1940 US K7 Truck Conversion - Part 4

Back to the Drawing Board!
When I was working as a Web Designer one of my personal rules became 'never use a new technique or tool first on a live job'. This was rule was born of long experience where I always found that 'new things' (however cool they sounded in theory) always tended to screw things up by adding unforeseen complications. Such - it turned out - was my attempt to jump straight into a ongoing project by adding 3D printing into the mix! 😣

My idea was to simply print out several individual parts that I wanted to use to 'retrograde' my ICM Zil-157 truck and just 'stick them on' to the existing parts. Uh-uh! That was a very short-sighted move as I has put little thought into how I would attach them and what knock-on effect they might have to the rest of the  existing kit assembly.

This picture above shows my move from printing small individual objects - and then sticking them together - to thinking about building a one-piece large component that makes it easier to joint other components to it.

This also means that I will have to do some simple modifications to the original kit as well...

In a nutshell - this is a 'look before you jump' situation. You can't just bang bits together and hope for the best, there has to be some sort of grand plan from the outset. Lesson learned.

The good news is that the initial 3D design work I did isn't wasted. I can simply put the individual object files together into one larger component...

So what started as a 'quick fix' of a job turned into something a little more complicated, but I guess that's pretty typical when you are trying to learn something new. Overall, I'm really enjoying the 3D printing thing, but I have so much to learn!

Still, the results - so far - are quite satisfactory and definitely a step up from my old scratch built efforts...

NEXT: Completing the cab and priming.

1940 US K7 Truck Conversion - Part 3

The K7 Mudguards...
The original American K7 truck had pretty beefy mudguards, but the Soviets soon got rid of those for something simpler (and cheaper to make). So, to turn my current kit back into it's precursor I'll have to make a set of these rounded mudguards to turn the Zil-157 back into the good old American K7!

But, how to do it? 😐

The American IH K7 - I like big mudguards and I cannot lie...

Creating an accurate and complex 3D model is a bit beyond my software skills (for now) so I had to take a sneakier tack. I spent some time trawling through the 3D model repository THINGYVERSE to see if I could find at least something similar looking (these big rounded mudguards were pretty common in the 1940s & 50s). Maybe there was another WW2 truck model I could filtch the mudguards from?

Well, and this is a funny story, it turns out there wasn't a suitable WW2 truck model BUT - for some strange reason - they did have a model of a 1950s Romanian Steagul Roșu SR-101...And you are not going to believe this (I didn't) but the SR-101 was a Romanian copy of the Soviet Zis-150 which was a copy of the US K7! 😂

The Romanian Steagul Roșu SR-101 - a copy of a copy of the K7!

Nothing I do is ever straight forward, but until I learn how to use a proper 3D modelling program - so I can create my own models - I'm going to have to settle for these half-assed shenanigans (making very simple models and 'borrowing' shapes/parts from Thingyverse). 

Anyway, I downloaded the 3D model files and opened the one relating to the cab component and happily there were those lovely big mudguards...

The messing around didn't end there though, after I did a quick test print I found that the model was not scaled accurately (typical). So, I had to do some measuring and some quick math and rescaled it so that the mudguards matched the size of my plastic kit's cab.

I printed the model out using the new black PLA I bought and set the quality to 'high' to make sure the rounded mudguards came out as smoothly as possible...

Not bad at all! 😊 Some of the cab was a bit messy (not my printer's fault, it was a crumby model) but fortunately the important bits were fit for purpose. It was now just a case of cutting the mudguards off the 3D model and doing a bit of a Dr. Frankenstein by transplanting them onto my Zil-157's cab.

Out comes my little multitool and a thin circular cutter...

First of all, I roughly cut out a chunk of the trucks bonnet including the mudguard. Then I carefully trim away the unwanted bits of the 3D print until I'm left with just the mudguard component itself.

Once I have a roughed piece I try a bit of preliminary fitting to get an idea how I will go about cleaning up a finished mudguard and how I will attach it to the bonnet...

Not too bad, and the size is spot on. But now I have to neaten this all up and permanently attach the grill and mudguards...Which is where I will leave things for now.

NEXT: (HOPEFULLY) A COMPLETED K7 CAB.

I'm Back! With a New Toy...

 It's fair to say that I lost my mojo for plastic model making. Because of my own OCD I tended to get a bit too obsessive about certain detail and often lost sight of the 'big picture'. This resulted is major 'burn out' and my subsequent near abandonment of this blog... 😥

However, a good example of this obsessiveness also happens to be the thing that is getting me to give military model making a second go! 😀

A long time ago (you know how it goes)... I got very obsessive about collecting a great many vehicles which were historically correct(-ish) for the Finnish 'Continuation War'. Most wargamers - because the game is the main thing - might compromise a bit on technical detail, I've seen a lot of Continuation War games played where the player 'makes do' with equipping the Finns with mainly German equipment with just a smattering of historically correct vehicles. A fair compromises as the Finns did actually use some German equipment.

A typical 'Flames of War' (15mm scale) compromise for a Continuation War
war-game scenarios is the heavy use of German vehicles mixed in with a
smattering of 'captured' Soviet trucks.

But me...Oh boy. No, I had to collect just about every historically correct make and manufacturer of vehicle that the Finns actually used. As usual I went over the top...

Anyway, cutting to the chase - one of my major obsessions was the International Harvester K7 which was bought from the Americans in 1941, just before Finland technically changed sides and became a nominal member of the Axis coalition with Germany.

The K7 was a big truck - at least compared to many of the trucks the Finns had at their disposal - and was used as a 'heavy mover' for their larger artillery pieces. My problem (in 2017) was that there was no 1/72 models of this truck available and I ended up concocting all sorts of convoluted strategies for making one...

My strategy (three years ago) to make a International Harvester K7 was to
convert a 1/72 kit that was available - the ICM Soviet Zil-157. The 157 was
a Soviet copy/modification of the K7 series which they had received from the US.

Above: The Soviet Zis-151. Here we can trace the development back from
the Zil-157 closer to it's American origins...

Above: The Zis-150, hardly distinguishable from the American K-7.

And finally - or rather firstly - we have the original American International
Harvester K-7. It was not actually used in large numbers in American military
use, they preferred famous Studebaker 2.5 ton truck. A few of these US K-7s
did see service with the RAF and, of course, were exported to the Finns.

In the end I discovered that the Soviet Zis-50 truck was a near exact copy of the K7s - which the Soviets received from the US as lend lease - BUT I didn't feel confident about scratch building the modifications needed to 'revert' this design to it's origins...

Now this is hugely ironic... Three years ago when I was still enthusiastically kit making
you could NOT buy a K7 or it's Zis-150 equivalent! Hence my plan to build and
convert a 'look-a-likey' Zis-157 (a later Soviet variant) into a fauz-K7! But now, as
you can see from the picture there IS a Zis-150! Du-uh!

BUT THAT HAS CHANGED...

And here's where I explain what has got me back. Good old Santa has generously supplied me with a lovely gift of a FLASHFORGE ADVENTURER 3 3D PRINTER!

Hopefully this bit of kit will allow me to make a lot of the parts which stopped me from finishing some of my conversions and will allow me to build some of the more complex models that I wanted but couldn't even conceive of scratch building (or didn't want to just make do by using a 20mm scale model and pretend it was 1/72)!

I soon got the printer up and running and have produced a few test prints (just to check it was calibrated correctly and to see what it could do)...

Though, aside from downloaded third-party models, I have already started learning to create my own 3D models in a piece of software called TINKERCAD. I started simple by making the missing wheels I needed for my K7 conversion...

The above simple model is just a test object where I want to test the ability of my printer to adequately produce quite small detailed objects. This ability is unknown to me as so far my 'small' printed models (see above) have not been that small!

And the results? 👉

Printed in 'high' quality mode (only took 11 minutes)! Unfortunately, it's
in that awful candy red PLA that comes with the printer to get you started...

To get the detail in this tiny model to show up I sprayed the wheel with some grey primer. Although I am impressed with the resolution on this 'high' quality there are still tiny 'steps' where the model has been rendered in layers - typical of 3D printing. You can buy an automotive filler/primer which helps smooth out minor indentations, I'll have to try this next. But, really, I am pleased...

I was shocked to see that it had even picked out the tire tread!

This was a very instructive exercise and has given me a lot of useful information which I can now carry forward onto the next stage. I think I can further simplify this design to help it print better and then, of course, I need to print out the full set of wheels. Then I can think about the other K7 parts I need to convert my Zil-157 model kit!

So, my journey begins...Again! 😁

Ford Trucks... 2nd (Re-)Starter Project

Yesterday I discussed what would be my first re-starter assignment - my Armourfast M4, which is mainly a painting job - and today I'm going to reacquaint myself with the other models I have chosen to get me going in the hobby again. These will be a pair of Hunor 1/72 resin 1939 V8 Ford trucks...

Now these models must have been the very last thing that I was working on before I stopped model making in 2018. I didn't even stop construction at a obvious place (unusual for me) and I seem to have has some sort of 'cunning plan' in mind...But goodness knows what that was!

I checked back on my blog - thank goodness for my blog - and it seems like these models turned out to be a bit of a challenge (I don't think I have had a resin model yet that hasn't been). You can check out 'the story so far' by following this link: Kitnoob's Finnish m39 Ford V8 Truck Saga.

But here's just one little pic which will give you an idea of how painful this build was...

😣

...But, of course, it's me we are talking about so I was obviously loving this! 😂

This appears to be the last photo I took, but it gives a bit of a false impression about how far along I was as this was just a dry fitting test. There were still several issues I still had to resolve before putting the major parts together...

The good thing about this particular job is that it will definitely dust the cobwebs off my construction skills. That's if I can find all my modelling tools, which are mostly still under some of the junk in my attic dumping ground!

On the wishlist... 1/72 ZIS-150 Truck

A truck that I would really like a model of for my 1/72 Finnish WW2 army war-gaming project would be an example of the American International Harvester K-7. This has been a kinda holy grail for me and it would nicely finish off my Finnish collection!

The original American International Harvester K-7 in the 'short' wheelbase
cargo configuration for military use.

Trouble is - nobody makes a IH K-7 in 1/72. This is probably due to the fact it was something of a rarity - there were many other US trucks that were made in greater numbers during the war - and also because it was mainly a civilian heavy mover, though it was used in modest numbers by the militaries of America, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union (lend-lease) and, of course, Finland.

The IH K-7 short wheel base model being used by the Finns.

Examples of the International Harvester K-7 (long wheel base) being used by
the Finnish Army as a heavy artillery prime mover.

So, how to model a truck that doesn't exist as a production kit? Well, there is scratch-building if I were a real masochist, but - more easily - there is also a little 'cheat' where I could convert a truck that is similar in appearance...Very similar.

In fact, the Soviet Union was so impressed with it's imported American K-7s that in 1947 they outright copied the design for themselves and called it the ZIS-150! And models of the ZIS-150 do exist...Bingo!

The Soviet made (copy) of the K-7, the ZIS-150.

As usual - with anything I set out to do - things aren't quite as simple as the initially seem to be. To begin with, the closest model I could find to the ZIS-150 in 1/72 was ICM's ZIL-157 which is a slightly later and modified truck developed from the ZIS-150. This would need some conversion to make it look like it's predecessor...

You can see the 'family resemblance' between the ZIL-157 and the earlier incarnations, the primary differences - from a modelling perspective - are the front grill (vertical instead of horizontal xxx), the fenders (the later truck had simplified 'flat' wheel arches) and the wheels (the Russians slapped on nice big chunky off-road friendly tyres). o, a fair amount of things to change if I want to make a 150 model truck.

Still, I have these models and they were a reasonable price! (They are pretty easy to source.)

On the other hand, there is a proper ZIS-150 kit that has come on to the market...

And again, there is a couple of flies in the ointment. For a start, this is the short wheel-base model and I want the long base version (for an artillery mover). Additionally, this is a short-run resin kit and I have had some very bad experiences with this form of kit (don't get me started) AND it is very expensive at 33 Euros (not including shipping)! Eeeek! 😲

So, what will I do. I could just stick to my original Plan A and scratch convert the ZIL-157 trucks - which I already have -  or I could take advantage of the Armada kit's correctly modelled grill, fenders and wheels, but then I would have to model a long wheel base! Swings and roundabouts.

There is a third way... I could buy one ZIS-150 and use it's parts to convert my ZIL-157 kits by making some mouldings from the Armada parts...

As usual - me being me - the slightly weird fudged 3rd way sorta appeals to me. After all, I can't do anything the easy way could I? 😂

Thursday, 23 March 2017 MW 1/72 GAZ AA Truck - Part 5

Right, I am now at the stage now where I have to think about both the truck's base and the accompanying base for its Flak 38 tow!

As a wargame model, this truck will be representing a unit in two modes; static (gun deployed) and mobile (gun being towed). So, there will be two different models of the Flak 38 and one of these will be made so that it looks like it is attached to the tow hook of this Gaz truck.

To begin with, though I start the truck's base in my usual manner...

I'm pretty settled on my use of Milliput putty for the road tracks now. The putty takes the imprint of tire tracks very well. It also allows you to impress the wheels of your model into the putty for a better and more realistic placement. The tread was made by rolling a 1/72 diecast model truck back and forth over the putty...

I used a diecast model that I have which has a nice tire tread pattern to make
the track patterns...

Next, I cut the second piece of plastic card to base the AA gun. You have to do a bit of measuring and working out of how big the base needs to be taking into consideration that the gun's tow bar will overhang the truck's base and attach to the truck's tow hook...

The idea is that when used in the 'mobile' (towing) configuration the two model bases will just be placed on the table immediately adjacent to each other (they aren't, however, connected in any way as I couldn't think of a way of doing that). So, when moving the models across the table you will have to move both parts in conjunction.

I suppose I could make a movement tray to put both parts in and then I can move them as one? Then, when the AA gun is deployed, I remove the mobile gun model off the table and replace it with the 'static' gun and its accompanying figures.

Anyway, on with the making of the base/s...

The two bases - now with their road tracks - should match and fit together as if one long section of road...

The next job is to and the rest of the ground terrain between and outside the road tracks. Now, obviously, I decided that all my Finnish models should be placed on a 'country road' base (my collection is based on the campaigns which took place between the summer of 1943 and late 1944 - part of the 'Continuation War' with the Soviets - which were conducted on the forested borderlands of Finland). And this look of rough earth and meadow will be created using coloured PollyFilla (quick drying plaster)...

I begin by mixing up my 'secret recipe'...Actually, it's quick-drying PollyFilla, fish tank gravel and a big blob of Vallejo's 'Black Lava'...

Mixed together the make a gooey, sticky, gritty substance that forms a lumpy uneven surface...It's a bit of a messy job, but someone has to do it!

The resultant sticky mass is quite hard to work with, but - ironically - that's the very reason I like it because the resultant effect is always very random and organic (it sort of takes the heat out of trying to design something so that it does not look designed).

You just trowel the stuff on and it sort of just finds it's own 'look'. (Conversely, by the way, Vallejo's 'Black Lava' is great for creating nice flat and smooth Tarmac roads for dioramas and they also do a 'Sand' version for doing desert bases, too.)

It takes a wee while to dry - a couple of hours - but dries pretty hard...But, whatever you do, try hard not to get this goop on anything you don't want it on!

Once dry, it's time to apply the primer coat. I simply use Wilko's own Satin Black acrylic spray, because it's cheap. It's OK for this sort of work, but probably a little too thick for priming models...

Time to start painting! I begin by applying a diluted coat (a thick wash really) of Vallejo's lovely 'Black Brown', and then I build up the shading of the 'earth' from there - dry-brushing dark to light, ending with a light dry-brushing of Vallejo's Stone Grey...

As you can see, I err on the dark side when laying down my ground colours. This is for two reasons, first of all, I want my 'earth' to be the black peaty type you find in northern coniferous forests, but, also, I want to get my 'grass' flocking on before I finalise my earth tones. I like an underlying dark base for my grass.

But, before I start to apply my flocking, I like to add some 'rocks' to my scene. These are just little chips of stones - I use fish tank grit and stones collected from the yard - which I glue on in random patterns across the ground-base...

With the stony ground done it's time to add some 'grass'. I still don't have a very sophisticated technique for applying scale model grass - I don't have one of those fancy electric static grass applicators. I just sprinkle on some basic 'flocking' material onto some PVA glue in patches.

Even my flocking is pretty 'no frills', as I go for a single colour material (mid-green) and prefer to discolour it myself with small amounts of diluted paint rather than buying 'multi-tonal' flocking...

Well, nearly there...The final stage - before mounting the vehicle model and gun tow - is to 'weather' and add the last detail touches to the scene. I think it still needs some patches of more earth tones on both the muddy track and the grassy ground.

In Conclusion
The one caveat to this design - with its very dark colouring - is that I'm pretty much locked into this style for the project I'm doing (my Finnish project). Having done my first few like this when I was less experienced I now have to follow through with this same style for continuity sake.

I have learned a lot since I started modelling again and reckon I could make a better job of colouring the muddy earth now, even adding some 'wet mud'. But as a simple base for my models, it's fine (it's not a diorama).