Alan McNeilly displays 2 Bedford QLD trucks from Italeri 6plr Portee chassis, with Accurate Armour Cabs in 1/35th scale.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Nice work Alan as always, the guy in the back finished the build of a treat in my opinion.

Nice work Alan.
The rear figures really set them off.

Great attention to detail, those tarps are excellent, as is the stowage...everything comes together very well. Thanks for sharing.

Hey Al,
As usual, you've done a marvelous job on British/Commonwealth vehicles !!!
Looking forward to your new QLR build !!!
Cheers

jjumbo

Always a pleasure to see your work Alan, especially with the softskins and British subjects.

Great trucks Alan,

I did a conversion on this chassis some years ago, as a GS truck converted from the portee. Some of these retained the portee cab, definitely made a strange looking truck!

Good to see that somebody is still doing softskins - since Roo left and I took a break I thought this place had become a no go area for Brit trucks!

Hi folks,

Firstly Darren, thanks for sorting out the pics and organising the feature - appreciated.

Dave, James, John, Darren (again lol) and Bill, thanks for the kind comments and taking the time to post.

Dave C - I'm chuffed these made it into a feature, 2 reasons; one was the work I put into them and the second was the lack of British Trucks in the features for reference.

Great looking truck you have there.

The lack of 1/35 kits is one of the reasons I started the Plea for More British Trucks. I would urge you all, if you haven't signed up already, to please do do so. Here's the link:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/128680&page=1

Given the wide variety of possibilities, it's a shame we don't have some more basic kits to work with.

Cheers guys and a Very Happy New Year to you all.

Al

hi alan
very nice photo feature maybe a small feature on how you make the tarps would be nice to see
neil....

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the comments. On the tarps a quick 'How To' feature.

They were made form Mens Klennex Tissue and PVA (White) Glue. The method is very simple. Just cut out the basic shap you want, a little bigger than necessary. Then lay it over the tilts so you can see where to fold it. Make the main folds, just as you would in real life. Then dip it into some watery PVA glue. Make sure the material is soaked through and then press in the main folds and then scrunch it up a bit and squeeze off the excess. Carefully unravel it (good Idea to remember how you folded it in the first palce) and lay it over the tilts. Shape it to fit as necessary and then let it start to dry a bit. Any excess can be cut of later. When it starts to harden and dry out a bit lift it off and paint the underside. Use watery paint and it will flow through the material naturally. When ready place it back on the tilt and paint the outside in a similar way. Use a blend of colours to get the effect you want.

The tissue will dry hard and naturally tighten up so if you want dips in the top canvas, let it dry a bit and then add some pennies or and empty paint pot to weight it down a bit. Keep an eye on it whilst it dries and if it looks to tight on top wet it again and add a little more weight. When you have it how you want it finish off the tarp with some mig pigmentas for a richer blend of colour and add some rope as necessary.

You may have to visit it several times to get the efffect you want, but the more you work the tissue the more cloth like it becomes. Remember each time you soak it you will have to weight down you dipr as it will want to tighten. When happy cut of any excess. As it cost little or nothing then trial and error is the best way to start, you will soon get the feel for how the tissue reacts and take it from there.

The first time I tried this was on the cover for my DUKW, it took a couple of attempts to get the idea working and not to tear the tiuuse but it is actually much easier then you might first think and best of all it costs little or nothing.



The original QLD (Special) had the tarp covering the whole tilt and I reached that stage about 18 months ago:



When I decided to add the load it was a simple matter of wetting the rear of the tarp and folding it up to what you see now. Above method applies, and where I ripped it in a few places I just added a patch of tissue and that fixed that.




Hope that helps.

Al

PS Have you Signed Up??? lol, lol

great QLD are the sctatch build, kits or converisons

it would be nice to see some more british vehicles

Fantastic, I love softskins and British vehicles. I see so many things on this site that I keep rethinking with what I want to get restarted in the hobby again, after moving to Italy... Thanks for sharing. Hope I'll be able to post something, too, soon enough. But in a part of the country without hobby shops it will be improvisation all the way.

Hi James,

Thanks and thanks for signing up to the More British Trucks thread.

They are conversions and scratch built mixed in.

Rob,

Thanks for the comments appreciated. Hope all goes well in Italy. I'm mainly only interested in British/Commonwealth stuff which is what got me back into the hobby. I appreciate the other genres but they don't hold the same interest for me.

Go with what you like, it's all fun - well almost

Happy New Year to you both.

Al

Very, very nice work Alan, first rate job.

Thanks for sharing your work with all of us.

cheers



Bob

Hi Bob,

Many thanks for you comments, much appreciated. Happy new Year to you and your kin.

Cheers

Al

Hi Guys,

With just over 2000 hits in 3 days I know a good few folks are interested in British Softskins, so my question is why haven't you all signed up for the 'More British Trucks Campaign'?

My Mum always said "if you don't ask you don't get"

Al

Alan why not submit a how too feature to the features team here at Armorama, I am sure it will be well recieved.

Hi Darren,

Nice thought but the build was too long ago and I doubt if I would have the pictures now that would make it make sense, so I'll take a rain check on that one thanks.

I do have 1 x 6pd portee left in the stash plus a set of the Resicast wheels and a cab, so when I get to the next one I'll write it up OK.. If I'm really lucky by the time I get to it some kind soul might have produced a 1/35 plastic version lol, lol - well; one can but dream.

Cheers

Al

Very nice cars Alan as always! I like WWII British softskins - some of them looks like as a fruit of a "who can draw the ugliest cab" competition, the Bedfords always seems to me as if they had just been punched on their nose. Oh and thank you for the short tarpaulin SBS.

Great trucks, nice work on the loads and tarps Alan. The figures bring elements of life and interaction to the models.

Well done cobber,

Chas

Alan, hi...

First of all, congrats for your two marvelous Bedfords...

Real nice job !!! I love softskins and, specially, the ugly/beautys british lorrys.

But my question is about the gas cylinders in the back of one of Bedfords:


Where you find references on the painting of cylinders?

I ´m not a rivet counter ( I hate this...), but I´m researching this matter for my new project...

See here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/thread/1231174568/Gas+cylinder+color+Q.+-+one+last+time!

Do you have any historical references or the painting of cylinders was a "poetic license"?

A strong hug and once again, congratulations!

Happy new year!!!

Panzerserra

Hi Laszlo,

Yes, they remind me of Bull Dogs with their squashed faces. Many thanks for you comments, glad you enjoyed the pics.

Hi Chas,

I'm not a great figure painter, but I do like to add figures to my vehicles as it does help bring them to life and also put the size into perspective. The tarps proved popular and I think the laod add a lot to the finished vehicles although at the time I couldn't afford them hence the long finishing period.

Marcos,

Always good to hear from you. Again comments appreciated. On the cylinders, I have a colour pic somewhere of US ones with orange tops. If I can find it I will dig it out and send it along.

Great build BTW - thanks for the link.

Cheers

Al

Ok, Alan...

Five by five !!!

In my project, I w´ll paint the cylinders in OD with white graffit demarcations...

Big hug and thanks for the answer...

all the best !!!

Panzerserra

Hi Marcos,

No luck in tracking down the pic yet, but it will turn up sometime.

Good luck with the build.

Al