Here are the kit parts, most of which I won’t be using.
Bizarrely enough, the cab detail doesn’t even stretch to a steering wheel! Asking me to accept that is about likely as me building a Gundam robot thing. Unfortunately there are no photos of the inside of the cab as I wasn’t intending to do a build report.
This is the bare-bones of the trailer. I did change the way the spare wheel is attached later in the build as I wasn’t happy with how it looked. As the trailer is quite delicate I made a stand to use while it’s being built.
All the Dromedary conversions I’ve seen have the trailer completely covered over. I want mine to be open so I needed five identical hoops (probably a more technical term for them but the filing system in my brain is out of order at the moment (I say that as if it hasn’t been out of action for the last twenty years. 😳 )). I used some scrap bits to make a simple jig.
I also needed a few tie-downs, 57 of the bloody things. For each one I used 1.5mm of 0.3mm brass tube which is half squashed in a photo etch bender and bent to the precise angle of ‘that looks about right’. Obviously several pinged into orbit so a few more were required to be made.
The trailer is complete. Damnit! It wasn’t until I’d completed the model I found that the trailer had leaf spring suspension. Fortunately I won’t loose any sleep over it.
A truck needs a load. Yes I could have reached for my wallet and bought some resin bits and pieces, I wanted to copy them and it’s morally wrong to copy someone else's work (….or it could be that the silicon I’m using to make the moulds doesn’t react well to resin 😳 ). I only had a couple of jerry cans so I spent some time making a few other items. Here they are waiting to be moulded.
Originals are top of the photo. Bottom left are the seven items which didn’t mould very well, the others worked very nicely. I did another load after this and that was much more successful.
A few improvements to the front of the cab. I will be adding windscreen wipers and wing mirrors later otherwise they will just fall off if I do them too soon.
I have read there is a possibility that the Micky Mouse camo was usually brown and black. I go with what I like rather than what’s accurate and I wanted to use green (Tamiya XF-71). I did consider cutting many dozens of circles to mask the camo…..then chickened out. It would have been horrendous sticking little circles over those tie-downs. I brush painted it and it was a damn sight easier/quicker/more enjoyable. The originals were brush painted in a hurry and were far from prefect.
To give the impression of even more of a load I used a wooden off-cut in the trailer and in the bit behind the cab I used plastic tube with wooden dowel inside to look like the shape of oil drums. Then covered them in PVA soaked tissue paper.
Still plenty more to do, thanks for having a look.
Kommentare
8 13 July, 13:59
Alec K Taking a seat for this, sure to be another beauty 👍
15 July, 02:41
gorby Thanks for taking an interest Alec. I should get this completed very soon. 👍
gorby New photos start at number 10.
This may give the impression that I've completed this in a couple of weeks...it's been nearer two months. Although the build is complete this update doesn't take us to the end of the build process.
Thanks for having a look. 🙂
16 July, 15:40
John Hughes Looking good! I made mine into a 6pdr portee many decades ago.
Note for non Brits: ‘Don’t get the hump means ‘don’t get angry’.
Sometimes it’s good to do an out of the box build. It’s good for your mental well-being.
That’s probably why I’m so screwed-up because my intention to do an out of the box build usually gets….eeerrm, a tad over complicated. I try to add extras to state of the art kits, expecting me to do an out of the box build for kits which date back over fifty years to when dinosaurs wore brown flares and orange tank-tops would be torture. I’d also see it as a waste of a kit which may otherwise have potential to turn into something I can be pleased with, rather than be chucked to the back of the drawer never to be seen again. It’s what I enjoy, it’s what I find challenging and keeps my brain engaged. I know there is a conversion kit for this in 1/76 – where would be the fun in that?
The Dromedary was a cunning plan to make the Bedford QL even more unusable, as the same 72bhp engine was expected to haul about twice the usual weight. The normal version struggled with hills so god help the Dromedary drivers. Bughunter told me that ‘Bedford’ sounds like ‘Bad-ford’, probably not far wrong. 😄
I originally wasn’t in the mood to do a build progress report which is why this starts a bit late in the day.