Wednesday 22 June 2016

559 - 'Mickey Mouse' Camo: 3-Ton Trucks

Apparently, some of you have been anticipating these pics: thank you for your support! 

I'm on a brief break midway through a 5-hour 'homework' stint this evening, so brief blurb first, then the balance of the pictures. You might enjoy the last one in particular.
These are Lledo model Ford 'Mack' trucks, widely used by British companies in the late 30s and used by the Army too in the war. Honestly I was hoping for proper 1/56 scale Bedford lorries, but these are a fraction of the price (about two quid each if you're canny) and do a good enough job. 

(Plus the wheels move when you push them along saying 'brrrmm...')

They were very simply resprayed with rattlecan primer and black base coat before being hand painted. 

Some have queried the small diameter of my circles, but a quick Google search will show a HUGE variety of sizes in original photo, and I wanted these to look a certain way. 

Details are either decals (with thanks to a lovely chap called Brian over at Tabletopbattle.com who kindly sent me some ringed stars, gratis!) or hand-painted by me (like the '61' unit marking and the numbers on the doors and rear drop.

These are 'weathered' and muddied, but it doesn't really show up in these pics.

To the pics, then!









That last one was 'auto-awesomed' by Google for me. Thanks, Google. Awesome.

- Drax.

13 comments:

  1. Awesome! Thanks again!

    These lorries are for my 1944 Brits: all Allied vehicles carried the Allied star for ease of recognition and to protect them from any and all Allied air attacks.

    Although I prefer the star with the broken ring, I didn't want to waste them on transports as I bow have quite a few, which is why they have the chunky solid ring.

    I found out recently that the ringed ones were mostly used on top surfaces as it made them less similar to German vehicular crosses from a distance...

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  2. Very nice Drax! Yeah, they introduced the ring as apparently the star could be confused with German markings at a distance.

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    1. Thanks indeed, James! One day I'll get back to 15mm. I feel honoured by a 'thumbs-up' from you though!

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  3. Very nice - and loving the auto-AWESOME photo (although the picture before of the feline's behind may out do it :) )

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    1. Cheers, mate! It was actually quite therapeutic painting all those little circles (each has about a 4mm diameter) but I REALLY struggle trying to create any sort of random pattern...so that in itself was fairly good therapy for me too!

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  5. What a cracking idea, cheap and easy while looking fantastic.

    "Look out, sarge! Tiger!"

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    1. Tee-hee! They did very well in their opening game, standing up to a Puma!

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  6. Kittycat bum!

    These are very nicely done mate. And now I get to view them in larger, closeup pictures I retract my prior comments regarding the pattern sizing - it looks just fine.

    What scale are they exactly? 1/56 or 1/48? Wonder if they make Russian Gaz lorries from the same era? (Would save me a bundle!)

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    1. Cheers - ha!

      The general Internet opinion is that this particular model is more-or-less 1/56. The same cannot be said of all Lledo models, as they scale them to fit into their boxes, but in my experience due to lease-lend the Russians used everything we did anyway! Have a scout around, see what crops up.

      If it helps, the canvas tilts are removable toi, although there's no detailing on the flatbed...

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  7. I'm pretty sure it was actually your cat, and not google, that auto-awesomed the last one :3

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  8. Thanks, WestRider! Very nice of you to swing by!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!