“No, none of these will do,” rasps the grizzled gang leader as he limps down the final row of surplus vehicles with the shantytown salesmech. “Just look at these tauroxes and rhinos, even if we leave off the sponsons and turrets and strap all sorts of oddments to the outside, it will still scream converted military vehicle from the 41st millennium. Plus, how can I be expected to afford these prices?”
“Well, in that case, I can show you around the bargain lot out back where we keep junkers built to old STCs. They’re historic relics from Necromunda’s original colonization- genuine surplus from Holy Terra itself, a steal at any price. I guarantee it! How about a nice kubelwagen with under 500k miles or a sensible little M5 Stuart light tank for only-“
A sardonic laugh from the gang leader cut through the sales pitch. “Have you seen this base I’m glued onto? It’s a full 25mm, so are the bases for all my gangers too. Can you guarantee me that when I uncrate one of those old hulks and reassemble it that we can all fit in there? Also, all those cute little details will probably just snap off under hard use out in the wastes. No, I want something better! I want something like this!” He produces a set of plans with a dramatic flourish.
“Oh, no, no, no. You won’t find anything like that here boss; you’d have to go to Maddy ‘Mad’ McMadd’s Scratch Builds for something like that.”
So that is what the gang leader did.
I took inspiration and almost the entire outer look of the vehicle from the Dorchester Armoured Command Vehicle, a British WWII vehicle used in North Africa. I had never seen or heard of it before so it didn’t immediately make me think WWII the way a Hanomag halftrack or something like that would. To me it was a believable up-armored civilian truck with some appropriately low-tech loopholes cut through the sides for shooting out of. Models of this vehicle are available for sale, but if I built it from scratch instead, I was assured that it would fit models inside it just how I wanted. Also, it will be free of any extra fiddly little details that I probably will just break off when I am playing- I mean- no, not playing- arranging models narratively on the tabletop in a completely grown-up fashion!
I started by drawing out projections of the front, back, top and side of the vehicle on millimeter gridded paper, ensuring there would be headroom and room for the bases of all the models inside. Then I scaled the outer Dorchester shape to fit those needs. That gave me a size for the tires. I had wanted to try making a set of tires for a vehicle from scratch for a while and here was my chance.
The tires began with the plugs of wood leftover from 1 1/8” holesaw cuts through a ¾” maple board. Two of these were cut down the middle to narrow them and the center part was bored out to make a recessed lip around the hub. The result was four wooden tire “cores”. I then covered the sides with plasticard circles and disks, filled the center pilot hole with putty and redrilled it to fit the axle size. An ABS rod with the same sized hole and cosmetic lug nuts formed a hub. Inside the lip I smeared two-part epoxy to cover and seal the remaining exposed wood. Rings cut from copper pipe formed the outer rim of the lip. I then covered the exposed wood on the tires outer radius with 2 part epoxy and allowed that to cure.
The tires were sculpted over this in two layers using superglue to help the putty adhere to the epoxy coated wood and the platicard sides. The first layer was smooth, thin and covered the entire tire from the inboard rim to outboard rim. When this had set, a thicker layer went primarily around the tread of the tire and the tread pattern was smooshed in using my handy smooshing tool made from brass rod. Having two teeth on this tool helped me to keep the tread spacing even. Finally, I pressed rings into the second layer of putty on the sides for some added detail. The result was passable tires of the exact style I wanted and just about the right size and shape. After adding the putty, the tires were no longer perfectly round, but this was not all bad as it allowed me to later swap them around and rotate them on the axles to account for any twist in the chassis so that all four tires firmly contacted the ground on the finished model. Isn’t it great when two imperfections cancel each other out?
The chassis started out pretty simply. I used 1mm plasticard for the floor and wheel wells. To the floor I stuck and later glued down the edges of a section of self adhesive fiberglass mesh that came with a piece of aluminum mesh drywall patch that I bought for use on model vehicles. Mounted on the diagonal, this sort of gave the impression of diamond patterned plate steel. The inboard sections of the wheel wells extended down in the middle and were drilled out to fit the axles. I-beam pieces running the length of the chassis stiffened the floor as well as supporting and hiding the axle holders. Adding stacks of leaf springs below the axles provided further camouflage and support to the funny looking holders.
Next the fuel tanks were made from large diameter ABS rod that was halved, and the underside of the engine took shape, mostly from unused imperial guard sentinel heavy weapon options. The drive train, exhaust and steering linkage came next. It used styrene rod as well as copper and aluminum tubing that was handily sized to make telescoping drive shafts. I’m proud that my u-joints briefly went round and round until I superglued them solidly in place a moment later.
At this moment I was thoroughly tired of staring at the underside of the vehicle and was excited to move on to the bits that I actually was going to see most of the time! I decided to tackle the hood, with its tricky bits of intersecting trapezoidal armor panel.
I was pleasantly surprised to encounter fewer problems here than expected. Having drawn the front, top and side views full scale allowed measurement of a desired dimension from whichever view was perpendicular to that dimension. Being able to measure like this saved a lot of guesswork and trimming or the need for any stuffy old ‘rithmetic. However, I still made cardstock patterns first for some of these pieces to be sure. The armored ventilation louvers were cut from costly but useful lengths of 1:100 scale styrene stairway- bought from the hobby shop to use for vents and windows and things like that.
Stuffing some models aboard and driving around the dining room table, with a few obligatory engine noises was necessary at this point!
I then put together the driver using a catachan head, torso, and arm. The gloved hands were taken from the space marine scout arms that hold the heavy bolter. The legs were sculpted around an armature made from 1.5mm square styrene rod with some styrene boot soles added before the sculpting. The boots and legs are a bit crude, but I am quite happy with the pistol belt and holster.
