Small Scale Military Headquarters

Here are some shots of a 1:16 scale Ford 3 Ton truck I have been working on. It started out as a civilian Ford from Die Cast Direct. I am still tinkering with the canvas for the cargo bed, so it isnt quite done yet. the camo net is temporary. Ford Motor Company of Germany(at least the factory) provided about 17% of the trucks used by the German Armed forces during WW2. This one is grey and marked for a cartograpghy unit of the 3rd Panzer Division.

SEE FURTHER DOWN ON THE THREAD FOR FINISHED SHOTS. Thanks

TJ

VERY nice work!

Very cool! The windshield wiper marks are a nice touch

Whoa baby! Great job.

Man, that looks nice! Great job!
I have been looking for a decent truck in 1:18, mainly for the Opel Blitz. I may have to consider the Ford too!

This is the closest I could get for now. Ford (in various forms) was only second to Opel in production numbers through out the war. Opel provided almost 37% of the trucks vs Ford`s 17%. The Opel Blitz would be an excellent truck for someone like 21st to do since it was the most common. I am sure we will see a GMC US 2 1/2 ton long before we see any German transport vehicles though.

TJ

Great job Krieglok. Now if we can get the die-cast guys to do a 1/18th scale Opel Blitz and a 2 1/2 ton GMC all will be right with the world.

Mark

Very nice. I bought one of these for my germans to use, but left it as is. Seeing yours, I may have to break out the spray cans. Thanks for sharing.

Very nice work, had been putting off getting one, but will have to get one soon! Thanks for posting the pics.

very cool nicely done.You should put some crosses on door or just behind cab on the box.

You know, I was very tempted to do that. When I took on this project, I bought a book about trucks of the German Wehrmacht. Out of the 400 + photos of German trucks, not one, I repeat, not a single one has the german cross marking applied. They simply didnt do it on a regulation basis. The only time I have seen shots of a german truck with crosses on it was a captured Brit truck being used by the Afrika Korps. The Germans also painted red crosses on trucks being used for ambulances. I agree that the cross on the truck would be a nice visual enhancement but I guess it it more of a "Hollywoodism" than a true marking for trucks. In my research, there wasnt any evidence to support applying such a marking, to my disappointment. While this model is not a perfect replica in regards to some details, I didnt want to be blatently wrong with something that obvious- I considered it though...

TJ

Man that thing is sweet! Great job!

Excellent job man ! ...It goes to show again,anything can be done through time and patience.You're absolutely correct about not adding the "Balkenkrueses",...unless you wanted it to go on "parade" or give it that "HollyWood" look...I'll have to look into the possibility of having a "supply" or "troop-truck" myself. You've just given people here another "idea" to consider in the future...Well done !

Thanks for all the compliments. Here is the finished product...Finally! I fabricated the tow rope from picture frame wire and the canvas bed top is cut up huck towling from WM. I hand stitched it and spray painted it. I didnt have any idea what color to paint it, so I went with a contrasting color to make the grey truck paint stand out a bit more. Thanks again for the kind words.

TJ

That is FANTASTIC work! Did you disassemble the pieces prior to painting, or paint the truck "in place"??

WELL DONE TJ.
Great photography too - my GF said "oh, it's a toy!"
Add 1:18 scale German truck to "Must have will likely never see list" of armor.

Amazing weathering and pictures! ( I feel so unskilled )
Hope you dont mind me asking for tips when I finally get around to trying it

Thanks again, guys. I removed the bed of the truck and the front tires(so I could paint in the wheel wells) before painting. I masked the windshield and stuffed the cab with tissue paper to mask off the interior. I tried to take the cab apart but it was rivited at a critical point. This would have allowed me to replace the windshield, which on the German manufactured trucks, was one piece.

Keeping with my lazy mood, I painted the truck with model master spray paint(panzer grey) and weathered it with a light mist of DAK tan and a hit of Floquil model railroad instant weather, another spray product. I did some minor touch up(wear marks) with silver and rust.

I would be glad to help out with questions you may have. Part of the trick with photography is putting together a base to put the model on. I used model railroad techniques to make the scenery. There are many good books on this subject and they can be pretty helpful too.

here is the link to see the civilian version:

http://www.motormint.com/index.asp?Page ... ProdID=856

TJ

Good info Krieglock. I didn't want to disassemble it and repaint, but if that's all it takes, its much more appealing. And some awesome photography. Makes a good model look even better.

The truck comes apart pretty easy. The bed is held by four screws. I forgot to mention that I dropped the rear axle (2 screws) off for the painting process. When it was weathered you couldnt really tell it was still black. I pulled the front tires right off and painted the rims with spray paint. You can mask off all the wheels and hand paint the rims too, without much trouble.

Just remember to shave off the fender top turn signals, mud flaps and remove the license plates. These trucks really varied as far as details. Some didnt have the Noteck lights, using sloted headlight covers instead. Everything else can be scrtach built with styrene stock. I did the Noteck light and bracket, jerry can rack(with a 21st Cent. Jerry can) and rooftop indicator triangle (used to denote a truck pulling a trailer when in the up position) all out of styrene stock. The bed was a little tricky as the reals ones had a certain pattern of boards. I had to fill in the slots of the stake sides to get the solid effect. It was pretty simple since the slots are already there to work with. I didnt worry about finishing the top boards since the canvas was going to cover it anyway. It isnt exact to prototype but I got the effect I wanted.

One last hint with the painting is to wipe down the painted surfaces of the truck with rubbing alcohol or similar solvent as there seemed to be some sort of wax or coating that would cause the paint to "orange peel" if not removed.

TJ

I have two of these 1/16 metal trucks from Highway 61. I think they are very detailed, and look great but on both of these trucks (one Ford and one Chevy) the front axle collapsed after a few months on display. I just took it to be too much weight from the metal front onto some plastic axle supports.

I bought them to use with our 1/18 pieces but the broken axles just took the wind out of my sails and I never converted them to military.

The Ford was purchased because that was my first 1/1 antique vehicle, mine was a '45 Ford 1 1/2 ton but the Ford truck was the same from '41 to '45 with the body only changing in '46.

One of our guys has used one of these 1/16 trucks as an airbase fire truck and he did a great job.

Besides the firetruck there is floating around a 1/16 truck done up as a Navy stake body truck. Hard to find but they are around.

KreigL did an outstanding job on his German truck.

TTT