Following on from my review of the Resicast Deep Wading Screens for the Universal carrier; http://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/3443

I decided to do a full build blog of both the carrier and the screens set.

There are some photos up on the Imperial War Museum website of carriers wearing the screens including one in Burma but I decide to base my model on this one:




Because firstly it has a Fifty Cal MG mounted and secondly I can use the resicast overloaded suspension parts and other bits and pieces from this carrier stowage set

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/3364

I won't go over the review again except to say that I pencilled the part identifications on after removing the pour plugs to avoid confusion during the build.


To avoid resin dust I dip my razor saw in water which makes the dust clump up on the blade and fall away in the water when dipped again.

As this Blog began as a review of the Resicast Screens set I didn't take any photos of the carrier build up to the point where I began to add the screens.

The Tamiya kit is ancient and said to be inaccurate. How inaccurate I don't know but when I asked Jordan Baker, who backdated the kit to an earlier version over on ML and happens to own a real one, for a snag list he said he wouldn't know where to begin. Inaccuracies aside it goes together like most Tamiya kits with no fit problems whatsoever.

The resicast instructions say to begin by fitting the rear panel first. Ideally this should be done before it's glued in place as mine was so I used my razor saw to cut the part away and attach the screen and brackets, but before adding any of the panels the rounded protection rail has to be removed from the top of all the kit walls.

I reattached it to the carrier and then primed the inside using a can of Citadel Skull white. I prefer to prime in white as i think it works as a kind of pre highlighting. I'll build up the interior with washes of British OD and I don't want the final colour to be too dark.



You can see how thick the kit walls are in the photo. Once the rear panel is attached I just worked my way around the kit adding one panel at a time.





The joins on the real carriers were sealed with bostik tape, to simulate this Resicast advise using foil, paper or milliput. I chose to use foil so I treated my dog to some fancy dogfood in a thick foil container and after washing it cut some strips off. I smoothed it out with a spoon but it retained some texture which looked okay to me. I used CA glue to attach it to the kit

Pat-- fascinating build. Looks good.
DJ

Al

I should say Al, that it was seeing your Universal Carrier builds here on Armorama that made me want to tackle the subject myself.

Another Bren Gun Carrier! Dan

Aren't they great



Pat, nice choice of subject, there are good possibilities with the one screen down. The .50 cal in this one will make it something different.

Are you doing the posing crew?

Al

I'm not going for the exact poses but yes I hope to have the same number of figures-oops! -just counted them, there are 14 so maybe not quite that many

14 - recorded in print too

It's a good little scene as it stands. Nice selection of uniforms, should look great. Any idea what the white thing on the '50 cal is?

Al

Fitting the rods and brackets turned out to be quite simple. I glued the brackets onto the brass rod, applied a spot of CA glue to the back of the brackets and then threaded the rod through the drilled brackets on the panel while holding the bracket away from the surface. When it was in the correct position I let it touch the panel.



I worked my way around the model but I didn't fit any of the front brackets yet as I'm modelling the carrier with the front screens removed. I know the brackets still need to be fitted but I'll figure that out later. I went on to fit the suspension. The IWM photo shows the carrier sitting back on its suspension so I used the resicast suspension pieces from the carrier stowage set

Formations .50 cal looks like it would fit the bill here. Dan

Hi Pat,

Nice work, it's coming along well.

Al