Having been inspired by the really amazing scratchbuilds on display here, I decided I had to have a go too. The subject is an armoured car built in Ireland in 1940 and designated the Mark V.

Ireland was neutral during The Emergency (you all may know it as World War 2) but needed vehicles for airfield defence, border patrols, etc. This vehicle was based on a shortened Ford truck chassis with mild steel armour and turrets salvaged from some ancient Peerless armoured cars that the army had scrapped years before. I just like the look of it and it's not like Dragon will ever do a 3 in 1 version, so I had a go. Scale is 1/35 and most of the references came from K. Martin's excellent book on Irish Army Vehicles.

This is my first scratchbuild so to keep it simple it's all closed up. It's all scratchbuilt except the wheels donated by an Eastern Express BA-6, resin rivets from caliber 35 and a 6mm BB for the m/g ball mount.

This is it at a fairly advanced stage, the hull and turret are done and I've started the front fenders. Lots of filling and sanding. It's just sitting on the axles for now.



In this pic, almost all the detailing is done and it's ready for paint.



Basecoat and some fading has been applied here.



Much more done since but photos are still in the camera. I'll post some more pics when I get a chance to load them up.
Regards,
Rich

Not knowing this vehicle, all I can say is that it is a very nice looking one. What refs did you have to go by? It is an unusual looking vehicle and I like it. Thanks for posting.

Well done Rich! Go for it! Nice job.

The "dark side" bites once again! :-) :-) :-)

I've never tried a scratchbuild and your work is very encouraging! A few questions if I may...

How do you make the curved sections for the turret and wheel arches?

What did you use for the headlights?

Really nice work, thanks for showing us

that looks to be a real nice job of an unusual subject. Well done.

Cheers
Cliff

Rich,
Thats a very nice build ---welcome to the""Force""-------hope this is the start of more "dark-side" :-)
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

You've done a great job there. Thanks for posting the pics.
Chuck

Hi again, I was away for a few days and just checked in. First, thanks to all for your comments, I appreciate all the kind words.

Dave: My main ref was that book by K. Martin. It contains 1/76 drawings of the Mk VI Ford. The turrets are different but the hulls of the Mk V and VI are almost identical so I was able to use those drawings for all the basic measurements. I had wheelbase, length, etc so I scanned and played with the drawing on the pc until I had a set of plans in 1/35 to work from. There are lots of photos in the book and I gathered some more from the net. I have to admit it was kinda fun working out the diferences and the little details! The book also covers the old Peerless cars so I had pics to build my turret from. I've since found more great stuff on Warwheels including plans of a Peerless. Oh dear, I'm going to be very busy!

Graham: The turret is a strip of thin styrene, cut to height, warmed up in hot water then rolled and taped around a metal bar and put back into the hot water to "form". Once it's taken up a smooth curved shape, you can cut it to length and glue the ends together. I cut circles to glue inside to keep it round.

The front fenders are styrene and filler. If you look at the first pic, you can see the shape of the supporting styrene structure where the white plastic meets the filler. The vertical edge is a separate piece of thin styrene. A narrow strip of styrene was curved over the top and braced with little pieces of scrap plastic. Now I had the uppermost curve and a vertical edge and I used filler in between. It took several sessions of filling and sanding to blend it all into one smooth looking fender. The headlamps are from the BA-6 kit, they were the right diameter and I built up the teardrop shape with milliput. I'm waiting for some clear lenses from PSP models to finish them off.

And as I had those Mk VI plans lying about, I've gone and started one of those now!

Regards,
Rich

Very nice job and the front fenders came out really well considering that working plastic into compound curves is a challenge.

Rich,

Most beautifull unusual model. I really like it!
As Bob mentioned: you did a great job on the fenders.
Looking forward to the other pics.

It asks for a nice dio: I can allready see it standing in front of the O'SheasIrish Pub!

Paul

As has already been stated, scratch building is very habit forming and contagious. You have a very keen eye and I hope that you continue with these builds.

Great work you did with that armoured car
small pieces

Hi again,
Finally loaded some more pics so here's the latest on my Ford. They were light grey with grey/green camo up until around 1941 afaik, and then they changed to plain light grey. I liked the two tone better so I went with that. This is it, painting complete. It's also been lightly washed and dry brushed to bring out all those nice rivets. I hate to admit it, but I was counting them when I was building! The only markings I can see in photos are the civilian road registration numbers which I printed on Testors white decal paper.

I hope to enter it in MOM if the headlights ever arrive to finish it off. I'll also do some very light weathering. The vehicles weren't in combat and always look clean in photos so I'll just add some road dust maybe.





Regards,
Rich

That really is an impressive job.
Have you ever considered writing an article on how you built it?
I'm sure it would be well received by the membership.

Thanks Dave. I have to admit it turned out better than I thought it would!

I found a lot of useful information, and the confidence to try to build something from scratch, just from following the various builds on here. I'd be happy to put some details together on how I went about it, hopefully someone will find something useful that could be applied to their particular project. I'll get some more pics together and see what I can do.

Regards,
Rich

Bravo Rich. You did a superb job on this unusual build. It has really com to life with the paint job. Thanks for sharing the process with us. I think it would be neat to see an article on your process.

Finally, somebody besides The Miami Jayhawk and
TankysGal1 are interested in armored cars.

Wow, Rich:

You've really done a very nice job of scratchbuilding.
And such an interesting subject, as part of your own
country's home defense. I'm very impressed. And to
use a theatrical term with this "vehicle" it wasn't
exit stage left, 'er port or exit stage right, or starboard,
it was exit out the back . . . and away we go. :-) :-)

All kidding aside, a really nice piece of work. Let's see
more of your talent soon. You've only posted 43 threads
so we understand you're new to the Big A. Let's see
a lot more.