Selous Scouts Unimog 2.5 column vehicle.

Selous Scouts Unimog 2.5 column vehicle.

To make this version of the Selous Scouts Unimog 2.5 column vehicle as used in the cross border external raids into Mozambique, I ordered a batch of early closed cab Unimog bodies with long chassis, from S & S Models.

The other version of the Unimog 2.5 was also ordered which had an open cab and open cargo tray.

I also ordered weapons fits (MAG, 50 Cal, 303 brownings, Gurunov 12,7 and AA weapon) which I then glued together to make various combinations as per the column vehicles seen in various photographs. These were ordered from RH Models.

Not many changes had to be made to these vehicles as they were used as is. One addition which you do not see here is the Barber plates which were placed beneath the cabs to protect against mine blast.

I trimmed back the lugs underneath the body work to make them fit into the chassis using clippers. Then I glued the cab and cargo tray into the chassis using epoxy resin. Wheels, spare wheel and weapons fits were fitted and glued into place using epoxy resin glue.

 

To complete the vehicles I spray painted overall with black or dark grey primer and then painted in pseudo Mozambique Army colours. Dark green created by mixing Humbrol 76 uniform green,  Humbrol 75 bronz green and humbrol 89 light blue. Dry brush Humbrol 62 for dirt and rust. Humbrol 28 to dry brush highlights.

 

Unimog 2.5 106mm RCL carrier.

Unimog 2.5 106mm RCL carrier.

To make this version of the Unimog 2.5 106mm RCL carrier I ordered a batch of early open cab Unimog bodies with long chassis, from S & S Models.

I trimmed back the lugs underneath the body work to make them fit into the chassis using clippers. Then I glued the cab and cargo tray into the chassis using epoxy resin.

 

The rear cargo tray was then trimmed using the clippers to cut back ever small pieces of the rear flap so as not break the sides.

 

Once this was done on the four vehicles I then glued into place the trail legs for the 106mm RCL making sure that the small wheel on the trail was facing forward as would be the case in the real vehicle.

 

In the real vehicle the weapon was rolled off or onto the rear of the vehicle by the crew pulling up the carrying handles and then trollying the weapon on to the vehicle up a ramp which had been extended from the back of the cargo tray.

 

The 106mm RCL weapon was the ground mount version ordered from RH Models.

 

The half windscreen for the vehicle was created by cutting and trimming the wind screen provided in half with the clippers. Glue into place at the end using blue tack to hold in place.

 

I then added the raised platform into which the weapon was positioned by using milliput. leave a centre track for the weapons wheel to go into. The expert modeller would use plastic card to make the platform.

 

I left the doors on the Unimog as I broke a couple of the cabs, trying to remove the doors as would have been the case in the real vehicle. Some did retain the doors.

 

To add final detail I added the central ramp, spare wheel, boxes under the cargo tray at the rear and deflection plates hanging off the rear of the vehicle I assume these were to assist the crew when putting weapon back on the vehicle. I also cut a simple barrel clamp to get the weapon to rest at the right angle.

 

To complete I spray painted overall with black or dark grey primer and then painted in Rhodesian Army colours. Dark green created by mixing Humbrol 76 uniform green,  Humbrol 75 bronz green and humbrol 89 light blue. The ochre colour was created by using Humbrol 83. Dry brush Humbrol 62 for dirt and rust. Humbrol 28 to dry brush highlights.

AFRICAN BOTTLE STORE

AFRICAN BOTTLE STORE.

Having seen what war gamers are producing in the way of buildings for their Rhodesian War Games I decided to build a few classic buildings that one would find in the rural areas of Rhodesia during the war. I only wish I had taken more photographs of the various places I visited with their advertising bill boards etc. Whenever I now see a photograph with buildings in the back ground, I now save them in a file for further use.

In this blog I hope to do a number of Rhodesian buildings which will be relevant to the war and thus make the war game battlefield more reminiscent of what it was.

I bought a number of sheets of foam board from a local craft shop and then decided on my design which I drew to scale on paper. Once this was completed I traced the designs on to the foam board and then cut the pieces out with a sharp craft knife.

I made a base plate of foam board and then dry  fitted all my walls.

Once all the pieces had been trimmed I then glued them all together.

To carry on concurrent activity, while building the model, I ordered corrugated iron roofing from a company called Model Textures (www.modeltextures.co.uk) and the product was by Redutex, who do various roofs, walls etc, for the modeller in various scales. The corrugated roof comes in a rusty colour which I left as is.  I have seen examples in Rhodesia were they painting the roofs in a brick red colour. Some were even a green colour and with the white wash of the walls of the building, makes for an interesting scene.

I cut the roofing and cut mounting board to size. The roofing has a peel off back so you can stick it to the mounting board for rigidity.

Once this was all done I then PVA glued all the parts together and then covered the exposed edges of the foam board with hand cut print paper using PVA glue. This made clean edges but by hand cutting the paper, gave you a rough effect.

I then made the veranda columns from match sticks, which was a bit tedious but I did not have anything else to hand. I bought the matches in a bag from my local model shop. luckily they had made up some smaller packs, and not the usually large packs of match sticks that you get. All the matches were glued together with PVA glue and then covered with paper.

For my windows I used thin clear plastic from left over Christmas  packaging. These were glued into place and then window frames glued into place. Would advise doing this while the walls are still flat but glue paper inside window apertures before gluing windows. I did it after the building was built, which is much more difficult.

Once all was glued in place I painting the whole building with white gesso and then painted on the name of the bottle store and advertising using acrylic paints. I added some weathering by adding a little ochre to the white and a dirty band round the bottom of the building where heavy rains would have splashed the walls.

Veranda floor was probably left in the concrete colour but floors in the building might be a brick red colour.

Once all complete place on the table.

Painting Rhodesian Army Figures

Painting Rhodesian Army Figures.

After much trial and error I came down to this set of colours to get the combat uniform as accurate as possible.

Camouflage shirt, trousers, combat jacket and combat cap.

Base colour:- Humbrol 83 plus a touch of Humbrol 103.

Green:- Humbrol 86.

Brown:- Humbrol 29.

Rolled sleeves Humbrol 83 and 103.

Webbing:- Humbrol 84.

Sleeping Bag:-  olive drab.

Masodja Skin colour:-Humbrol  29.

Rifle.

Rifle:- Base colour Humbrol 76 plus HM5 authentic humbrol, stripe pattern 83.

Rifle strap:- Humbrol 83 and Humbrol 103.

Cloth Badge.

The RAR cloth badge which was sewn on the front of the combat cap or floppy hat was green over black with a silver RAR shield badge in the centre. in later years when 2 RAR was formed 1RAR or 2RAR was sewn in silver beneath the RAR badge.

Cap cloth badge:- Humbrol 2 bottle green and humbrol 33 black.

Figure Base.

Figure Base:-  Humbrol 93 and Humbrol 103 high lights.