Slow Rider

It’s time to destroy another Lledo vehicle in favour of making an armoured car for the BUF with a DIY flavour, something which might have been made in a small independent workshop as a stop-gap until more professionally produced vehicles became available. Of course you can build similar for any of the factions in VBCW, as ultimately it’s all in the paint scheme. As this is for the fascists though I’m thinking quite bland, but armoured to the point of paranoia as well as suffering from very low speed, maneuverability, handling and poor braking. Now a lot of the Lledo vans are similar to this one, the upper body and paint job being the main difference. I’ve cut off the headlamps and saved them, removed one of the ventilation hatches, filed down the destination boards and superglued styrene or plasticard strip around the bottom.

Next I’ve dug out some sample bases which I didn’t end up using for 6mm and glued them along the side. This gives a pleasant look of plate steel butted against plate steel.

I’ve done similar along the top, leaving the forward hatch uncovered for some type of shooting platform and the rear one for possibly a second shooting platform, or perhaps an emergency exit but also for ventilation as it’ll get hot inside from the engine straining to move so much additional weight. With a lighter guage plasticard I’ve filled in the rear. Originally I was going to fit a door on top of the rear section but decided otherwise.

I decided to cut a door, so as to keep a little detail namely the oval rear window. Here the door is a trifle too small.

On the front I’ve added armour to every inch of body, putting bars across the radiator to permit some limited cooling, an access hatch to the engine, a front screen with a drivers port with a drop down hatch, and a smaller one for the co-driver. I made the screen part seperately and added it when finished. There’s a nasty gap at the front corners, which I filled with miliput, allowed to partially dry before shaping a little, and then finished off when totally dry.

Now for a little bit of filling and filing around the inevitable gaps, I found an interesting piece in my scraps box which I’ve used for a simple turret. Now I cut off the original headlights at the start but they look absolutely lost on such a vehicle now, so I’ve utilised adhesive wobbly eyes for the headlamps, but the other way around. They’d work either way, but I thought this suited the period better. These can typically be found in craft shops or haberdashers in small numbers for pennies. Also add rivets with blobs of superglue.

A coat of black paint and the beast is looking ready for action, if it can ever get anywhere in time of course. I did try matt black but it really didn’t help what with the lack of detail.

To the rear I added split doors, which also means you can look through the model and out the front with childish glee. The turret is still lacking a gun and gunner until I can find some loose suitable weapon such as a Vickers Machine gun. The whole thing reminds me of the old Humber Pig, K9 without a head and a cubist Dougal from Magic Roundabout, a singularly charmless mix. However a speedy little conversion and one made much easier if you use precut plastic of a standard size for the bulk of the armour plate. Why not build one today?

Tags: 1938, 28mm, armour, armoured car, BUF, conversion, Days Gone By, how-to, interwar, Lledo, model, modelling, VBCW, vehicles, Very British Civil War, wargaming