Once again, from my own little imaginative world, I created a fictional armored car as built by some rebels fighting their oppressive government, using a 1912 Model T car as their starting point.
From a fictional photo back then during the rebellion….
And now, just moments ago……
During one of my many searches for old time race cars, I came across armored cars built by (mostly) smaller countries or groups who suddenly found themselves under attack, and needing some sort of vehicle to engage in the battle with their enemy.
There are a lot of pictures of home built armored cars on the Google, a search for armored cars of WW1 will give you a lot of results. While most home built armored cars were built up on light trucks, there were even farm tractors used, and to my surprise, the American Model T Ford. My model is a slight variation of the armored Model T that can be seen on the Google, pictures of actual ones during the war years in Europe, and models made in 1/72 and 1/35. Might be one in 1/48 as well?
I started modeling most everything, anything, in 1/16 scale a few years ago, and had acquired a few of the 1/16 car models, and started making this armored car, by first using just the rubber tires from a Lindberg 1910-12(?) Model T kit, so I could make my own solid steel wheels. The above mentioned Model T armored cars, both real and models, used the stock wooden spoke wheels.
Well, while some of the home built armored cars were just for transporting and had no armament, other than the rebel’s small arms, the Model T, has a turret and machine gun, and that’s where I started too….
One of my favorite scratchbuilding subjects, a Maxim-esque machine gun, and mostly all styrene tube of three different sizes. Here I have finished forming the muzzle, by filing and sanding the taper, and have installed the front plate of the large jacket (background), which I punched out of a piece of .030″ styrene sheet, and drilled to fit over the barrel.
The completed mg in place in the first turret idea, made from body parts of the 1/16 Miniart Hispano Souza model car. I later redesigned the turret, and like to think that may have been how the rebels did things back during their building their armored cars.
And then the fun started ๐ค Using cardboard from microwave dinner boxes, cracker boxes, etc, to form the body. The cardboard is a nice thickness, stiff, and plentiful. I originally started using it to mock up model ideas, then transfer the pattern to styrene sheet, but on a whim I thought the cardboard looked as good or better, and being able to fold it made it a lot easier than gluing 4 pieces of styrene together. They both have their place in scratchbuilding.
And now, come the “rivets” ๐ Yep, all those toothpicks will soon be mere rivets, or an almost close representation of a rivet, as can be seen on the redesigned turret. I marked the rivet locations using a silver Sharpie, then, using a large sewing needle in a pin vise, poked holes to insert the toothpicks with a dab of Tacky glue to hold them in. Try doing that with styrene ๐
Turret in middle of the toothpick riveting process, and one of many paint layers. Basically, once the Tacky glue has set up, I clip the toothpicks off close to the armor plate cardboard, then just sand them down. I believe I sanded these down much more eventually. It doesn’t take much of a protrusion- of the toothpicks- to cast a shadow, and make it look like they’re rivets.
Wire used for grab rail at back, front armor plate brace, lifting eyes on top of turret. Hood latches, door handle, and headlight from 1/16 model car parts.
A bit more of the riveting work, and more paint layers- more like primer than anything, and maybe searching for a final color. I get so stoked on each color, that I want to make more of the same thing so I can have one of each color….
Well, eventually I gotta settle on a final color/camo so the guys can start fighting ๐ ๐ and again, just trying to paint it up like they might have done.
Almost 200 WIP pictures in my Fotki ๐
https://public.fotki.com/JohnFleischman/scratchbuilt-models/scratch-bashed-mode/#media
And as the photos show, I really need to make a dedicated photo lighting setup. Maybe a diorama sometime in the future? We shall see. Thanks for looking ๐
John