Egilman

Alan, without the history, what's the point? Although we can sometimes bury ourselves into research, and forget the model, understanding what is being represented is key to representing the model... Keep it going brother... Yep there are a lot more WWII references to the SDF than prewar... especially imagery... Looking great to me....

Don't call them that, take a look at the guy on the right in the foreground of the last pic, he's looking directly at you.... He knows exactly what your doing.... {chuckle} Great set of shots brother...

Yeah that's one way, but I know your not going to be able to or be satisfied just leaving it on a bare track... It needs to run in it's world.... The rest depends on it's age, date of manufacture and such... an HO scale engine of that size in DCC would command a hefty price tag so I would suspect it is just a simple HO engine from before the DCC era... In other words no sound... Still a great purchase... As far as reconfiguring it's scheme, the tender's shell should come off by just removing two screws through the frame underneath, (heck it may even be just snapped on) and at that point it's just like refinishing any plastic model... Which I know you can do... Oh yeah, to run it open is simple, you need a complete circuit of track, and a dc power controller is all.... on, faster, slower, off.. turn the knob the other direction for the same in reverse.... Fairly inexpensive... power comes thru one rail and the electrical circuit is completed thru the opposite rail... Configuration for more is a very DEEP, DEEP subject though... If it is DCC, it gets a lot more complicated and involved... Take the plunge down the rabbit hole, you won't regret it...

They generally didn't, except in winter with the slapped on whitewash in the field....

It's not easy finding photo references for the motor machine gun units in east Africa prewar... I hear ya, plenty of WWII references from the north african campaign like this one sporting that diagonals pattern... Lets not talk about the personalities in the pic... {chuckle} But then there is this one at Bardia 1940.. The Sudan Defence Force were local Sudanese recruited, equipped & led by british officers to defend the southern border from incursion by the Italians from Ethiopia... First pic is British manned cars in East Africa Not sure of the location.... The Camo is a random blotchy pattern, colors unknown but probably brown over green and they don't mount sand tires, standard early '30's road tires... Next pic is definitely Sudanese troops in south Sudan exact location unknown... What you can see in this pic are two RR 1920 pattern cars leading the column, what's interesting is the camo pattern on them both are tiger striped but the first car is a right to left pattern and the second car is a left to right pattern.... So there was no set pattern design, and note, they are fairly clean, not a lot of dust on them in a very dusty environment.... Rolls Royce has a long history in east Africa.... 1914 pattern cars during WWI.... I read that Lawrence of Arabia had his own personal RR Armored Car.... Very interesting subject.... lots of info, few pics....

My pleasure Alan... anything you have a question on I'll see what I can find....

Head..... Against...... Wall...... repeat..... Been there done that brother...

1st Mounted Machine Gun Battalion, Sudan Defense Force... I'm in as well..

It's a Roden kit, I think you will be impressed with it... other than that it's a pretty typical plastic kit, paint and glue and a bit of skill which you have in abundance.... It is of course the 1920 Pattern Rolls Royce Armoured Car, a development of the 1914 pattern car of the same name... They were used in Ireland & Iraq before WWII and in Egypt during the early part of the war... Many were shipped back to England after Dunkirk to provide some measure of local defense.... (the British army having left 99% of it's equipment behind) They would be overall British green with wide dark sand tiger stripes.... (probably better to paint the sand first then the green as thin stripes) In Home service they were British Army Green overall... Many of them survived well into the late '40's early '50's as they were a very robust platform...

And it would be 12:00 noon Seattle time.... I will work it out as best I can... I've also set it to record to my local computer so at least I won't miss it if I have to step away... If you want to record it Richard, I will host it for you on drop box available for download to any late comers... (just in case I don't get it all) Sure wouldn't want to lose this opportunity...

HO = 1/87 most common Model Railroading scale

127 Hanover St Meriden CT... Been in that shop many many times...

Each part has a story... A masterwork... I wish it could be in the gallery... it needs to be displayed somewhere.... Too good not to... I think this is the nicest scratch model built on this site in the last year...

In October we had two different rhodies bloom, yeah October! They usually bloom April -June, been the strangest darn weather I've seen in a long time...

Yeah if the cables aren't revealing of this, the bolt detail on the tower on the right front is... The box art is definitely the 1/35th version... She looks superbe brother... very well done....

Brother, you've been looking at the wrong software's..... Most 3D cad software has all this capability your looking for built in and then some... Try Free Cad or Tinker Cad... Rhino has an affordable subscription I've been told and we have a thread on how to do hulls in it beginning to explore the process in a bit... EG

Well here I am brother... I'm one of those that requested the help learning Rhino and accepted Richards gracious offer... I've also been spending time getting myself familiar with the basic Rhino interface in preparation.... It's not often you get the chance to learn from an expert so please keep to Rhino... any other software can easily be taken up in a different thread..... It's probably best to keep images to a minimum and pointed directly at questions you may have if needed, as Richard has already mentioned this thread is to ask questions and get help.... Please respect that request... It's your thread Richard, take it away... And thank you....

That's 1/72nd? WOW! the parts look like a 1/48th.... and nice they added the canopy masks.... Looks like a new standard to me.... I'm in...

Absolutely agree with the photo statement... and a suggestion for the tranny, take the tail shaft housing you cut off mount it to the tranny body vertically, then mount an "S" shaped wire as the shift level and put a knob on the end... On the left side of the bell housing mount a short tapered square rod for the clutch lever.... Voila instant 3-speed top loader!!! PERFECT!!!

Oh!! the glide switch is a stroke of brilliance!!! I totally forgot about those.... I like the engine setup, you can have a mechanic or helper putting chains on the other corners.. (they were usually chained four corners) and I really doubt they were reading the magazine.... Excellent choice... you should keep it somewhere in the scene. the mechanic working at the bench eases the sharpness of the light as well the shadows are a bonus... This just keeps getting better and better....

My pleasure Alan, My pleasure...

Nope, no Iron bands... one thing I would do is run a file down the corners though and make a few random chips in the perfectly flat surface... Also they would be dark like a freshly tarred railroad tie.... Not black but a very dark brown... An image of the ditching beam and how it was rigged to help in crossing a trench on a Mk IV.... (no iron bands) Another thing you could do for a Mk IV is a fascine, early ones were a big bundle of sticks... here is an image of the movement of Mk IV tanks into the buildup for Cambrai.... They have both the plain ditching beam and the Stick Fascine... The Fascine would be dropped into a trench before crossing and were non-recoverable.... It's the way they (the tanks) were issued... Later, they used the Timber Fascine... But, it's rare to see a timber fascine on a Mk IV tank though, they came into use shortly before the Mk V became the main heavy tank... (although they were used on Mk IV's) You can also see the banded ditching beams on these Mk V's not only were they double banded on the ends they were chamfered for their length on the corners and the tanks carried at least two and up to four of them.... As you can see later in the war they also had short timber bridge sections, (as they left the trenches behind) the timber fascine was used just like a ditching beam, chained to the tracks before they attempted to cross and recovered afterwards... the bridge sections would be left behind once the trench was crossed.... Of course in the last pic you can see the results of the first ideals of a "Tank Trap", ditches dug diagonally crossing the route of advance to high center the tank... A ditching beam doesn't work very well for a tank high centered like this... Ditching beams were mostly intended for exiting shell holes with steep sides that the tank couldn't get traction on..... In warfare technology advances very quickly....

Update to the above information... They were indeed Battleship guns.... 14-inch/50-caliber gun ... They were used on the New Mexico, Mississippi, Idaho, Tennessee, and California and served throughout WWII... They were planned to be installed on the North Carolina class battleships, but the abrogation of the Washington Naval Treaty allows them to put 16-inch/48 caliber guns on those Five of these guns served in WWI on the western front... Gun No. 119L2, a Mark 2 gun on a Mark 1 Railway Mount No. 148 is the gun at the naval museum, It actually served in France... There is also one at the US Army's Ordnance School at Ft Lee...

The US Army had them as well, The M2A2 & A3 Light Tanks, they originally had the Vickers suspension until it proved unsatisfactory... They were known as the Mae West Tank.... (For obvious reasons) {chuckle}

No they weren't, the Railroad guns were though, at least derived from them.... The Coast Artillery was a separate branch of the military kinda semi shared between the Navy and Army..... You could transfer to it from either branch, I believe it was disbanded in '46 or so... the US Railroad guns in France during WWI were though and were under the complete control of the Navy...... Yes they were still active for a time during WWII, I believe the last battery established was on one of the islands of Hawaii using the guns salvaged from the Arizona... it was deactivated in the late 40's as well....