Tuesday 7 June 2022

WW1 Palestine Campaign Scratch Building Trucks and Staff Car

This last weekend much of my hobby time was spent adding a canopy to a couple of my trucks and making a staff car. You can see a previous post on the process of making trucks here. As my trucks are very generic I decided to add the canopy to easily identify trucks of the Egyptian Expedition Force (EEF)  on the wargaming tabletop. The canopy was made from the same wood as the body. The drivers area was cut out and the rest sanded into shape.

The scratch built truck with canopy

All details are painted on the trucks

Another view of both trucks

A few from the front

The staff cars were made in the same way as the trucks from wooden dowel. The one major difference is the addition of wire for the windscreen.

Card is used to create the wheels and balsa wood for the front wheel arches.

Both cars with drivers and passengers added.

The staff cars lack details and rely upon them to be painted on. So far only one has been painted.

Staff car painted up

A better view of the details such as doors being painted on.

A front view of the car. The headlights are just card disks punched out and stuck on.

A top view.

As the theme of this post seems to be one of scratch building, here are some photos of a flat wagon I recently made with an option of adding a machine gun. The idea came from a comment on the post about building the train (here).

Flat wagon

Machine Gun added


20 comments:

  1. PETER- Your a very talented Scratch Modeler for sure - great work on the new models- just the thing to keep you occupied this Winter. Best Wishes. KEV.

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    1. Thanks KEV. I enjoy making the models for wargaming, especially simple designs as I would not have the patience for anything more demanding. Cheers Peter

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  2. Reminds me of…” ‘ome, sir. Going ‘ome…”

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    1. Lol. I have no idea how I will use the staff car in my games, other than mobile scenery. It was just fun to make.

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  3. Wonderful scratchbuilding, Peter. What you accomplish with blocks of wood is amazing.

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    1. Jon, I find there is something very satisfying about turning a block of wood into a wargaming model. Thanks Peter

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  4. These scratch builds of yours are getting better and better. Very inspirational.

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    1. Thank you. There have been a few failures along the way, but I don't post about those :-)

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  5. The shading on the tilts of the trucks is excellent it really makes it look as though the canvas sags between the frames.

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    1. Hi Rob, It can sometimes take a couple of goes to get the look right, but the painting certainly improves the look of the simple models. Thanks.

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  6. Those are just so nice! Keep up the good work and look forward to more of the same if anything is in the offing.

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    1. Thank you. I am nearing the end of this project and may have finished what I need, but you never know another idea may require some scratch-building.

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  7. Those motor transport models are elegant little builds.

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    1. They worked out better than I expected, particularly the canopied ones. Even if not in the rules, they will appear on the tabletop.

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  8. They all look great, but I love the canopied trucks most of all. The highlights and shadows you've painted on create an amazing illusion of fabric. Very inspiring!

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    1. Thank you John. A couple layers of thinned down paint helps to build the effect.

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  9. You have a genius for this sort of thing Peter. Perfect intersection of form and function.

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    1. The vehicles from WW1 seem to lend themselves to simple scratch builds more so than other periods. Having made the first model I decided the others needs to be made as well for a consistent look on the tabletop. Thanks.

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  10. Inspirational! Just shows you don't need the very latest hyper detailed 3D printed gizmos to have a great looking table.

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    1. There is always a pleasure in making a model from a few bits or wood and card. It also keeps the hobby cost down.

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