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Building the Resicast Universal Carrier Mk I

Painting and Weathering

A lot of the vehicle had been painted as the build progressed, at least with a base coat and some weathering on the internals.
I then started on a longish experiment on the camouflage scheme. I painted the basic vehicle with White Ensigns WW2 Light Stone and used their Blue/Black disruptive to hand paint a basic camouflage scheme. Then I went through a series of experiment to wear the whole scheme down. I came a bit unstuck at this point, not having used enamel paints for years I applied a filter not having let the paints dry properly and the result wasn’t too good. When it had dried I tried to fix it but still wasn’t happy. Also enamel builds up quite quickly and in some areas the paint was getting a bit too thick so I cleaned off a large amount, left it to dry for 12 hours and then started all over again.

I repainted a fainter outline for the camouflage scheme and used Mig Filters P402 Brown for Desert Yellow and P401 Ochre for Grey Sand to blend the whole scheme together with a worn look. I’m no expert here so for me it was trial and error. When I got the blend to what I felt reasonably realistic, I added a variety of Mig pigments to help finish it off. The final look isn’t exactly what I had hoped for, but it’s probably as close as I’ll get at this stage in my painting development.

Stowage

This came from the Resicast Universal Carrier Mk 1 stowage No 1 set which I previous reviewed here.

Mk 1 Carrier Stowage Set

Plus small additional items from the Tamiya kit, with SMLE Rifles from Ultracast and the Boys Anti Tank Rifle form the old Italeri set.

There are a lot of possibilities as to how you finish and kit out the vehicle. The Mk I carrier served in all the major theatres of war and you final choice of ‘stowage’ may well depend on the setting, so lots of opportunity for a bit of individualism with this one.

The only thing I didn’t like about the stowage set was part 14, the ‘water can in holder’ for the side of the vehicle. This comes as a cast part and doesn’t have the depth of 3D for some reason. My feelings are that the can holder would have been much better as a PE item, allowing the modeller to put the can in or leave it out as desired and just giving it that depth of reality needed.

Decals

Decals for this one came from a variety of sets; recognition markings form the Tamiya carrier set, 2 NZ Div sign from the Echelon set and the AOS from Archers. I chose to mark the vehicle as belonging to 14th (Motor) Battalion Sherwood Foresters, 9th Armoured Brigade, 2nd New Zealand Division in North Africa around October/November 1942. I had no specific reference for this vehicle so viewed a number of reference pictures and then decided on decal placement.

Paints Used

• Humbrol Matt 70
• White Ensigns WW2 Light Stone
• White Ensigns Blue Black Disruptive S.C.C No 14
• 70820 - Vallejo Off White
• XF 1 -Tamiya Flat Black
• XF-66 Tamiya Light Grey
• XF-56 Metallic Grey
• X-1- Gun Metal
• XF-61 Dark Green
• XF-59 Desert Yellow
• XF-49 Khaki
• XF-57 Buff
• XF-64 Red Brown
• Mig Filter P400 Grey for Dark Yellow
• Mig Filter P402 Brown for Desert Yellow
• Mig Dark Wash P220 (be careful with this one it is very strong)