Joint RAF/USAAF Crash Recovery Diorama

[Army_Air_Force]

With my 'Flying Control' Dodge heading towards completion, I began thinking of a new build. After seeing the Lancaster recovery diorama, I fancied having a go at something similar. A force landed B-17 would have been my favourite choice, but at 1/72 scale, would require quite a big display base to get the aircraft and vehicles/de-riggin crews to fit on. I'm also a bit tight on funds having just spent £300 on five new Jeep tyres, so I decided I wanted to try and make this an economical build as much as possible.

When I photographed the Vulcan sitting on its tail on Saturday due to the weight of snow, I was actually going to the museum to buy the first couple of kits for the diorama. The Vulcan drama just added to the visit. So I left the museum with two RAF Recovery set kits, a few paints and some new brushes. Wanting a US aircraft in the diorama, but still unsure what, I came across a 3/4 built A-26 Invader kit in my workshop during a tidy up of a little used cupboard. This is a kit I started at least 8 years ago! So the A-26 is going to be the forced landing victim, in pieces and being loaded into the Queen Mary trailers.

I'm still after a Willys Jeep and probably a GMC CCKW352/3 which has brought the equipment and de-rigging crews, but I've found some USAAF Airfix figures that have been kicking around my bits box for 30+ years, so a few more pennies saved there! I've also gathered quite a few wartime photos of QM trailers and de-rigging crews/working platforms/engine hoists etc.

The two new kits

The bits in the box

and the A-26 part built kit, soon to be chopped up.

I've still got to work out a final layout for the diorama, so this project won't start with any great speed quite yet. I want the Dodge out of the way first, but I may start odd bits on this while I'm waiting for paint to dry on the Dodge.

[dpwatson]

Nice idea!

Are wilies jeeps hard to find now?

David

[Army_Air_Force]

Models or real ones?

[Army_Air_Force]

I was at the model shop today, buying materials for a customer project, and spotted this. Since it was on the required list for the diorama, I snapped it up. ( no Jeeps on the shelves though! ). Also bought some microstrip too.

The CCKW 353 is the long wheelbase GMC, and this one is supplied with the front winch. Winch equipped GMC's were less likely on airbases, so I'll probably loose the winch, build a standard front bumper, and replace the canvas top to the rear body with exposed wooden bows. The gun ring and 50 cal will go too. I'm also considering scratch building a No7 set crane for the back, like the one in the CCKW352 below.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

I've been over at a mates workshop today, using his spray booth for a 1/4 scale Sea Fury, but whil I was there, I raided his book shelf and came away with these five A-26 Invader books.

While I was browsing a Military Vehicle forum I'm on, I came across a thread on military trailers including several Queen Mary trailer shots, some with aircraft loaded. One caught my eye for some reason, its load being the centre wing, nacelles and part fuselage of a big twin. I took a closer look and realised it was an Invader centre section, so I now have a nice photo of how the centre wing/nacelles break down and how it was carried in a QM trailer! I've asked the poster whether I can repost the picture here.

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's the A-26 centre wing and nacalles on the QM trailer. Nice detail showing the plumbing in the nacelle.

[Army_Air_Force]

Last night while I was waiting for the Milliput to cure on the Flying Control Dodge, I made a start on the CCKW 353. Headlights were glued on. The holes in the radiator/light grill aren't really big enough to see through, so the clear plastic will just be painted over olive drab and silver for the front. If I'd waited until after the model was painted to glue them on, I know it would have ended a mess, and with them being only about 2mm diameter, they were fiddly to get in the correct place. I've learned not to use tweezers for parts like this as they usually ping out of the jaws and across the room!

The chassis was also cleaned up and has the front springs, axel and prop shafts added. The support banding on the fuel tank was way too big so this was sanded off and replaced with microstrip. A new angled fuel filler cap was also made to replace the vertical moulded example.

[Army_Air_Force]

More progress today. The rear axels, prop shafts and springs were fitted to the chassis, together with the rear bumperettes and pintle hook.

The cab came next, starting with the dash, trimming off the mirrors. The mirror arms will be remade from brass wire. The dash was glued onto the front body while the cab sides were attached to the floor.

[Army_Air_Force]

I figured the build would be over too quick if I did it more or less straight from the box, so decided to spend a little more time on the inside. The next step was to cut out the plastic behind the dashboard so that the scratch firewall could be fitted. This was cut from 0.5mm styrene, and is glued in at an angle requiring a slight taper. It was glued in over length and trimmed once dry.

The central pillar was then made from another small piece of styrene.

[Army_Air_Force]

The steering column now needed extending which was done with a couple of layers of thin styrene glued to the end. After they dried, they were trimmed down with a scalpel and sanded round with a diamond file.

Here the steering column is now fitted and also the accelerator pedal is made and glued in.

[Army_Air_Force]

The last pieces for the day are the brake and clutch pedals. They were made from thin styrene strips glued into 'T' pieces, and once dry, trimmed down and glued in. They can just be seen in the second picture.

[Army_Air_Force]

Yesterday I started work on the rear body. I decided I wanted the truck tail gate open, which wasn't an option in the kit, so it had to be cut from the section with the tail lights. The sides and front of the body were used straight from the kit.

[Army_Air_Force]

While those parts of the body were drying, I brush painted the cab internals as this would be impossible once the front and rear parts are joined. Some slight dry brushing of silver was done on the pedals to simulate wear and to pick them out on the dark footwell.

[Army_Air_Force]

Last thing yesterday was to start the crane, which was cut from a sheet of 0.5mm styrene.

All of tonight has been taken up with making the rest of the crane support structure. First off was to add some thin styrene strips ( I think 0.25mm ) top and bottom to the curved piece to make the 'I' beam section. This was followed by the rear curved supports, which also had strips added to create their 'I' section. They were glued together into the basic crane shape and left to set a while.

Once the crane had hardened off a little while, the bottoms of the legs were trimmed flat and it was glued into the truck body.

[Army_Air_Force]

Last thing for the evening was the angled support for the rear of the crane. The horse shoe shaped piece was carved from some 3mm sheet styrene, while the round bar supports were whittled from square section microstrip as I didn't have any round section in stock.

[Army_Air_Force]

About three hours tonight was spent making the pulley and a spotlight. These first two shots show the pulley block glued to the jib. All the wheels were cut from sprue or styrene.

[HOLMES]

Hey Stephen,

I am looking forward to this thread with glee..looks like something I am gonna enjoy..

Go Buddy !!!

[Army_Air_Force]

Cheers!

One of the bench seats was cut down and fitted in the rear, and a 0.75mm square diagonal brace fitted to the rear end.

The spotlight was made from sprue and styrene. It still needs the cowl around the lamp to be trimmed once the glue is dry.

Finally, all the body parts are placed on the chassis to see what the truck will look like. I'm rather pleased, and it makes a nice change from a standard 'Jimmy'.

[GretarBill]

Great build on that truck

Gretar W. G.

[Cobrahistorian]

I've been researching the M27 bomb truck for about a month now with the hopes of building my Tamiya 48th scale CCKW as one. There's a great scanned copy of the manual here: http://news.webshots.com/album/561693669AwUfOc

I've printed all of it out and have started getting the necessary I beams, etc for it. Definitely going to follow this build with interest!

Edited January 22, 2010 by Cobrahistorian

[Army_Air_Force]

That's quite interesting. I haven't seen that type of crane before, similar to the #7 Set I'm building, but perhaps a larger lifting capacity?

[GreyGhost]

Nice work, Stephen ...

It's a joy to see your work ...

Gregg

[Army_Air_Force]

:wacko: Thanks

Not much progress tonight due to one thing or another cropping up, but did manage a couple of things. The back of the truck was given a first thin brushed coat of paint. I'll probably paint the crane itself a different shade of olive drab. My reasoning is that the truck was possibly modified to accept the #7 set after manufacture, and so the body and crane would be painted at different times. Whether the cranes were fitting in the USA prior to shipping, or in the UK I don't know. The slightly different shade will also make the crane stand out a little more.

I was wondering what to use for the cranes chain. I had nothing small enough to look right until my wife said I could have one of her silver necklaces, as she rarely wears silver. The chain is incredibly fine as shown by the following photo and I wonder how this stuff is made!

I also made what I'm guessing is a guide around the pulley to keep the chain from jumping off. This was from 0.5mm brass wire.

[Cobrahistorian]

Stephen,

The M27's crane setup was designed specifically to be able to hoist up to a 4,000lb bomb. Do you have any specs on the smaller crane? The pics you've posted are the only ones I've seen and I'm trying to figure out what was the most accurate bomb truck for 9th AF fighter groups on the continent.

Thanks!

Jon

[Army_Air_Force]

Not sure what was used, but this could also be a contender, the Ford Bomb Tractor.