1939 Chevrolet Radio Wagon completed

At last! I have completed something. To my great relief, I finally decided that this model was finished. It seems as if, sometimes, it's quite hard to know when a model is actually finished and I could have tinkered with this one for a while longer...But, I decided enough was enough.

Despite this being something of a ham-fisted conversion, I am rather fond of it. The weathering is rather heavy-handed too, but I figured that by 1944 a pre-war vehicle would have been showing definite signs of wear and tear.

Chevrolet Radio Van conversion - Part 4

Apologies for the creeping progress reports on this one, but I'm just doing half an hour or so on this at a time (get the feeling I could have probably got this one knocked off in a long day session - if only I could get a whole day to myself)!

Still, nice bit of progress on the van bodywork...

At this point, I could turn this van into a variety of auxiliary vehicles. It could be
an ambulance, or a light cargo vehicle or how about an ice-cream van? ;)

Now, onto the slightly tricky part - making the cab roof. This joins the van 'box' to the top of the windshield in a curving wedge. I won't fix any of the cab parts permanently though as I will need to finish off and paint the cab interior before I do that.

Yay! Finally starting to look like a van. I've started marking the doors ready for cutting out the windows. Once this is done I can get on with finishing the cab interior.

Being able to see through the windows means I have to give my model a basic interior. It's not very accurate or detailed, but it will do...

One thing I have realised after doing about a dozen truck now is that when it comes to adding a driver figure a 1/72 scale vehicle rarely has interior space enough to add a 1/72 scale figure. I'm not sure if this is something to do with the thickness of the plastic used to create the cabs but I inevitably have to use a 1/76 scale driver figure to fit into the space provided. (The better quality kits seem to get this right, the cheaper model seem to use thicker plastic.)

In any case, this 'cheat' isn't too noticeable through the windscreen.

Right, I can actually paint the interior now, before I close the cab up. Again I won't spend too much time on this as it will not be altogether distinct through the plastic windscreens. All I need is a rudimentary impression (obviously were I doing a display quality model I would be absolutely conscientious about all aspects of the painting, whether fully visible or otherwise)...

First note on Colour scheme: The basic scheme for most Finnish transport vehicles was a plain 'moss green' or faded version of said (which I have been interpreting by the use of Humrol's Light Olive Green). Finnish armour did use a three-colour camo pattern, but all other of their military vehicles seemed to use either an easy to apply green or in some cases an ad-hoc and hastily applied two-tone camo pattern.

There was apparently no guidelines for unit level application of camo on transport vehicles. Units (and even individuals in some cases) seemed to add their own 'camo' as they saw fit...

Source: SA-Kuva [Picture 167155]

This (above) anti-aircraft artillery repair van - it has a small workshop in the back - was photographed in 1944, which indicates that the practice of ad-hoc camo application persisted throughout the war.

I'd like to add this aspect of Finnish army transport into my collection so I'm going to have a go with my radio van. The only question is - what colours do I use?

Black civilian and commercial vehicles *seem* (this is my guess) to have gotten a quick pattern of moss green paint* over the top to create a two-tone scheme. This may be the case in the above photo. Those with more colourful liveries seem to have been given an all-over moss green coat (or were whitewashed in winter).

 Finnish Ford V8-51 - the earlier in the war the more slap-dash was the 'camo'
application (green over black possibly). Source: SA-Kuva 42567

Sadly, I have not been able to find one decent colour photo to back this theory up. While 'interesting' vehicles like tanks survive in museums trucks were most likely scrapped or returned to private ownership at the end of the war so few examples still exist.

*Note: Some enquiries over at the Axis History Forum have resulted in a suggestion that the light colour may have actually been a field grey!

In short, I may have to 'guess'!

First paintwork - Cab interior
OK, I realise I meander on, but I am thinking out loud so I can reassure myself of how to proceed. I'm going for the black with green camo scheme though this infers that the cab interior was probably its original black. Black seems a good shade to start with for an interior whatever the eventual top colour anyway...

Next I painted my wee driver figures (I happened to be working on a driver for another vehicle as well). I'm really fudging these figures, they will be partially hidden inside the cab and only visible - eventually - through a dirty plastic 'windscreen', so I'm taking some liberties...

Well...They will be only barely visible!

I know, not brilliant! The figure on the right is the one I will be using - he is part of a batch of cheap seated figures my brother sent me (I believe they were intended for use with model railways as passengers for the inside of coaches). It's not a great figure by any means, but it is a good size for fitting inside 1/72 trucks I have found.

(I wish someone would bring out a cheap set of generic 1/72 driver figures. The sets I have found are quite expensive and tend to be specifically for particular nations, with the appropriate hats/helmets.)

With the driver painted it was time to paint the cab interior. Again, I've kept it simple with just a basic coat followed by a wash for shading. I also painted the cab's rear wall which is a part of box body of the van...

Neary there. But there's one final element of making the cab that's a bit of a tricky so-and-so - making the windscreens.

This is not my favourite job as so much can go wrong. Each window has to be custom made to fit its equivalent window space and during the fitting it's easy to scratch the plastic if you aren't careful. Therefore, I will allot this process it's very own post.

(Note: I won't glue the driver figure in place until I have installed the windows.)

Chevrolet Radio Van conversion - Part 3

Having stripped the Valiant model (a LRDG Ford 15cwt truck) down to just the bonnet and chassis, I am now ready to build the bodywork back up again...

Rebuilding the windscreen worried me the most as I thought this might be tricky. Luckily I found a spare windscreen in my scraps box (one of the good things about getting time under your belt modelling is that the longer you do it the larger and more useful your scraps box becomes). I also found a nice set of wheel arches for the rear wheels.

The cab interior
Why go to the bother of making an interior? Well, I had the spare parts on hand and it didn't take five minutes to cobble together a simple bit of detail...

Now, because this interior will need painting (and a driver figure installed) I will leave off boxing it in and instead get on with the van framework instead (everything to the rear of the cab).

Van bodywork - forget the curves, let's have angles!
You might remember that it was my original intention to built a model of the 1937/39 Chevrolet

'Panel Van' - a lovely looking delivery van. This would have required a lot of delicate modelling to achieve the elegantly designed streamlined van bodywork inherent of this type, and I have to admit I don't think I'm up to doing the design the justice it deserves.

How can you not love this van?

However, I found a lovely photo of a 1939 Chevrolet with what looked like 'tacked on' and rather boxy van bodywork. Even though I cannot be sure of it's historic authenticity regarding Finnish use I just knew I had to have something like this in my collection. The ad hoc nature of its construction seemed perfectly in the spirit of the Finn's make do and mend philosophy.

(And being 'boxy' makes it so much more easy for me to make!)

Well, you get the idea. It's a pretty simple conversion - stripping down the resin parts aside (thank you Dremmel) - and although the initial phase seems a lot of work I find this sort of project very enjoyable as the end product is somewhat unique. Or rather I should say the product is very satisfying as I would never say that it's as good quality as an equivalent plastic kit.

(I mention this - the satisfaction derived - as a couple of people have pointed out on forums that this seemed a lot of work and that there wasn't much left of the donor vehicle. Yes, I guess I could have searched around to find a donor model closer to my finished idea thus negating all the tedious and messy Dremmeling, but I don't think the project would have been so interesting and enjoyable for me. That's just me!)

Next: The finished van bodywork and the cab fitting.

Chevrolet Radio Van conversion - Part 2

Now the messy work begins - drilling and sawing away at the Valiant resin model to strip in down to a state where I can build the panel van frame onto the basic chassis.

Warning! I have to mention that drilling, cutting or sanding resin models like this one creates a lot of dust. I strongly recommend you use some sort of dust mask as I am certain that the resin dust is not at all good for you if it is inhaled.

I carefully trimmed off the parts of the Valiant model I didn't want - including the base using my Dremmel and a cutting disc. Some of the hard to get to bits will have to be pared off using a thin chisel, sharp craft knife and file...

Unfortunately, I will also have to remove the driver figure. This is a bit annoying as I need a driver, of course, but this being a British version of the Chevy truck the driver (and steering wheel) are on the wrong side (right) and I am making a model of the American van.

The main part I have to trim down is the rear flatbed as this will be replaced by the van's box frame.

I know...Yet another project where I seem to have made a lot of work for myself! But I actually enjoy these projects as I end up with something unique in that I have put a lot of time into it. I get a lot of satisfaction out of it. But I understand if you think I'm a bit mad. :)

Having stripped down the Chevy's frame I now have to build it back up again. I shall start by smoothing everything off and tidying up any ragged edges, ready to install the new van frame.

I'm trying out a quick and dirty build using what we used to call lolly sticks when I was a kid. I'm reconstructing the van bodywork using the sticks as the framework. Once the skeleton of the body is built I'll 'skin' the frame with plasticard (styrene sheet).

I have a feeling that the trickiest part to make will be the windshield and cab. And I have to include a new set of seats and a driver as well. But the van body seems pretty straight forward...

Next: The van bodywork frame installed.

What next? Chevy radio van?

Despite the fact I really fancied getting back to good old plastic kit making - and I do have a couple of suitable kits for my Finnish Continuation War project - a little model I already had has been niggling me. I bought it as a possible basis for my 1939 Chevy truck project - but in the end did a semi-scratch build.

So, i've had this nice little truck laying around - it's a 1/72 Valiant 'Ready to Roll' resin model of a 1939 Chevrolet 30cwt LRDG truck...

As nice as this little truck is I don't really have any use for it now so I was wondering if I could use it in my Finnish project somehow. And as luck would have it I came across this photo on the SA-Kuva.fi (WW2 Finnish military history) photo resource...

Finnish Army photo, 1941. Source: SA-Kuva

The red arrow in the above photo points to a 1939 Chevrolet panel van. This is most likely - as was common Finnish Army practise at the time - a civilian vehicle pressed into military service. I did a bit of Googling and found out what this van looked like...

It's a very attractive light van and I don't think would be difficult to convert my LRDG truck into something like it. I will have to build up the 'panel van' back end onto the Chevy truck's rear chassis.

However, I also found an alternative version of the Chevy panel van which would be far easier to make a conversion of...

It's not as pretty as the factory made panel van but might be more appropriate for my intended use as a make-shift radio car for my Finns. (I actually quite like the improvised nature of the third-party conversion, though I won't be replicating the paint job!)

Historically, aside from the fact that Chevrolets - of various makes and sizes - were very popular pre-war imports into Finland, I can't be sure whether they were in fact used as radio cars by the Finns. The ad-hoc nature of Finland's impressing civilian vehicles into it's army means that perhaps no-one really knows for sure what strange and unusual models were press-ganged into use.

I have trawled through the SA-Kuva photo archive and radio cars hardly feature at all - perhaps one or two civilian sedans, but only one specialist vehicle (a German military van purchased by the Finns). So I am going to use some 'artistic licence'.

Next: Rebuilding the Chevy's cab and working out how to make the van back-end.

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Complete

Hooray! It's finished. It's a bit rough round the edges but I think that's probably normal for this sort of conversion (from a resin one-piece model).

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 9

Oooooo...Getting so close to finishing!

It's all about the minor jobs at this stage; touching up, checking for any mistakes, creating the headlamp 'glass', de-masking the windshields and then finally giving the model a last coat of matt varnish.

Next time you see this it should be the completion photographs. Hooray!

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 8

(The whole 'Quick' thing is taking on a rather ironic twist now!)

Onto the tilt canvas. It's not one of my favourite parts of the original Valiant resin model as it's a bit shabby and rough, but I did't fancy remaking it.

After masking off the rest of the truck, I started with a couple of light airbrushed base layers light olives...

It's been my habit to work into my model canvas tilts using conte crayons and powders for tarpaulin type effect, but this time I thought I'd try something different. I got out my Vallejo Game Color Washes and started laying down thin washes of greens and sepias to emphasise the folds in the canvas...

Once I got the shadow areas done I then started picking out the highlights with conte pencil...

And then I used a soft brush (or a eye makeup foam stick) to blend back the highlight into the shadow areas...

And finally I picked out some of the deeper folds in the material with a darker wash and some inks...

Finally I gave the cover a coat of Humbrol Matt Varnish. Job done and I think the washes turned out not too bad, especially at a distance.

That sorted it's onto the model's base. I've shown my technique for doing this a few times now so I won't go through this again...

Well, that's nearly it. I just have to do some touching up here and there and I want to add a bit more mud to the truck itself before I give the model a final coat of matt varnish.

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 7

(The idea that was a 'quick' project gets ever more laughable! Once again I apologise for how long it takes me to do things, work and real life have slashed my available free time.)

Anyhoo, remember my 'Quick 1939 Chevy Medium Truck' project? Probably not, so I will re-cap - It's another 'kit-bash' hybrid based on Valiant's very nice 1/72 Fordwerkes V3000 resin war-gaming model. In this case I mount a scratch-built Chevy bonnet and wheel arches onto the back-half of the V3000 cab to make a (hopefully) passable 1939 1.5 ton Chevrolet cargo truck.

I had to do a bit of 'cheating' and enlarge the bonnet slightly to get it to mate seamlessly with the V3000 cab, but it looks OK as long as you don't put it side-by-side with a proper 1/72 1.5 ton Chevy truck kit!

Weathering - working with oils
I'm getting my basic 'war game' style of weathering pretty much down pat now. I say 'war game' style because it's a little more exaggerated in it's use of effects than were I doing a display model. The idea is that it looks 'cool' at table-top distance so things like weathering and chipping are a little OTT.

I have developed what I call my 'leopard' technique for weathering with oils where I apply successive layers of coloured spots. I lay down a random spotty pattern of one colour, then I smear it with a wide brush dipped in thinners (but then wiped so it's only just a little wet) to create the streaking effect I'm after...

I usually start with white spots which, when smeared, will (hopefully) create a 'bleached' look on old paintwork. The Finnish army trucks by the end of the war were pretty worn and battered and originally bright paint schemes were faded and patchy.

In all I usually do three different colour schemes of spots, each progressively darker (depending on the truck's base colour). For green vehicles I usually like to end with a oily brown stain effect...

Between each layer of streaking I apply a light coat of Humbrol Satin Acrylic Varnish, this protects the work I have done before I add the next coat of oils (and, obviously, I begin the whole process with a coat of varnish to protect the model's base paint coat).

A dusting of varnish is applied again before I go onto the next stage, which is the pin-washing. I use AK Interactive - Enamel Wash: Dark Brown for Green Vehicles and I have found this works best with a gloss varnish base, just to help the enamel wash 'run' into and along all the panel lines detail.

This enamel wash is also great for adding additional grimy streaks on your vehicles. The AK range includes special washes for 'oil streaks', 'grime', 'fuel stains', 'light rust', but this is the one that I used the most.

As well as the top of the truck I do some weathering to the underside of the vehicle as I go along. Obviously, this being a war-gaming 'ready to roll' model there isn't so much detail, but I like to give what there is a little treatment as some of it is visible. I begin with some base colour, then weather that before adding some dust and mud effects...

Having finished the weathering of the underside I could finally fix the wheels
in place and cover over the holes I left for the axles. Underside done!

I don't spend too long on the underside as it's not meant to be on display. But having gotten that out the way I turn my attention to the fun bit of weathering (in my opinion) - chipping!

And then I end with some light rust effects and, finally, the addition of a layer of dust and mud. In this case I have decided on a light application of dust and mud.

The final treatment is a coat of satin and matt varnishes. I like to lightly mix the vanish coats as I think vehicles alway look nice with a little sheen to their paintwork - so I give a quick 'puff' of satin to the cab and matt varnish everywhere else. And that's that.

Next: Basing the vehicle.

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 6

I began the base paint coat but soon found I wasn't happy with the tilt canvas. In order to make this truck look a little different from the other versions of the Valiant model I have I decided I needed to modify the canvas folds, just to make each version look a little more individual.

Using Milliput putty to add extra folds was easy enough, but then I found I needed to blend the additional detail in by using Mr. Surfacer with a stippling texture.

Once dry I gave the tilt quick spray of the Humbrol Light Olive base colour and then slapped on a sepia wash...

So, all the upper body base colours are done now but I have to install the driver and finish off the underside details. This means I might have to put in the windows now while I can still access the cab interior through the hole I made in the bottom of the cab.

- I'm undecided which stage in the modelling is best to install windows in my trucks. I've tried leaving fitting the windshields until last, but on my YaG-6 model I fitted the windows quite early, but this time I'm putting them in during this mid-way stage. To be honest I think it might be different each time depending on the model. -

Anyway, once the windows are done I'll mask them out (just to be safe) and then start the pin-washing stage.

Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 4

Busy week - life get's in the way of hobbies! But I did manage to get a little bit done on my Chevy.

I made the resin Chevy bonnet for a PST 1/72 Ford 1943 truck kit which was a little narrower than the Valiant V3000 truck model. So I had to bulk out the new model with extra Milliput putty. This will need to be sanded smooth and then the details (like panel lines) added. But at least the bonnet fits now.

Next I made a very basic cab interior for the driver. Just a simple bench seat and floor...

Next: I'll work on the bonnet to make it a little more attractive than it is at the moment!