Ferret Mk. 2 armoured car

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Coming on nicely. As for the wheel I think you are right to leave the suspension alone as it ain't coming apart easily. Just a thought - when you mount the wheel/tyre can you somehow mount the wheel slightly low. Maybe slightly alter the back of the wheel so it fixes off centre :thinking:
Jim

[scottie3158]

Jakko,

Looking good I have always had a soft spot for this vehicle. I am surprised this has not been released in plastic.

[Guest]

Great start to your build Jakko, thought you might like to see this.

Those are nice photos for sure. Mine will be finished in different colours, but the second photo shows very well the tie-downs I need to add to the turret — just what I’ve been needing to go look for, so you solved that one for me :thumb2:

The last time I saw one of these was in Germany , upside down

I see mine upside down a lot too

Just a thought - when you mount the wheel/tyre can you somehow mount the wheel slightly low.

That thought had also crossed my mind, but I wasn’t sure. Now you’ve mentioned it as well, I think I will see if I can’t cut a bit of the inside of one wheel away to mount it lower.

I am surprised this has not been released in plastic.

You and me both. I’ve always liked the Ferret too, so when someone sold the kit I’m building now I jumped at the chance to get one relatively cheaply. Only thing is the time it takes me to begin building most of the kits I’ve bought …

[Guest]

The hull is now almost finished. The headlights needed slight correction, in that they’re mounted to far outboard on the kit. I cut away their mounts and filled the holes, then drilled new ones closer to the inboard edge of the front mudguards:

[ATTACH]313447[/ATTACH]

And they’re also mounted too high, it turned out … However, as can be seen in the photo above, I did have all six smoke discharger tubes after all, so I probably just missed one in the bag when I laid out the kit parts for the photo in the opening post of this thread.

There didn’t seem to be a mount for the spare wheel in the kit, but as it was carried vertically against a sloping hull side, there must have been one. I fashioned one from a length of plastic tube cut to match the angle of the hull side, then added a second piece that fit nicely inside the first to the spare wheel, so I can keep it separate for painting:

[ATTACH]313448[/ATTACH]

Here are two views of the almost completed hull:

[ATTACH]313450[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]313451[/ATTACH]

The interior is painted black, which is very effective as the photos show The driver’s hatch is in transparent resin, and though I originally wanted to glue it shut, it has so much detail on its inner face that I thought it would be a shame to do that.

As the model will represent a BATUS range safety vehicle, I had to make two panels that were carried on these, one on the spare wheel and one on the back of the hull. The ammo box on the engine deck also seems to have been very common on those Ferrets, and I just happened to have an old Verlinden one in one of my spares boxes, so I glued it to the engine deck.

I’ve left off most of the tools on the hull front because as many BATUS Ferrets seem to have gone without as carried them, though the long pipe-like thing (no idea what it is) appears to have usually been present, so I just glued a bit of plastic rod there.

What I need now are two fire extinguishers. The kit included only one and it would look better on a 1/25th scale model than on a 1/35th one, but all I can find in my spares box are Second World War types rather than the more elongated and slimmer post-war ones.

Finally, my fix for the right rear suspension. After mentioning the problem to my father, he suggested using a lathe with an independent-jaw chuck so the wheel could be put in offset, which allowed him to cut part of the wheel away on the upper side only:

[ATTACH]313449[/ATTACH]

The black marking is so we could tell which side of the wheel is to go on the ground (because it has a scar from the casting plug).

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
Now that is really looking the part. Great that the wheel situation is sorted. Older generation to the rescue.
Jim

[Guest]

Now all I need to do is also put the other three wheels into the lathe so they’ll actually fit over the hubs There’s a difference of about half a millimetre between the outer diameters of the hub (both the “back plate” and the narrower bit that faces out) and the inner diameters of the corresponding parts of the wheels. I attribute it to shrinkage in casting, probably made worse because of the different materials involved.

[Guest]

Almost there. I went back to my father’s lathe and increased the inside diameters of the remaining three wheels so they actually fit onto the hubs:

[ATTACH]313537[/ATTACH]

The one at bottom right has its outer hub glued in because I managed to break it when trying to get the wheel into the lathe so it wouldn’t wobble. Turns out the material of the actual wheel part is fairly thin, and pressing on the but from the outer side of the wheel stands a good chance of shearing it off. Luckily resin tends to break quite neatly so you can glue it back perfectly in place.

Then I completed the turret:

[ATTACH]313538[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]313539[/ATTACH]

The kit provides exactly six parts for the turret: the shell, the lower bit with turret ring, two hatches, the internal part of the periscope, and the machine gun. I left off that last one and put a few bits of plastic strip into the opening for it, because I noticed in photos that BATUS safety vehicles had a blanking plate there. I also filled in the two round ports in the rear sides, added lifting eyes to the lower front from 0.6 mm copper wire and tie-downs by glueing short lengths of 0.4 mm wire to the sides after marking out their locations (which I measured from a photograph). Finally, I added the hatch supports — the strange mushroom things at the front corners — from a 4.5 mm length of 0.5 mm plastic rod with a 1.25 mm punched-out disc of plastic card on top.

All that remains to do is add the upper hatch, but I left it off in the photo so the supports at the front are visible

One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that the turret opening in the hull is too small for the ring on the turret itself, by about 1.5 mm or so. I took a circle template, found the circle that the turret ring would just fit through, and used that to scribe a ring on the hull top around the existing opening, then cut and scraped it out with a knife until the turret fit.

And here’s the complete model, minus the fire extinguishers I still haven’t found (oh, and the hatch is still loose but just stayed in place for the photos):

[ATTACH]313540[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]313541[/ATTACH]

[Jim R]

Hi Jakko
That looks really good. Credit to your patience and skill. All the different colours/materials show just what a mixed bag this is.
Jim

[Guest]

That looks really good. Credit to your patience and skill.

Thanks, but I don’t think I’m overly skilled or patient

All the different colours/materials show just what a mixed bag this is.

The kit is more difficult to build than it seemed at first, I have to admit. If the suspension had been cast as single pieces rather than five parts each, and Sovereign had taken shrinkage into account better, it would be pretty suitable for people new to mixed-media kits. As it is, though, you probably don’t want to build this as your first foray into that kind of kit. OTOH, it’s not like you’re likely to find one easily so the risk of someone buying one and finding it too difficult is rather small anyway

[Neo]

Great work considering the basic kit!

[Guest]

Thanks . Now all I need to do is paint it some more … I’ve got some paint on it, but the rest will probably have to wait until I’ve got another model to spray as well, because I don’t like cleaning airbrushes

[rtfoe]

Gosh Jakko, so much work on this kit it just feels like a vacform on four wheels build. Turning out good and will be better with paint on.:thumb2:

Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

Nah, this wasn’t much work at all — no real corrections required, just a few added details and making sure the wheels fit (and the problems with one of them were my own fault anyway).

[JR]

Nah, this wasn’t much work at all — no real corrections required, just a few added details and making sure the wheels fit (and the problems with one of them were my own fault anyway).

Most impressive work mate, just had a catch up .Certainly looks the part, with some fine detail.
John
AKA Arthur Brown.:smiling3:

[Guest]

Now I’ve got people’s attention with this one, I may as well ask: anyone have recommendations for which model paint colour to use for British army green, ca. the 1980s?