king derelict

Thank you OC. I really like this subject and the model is quite good. The 1/35 scale version just turned up and that does look very good. Alan

Thank you very much Ken I need to a better job with the lighting for the photographs. I realise that some of the pictures make it look like I have used a green and sand camouflage Alan

Back on topic today. Yesterday I was playing around to see if I could make convincing representation of the sand that gathers on surfaces not blown clear by travel. I made a mix of PVA glue and water which I painted onto the areas I thought sand would be found. Then I added a spoonful of the dust from sanding the ceramic bricks used in the Aedes Ars models which was sitting around. I tapped the surplus off and dusted off any remaining excess with a stiff paintbrush. I like the effect; its a bit more three dimensional than just using paint but I think its easy to get a bit too wild with it. The tarped load was placed properly in the load bed and then the wheels were added. I was excited to find all four touched the ground. I gave the whole model a coat of matte coat. The 1/8 inch square styrene rod arrived today and I started making the flimsies again. Hopefully these will be better than the first attempt. I like this model enough that I ordered the 1/35 scale version from Roden to see how that builds up. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Mark. The Sahara is a huge place too. The area around the mountain is a maze of gullies and canyons. I doubt they have ever been fully explored in detail. Stuff keeps turning up out there like the P40 found in 2012 in Egypt. That was sitting on rocky desert so not even buried. In ancient times the area around the mountain wasn't desert. The cave paintings show lions, giraffes and elephants so it was probably savannah like Botswana or Kenya maybe. The ancient Egyptians got ivory and gold from somewhere and a very old trade route is evident leading south towards the mountain. Curiously gold has been discovered (or rediscovered?) in the last ten years very close to the mountain. So maybe a city is buried there somewhere. Its an interesting environment. It fascinates me that you can pick up an expended AK47 cartridge sitting on the desert floor next to a piece of prehistoric pottery or a stone tool. Alan

I'm experimenting with some weathering ideas which I'll show tomorrow but today I wanted to share the thread that brings a lot of the less known desert operations together. The tale of a lost city and the explorations to find it. Rumours of a lost city in the desert south of the oases were documented by European travellers in the 17th century. Several nomads looking for lost camels talked of ruins and treasure. There was even a gold and ruby ring in the possession of King Idris of Egypt that supposedly was stolen from the lost city and had been examined by experts who put the workmanship as medieval European style. No trace of the ring has been noted in recent times. In its most enduring form the legend talks of a city with white walls deep in the desert. A pillar by the locked gates has a sculpture of a white bird which holds the key to the gates in its beak. The city was called Zerzura In the early 1930s a group of mostly British officers started exploring the desert using Ford Model A trucks. The leader of the group was Ralph Bagnold (who is a story in his own right - if you ever want to learn how to fill a life full). In 1930 the Zerzura Club was founded to attempt to find the lost city and the cars were supplemented by Robert Clayton in his Gypsy Moth aircraft. From the air three oasis were seen in the shadow of the mountain on the modern borders of Libya, Sudan and Egypt. These became the focus of the subsequent explorations. During these expeditions they learnt the techniques of desert driving and navigation, learnt to lower tyre pressure on soft sand and to use sand ladders. Bagnold developed an accurate sun compass and eventually all three oases were explored without finding any trace of the lost city. Bagnold at least never believed there was a city down there but it gave purpose to the expeditions into the desert. The exception to the British members of the Zerzura club was a Hungarian called Laslo Almasy and it was Laso who found the Cave of the Swimmers in Wadi Sura in the vicinity of the oases. He was of course the basis for the English Patient. The swimmers are still there along with a host of other human, animal and mystical creatures. That is if they are swimmers. There are many interpretations of the meaning of the figures; are they really swimming or drifting through the afterlife. When Italy entered World War Two in 1940 and the fighting moved to North Africa Bagnold created and led the Long Range Desert Group. He commanded many of his previous expedition team mates in their reconnaissance and raiding sorties using their experience and skills to travel deep in the desert. Laslo Almasy joined the German Luftwaffe and led a brilliant desert sortie from Libya right across Egypt to the Nile Valley, couriering two German spies travelling to Cairo. The traces of his expedition, like those of the LRDG are still to be found in the desert. The tarp in the previous post is from the Almasy raid; Operation Salaam. No sign of Zerzura has ever been found and it is thought that the oases have never been occupied by anyone other than nomadic pastoralists. But high on the mountain above the three oases we found a cave with this picture. Doesn't that look like a ruler with a crown and a subject kneeling in obeisance? I promise to be back with the Rolls tomorrow Alan

The PE really looks nice. Railings and ladders always make a great difference. You are getting it very tidy even under the cruel eye of the camera Alan

Spectacularly good as ever. Alan

Thank you Egilman for the kind comment and supporting information. Alan

Thanks Mark This is what I had in mind when I was working up the tarp. This one was used by the Germans but it was on a captured Ford truck so who knows who it originated from. The desert war saw a lot of "borrowing" by both sides. Of course the tarp is seventy years old but it was in the shade of a rock outcrop so probably not too heavily bleached out. Alan

Suddenly it feels like this build in nearly over. For weathering and wear and tear I feel that rust is unlikely in a desert setting in the initial years. It takes a long time to develop the rust patina in that dry atmosphere. The more likely damage comes from scraping through the scrubby acacia bushes that are found in some areas around Khufra. Those spines will penetrate a sandal sole with ease. But amazingly the camels will crew them off the tree along with the leaves So I think bare metal and dust is the appropriate finish I used the Vallejo metal paint. It is "Aluminium" but I'm not sure its distinguishable from steel in the amounts I am using. Its the first time I have used this paint and I like it a lot; good coverage but it is thin enough to spread a bit farther than intended unless carefully watched I painted some onto the wheel nuts and rims as frequent use of tyre irons to fix punctures would take the paint off. And punctures would be frequent (see above acacia trees) I added bare metal edges to the mudguards, panel rivets and forgot to take photos. I used the Vallejo paint for the edges of the spades and gun metal paint for the middle part. I'm not sure it really made a difference. A dilute coat of Tamiya Buff was air brushed onto the lower part of the vehicle to add dust. I'm fairly happy with the result but a lot of tiny work with the metal paint has been lost; the headlights I was very proud of just look dirty now. LInkages were added to the radiator doors, guns were installed and the spare wheels fitted I can't make up my mind whether I like the tarped load in the load bed. It looks better now that its dusty but ........... Its only dry fitted so I can pull it out. The kit instructions would have you stow the sand ladders slung under the running boards. To me that seems a bad place to put them. If you bog down in the soft stuff and the rear wheels dig in the car ends up settling down - on the sand ladders - meaning they then have to be dug out from under the car; no easy task I decided to stow them on top of the running boards and added some rope ties to hold them in place. So a bit of tidying up, add some gloss back to the weapons, maybe some bare metal back in a few areas. Then time to put the wheels on. Thank you for looking in and all the nice comments and interest. Alan

Thank you very much OC. It was a shame to dirty up the headlights to make them dusty. Alan

As soon as i put the headlights on I thought "There is a Rolls-Royce in there" Alan

Thank you for the nice comments Edward. This was a nice little kit and an interesting subject. Enough that I bought another with diorama intentions Alan

Thank you very much Edward. They were all a lot of fun. My thinking with these kits was to improve my painting skills which were horrible. The kits don't take too long to build so most of my time was spent painting and trying new ideas. They were also inexpensive if I made a real mess. I think my painting is slightly less horrible now and I really enjoy these little tanks so there is likely to be more. Alan

Today seems to have seen a bit of progress - the part of teh build where stuff is coming together instead of waiting for stuff to dry. The lights were added to the car. I am quite pleased with the result of painting the inside of the light with a bright metal paint and then filling them with the Kristal Klear fluid. The whole car was then sprayed with a gloss coat and when dry I added a thin black wash of oil paint to bring up the panel lines. Getting the dilution right is still a bit hit and miss but I think its getting better. I bought a cheap set of oils to try this and the black seems to be quite gritty and reluctant to dissolve smoothly so I will get a Rowney or Windsor tube now that I like the technique. I used a brown wash on the panel lines of the wooden parts and I like the result although its not very obvious The radiator doors were added. The kit has them closed but I would like them open so I thinned the edges and I will make a wire prop for the top edge. I painted the front of the hull matt black and hopefully the view past the doors will not allow much to be seen. The tyres and wheels were washed and the sand ladders were cleaned up. I put a layer of paint onto the tarp over the load and primed the flimsy row With a bit of shading on it the Scarff ring looks a lot better and I doubt if I could make a better one in wire I cut off the pin in the centre of the rear hubs (with the wheels sitting on teh edge of the rim it serves no purpose and drilled a hole into the hub. I plan to glue a metal pin into the wheel centre hole which will be long enough to fit into the hub and centre the wheel Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you Lou. I have all the Philip Marlowe books and they have been read many times. I always liked "down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero" Alan

Its starting to look really good OC. Fine work indeed. Sid really brings home how small but well detailed the paravanes and rafts are - and they are separate parts not moulded on Great Alan

A little more progress today. I added another layer of the Krystal Klear to the headlights and while that was drying I thought about the load for the rear deck. I think a line of four petrol cans and a tarped pile of gear. The wartime British petrol can for aircraft and vehicles was the square "flimsy" These were considered disposable and were also capable of leaking a significant part of the contents. On rough desert crossings such as the Khufra convoys cans were damaged and would lose half their contents. They were packed for transit in wooden crates with cardboard dividers. The discarded containers were used as route markers for the convoys and there are stacked cans filled with sand acting as pillars. They were also used as markers for the desert air strips. The arrow points to the landing strip of "8 Bells" which is just south of the Gilf Kebir The airstrip is identified with more cans although its difficult to read from ground level With the British army running on tea several of the cans can be found that were used as desert stoves. A side of the can was cut out and the can was filled with sand and petrol poured in and lit. If a kettle wasn't available a second can was cut in half and used to hold teh water These cans were found well away from the convoy route so are probably from a Long Range Desert Group brew up. I have read that the flimsies were painted green in Europe and Sand in the desert but all the ones I have seen have no sign of ever being painted. They just have the typical patina of desert rust on bare metal as seen above This photo of a soldier in the desert refuelling a Crusader tank shows a bare metal can too. I will use a dull metal paint for them The flimsies were four gallon containers 15 inches high and 9 x 9. That scales out at about 5 x3 x 3 mm. I planned to make a strip of four cans from two pieces of plastic strip glued together to give me the appropriate dimensions. I made a cardboard base to carry teh load thinking it would be easier to build and paint it up off the model and drop it in when completed. The load is a foam offcut glued to teh base and a square of toilet paper acts as a tarp. The toilet paper was glued down with diluted white glue and the plastic strip was scored and filed to represent the individual cans, The strip of cans is not as neat as I hoped but may look better when tidied up and painted. The detail of the top of the cans is too small to attempt I think. I have ordered some 1/8 square plastic rod to make individual cans if this doesn't work out. The load will be painted when the glue mix dries and rope added. I checked the forward vertical piece of the rear wheel arch and I didn't like the way it leans back and it was also too close to the rear wheel so i clipped 2 mm off the running board and I think it looks better. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you very much Popeye. Its a fun build so far I thought I had the running boards sorted out by pushing them further forward to match the photos of the real thing. Unfortunately they are still too long and had to be clipped a little. I think the rear wheels are going to need to be mounted on the end of the hubs rather than the rim sitting around the hub which is the way the front wheels will mount. I think I have some plastic tube that I can use inside the rim to make a better glued joint. Alan

It adds an extra dimension and is thought provoking Alan

Thanks Ken Hopefully I will stay interesting Alan

Thank you Lou. I enjoy delving into the more obscure parts of history rather than reiterating a summary of a well-trodden route. Hopefully this won't turn out to be a turkey 😄 Thank you also for introducing me to Travis McGee Alan

Mike I think the diorama potential with armoured vehicles is great. I have a couple of WW1 scenes that I want to attempt. My problem is that dioramas take up more space than the model placed in a case but I really like the challenges of making them along with the diverse techniques that are possible. Alan

Thanks Mark, I agree with you. This is one of the forgotten corners of the desert war. Alan

Thank you very much Roger. I realise I have done a poor job of relating exactly where the focus of this back story is located. It is the meeting point of Egypt to the North, Sudan to the South and Libya to the West. Its deep desert several days drive from any oasis in any direction and with very few sources of water. A massif called the Gilf Kebir lies just withing Egypt and a mountain called Jebel Uweinat lies just inside Sudan. The Kufra convoys travelled to the west of the Gilf. This is a long way south of the main drama of the desert war which was mainly fought close to the Mediterranean coast so there are no wrecked tanks or battle wreckage down there. The route of the convoys is marked by discarded petrol cans and food containers along with a few trucks but they tried to reuse anything they could so a lot of damaged vehicles were hauled back to Wadi Halfa on the empty returning trucks. Those left were gradually completely stripped Alan