Germans and others. After a few Google searches using a variety of search terms in a variety of languages, the best answer I could find was green, yellow-green, olive green, and green.  Did the Germans repaint the ones the reused? At the moment I am leaning towards a lightish yellowish green as I don't want to loose all of that rivet detail to a dark colour finish.

 

What do you think about colour?

 

Another point of consideration is armament.  The Poplavko armoured car is noted as having a crew of four ( commander, driver, and two gunners ) with an armament of two Maxim machine guns. I can just imagine how crowded the crew compartment would be with the four crewmen alone but just consider that the breach end of the Maxim is just a long as the barrel cooling jacket. The result is that the guns extend into the crew compartment just as far as they extend outward. Also, these heavy machine guns were manned by two gunners - one to supply and manage the ammunition belt and the other to operate the gun. I am not sure that they would have operated two guns at the same time. In fact, every picture I have found that actually shows a gun mounted shows only one gun; I haven't yet found a photo that shows two guns mounted at the same time.  In fact, most of the photos don't show any guns mounted and most likely represent the vehicle stored or prepared for transit or out of service.

 

p?i=50d56c90c3c1528b0dcd5b4d6920ce6a

 

My dilemma is to have a Maxim poking out from one of the gun ports ( at moment thinking the front one ) or non at all. It is a simple bit to scratchbuild so it is more an issue of keeping it simple and not too busy or add something for a bit more visual interest.  Thoughts?

 

p?i=55c82903f30b1032a8474fa21eb37fd5 

 

to be continued so stay tuned - same Bat time, same Bat channel.

 

cheers, Graham

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  • ColonelKrypton changed the title to 1/35 Poplavko Jeffery Armoured Car - Itchin' the scratch, Chapter 3, the riveting end is nigh ...

Nice work Colonel! The rivets (and everything else) look great.

 

On my recent Pierce Arrow, it seems they carried 4 guns (Vickers) and had four places to mount them, but I never saw any evidence of it fully porcupined - I suspect that in reality they carried one or two guns but had a variety of possible mounting positions - could be the same for your 'car. As for the wheels, they do look a bit of a pain to make. If you've a lathe, that would seem to be the way to go (brass maybe?), at least for a single one, then cast resin copies.

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