Friday 3 April 2020

Rapid Fire! France 1940 in 20mm - Additions to the BEF motor park (part 2)




The Morris CS8 15cwt trucks of the 2nd King´s Royal Rifle Corps Motor Battalion and the 1st Rifles Motor Battalion, 30th Brigade, pass on the crossroads of the French village of Platini (from now on all my villages in France will have famous French footballers names- Belgian villages will have Cyclist's names, of course) in order to join 1st Armoured Division (and not Calais, as I will not deprive my tanks of infantry!!) 

All models are MiniGeneral 3d prints. The models have only 5 quite detailed parts. These were a bit hard to clean but Pedro Pato told me that he is cleaning and improving the files and that this problem will be solved in many of its models.


I placed the white square without being sure of its usage by these two battalions. These two units were the organic Motor battalions of the 1st AD and not part of original BEF so I`m not sure if the white squares were painted as they were also not used by its parent tank brigades.


Each CS8 has four figures and, like the figures in the Carriers from the same units I showed you a few post ago, they are conversions from the Hat box of US WWI artillery. I used these figures because of its plain helmets and gas mask bags to which I only needed to add a two component paste backpack. Some figures in the box are seated while others are standing. The seated figures went to the back of the truck with new legs of two component paste or bent with fire and the ones standing were melted by the legs and stuck in the cabin. 


Soft plastic rifles, Bren LMG of Boys AT rifles were glued to the figure's hands. 



The printing lines on the front of the vehicle are quite visible. I mixed an almost  drying green acrylic paint with PVA glue and covered those parts. This tick apparently works in hiding those lines.


Here are they after the Paint+PVA trick. As you can see here many of the figures were just bent with fire. Even if you apply some heat in the legs they become softer and you can model it with some clamps or even using your fingers. 


The yellow paint blobs are the gas detector device used by the British. It would change colour and was applied by hand in different shapes. Some roundels of plastic card were also cut and used for Bridge Rating symbols at the front of the vehicles. 


All these six seated figures had their legs changed into a seated position by the usage of fire from a lighter and the putees were turned into short webbing ankles.


One of the CS8  was transformed into one of the many wireless versions. There are some doubts about the year in which the metal doors were used on these radio versions so I made a late MK2 body with metal doors. They can be painted as canvas doors if one day I find more information. The black arm of service with the number 11 is from the Divisional Signals of an infantry division. Maybe a red square with the number 12 or green with 16 would be better for the HQ of the Infantry brigades? I got stuck here as these battalions had brown squares for Motor battalions and were no foot infantry units...


The main task here is to build a wooden body, stairs at the back, the aerials and its protection and supports at the roof top. 


The body was built in Rooftop Styrofoam and card. 


The windows are also card as well as the folded table, later changed to the other side as you can see in the finished vehicle. 


The aerials are made of burned sprue. In the end a few more details were added before painting and this one here, together with a staff car are ready to be the 30th Brigade HQ as Masters Colin and Richard ordered. 

Next: the figures for the 2KRRC Motor Battalion.

6 comments:

  1. Stunning conversion on the Radio truck!

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  2. Thanks Scotsgrey. The radio is not complicated, you just need a piece of styrofoam and then build the detail around it.

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  3. An Excellent Morris Wireless Van, João. Thank you for sharing the tip regarding the PVA glue and paint for hiding print lines. I shall try it.

    Regards, Chris.

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    1. Thanks Chris. The pva+paint is not 100% but it helps, specially if you let the thing dry to paste thickness.

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  4. Fantastic collection.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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