My first attempt at scratchbuilding a vehicle.
Rural 1930’s Herefordshire might not boast the resources and industrial base necessary to churn out Croydon Crushers and Evelyn armoured vehicles, let alone Vickers Mediums and the like, but that doesn’t stop certain enterprising individuals from having a go!
Step forward one Max Mifflyn, aka ‘Miffed Max’.
Owner of a local garage, Mifflyn has taken a motor chassis and affixed some sheets of corrugated iron, plus a few other bits of scrap metal, to produce Hereford’s first home-made armoured vehicle, ‘Rattling Rosie’.
Fighting as part of the Hereford Municipal LDV, Rattling Rosie is armed with a light machine gun (salvaged after the battle of Ledbury, presented to the Mayor of Hereford and now taking pride of place in a rudimentary turret), while there is a gun port on each side, out of which pokes a shotgun, ready to see off any would-be petrol bombers.
Rattling Rosie is entirely scratch built. The core is a piece of packing foam in a rough van shape. This was painted with a B&Q tester pot to provide a firm gluing surface, on which to affix some corrugated cardboard. The turret is a cut off paint pot with cardboard wrapped around it and held for gluing with metallic sticky tape.
The LMG barrel is a ‘stick thing’ from a Warlord Games weapons sprue, while the shotguns are bits of wire bent in two. Other bits are miniature cut-offs and pieces of sprue. The wheels are a combination of plastic spacers and drawing pins. The window grille is made from the thread protector of a toilet float valve!
‘Miffed Max’ is a Copplestone miniature (with a Warlord Games plastic pistol after I accidently snipped the original one off).
Here are a few WIP shots:-
