Pages

Friday 12 June 2020

'You can never have too many trucks': Some renovated 20mm-scale World War Two Russian lorries

During the early stages of the development of MEGABLITZ, we fought a number of large battles to test the rules ... and it was during one of them that someone uttered the (in)famous line 'You can never have too many trucks'. I was determined to make sure that my Russians were supplied with as many as I could muster, and it is some of those vehicles that I have just renovated.



At the time, model Russian vehicles were hard to get hold of, so I scratch-built mine, using a model of a 1.5ton Great Western Railways van as the basis. This kit was originally made by Keil Kraft, then Davric, and is now manufactured by Knightwing.


The kit provided the chassis, bonnet, wheels, and wheel arches, and I made the cab and bodies from Plasticard. I built three versions of the truck, and the ones featured above are the first version.

I also needed some tracked towing vehicles, and my spares box provided enough stuff (mainly from Airfix Matador and M3 half-track model kits) to build two from scratch. They look like cut-down STZ-5 tractors ...


... which is what I hoped they would resemble.

12 comments:

  1. I agree. You can never have too many trucks. Or wagons and pack mules. Or pack camels. Unlucky for you that Zvezda only do theirs in 1/100.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trebian,

      I have several more truck and tractors to do, as well as some horse-drawn wagons and limbers.

      If I was starting afresh today, I’d have gone down the 15mm route ... but I just have too many 20mm-scale figures and vehicles to do so.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. The models look good Bob. The tracked tractor is new to me - new things are always interesting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      Cheers! The tractor was a COE (cab over engine) version of a more traditional tracked tractor.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. G'Day Bob. Agreed, you can never have too many trucks. Any lend-lease vehicles in the pipe line? Cheers Greg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Delta Coy (Greg),

      Cheers! I have quite a few suitable US trucks that will be added at some point in the future.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. Hi Bob,
    Great conversion work there on the Thornycroft kit- well done. Cheers. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      Cheers! I was very pleased with the way they turned out.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  5. The 'never too many trucks' thing I discovered long ago myself. I have to admit the bulk of my Red Army truck fleet are 'el cheapo' plastic toys, and probably not historical anyway. I did start to scratchbuild some ZiS trucks, but got just the one done, along with a much more recent semi-scratchbuild of a semi-tracked truck.

    Mind you, a shortage of wheeled and tracked transport is quite realistic for the Red Army of WW2, even the ostensibly mechanized and motor formations often forced to rely on old technology, to wit, Shanks's pony, to get about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Archduke Piccolo,

      I’ve never been a fanatical rivet counter, and cheapo model trucks work for me. I know one gamer who has loads of modern toy trucks from Poundland that he uses as the basis for wheeled transport.

      I do have quite a few horse-drawn wagons and limbers awaiting renovation, and these will be added to my collection in due course ... along with quite a bit of cavalry.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  6. 20mm is the perfect zone for Airfix conversions .. ingenuity and necessity being as Frank Zappa said, one of the Mothers of Invention (I may have made the Zappa reference up .. but it is late)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Geordie an Exiled FoG,

      Frank Zappa? Isn’t he famous for converting an Airfix Lancaster bomber into a Janes Bond Aston Martin? ;^)

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment. Please note that any comments that are spam or contain phishing messages or that come from Google Accounts that are 'Unknown' will be deleted.