Lanchester British AFV WWI Armored Car
MODEL PHOTO REVIEW
Difficulty Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Publisher: Fiddler's Green http://www.fiddlersgreen.net
Model Designer: Emil Enchev and Fiddler's Green
Model URL: http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Lanchester-ArmoredCar/Lanchester.php
Cost: TBA (US) for 2 color schemes
Lanchester 4x2 Armoured Car
Lanchester Armoured Car was a British armoured car produced during the First World War. It is not to be confused with an interwar period six-wheeled design. In 1914, the Lanchester was the second most numerous armoured car in service after the Rolls-Royce. It was originally designed to support air bases and retrieve downed pilots.
In 1915, the Lanchester underwent hull remodeling and was formed into armoured car squadrons. 36 Lanchesters were delivered to the Royal Naval Air Service. Three squadrons of 12 vehicles were formed and sent to France in May. One of these squadrons served with the Belgian Army. In addition, Belgium received 10-15 car on loan from RNAS.
The Russian Army received 20 vehicles in 1915. With the establishment of the mountain to coast trench system of the Western Front, armoured cars were of less use and the British Army taking over all armoured car use standardizes on the Rolls-Royce pattern. The Lanchesters were then sent to Russia in January 1916 with the RNAS expedition force. The expedition force was deployed in Caucasus, Romania and Galicia in support of the Russian forces there; detachments were sent as far as to Persia and Turkey and the Lanchesters clocked up many thousands of miles. In early 1918 the expedition force departed Russia via Murmansk. Most of the Russian Lanchesters were used by the White Russian forces in the Russian Civil War.
During most of its service life Lanchester was considered fast and reliable vehicle. Vehicles received by the Russian Army were fitted with a small cupola on the turret and with side shields for the machine gun.
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While making the morning rounds on the web, visiting various paper model site, I came across this soon to be released model at Fiddler's Green. It's no secret I'm a fan of their models. I was pleased to find this wheeled model being published on its own. It's a nice foray into another area of models that I hope FG expands on - maybe some other early wheeled vehicles - civilian as well as military - like their early flyers line.
Through the generosity of Chip and the gang at Fiddlers, he made the beta version of the Lanchester Armored Car available to me before it's release. A big "Thank You" to them for this opportunity.
OVERVIEW
The model is designed by Emil Enchev and Fiddler's Green. Including the instructions, 1 version is 6 pages. looking at the FG website and the pages in my BETA folder, it looks like the package will consist of 3 complete version - Tan, Camouflaged, and a Black and White version that an custom colored if anyone desires.
I was building the Tan version. The art is typical of the later FG models. Nice subtle shading and clean drawing. The tires on the wheels are nicely illustrated and I want to point that out.
I knew I wanted to do some basic detailing beyond the model pieces. Mainly with the wheels and some added details.
PRINTING
On my BETA copy I could not find (or see, more likely) a stated scale. I wanted to print at 1:16 scale, as this scale is becoming a general standard for me. Using the figures on the model sheets and some quick measuring, I was able to scale it up pretty close certainly close enough for me.
To scale up and gang up parts on as few sheets as possible, I imported each individual sheet into Adobe Illustrator. This is just my preferred software application, many others will work as well.
The scaling to achieve 1:16 was not a large change from what the original model is. If the re-scale would have been significant, I would have imported the sheets into Adobe Photoshop so I could do more work to minimize any artifacts produced during the re-scale.
The model was printed on Epson Photo quality Ink Jet Paper, 102g/m2 (27 lb) using an Epson Stylus 2200 ink
jet printer using UltraChrome inks. Because of the larger scale, I used this thin stack and spray mounted the majority of the pieces on standard poster board from an office supply store (Staples, in my case).
I use this paper frequently and do like it. It glues well and has a super smooth matte finish. This time however, I did seem to have an issue with scratching. The coating on the paper is almost clay-like and can be scratched off. It had a tendency to crack, leaving a lot of fold clean-up to be done.
CHASSIS
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I started with the chassis - not a rocket science decision. That said, I had to build this simple piece twice. Not because of the model parts, just because I completely blew the obvious logic. I really was so excited to start this model I just wasn't paying attention. There were two tabs at one end (they can just be seen at the far right of the second photo) that I didn't know what to do with so I just left them sticking out for the time being.
NOTE that I did not cut out the holes for the axles to pass through until AFTER I had shaped and glued the chassis. This was on purpose though in retrospect it can be done before or after and either way will work fine
HULL
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I know I took more pictures, just don't know where they went. The hull is a tricky build. Lots of folds and bends.
After making all the needed folds and bends, I started at the rear. Carefully curved the back of the chamber and joined them together.
Next I glued the top curved section. First I glued up the right hand side. After that was secure, I glued the left. Work slow so the shape is maintained. It's easy to lose it.
I then worked on gluing one side of the top front panels, then worked down the other side.
Next I glued up the bottom front end, leaving the bottom rear curve for last. Again, have to work slow or it can get sloppy and misaligned.
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Attaching the hull to the chassis is straightforward. The placement is clearly marked. Just make sure they two pieces are aligned. Mine is a little out of kilter though it did not create any big problems.
FENDERS/RUNNING BOARDS
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The fenders and running boards are one-piece construction. This makes for a lot of folding but works well, especially when attaching to the chassis.
There are two tricky parts. The first is how the rear deck folds. The inside edges, on each side, between the wood decking and the rectangles showing the placement for the separate boxes, needs to be folded "up" so the rear forms a shallow depression.This took me a few minutes to puzzle out while test fitting this piece.
The second spot is where the fenders fold down at the rear. There are the tow little tabs I left on the chassis in the first step, and there are also conflicting tabs on the rear of the fenders where they fold down also. I chose to cut the two tabs off the chassis and leave the fender tabs to attach with. Which is correct to use, I'm not sure. This could also be something that has been changed on the final release (I have a BETA copy).
DECK
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I decided to detail the rear deck by making it up of individual wood slats. This was easily accomplished by printing another copy of the deck, mounting of thicker illustration board, cutting the boards out, and gluing them down individually. I put a thin coat of sealer on them, then used a dark wash over it to settle into the cracks between the "boards".
PORT
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As usual, I decided I wanted to open the front port after I had already closed the bar door. As seen in the first photo, the port looks a little blank and simple - doesn't stand out. Using a fresh blade, I cut out the slits on the port, then cut open the port itself. You could easily see the white inside the body. I cut open the top where the cupola goes so I could paint the inside with black paint to create some contrast. In real life, the inside probably was painted white or some other light color, but at this smaller size, sometimes it's better to exaggerate things.
I cut out a second set of hinges and glued them over the flat printed ones for a little depth.
CUPOLA
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The cupola forms up easily, like most of this models pieces. I trimmed out the piece. I also trimmed off the bottom tabs as I would insert a thicker bottom piece from the inside. This would give a heavier, more firm base.
I also cut out the black rectangle where the gun was to be inserted. Here I wanted to recess the black piece a little to give more depth and a feeling that there was an "inside" to the cupola.
I rolled and formed the sides into a circle. I mounted the circular bottom piece to artist illustration board and trimmed out. I test fir it into the inside of the cupola. Sanded it just a little to fit and then glued in place. Round, firm, clean - perfect.
I many places on thee model, I cut out duplicate parts and added them on top of their printed counterparts to add depth. I think this small thing is the easiest trick that adds some much to a model feeling more "real". The edges create little shadows and highlights, and if you are going to weather a model with washes or powders, it gives places for the weathering to catch on to.
GUN PORT
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The gun port needed to be added now. I drew and cut out a new black insert. It was measured and fit so it sat back inside the opening slightly, then glued in place.
The gun barrel was rolled, glued and inserted into the opening and secured. I cut the barrel longer than the actual piece so there was plenty to slide in and glue on the inside.
CUPOLA TOP
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Next, I wanted to add a top piece to ad strength to the cupola. I cut off the tabs at the flat front and rear spots . I took a separate print of the top piece and glued it to a piece of artist illustration board. I trimmed out and glued in place. When secure, I attached the center of the final top piece, then secured first one side, then the other. I also added another layer to the top hatch.
WHEELS and TIRES
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The wheels were where I wanted to do most of the work. Just like adding layered details to other pieces of the car, I figured to do a layering effect on the wheels and tires.
I didn't want to go too far and create actual spoked wheels (also beyond my skills), but the layering worked well.
I printed a few copies of the wheels/tires to get enough to complete this modification.
The sets were mounted to board of varying thickness for whatever I needed.
What would be "tires" were mounted to artist illustration board.
What would be the "wheels" wee mounted to black Foam-Cor about .25" thick.
The "tires" were cut out (like doughnuts - picture 2) and 7 of them glued in place on top of the "wheels". The centers that were cut out of the "tires" were further cut down to get just the hubs.
The glued up "tires and wheels" were trimmed from the Fom-Cor board. Another set of "tire/wheel" paper prints were trimmed out and glued to the back of each of these.
When secure, a "tire" doughnut was glued over these. After drying overnight. the edges of the completed "tire/wheel" was sanded down to round them off (photo 4).
The treads were stretched vertically before they were printed. This was so when they were cut out, the edges would wrap around the sides of the tires slightly.
This worked pretty well. I should have stretched them further so there was more wrap, but I am happy with the results. I then painted over these with a rough gray/black craft paint.
Lastly, a hub was glued over the printed hub on each outside wheel.
AXLES
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The axles on he model are simple rolled tubes. The instruction recommends wood dowels. I used a combination of wooded skewers with paper rolled around for girth and strength.
This is a quick, easy and inexpensive solution. The insides of the wheels had a larger disk consisting of the hub and surrounding area glued to them. Can't see them well in these photos.
Look at the wheel in the left photo you can see the disk on the axle side of the wheel.
Before adding the wheels, they were "hand-drilled to accept the axle. Now, for me, hand drilled means I held the rill bit in my fingers and twirled it around.
DETAILS
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I used layering frequently to add detail to the model. The carry box on the right side was constructed from two prints and works well.
The model offer simplified headlight backs (cones) and the more realistic rounded backs - I went with the rounded backs.
I also added a wooden box/crate to the running boards on the left side of the car, a pail held in a loose rack on the right hand side and a length or rope tied around one of the rear deck boxes.
Since on of the early purposes of these armored cars was recovery of downed pilots, I added a rolled up litter to the right side also. This was made from lengths of skewer and a sheet of paper that I worked over to make it more pliable, then painted an dirty green.
There is a shovel supplied with the model. I mounted this to artist illustration board and then trimmed out. I tried to soften the edges as best I could. I thinned the blade of the shovel by shaving slowly using my XA cto with the famous (or infamous, depending on your experience) #11 blade.
The model has some basic weathering printed on it. I used additional painted on weathering. This was new for me as I usually use powdered pastels and chalks for weathering. I like the results an am going to try a combination of it on some future model.
CONCLUSIONS
What can I say, I love Fiddler's Green models. As with all their models, I'm sure this will be a great buy when released.
Since this model can be built without any compound curves, I think it's a great model for beginners yet it makes a great model that a builder can be proud of. As I've stated in other reviews, this FG model also lets modelers of varying experience detail it to their skill level.
This is a new direction for Fiddler's Green. They've release a few other wheeled vehicles, The Opel Blitz truck, Opel Blitz truck collection and the Panzer III tank (for the gigantic Gigant aircraft). I hope to see more of these vehicles. More armoured cars from the Great War, maybe some early horseless carriages or other armour. They've built a great reputation on their airplane models, hopefully the can do the same with these.
I just spent almost a year building a 1:16 KV-II tank. Hopefully I'll post that soon. I enjoyed the model and it's impressive in size and stance. But I have to say I haven't had this much fun paper modeling since my last FG model, their ME-163 Komet Rocket Plane.
When this is released I recommend purchasing it . Check out these closing photos, then click the link below and visit Fiddler's Green paper model store. The models are works of art themselves and the "Additional Info" pages are packed with interesting information.
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