A helping hand for a worthy cause.

Andy reports on  a model build for a good cause.

A few weeks ago, I had a call from my brother-in-law, Dominic, asking for help with an IBG Models 1:35^th scale model of Bedford QLD truck.

First off, a bit of background: Dominic is a follower of Al Murray’s We Have Ways podcast, and regularly attends the We Have Ways Festivals. He is also a subscriber to the “Independent Company”, a Patreon group associated with the podcast, that was set up during the lockdowns to share live streams and other benefits.

Within the “Independent Company” are many modellers (of varying skill levels), who, at a previous festival, put on a display of 1:100^th 3D printed models representing the entire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (SRY) AFVs, rear echelon vehicles etc.

The SRY were chosen as James Holland, who hosts the podcast with Al Murray, had edited the SRY’s CO Stanley Christopherson’s diaries and then wrote Brothers In Arms which was about their NW Europe Campaign in World War 2.

Then someone, who we will call Al Murray, said “Wouldn’t it be great doing that Tank Regiment but BIGGER”.

So, a plan to do the same in 1:35^th scale was born, and as an added incentive, this would be organised as a Fundraising effort for a charity close to Al Murray’s heart, Finlay’s Touch.

Finley was Al’s nephew, he developed a rare form of Leukaemia at 6 years old and had 3 stem cell transplants in under a year. Despite amazing care, he could not be cured and passed away on the 6th December 2021 aged 8

Link to Finlay’s Touch : https://finleystouch.org.uk/

So, back to the model.

Dominic had made a start on the kit, but came to the conclusion that he didn’t have the skills to finish it to the required standard. I wasn’t sure I would either, as I haven’t made a kit like this for decades, but as it was for a good cause I said I would take it on.

When I received the kit I had a good read through the instructions, and looked at what Dominic had done so far. I decided that this was definitely a kit for people who like sticking small parts together, why else would the rear axle be made up of at least three separate parts when it could have been moulded as a single piece? I also decided that I could split the build into four separate modules which could be worked on separately and then assembled at the end.

1. 1. 1. 1. The engine / chassis
         2. The cab
         3. The fuel tank and spare tyre rack
         4. The rear truck body.

Dominic had also bought some extras, in the form of a set of Revell Weathering powders and a Tamiya Jerry can kit to serve as the truck’s cargo. This had 6 oil drums, 9 German Jerrycans and 9 US Jerrycans. If these were to be seen this meant that the truck body had to be built open rather than using the optional closed tilt piece, and Dominic asked for the tilt supports to be included. He had made a start on the engine / chassis, fuel tank rack and cab, but hadn’t started on the truck body.

So, where to start?

The part Dominic was having most trouble with was the cab, so I thought I’d start there. First off, I fixed the seat backs to the cab base, and added in the gear sticks, hand brakes etc. One of the problems Dominic had was that he had primed a lot of the parts whilst still on the sprue, this meant that the surfaces that had to be glued together had a coat of paint that prevented the glue from doing its job, so I had to scrape back this paint to expose bare plastic before assembling the parts.

I continued with the cab, adding the back of the cab and mudguards, and more parts to the engine and chassis.

I added the left side panel and front of the cab, these had to be in place before I could add the steering wheel. I also built the rear of the truck and the cargo. These went together relatively easily and I did a dry fit of the cargo into the truck to see how much of the load bed would be occupied. I worked out that I could get 12 of the 18 jerrycans across the width of the load bay.

I went back and did some more work on the cab and chassis, adding the exhaust pipes and leaf springs to the latter, and painting the wheels and the inside of the cab.

Regarding painting, Dominic had bought some enamel paints, and had painted some parts with them, however I hadn’t used enamels in years, and fortunately I had all but one of the Vallejo acrylic paints specified by the kit instructions so I decided to use those instead.

	Vallejo Model Colour	Vallejo Description
Black	70950	Black
Rust	70846	Mahogany Brown
Gunmetal	70863	Gunmetal Grey
Olive Drab	70889	Olive Brown
Light green	70942	Light Green

The only substitution I had to make was to use 70967 Olive Green instead of 70942 Light Green for the seats.

To make the painting of the cargo a little easier I glued the jerrycans into groups of 6 and 3 and temporarily glued these and the oil drums to some large lollipop sticks.

I then primed the cargo with Humbrol grey brush primer and the rear of the truck with Halfords grey spray primer, using masking tape to keep the area where the oil drums were to go bare. On the chassis I added the axles, engine and drive shafts and finished assembling the cab. I also painted the inside of the load bay.

I added the wheels and a few last pieces to the chassis, added the cargo and tilt frame to the rear of the truck (10 separate pieces!) and finished painting the model.

Now for the final assembly, well almost. I would eventually need to varnish the model, I usually use spray varnish on my wargames figures, but I wasn’t sure how that would affect the clear plastic windows on the cab, so I decided that I would keep the cab separate and use brush varnish for the cab

So, I fitted the truck body and the fuel tank / spare tyre rack to the chassis and added some black camouflage to the model. I also added all the fiddley bits to the cab, headlights and sidelights, grab handles, door handles etc. I had a problem with one of the later, it sprang off my tweezers when I was trying to fit it and I couldn’t find it. Fortunately, I came up with a replacement. The Jerrycan kit had four buckets, I cut down one of the bucket handles to the right size and used that as a replacement door handle!

The kit came with a set of transfers, but the organisers of the build had also commissioned some Sherwood Rangers specific tactical markings, these would be used to replace the tactical markings from the kit.

When applying transfers to models, I put a coat of gloss varnish over the areas where the transfers are to go, this gives the underlying paint a smooth surface for the transfer to adhere to and prevents the “silvery” finish you can sometimes see with transfers applied to matt paints.

Once the transfers were dry, I gave the cab a coat of matt brush varnish and the rest of the truck a coat of spray varnish. Once that was dry, I fixed the cab to the chassis.

I made a couple of the buckets from the Tamiya Jerrycan kit, putting one in the back of the truck and hanging the second off the towing hook.

Finally I used some Revell weathering paint (also supplied by Dominic) to add mud to the tyres, mudguards and the underside of the truck.

I had forgotten to add the rear-view mirrors before I took the photos above, another really fiddley bit, so these were the last thing to be added to the kit.

So, the kit was finished in time, and made its way to WeHaveWaysFestDrei over the weekend of 9^th & 10^th September to join all the other models that had been built, including  four models built by Al Murray: three Shermans including the SRY CO’s tank called Robin Hood and a Crusader AA tank..

You can just make out the one I built in the right rear.

After the event the models were auctioned / raffled off to raise more money for Finlay’s Touch, so far raising £5,755.

If you are able, please make a donation to this worthy cause.

Link to the Just Giving Page Simon Errington is fundraising for Finley’s Touch (justgiving.com)