I got some work done today on the pig, seen here below in white in the photos;





I'll be sanding and filling in this section latr in the build
Next I'm moving onto the driver and passanger door areas..

I managed to get the Armour around the door done before I finished up. I added detailed to front driver window frames also.







I'm trying to confirm the exact location and size of the rear roof hatch door/s, in the photo below I've circled in red where I think it is. There may be another in tandom behind blocked from view by the back of the vehicle.
I'm basing the single or tandom hatch theory on some other photos of the Kremlin Pig (bottom) note the position of the rifles, the soldiers appear staggered in the hatches and not back to back.
..but if anyone can help or has any insight into the the Pigs used in Northern Ireland and can help I'd really appreciate it!
(photos below courtesy of HMVF Forum)






..note the width of the perspex glass area, not very wide??

Quick update:

Today I added the armoured roof, I also added the "drip-trays" over the rear crew firing hatches on both sides of the main hull and over the driver/Passanger doors.

I scratched the armoured plates that cover the standard driving compartment roof hatches.

Finally I added some detail to the rear area by adding the break/side lights and indicators along with the rear registration plate.





I decided to drop the plan for a rear roof hatch for this Pig, I had a bit of a wobble with this plan during the week and had to spend alot of time researching. Thankfully a couple of the guys over on www.hmvf.co.uk forum especially Clive Elliott spent alot of their time answering tough questions I had about the Flying Pigs, Without their help and expertise on this vehicle I would have made alot of errors by now, so big thanks to them!

..I've still got alot to do and later I'm going to be working on the front cylindrical ram-bars and hope to update the thread tommorow..

:-)--

HI roy,
thanks for getting back to me regarding the MOWAG, its a shame that no one has come up with a conversion kit for it, but its only a matter of time i geuss,

your Mowag is very good, and i hope you try another MOWAG project in the future,

and i must say your flying pig is coming along nicley, very good scratching work (you make it look easy )

great project, with a intresting history to go with it,


keep it up


shane

Thanks again Shane, scratching can actually be fun if your willing to take your time and get stuck into it. Its not really that hard either, just do plenty of research on what you want to scratch and have pictures at hand.
Measuring sizes of simple lines and parts in the picutres you have against the other parts you wish to scratch or convert gives you an easy way to learn the approximate sizes of what you want to build, then you can draw the scratch parts and they're dimensions on to paper or card. I probably make it sound complicated here but the more you scratch the easier it gets, just start of with something simple!
A sharp knife, ruler, pencil and some plastic card is all you need to get started!

..in regard to your comment about the coversion kit for the mowag I think any production would have to be a complete kit, either resin or plastic.
Although the Stryker series is based primarily on the Mowag Piranha III the "H" model is almost completely different in every aspect and dimension as opposed to the stryker APC's.
I learned this the hard way doing the conversion myself.

just like you I'm hoping for the kit to come on the market some day too, fingers crossed!!

Ok back to the pig guys

Jochen Vollerts Book; Humber 1600 Series (FV 1600 to FV 1624, including the Humber pig)
Arrived today in the post, it came highly recommend from my pal Pat Keenan over at warwheels and from Clive Elliot at HMVF, who turns out had a huge imput into the book when it was wriiten and was infact the Co-Author of this book

It wasnt very good, infact it was AMAZING!! This book is the bible for the Humber series and if your into the vehicle I recommend getting your paws on it! ..its out of print now and this copy cost me a few shillings but its just one of them books you need if you want an impreesive library of references!

Back to the model
well today I got some more work done on the front ram bars.
I built the frame and edges using thin plastic card.
For the cylindrical bars I found that J&J Cotton Bud sticks were the perfect dimension.
I simply measured them out and cut.
For almost everything else I was back to my trusty plastic cards!

I got some work done on the added armour in the mid section viewing ports and using some brass etch I had to spare I constructed the the frame arms from which the "wings" will hang ..I'm dabbling with the idea of making them manouverable..

Tommorow I'll be working to complete the doors, rear hatches and the armoured vision blocks at the front.

here's some pictures below of where the Pig is now, dont mind the plastic strips protruding from the ram bars, I'm not finished them yet and they're taking some time to complete.

Lookin' Good Roy. I'm glad you felt the Humber book by Mr. Vollert is worth the money you paid. I felt the same way!!

Anyway, I have a question for you; What are J&J Cotton Bud sticks? They look drink straws; although I don't think you drink your "pints" via one though...

Your a gas man Pat!! ..If my mates saw me drinking "pints" with a straw I'd have to find new mates, if you catch my drift..

Sorry Pat, I should of explained this better, they are "Johnson & Johnson" ear buds (J&J)




..I'm gonna try get some more of the Pig Done today and I'll try post the photos later

Hi guys, today i got some work done on the main driving compartment doors and hatches.
I did some more work on the reverse side of the rear doors too.





in more detail, the Main driver compartment doors on later model Pigs had additional armour added externally to combat the IRA's Armour Piercing Bullets and Heavy MG's.

I traced out the standard resin doors onto plastic card and using these drawings I cut out another set of doors, these were slightly larger in dimension than the original resin doors.
I sanded down the outside of the original resin doors (grey) and on top of that I glued the new Plastic card doors (white) which represent the armour upgrade.

The main door armoured hatches which hang outwards when open are closed up in action. The AA supplied hatches are for the Mk.I Pig and will be no use to the Mk.II as there are no vision blocks. So I scratched these new from plastic card.



I detailed these doors somewhat but I still have to touch them up before the airbrushing begins.

I had the upgrade MK.II armour for the roof hatches complete last night so today I attached the original round shape hatches inside of these. Later Mk.II hatches had foam on the isde to prevent injury to crew on roll overs. The additional "square" armour was added as a measure to protect crew from mostly petrol bombs and enemy snipers on higher advantages in built up areas. This was very frequent in areas such as Belfast or Derry (Londonderry).



As mentioned already I detailed some of the the working parts on the inside of the rear doors, Jochens book made this easy enough with the accurate photos. The parts are just detailed with some plastic bits and some spare brass rod which came with the original kit.

Apart from the doors and hatches I also added the long vertical flat armour panels midway down the main hull which later MK.II Flying Pigs had installed to prevent missiles such as rocks, paint and flamables etc being flung at Pigs where soldiers might be injured taking shelter in the vacinity between the armour wings and the main hull of the Pig itself.

Ahhhhhhh. That makes sense. Of course in the USA we don't call them "ear buds". We call them "cotton swabs"....

That's coming along really well Roy. Excellent work!

Puts my effort to shame. I am tempted to add a top hatch to mine. It's just the thought of cutting a rather large hole in such an expensive kit...

Just for a completely out of subject comment, in NZ we call the "Cotton Buds"

By the way, awesome build!!!!

Glad we cleared that up Pat

..Murdo you could always add a roof hatch in the closed position but still display the Macrolan Armour "up" as I did with my saxon, it would save you cutting the hull up, which would be a complete nightmare!

Although after having a sneaky look at your work on the kitmaker site I reckon this wouldn't be a problem to ya!

BTW I like your little piglet, what scale is she?? The Piglet is one of my next projects!

Thanks for the kudos Thomo!

..and for the record its "cotton buds" here too but I mentioned ear buds by mistake "as me mother used to say"

I got some work done yesterday afternoon but never got a chance to post the pics so here they are now,

I built both the flying wings, I still have to detail them and add the macrelon armoured glass but these are how they will basically look;



I measured them out using drawings from Jochen Vollerts book. Then I cut out some black fabric mesh (the type found i Tamiya kits), then I glued the mesh sections to the back of the wings panels.
Next I cut out thin strips of rigid plastic and built the main frame on top of the mesh and left everything to dry.

In the next photo you will see how they would look if attached to the hull and in the closed position, in the photo of my model below I've just displayed them closed using some sticky-tak (the white blob at the bottom of the wings in the photo)
when this model is complete the wings will be displayed in the open position unless I can figure out a way of construting sturdy working parts for the wing to be displayed open and closed.




photo courtesy of Clive Elliott



The design of this protective wing was the last variant in service with the "Flying Pig".
Early versions had a simple wire mesh design similiar to this photo below;


Later versions were improved somewhat with additonal mesh which could be lowered to ground level when the wing was deployed (protecting soldiers feet)


The final variant (my model) keft the wire mesh design and construction but on the outside a layer of fibreglass or sometimes sheet metal covered the wire mesh on the inside.
At eye level sliding windows made from Makrolon armour were added and a rubber skirt was added at street level.
This last variant added improved protection for troops from petrol-bombs and shrapnel but also allowed the soldier to use weapons to return fire throught the newly added slinding windows.


..nearly there guys, just got some deatiling to do but I reckon I might be finished by the end of the week

Yesterday evening I scratched the roof, wire mesh barricade. I used Aber Mesh PE which was just perfect, I cut out the mesh to scale and just built the frame and detail from thin plastic strips.



On the flying Pig this roof barricade acted as a barrier from flying debris being thrown over the vehciles, thus allowing soldiers at the rear of the vehicle an additional few meters of cover to move around without being injured.

after this I scratched the roof bar attachment where the mesh screen sits on



Below is what the roof mesh protector would look like in the lowered position, its not glued on here as I'll be displaying the screen in the deployed and upright position (as illustrated in red color in the second photo below), I'll have to add cable and a retainer along with springs etc (in blue color)





Lastly I managed to tidy up the front ram-bars, the plastic strips were not gluing very well to the cotton bud sticks originally. I should of washed these in detergent first a I remember reading somewhere these cotton buds are coated in some anti-bacterial agent during production and this i think (and I'm really just guessing) was what hindered the glue setting quicker and caused the delays in finishing this section quicker

I've just spent the last three hours detailing the rear of the Flying Pig.
I scratched the rear bumper and completed the upward-opening hatch at the rear of the vehicle.
I added some of the PE from the original AA set including the foot-steps and rear opening hatch retainer hooks.





Last night I decided to remove the front wheel-well fendors. Later Pigs (Mk.II) had a more plain armoured steel replacing the original design and the appearance of these fenders was more basic. The small hatches that existed on the front fendors for storage on the MK.I dont exist on N.Ireland Mk.II's.



To do this I simply cut off the desired resin section off that I had to replace and instead I used plastic card in its place. The front headlamp section is more simple and flat on the MK.II also, so I just cut the indicators and headlights from the resin mold using a sharp side cutter set and added them to the new plastic section.



Today I also added some PE detail to the Pig, including the rear radio mounts and the tie hooks dotted along the main hull.

I finished the detailing today. Here are the wing mirrors attached, PE from the original kit.



I also scratched new armour vision blocks for the front windows. The Mk.II Pig had an upgraded design with additional protection against small arms munitions, shrapnel and fire bombs. The picture below is of a privatly owned RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) Mk.II pig, you can clearly see the Mk.II armoured vision blocks here.





Last night I was working on the Flying Wings and managed to design them to be in the opened or closed position, I did this without sacrificing the look of the original design in photos I got from Jochens book.





The wings open and close just fine at the moment but I dont know what to do with the rubber ends at ground level yet. The matrial I used (Tamiya masking tape) could be prone to creasing and folding them up when the wings are retracted in the closed position might not be an option but I'll see how things go over the next day or two..





This afternoon I got stuck in with the filler and when everything dried I cleaned it up with fine grade sand paper

I'm in the middle of priming at the moment so when everything is complete I'll post the pics..

I'm not long after priming everything, I'll have to touch up a few areas that I could be more happy with.
I'll take a break tonight and have a few beers

Tommorow I'll be back for more airbrushing and I'll try complete the inside entirely.

Oooh! Praise indeed. Thanks Roy.

The Piglet was scratched from the Tamiya 1/35 Ambulance Rover so I had to chop, reposition and add lots of bits from Styrene and old takeaway tubs... TUAAMs, roof hatch, Makralon armoured sides etc. It was my first attempt at a scratch build so I'm quite happy with it.

The Jocks are the 1/32 Airfix polystyrene Modern British Infantry thingies and horrendous to work with. Nothing would stick to it! The plastic is too soft which is why the SLR barrels are bent and won't straighten.

I got to work today on detailing the inside,
I painted everything silver, when dry I gave the floor a run of Dark Wash from Mig.
The staining is from heavilly thinned Humbrol Matt Black.



The Bench color in the photos below ars showing up very bright and redish in color but this is a result of the flash on the camera and the real color is much more subdued and wood-like.



I painted it originally Nato brown, then gave the surfaces a few streaks with a very thin brush of yellow, red-brown and different mixes of these colors before airbrushing the bench with Tamiya clear orange.
The holes in the bench are where parts of the seat-belts go, more on this tommorow.



I airbrushed all the external body and features originally Matt Black and when dry I mixed an overall green color consisiting of (Tamiya) Olive Green, Olive Drab, Field Grey and RAF Green until I was happy with the the shade.
When the black had dried I gave the same surfaces a few coats of this green mix.

After posting the photos last night I attached the two Hull halves together.

Today I started detailing some of the exterior including lights, indicators and mirrors.
I added the mesh protection around these light fixtures and then added the doors and roof hatches, detailing these too before hand. I started work on the wheels too.

Here are some photos, take into account some photos were taken with flash and others without, hense the two very different appearances of the olive green shade in the pictures.

What a great piece of work! Interesting choice of vehicle, too.

Awesome kit. Your finish is excellent. Always liked the subject and you have done it justice

Thats because your mum used to keep sticking them in your ear!

Great Pig Roy....coming along very nicely

Cheers,
Sean