Ferret Mk 2/3 scout car

[Enzo the Magnificent]

This is the Daimler Ferret Mk 2/3 scout car from Accurate Armour. It's a resin kit with some PE.  No injection moulded plastic in sight!   

 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The box is jam packed with resiny goodness.   Enzo loves jam...     There are three plastic bags containing the parts.  As you can imagine, the box is rather heavy.

 

 

The main hull is cast as one piece.   It's a beautiful casting with no blemishes whatsoever.   It's also very hefty! 

 

 

The kit has a lot of optional parts to cover the different equipment fits used by the Ferret during its long service life.  The interior is fully detailed.  The hatches are all seperate and can be posed in the open position so the interior detail will be visible.

 

 

 

There is also some PE but I'm not sure how much of it is applicable to the Mk 2/3.  The majority of the etch is applicable to the Ferret Mk 1 which is also available from Accurate armour.

 

[diablo rsv]

I shall follow this one with interest. 

A friend of mine owns a couple of Ferrets and I was intending to build him a model of one of them.

My feelings about Accurate Armour is a little love hate so I have been hesitant to splash out on one but from what I can see from the photos of the kit above this one looks promising.

 

 

Wayne

[Enzo the Magnificent]

2 minutes ago, diablo rsv said:

A friend of mine owns a couple of Ferrets and I was intending to build him a model of one of them.

 

 

very much for posting those photos.  They show the front suspension perfectly. 

 

I've heard similar comments about Accurate Armour from others.  I've only built one full kit from them before.  It was a bit of a slog, but then it's a resin kit.  I shouldn't really expect anything else.   However I have used AA's resin replacement tracks a few times, together with a couple of their conversion kits. 

[diablo rsv]

3 minutes ago, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

very much for posting those photos.

If you need any detail shots let me know, he keeps one of them up the road from me.

We did take one to the MAFVA nationals show earlier in the year and a fellow was taking loads of detail shots apparently for a new kit, I didn't catch where he was from but maybe at last we will see an injection moulded kit, probably around the time you complete this build.

Wayne

[Robert Stuart]

Oh, Ferret sounds fun

 

Going to watch with interest.

[PeterB]

I had forgotten how small the Ferret was, especially the turretless Mk I - bit like a slightly enlarged Dingo or SOD I suppose, and the light "scout car" alongside the heavier contemporary Saladin I believe.

 

Pete 

Edited October 29, 2022 by PeterB

[sampanzer]

I was close to doing this one, but saved it for another time!

I used to drive these in the late 80's/ early 90's!

[Maginot]

Looks challenging but rewarding.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The suspension parts were removed from their casting blocks and cleaned up.  This is surprisingly time consuming.

 

 

They were then fitted.

 

 

I sprayed the interior with aluminium paint from a rattle can and then masked it all off ready for priming of the exterior.

 

The mounting for the spare wheel was way oversize.  If used as supplied, the spare wheel would have projected about six scale inches beyond the edges of the mudguards.  I removed it and reduced the depth quite drastically.

 

 

 

[Alpha Juliet]

By strange coincidence - I have just started the same model and it's a resin first for me so I will be watching this closely!

 

I did have a drive of one when I was out in Cyprus - what a peculiar driving position!

 

Detail on the kit is superb.  I hope I can do it justice.  Any hints and tips along the way gratefully received!

 

Best of luck, AJ

[Enzo the Magnificent]

The next step was to prime the model with a coat of matt lacquer followed by grey car primer from a rattle can.

 

Then came the main colours.   The scheme will be the IRR green and black camouflage scheme.  My experience from being around lots of British military vehicles in the 80s and 90s was that IRR green is pretty much any green you like.   I've seen vehicles fresh from the paint shop in a deep glossy green.   I have seen others that are in a matt, shabby pale green.  And I've seen every shade in between.  It does seem to me that once it starts to fade, IRR green can have a slightly grey tinge to it.

 

So, I grabbed whatever I could find which looked vaguely suitable.   This turned out to be Tamiya XF-89.   I then found Lifecolor UA-561, which is a very similar colour which I thought I would use as a mottle to represent the fading process.

 

 

So where's the mottle?    Well it turns out that the two paints are exactly the same colour!    The only difference is that the Tamiya paint is matt while the Lifecolor paint is satin.   That could be useful to know when I run out of one or the other.

 

Next step is to mask off the camouflage pattern using my usual technique of Blutak worms, masking tape and Copydex.

 

 

I used Tamiya XF-69 for the black.   The green on the upper hull section has also been sprayed. 

 

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Just a quick note.   I haven't done any assembly on that upper hull section.  It comes as one beautifully detailed piece.  

[diablo rsv]

Looks like an impressive piece of casting. Was there much to clean up?

 

Wayne

[Enzo the Magnificent]

47 minutes ago, diablo rsv said:

Was there much to clean up?

 

There was a large casting stub at the front of the lower hull, but half a dozen strokes with a sharp craft knife weakened it enough so that it snapped off cleanly.  The casting stub on the upper hull was a lot more delicate.  That only required two stokes with the craft knife, which cut it off cleanly.  This left part of the stub below the hatch opening, but this was easily trimmed and sanded off.   Do not attempt to break this stub off, as it will likely take the lower section underneath the hatch with it.

[Alpha Juliet]

On 07/11/2022 at 19:18, Enzo the Magnificent said:

 

There was a large casting stub at the front of the lower hull, but half a dozen strokes with a sharp craft knife weakened it enough so that it snapped off cleanly.  The casting stub on the upper hull was a lot more delicate.  That only required two stokes with the craft knife, which cut it off cleanly.  This left part of the stub below the hatch opening, but this was easily trimmed and sanded off.   Do not attempt to break this stub off, as it will likely take the lower section underneath the hatch with it.

I'm following this closely as I'm building one alongside you.  Never done resin before and I find it quite daunting! Could you show the process of removing pieces from the sprue as I'm not sure what I'm doing is correct (I'm using a fine-toothed saw; leaving some waste (because I'm not very good at straight edges), then sanding back.  There must be a better way, surely?  What about the tiny or very fine parts (e.g the steering wheel) - how are you going about those?

 

Thank you!!

 

AJ

[Enzo the Magnificent]

1 minute ago, Alpha Juliet said:

I'm following this closely as I'm building one alongside you.  Never done resin before and I find it quite daunting! Could you show the process of removing pieces from the sprue as I'm not sure what I'm doing is correct (I'm using a fine-toothed saw; leaving some waste (because I'm not very good at straight edges), then sanding back.  There must be a better way, surely?  What about the tiny or very fine parts (e.g the steering wheel) - how are you going about those?

 

 

I use a razor saw in exactly the process you described.  For the smaller parts I use a craft knife with a new blade.  Don't attempt to cut through in one go.  I tend to gently score the casting blocks numerous times until the knife breaks through.  The steering wheel seems to have a very thin groove around it which should help matters. 

 

And as always, I'm willing to replace resin bits with injection moulded spares - usually pioneer tools and stowage.

 

 

[PeterB]

9 hours ago, Alpha Juliet said:

I'm following this closely as I'm building one alongside you.  Never done resin before and I find it quite daunting! Could you show the process of removing pieces from the sprue as I'm not sure what I'm doing is correct (I'm using a fine-toothed saw; leaving some waste (because I'm not very good at straight edges), then sanding back.  There must be a better way, surely?  What about the tiny or very fine parts (e.g the steering wheel) - how are you going about those?

 

Thank you!!

 

AJ

I do the same - when building my Millicast tanks I clamp up a suitable length of wood that will fit between the tracks to support them and start sawing slowly and steadily as the tracks are easily damaged. Then I remove the remains of the mould block by rubbing on a damp sheet of wet and dry fixed to a piece of wood as I would with a vacform kit if I ever build another one. Wheeled vehicles are easier but the same principles apply - slow and steady and don't try to take off too much at once as resin can be very brittle, and of course beware the dust which is carcinogenic. Wear a mask and use wet sandpaper whenever possible, and work in a well ventilated space - I do it under the kitchen extractor fan running flat out and with the windows open. With fine parts use a very sharp knife and again try and support the part as much as possible.

 

Pete

Edited November 15, 2022 by PeterB

[CliffB]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:33 PM, Enzo the Magnificent said:

My experience from being around lots of British military vehicles in the 80s and 90s was that IRR green is pretty much any green you like. 

 

That's great to hear.  It makes painting my Fox a lot easier!  I hope it turns out as well as your Ferret, Enzo .

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I completed the camouflage on the upper hull and painted the wheels.  At this point I realised that I hadn't installed the armoured plates on the engine bay doors, so that's another job to be completed.  Not a difficult one though.

 

 

Then it was time to move on to the interior.  There is a lot of detail here.  I decided that I would build and paint batches of half a dozen or so parts and install them so as to build up the interior gradually.  This first batch includes the radio.   This is a Larkspur set.  There is also a Clansman set included in the kit.

 

 

First batch installed.

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Nice.

 

Stuart

[Bertie McBoatface]

I'm completely at sea about the scale of this kit. Would someone enlighten me please?

[Enzo the Magnificent]

3 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

I'm completely at sea about the scale of this kit. Would someone enlighten me please?

1/35

[Bertie McBoatface]

Thanks. It's a very big lump of resin then! A casting masterpiece. 

[edjbartos]

That looks amazing, I really like that...

 

Ed