28mm Morris CDSW conversion

[Steve-the-Duck]

So, after much surgery and two replacement arms, the driver is now in place

The strips on the bonnet are to hold the aseroscreens in place as I'm going for the early version, even though the full windscreen version was in service before Dunkirk

[Steve-the-Duck]

Also, the side and rear hatch details have been added, simple 10 thou placcycard and strip bits


Also now, the first of the top boxes have been added. Simple plasticard

They will have hatches added in due course
I've added some strip for the rear mudguard supports, invisible at these angles, before I add the Can racks at the back
Still have to work out where the rear view mirror attaches to this version
Next addition will be the two boxes, or trays, on the rear back top. The Lead Sled model shows what might be hatches in the back, between the two boxes I've already added. However, there seems no way of mounting onto the rear, without climbing up through the crew compartment. You'd think there's be some sort of ladder there

I will be putting on a tilt cover for the crew compartment, after everything is painted up, just as i did for the Light Dragon

[Steve-the-Duck]

Well, having worked on this solid (I'll get back to the Breda soonest!), the build is about finished. So here are the final stages


I realised the top boxes were too wide, so a quick slice with the razor saw, and there we go. I used the Airfix kit for the top hatch pattern, as no photo I've got of the real thing has this angle. I thought the two trays would be simple, but after they were completed, and filled (see below), I found a photo of the restoration that shows them with lower fronts. Oh well, all I could do with that was a little scrape and file


So, the trays were filled with some sized Warlord and Perry parts. Likewise the tools. If I'd known about the cut down on the trays, I wouldn't have had to resize the packs. Might need a bit of filler on them...
Also, the rumble seat has been added to the crew compartment

Next up, the can racks, built around some OLD white metal 25mm jerry cans. I've had them since the 'eighties, and were part of a 'modern' weapons and gear set.

Added the tilt frames from brass rod. Probably won't fit the connecting rods as they're really only there to build the tilt onto. The cab tilt I've got is going to need some re-shaping for the driver's head to fit. Also added the rifle racks, from more Warlord spares. I did find some extra 1/35 rolls for the crew compartment covers, but took them off again until after the tilt is fitted


Then the tow-bar, just out of strip pieces. Couldn't see all the hairs when I put it together, b ut that's not going to be a problem
And finally

A couple of steps for the crew access out of some old etch strip. I'm not sure they'll last, and they're a bit more bent that I'd like so they may get replaced with strip
Time to walk away for a day-or-so to let everything set, then on with the undercoat
BTW, you may notice a little strip shim on the front axle. This is to give the wheels a slight turn

[Steve-the-Duck]

Right, on with the primer we go. Just needed a couple of coats of Halfords Black, which, as you can see, is VERY matt

Did need to re-spray in a couple of places because, for some reason, the paint didn't like the glue residue. That's a rarity, I find

[Steve-the-Duck]

A good coat of rattle can dark green (Humbrol 163 here), mask the tyres and spray the wheel hubs
And so, on with the wheels. I did try drilling some holes in the wheel centres for pins, but then the sprue I used for the rear axle wouldn't take the drill. Hmm. Of course, NOT pinning gave me some freedom of movement while the slow cyano was drying

The book, BTW, is Les Freathy's British Military Trucks in WW2
I'm really rather pleased with how this has turned out. Next for the finishing painting, details, and markings

As can be seen from the Freathy book, the artillery tractor is quite different from this, the AA tow. I may do one of those some time, though it will need a suitable gun to attach. The 18/25 pdr I've got is slated to go with a Guy ANT (converted to an FAT from a GS truck). Need to find a 3" howitzer in 28mm, or something similar, but 3D print artillery is very thin on the ground

[Steve-the-Duck]

So, time to finish up my Bofors to sit with this. Spent more than an hour looking for the two missing crew figures, who SHOULD have been in the same box with the gun. But the search, in the very last box, also turned up my 28mm 2pdr I've been wanting.
As the part is missing, I'm going to have to scratchbuild the sights for the gun

But , just to put the two together

I need to get two more crew for the Bofors. I might actually put these together on a base like this. Probably call it 'On the Perimeter'

[Guest]

It’s so matt that all I can see in the photos is a black blob shaped like a CDSW

[Steve-the-Duck]

It’s so matt that all I can see in the photos is a black blob shaped like a CDSW :smiling3:

Fortunately, gravity is not affected on the event horizon of the CDSW!

[Steve-the-Duck]

Right, the colours are all blocked in. Next will be shading, marking, weathering. Oh, and the tilt cover

And I've just found an old Military Vehicle magazine in my stack with photos of another CDSW restoration, this time in BEF colours! Although, there's something odd about his AOS plates...
So, I decided to reverse what I do with tanks this time, and do a green base coat (effectively G5), then an Olive Drab disruptor(close enough to G3). Most of my trucks are G3/G5 while the tanks are G3/G4, or equivalents, I should say

[Steve-the-Duck]

While I'm on about colours, as I've said before I use the Starmer NW Europe books for kind of colour matching.
Well, there are BEF paints available NOW..!

So, here's a 'compare' set, covering 1938 to 1942

The Mk VI is pre-war Bronze Green (I use either IJN Green or Schwarzgrun), the Matilda is G3/G4 (some olive drab with a random dark green over!), the Covenanter is SCC1 over SCC2; well, a dark brown over a medium brown

And over in the truck park, the basic CS8 (G4 over G5), and an RAF Austin 'Tilly', which is actually RAF Dark Earth and Dark Green (because the wartime regulation was 'paint all airfield vehicles in available camouflage paints).
Anyone, from restorers, to modellers, to Airfix's old RAF vehicle sets, is PROBABLY incorrect in painting wartime RAF station vehicles blue-grey
Not that they don't look quite fetching like that.

Anyone else remember the fuss over Tamiya's blue RN 'Tilly'? No pleasing some people...

[Steve-the-Duck]

D'oh. Not an Austin 'Tilly' but a Standard
No-one noticed so I got away with it

Well, here we are, shaded, marked, weathered. and matt varnished
All that's left is the tilt cover over the back

[Steve-the-Duck]

Time to do the tilt
But I've just picked up the latest Military Vehicle Magazine, which has a restored CDSW recovery vehicle...

So, THAT is on the list now. After the Albion... And the biplanes... And the Mass Effect and Aloy figures...