Monty's Caravan

Well, that's another model cleared off the 'unbuilt' pile!

This time an old Matchbox kit, 'Monty's Caravan' (if you've been following this blog for a while, you'll already have seen the Daimler Dingo Scout Car from the same set).  The Kit is still readily available in its Revell form for anyone who's interested.

Before I write about it, here's the finished model.  I have assembled it without the awning and steps at the rear for the time being.

This was a little bit of a tricky build.  There are some very small parts to deal with (and my fingers don't feel as slim as they used to!), some of which are easily broken, and some quite delicate joints that don't have very large glueing surfaces.  To prove this, I started the build by breaking several different parts of the suspension and drive shaft getting them off the sprue (which is why the rear wheels look a little wonky).  On the other hand, in common with most Matchbox kits, the parts fitted well, had minimal flash and on the whole the instructions were clear and easy to follow.

As well as the Daimler, the kit comes with a mini-diorama of Monty and two of his officers at conference on a cobbled street.  Sadly, my Monty arrived missing an arm, and one of his subordinates lost a foot (since glued back on) in the construction process.  Hopefully more on those in the future.

Not really an ideal gaming model, but it may see use occasionally representing a more generic command trailer.  The actual caravan can still be seen at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford
(I really ought to visit one day).  It was apparenlt made from a captured Italian General's caravan, mounted on a Leyland Retriever chassis.  Waste not, want not, as some people say!

I don't seem to have found much time for painting recently, what with more building work on the house, holidays, a lot on at work and far too much time spent playing Mass Effect 3!

However, I have finally accepted that I have been neglecting my painting duties and got around to finishing a few models that have been hanging around in various painting and basing states.

So without further ado, onto the pretty pictures.  First a German Mortar Team and extras from Armourfast.

These are cast in hard, grey plastic and are nicely detailed.  You get 4 sprues, each sprue comes with the mortar, four crew and extra mortar bombs, ammo crates etc.  There was some flash, particularly on the sub-machine gunner, as you'll see in the photos (I didn't do a great job of cleaning it up).  The mortar comes in three parts, tube, baseplate and stand, and assembles easily enough.  The only criticism is that the stand attaches to the tube at right angles, and doesn't look right at all, so I ended up doing a little trimming to make the angle look more acceptable.

This is my second attempt at 'Marsh Pattern' smocks and helmet covers, after the Italeri PAK40 Crew.  I think this looks much better, but I'm open to suggestions on how to improve.  The only downside is that these Armoufast guys are at the smaller end of 1:72/20mm, so they do look a little smaller against something like the Italeri bods.

Crew from the Airfix German Recon set. Still don't know why that MP40 seems to have a wooden stock...

Italeri anti tank teams.  Nicely sculpted and cast, but this time at the big end of 1:72!

M16-M3 Scale Comparison

Just in case it's of any use to anyone, here are a few pics comparing the 1/76 scale Matchbox M16 with its 1/72 Italeri M3 cousin.

When placed side by side, the M16 is definitely noticeably slimmer and shorter than the larger scale M3.  But it's not actually as noticeable as I thought it would be, and certainly not as dramatic as this!

Does make me realise that I perhaps need to go back and weather the M3s though!

Matchbox M16 (4) Finished

The finished article.  This has been a great kit to build.  Assembly was easy, and there's a nice level of detail without being 'fussy'.  Still don't like vinyl tracks though!

A light drybrush with Khaki to bring out the details, stowage and some light weathering.  As I'm thinking Normandy, I didn't want too much wear and tear, so I've just settled for some subtle scratches on heavily used areas (doors, bonnet etc), and a light drybrush with US drab around the lower parts of the vehicle.

The close up shows how basic the detail is on the Hasegawa model I've used as a commander but he'll pass fine under the 3' rule.

Matchbox M16 (3)

Painting the parts before assembly has the advantage of being able to get at details that will later get hidden.  The downside however is that the paintwork can easily get damaged by assembly; whether the overspill of glue (which is almost impossible to avoid, try as I might), handling (which 'polishes' the paint in places), or trimming parts (which I didn't need to do much as this is a lovely kit to assemble).

Here you can see here the glue along the seams of the bonnet, and how some of the paintwork has become 'shiny'.

So the only answer is to mask off the details (wheels, cab, tracks etc), and give it another light spray of FoW US Armour to refresh the basecoat.  The stowage (from SHQ) got a quick 'undercoat' at the same time.

Stowage added and details refreshed.

Stowage properly undercoated, 'spotter' added (one of the many spares from the Hasegawa Jeep and 37mm gun set) and decals in place.

Considering the age of this set of decals (which must be a good couple of decades old), they were in good condition.  In hindsight I perhaps should have trimmed the top of the stars for the side, to make them look like they're under the lowered side flaps.  Getting the front star on was a bit of a trial, as the raised details make the decal 'tent' up.  Constant dabbing with a damp brush, combined with pushing it into the crease with a sharp hobby knife eventually got it right.  The result is it looks a little distressed, but that actually helps it look right (in my opinion anyway!).

Matchbox M16 (2)

Tonight was the Eurovision Song contest.  Surely a great excuse to do something else, so I got down to work on the M16.

Assembly was pretty straightforward, with everything fitting together pretty well.  First job was assembling the chassis.  The only 'challenging' bit was the vinyl tracks, which of course won't stick together for anything! Fortunately they were sized well, and hold in place pretty much under their own tension.

Next up was the Quad .50 mount.  Bit tricky as pretty much all the parts need to go together at once! This was one of those jobs where tentacles might have been more useful: at one point I think I was trying to hold five different pieces in place to glue them, all of which wanted to point in different (but wrong) directions.

The hull was then pretty straightforward and has some nice details, like all the spare ammo cans in the rear.  I added a driver, one of the spare crew from the Hasegawa Jeep (poor lad had to be chopped off at the knees to fit though), before putting the front screen on.

Next up, adding details like stowage, followed by decals and painting.

Matchbox M16 (1)

Generally I've been posting completed models recently.  As a bit of a change I thought I'd do some posts following a single project through.

Next up for attention is an old Matchbox kit, and M16 Half Track.  As I've mentioned before, I have a particular soft spot for this kit, as I made one whilst still at school.  At  a time when I was mostly building model aeroplanes (and mostly getting bored and not finishing them), this was one of the few ground vehicles I made (the other being a Leopard 1), and one of the first I completed without help from either my Dad or Grandad (the other two prolific model botherers in the family!).  It later go repainted and converted to be used in GW's Dark Future road wars game and after that, who knows?  I picked up this kit from ebay, the box is a bit tattered, but otherwise everything is in perfect order.

First up, the box art...

I like how matchbox boxed their kits.  You could see a bit of it, there was a nice clear drawing of how it should look assembled, and the box artwork was always top notch.

First job, after clearing away any flash (absolutely minimal with these kits, despite their age), was a quick spray with Flames of War, US Armour.  This gives me a good base to work from, as well as getting the main colour on and making sure it gets into the nooks and crannies I wouldn't be able to paint with a brush once assembled.  Small details get picked out as required, in this case the tyres (vallejo grey-black), small metal parts (MG's, winch), seats (FoW Khaki) and the gunner (FoW russian uniform for fatigues, Brown Violet for helmet, and GW Tallarn Flesh, all washed with Devlan Mud)

Assembly comes next. I am not looking forward to sorting out those vinyl tracks...

I'm going to take a bit more care and attention with this one, compared to some of my recent builds, So expect it to end up with some extra details like added stowage and crew (those spares from the Hasegawa Jeep are likely to find a use here).

Until next time...