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Sunday 7 February 2016

Some more scratch-built/modified model vehicles

Back in early January I featured some of the scratch-built/modified models that John Sandars' had inspired me to build. At the time I thought that they were the only ones that I had left ... and then I began sorting out the figures I used for my Winter-ish War mini-campaign and remembered that they weren't!

Here are some of the Russian vehicles that I scratch-built/modified.





These heavy artillery tractors were built on the chassis of broken ROCO Minitank Pzkpfw IVs. The cabs came from Bedford trucks from the Airfix RAF Airfield Firefighting Set, the engine bonnets were made from Plasticard strips, the engine grills were from Airfix Matador kits, and the rear bodies were made from Plasticard and the sides of railway wagons.





The light artillery tractors were built on the rear halves of the chassis of Airfix US Half-track kits. The cabs came from Airfix Matador kits, the engine grills from Airfix US Half-track kits, and the rear bodies were scratch-built from Plasticard.





The supply tractors were also built on the rear halves of the chassis of Airfix US Half-tracks, and their cabs came from Bedford trucks from the Airfix RAF Airfield Firefighting Set, with engine grills from Airfix US Half-track kits. Like the light artillery tractors, the rear bodies were scratch-built from Plasticard. They are towing trailers from the Airfix US Half-track kits.

12 comments:

  1. Those are really nice models. It brings back memories of the time when having that model that "no one else had" was such a fun part of the hobby. mine was an Italian M13 tank scratchbuilt from balsa.

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  2. Bob, God bless your patience. I've never had either the ingenuity or the skill to pull that sort of thing off.

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  3. Steven Page,

    Thank you for your very complimentary comments about my vehicles. There was something nice about building vehicles using bits and pieces from other kits, Plasticard, and balsa. I well remember building a number of Israeli Ishermans using Airfix Sherman hulls and turrets, the tracks from ROCO Minitank M40 SPGs, Plasticard, and gun barrels made from brass tubing and plastic sprue.

    Your M13 must have been an interesting build. My attempt used two sets of tracks from Airfix Half-tracks.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  4. Conrad Kinch,

    I am of an age when, if you bought a new kit, you looked at it and asked 'what can I turn this into?' That - and a lot of failures - developed my scratch-building and modelling skills.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  5. Nice work! Plastic kits and I have never gotten on too well! They had/ have a distresssing habit of shedding parts as they cross the table. Microarmour was a relief.

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  6. Ross Mac,

    Cheers! I build my plastic models to be as solid as possible to make sure that bits don't break or fall off easily. They may not be beautiful, but they last.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  7. Excellent approximations of the Soviet AT-T and STZ-5 tractors.

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  8. David Bradley,

    That is exactly the outcome that I wanted; not exact replicas, but passable approximations that would stand up to the stresses and strains of being used in a wargame!

    All the best,

    Bob

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