I don't do military modelling but know someone who does, so when Airfix released their new Bedford QLT and QLD truck set, I generously thought I'd build him a pair. In the real world, as opposed to the one most modellers live in, armies use many more "soft-skin" vehicles and steel ones with guns pointing out of the front. Sadly, the later are more fun to build (apparently) and more exciting to look at if you spent your youth pointing sticks at your friends and shouting, "Bang! You're dead!"
Anyway, the upshot is that a military model needs trucks and lots of them.
The kits are very good indeed. You might think that there's no need for them as there are so many lovely diecast lorries around. This depends on the level of detail you would like. These are simply superb models. Designed for off-road work, they ride very high and from the ground you can see all the drive shafts, especially looking at the front. All are present and correct on these models. My favorite feature though are the tyres which have a flat and slight bulge at the bottom.
Painting is tricky. I should have carried this out as I worked but an unpainted photo means I can recover the kit cost with a quick magazine review. Spraying the green paint and then touching up with brown was fine but the black "Mickey Mouse" camouflage is trickier. A fresh pot of black would have been a good idea as mine is slightly thick making painting decent circles tricky.
Transfers took a little settling down with Micro Sol as very few sit on a flat surface. They are commendably thin and the solvent does it's job well. Finally a shot of Testors Dullcote protects them but annoyingly, intensifies the black. I should have used weathered black for this. I can't even hide it with dirt as the layout vehicles are pretty much freshly painted and I'm certainly not going to offer to weather them all!
Note: These models are 1:72nd scale rather than 1:76th for OO modellers. I don't care, it's a tiny difference and these are still good kits.
QLD and QLT truck pack from Airfix
3 comments:
As a lad in the sixties, I had several of the Dinky version of these Bedfords and loved them. This kit is very welcome and looks great, I shall be buying some! It would be nice if they brought out a Scammel heavy tractor, too :-)
Oh, a Scammel - I'd go for one of those!
These, like most of the Airfix kits are 1:76 scale. Airfix do a Scammel tank transported, easily converted with plastic card to the artillery tractor or recovery vehicle. I think I did mine from a little Airfix book entitled Modelling Military vVehicles, or it may have been one of the MAFVA booklets. (That's Model Armoured Fighting Vehicle Association to those of you who didn't progress from "bang you're dead")
Post a Comment