The War Trophy by RGL - diorama with Fowler D6 steam tractor (DModels) and Krupp 21 cm Mörser (Takom) - PLASTIC

[RGL]

Whilst I wait for some stuff to finish some other projects, thought I’d do a diorama! 
 

set at the end of  WW1 where the Germans had to give up 5000 artillery pieces 

[RGL]

So first off is the tractor, a couple of hours cutting it off the frets and sanding. 

[wefalck]

I am a great fan of Fowler traction engines, because of their looks and perhaps also because of their German connection: a young German engineer in search for better opportunities than on the continent ended up with Fowler in the 1860s. He made some important inventions/improvements to their ploughing engines, reorganised the Egyptian cotton industry with the help of Fowler engines and eventually became their agent for the German states and Eastern Europe with a seat in Magdeburg. 

Some 35 years ago, I built a Fowler Z7-type ploughing engine from a 1:76 Keil-Kraft kit (which at that time were readily available in model shops) with a lot of 'scratch'-building, as I had just acquired a watchmakers' lathe. The actual engine was virtually absent from the kit and various other aspects of the kit had to be corrected:

Before painting showing the amount of detail added to the Keil-Kraft kit.

Finished and painted Fowler class Z7 ploughing engine in 1:76 scale.

 

I was lucky to live in the UK at the time, so I could visit various steam-fairs to take pictures of originals and there was also a local museum that owned a class BB ploughing engine.

 

I didn't know that there was an 1:35 scale kit of a class B6 traction engine. I always wanted to build a model of those. The kit looks good, but it is a pity that the whole engine-block has been cast in one piece. I would want to make the metal parts from real metal ... does the kit come also with wheels with rubber tyres? This is the configuration as agricultural engine. Not sure what the army would have used. The agricultural wheels would give more traction 'off-road', but are rather uncomfortable to ride on paved roads.

 

Incidentally, the German army experimented with traction engines as artillery tractors in the 1870/71 Franco-German War. I believe they were Fowler engines. There are not many accounts of their performance in the published literature - military writers of the time mostly were no techno-freaks and quite conservative. While their pulling capacity was judged favourably, the logistics of supplying them with fuel and water became too difficult as they moved away from railway lines. One should read up how the British did this during the Boer Wars, where armoured traction engines were used.

 

Looking forward to the progress in this building log  😃

[wefalck]

P.S. Where did you get the kit from? I could not find a source on the Internet ...

 

BTW, this is a comprehensive history of the John Fowler works:

 

LANE, M.R. (1980): The Story of the Steam Plough Works. Fowlers of Leeds.- 410 p., London (Northgate Publishing Co. Ltd.).

 

Edited March 24 by wefalck

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, wefalck said:

P.S. Where did you get the kit from? I could not find a source on the Internet ...

It's up on evilbay....

 

Fowler Tractor 1/35th scale

 

D Models, that's in their e-bay store.... Not a bad price for what your getting...

Edited March 24 by Egilman

[wefalck]

Thanks, in the meantime, when I did some searches on Fowler B6 it popped up there ... 100 € for a kit is quite a steep price actually (for me, as I am not used to buy kits, but only tools and books).

 

How long is the model by the way ? I didn't look up the measures of the original.

 

[RGL]

It’ll probably be about 20cm long when finished. It’s very nice, I ordered mine from the maker via facebook. I’ll paint a lot of it before I put it together due to its complexity. If that’s yours above it’s one of the few builds on the Internet! 

[Egilman]

48 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Thanks, in the meantime, when I did some searches on Fowler B6 it popped up there ... 100 € for a kit is quite a steep price actually (for me, as I am not used to buy kits, but only tools and books).

 

How long is the model by the way ? I didn't look up the measures of the original.

 

 

14 minutes ago, RGL said:

It’ll probably be about 20cm long when finished. It’s very nice, I ordered mine from the maker via facebook. I’ll paint a lot of it before I put it together due to its complexity. If that’s yours above it’s one of the few builds on the Internet! 

His web store is Scale Collectables.com... The owners name is Dan Silvestru... He's a great guy... A little over a year ago he offered to collaborate with me on the creation of models, I would create the STL files and he would create the masters for production... It looks like he still does that for designers....

[RGL]

Yes, that’s him, from Romania, he does great stuff but it’s damn expensive with our exchange rate 

[RGL]

So I’ve now made the fun up, nice piece really 

[RGL]

So today some paint. Base coat down weathering next 

[RGL]

Well that’s the build of this done, there will be a fair bit more weathering yet but I want to get the tractor together so the colours of the dirt dust and mud are the same 

Edited April 1 by RGL

[RGL]

Getting some paint in the Fowler 

[RGL]

Well that’s the base coat done. This goes together beautifully and tomorrow I’ll get a clear coat on before I start weathering 

[wefalck]

Already put together ... I had hoped for step-by-step assembly pictures ... 🥲

[RGL]

Most of the big bits aren’t glued, only glued the control levers today after painting them for ease of access. I can take images of the instructions if you want 

[wefalck]

I am still pondering the kit. I wouldn't build in WD-finish, but rather as a normal road-locomotive. The WD specifications (for good reasons) seems to have included unusual combinations of features, such a dished fly-wheel (as for road-locomotives, to not frighten horses on the roads) and wheels as for agricultural engines. 

[RGL]

I’ve send you images of the instructions 

[RGL]

So black and then brown chipping, and a brown wash 

Edited April 2 by RGL

[RGL]

So this is where we’re at; tractor taking Morser 

[RGL]

This actually comes with a roof which I won’t use 

[RGL]

So the concept is to have 2 soldiers collecting trophy’s oblivious of the refugees 

[Old Collingwood]

Those  figures look    nice  - they  will  paint up nice  Greg.

 

OC.

Edited April 2 by Old Collingwood

[RGL]

I’ve made a start on hand painting the figures. Being civilians I wanted to mix up some colours. One I get my base coat down I’ll give it a clear coat before weathering 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work Greg  -  those  should  weather  really  well.

 

OC.

[RGL]

I think that’s my civilians done for now. I’ll obviously have to change some dirt tones later when I place them in a base 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent painting - weathering  Greg  -  they  are not the   easiest  to get  right  -  you have done a  really good  job mate.

 

OC.