Some excellent progress, George @gblair

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). Now comes the fun part-weathering.

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
I did some digging and found out how the turret was entered. I didn't know the answer to your question either, and I became curious too. It caught my attention because I am a former US Army tanker like your Dad was. I wanted to find out as well.

This is what I found out.

The original crew was 9 men. The vehicle was heavy, very underpowered with a 20 horsepower 4 cylinder engine, and it only had a top forward speed of 10-11 MPH. It could go 1.86 MPH in reverse. Wow, that's lightning fast right there ! 🙂
Even though it was slow and didn't do well off road because it was top heavy, (and also too heavy in general), it was very well liked by the men who operated them.

The turret was not capable of rotating a full 360 degrees like today's modern tanks do. Instead the traverse was limited to 260 degrees of rotation. Combat experience found out that one of the assistant MG gunners was not needed. So they reduced the total crew number down to 8 men from the original 9.

There were originally 5 men in the forward part of the armored car. They were the driver, commander, main MG gunner and two assistant gunners. The two assistant gunners not only loaded the MG's, but they could also operate the other MG as needed. Eventually the 5 crewmen here were reduced to 4, after combat experience revealed that one of the assistant gunners was not needed.

These forward compartment crew men were not able to reach the other 4 members of the crew that were located in the turret. They were sealed off by the armored plates.

The turret was manned by 4 other men. One man was the gunner, a loader, ammunition bearer and either of the last two could operate the MG in the turret as necessary. The fourth member was the driver, who was needed to operate the vehicle in reverse. They often retreated away from the enemy / target by simply having the rear driver take control of the vehicle and drive away in the opposite direction.

This was safer, because they didn't have to turn the car around in order to retreat when they had to. It was also faster to operate this way. In a matter of seconds they could be bugging out.

The turret had a butterfly hatch on the top. This is how the crew entered the turret. They usually didn't enter the turret once underway on a mission. Instead they climbed up on top of the turret and entered through the hatch before the mission began. They remained inside the turret during the mission, and exited only when they returned back from the mission, or in cases of emergencies like the vehicle became stuck, disabled, somehow damaged, or even caught fire.

Hope this helps answer your question. This is a fascinating armored truck. It was built on a truck chassis that originally was manufactured in the USA, then exported to other countries.

tank-afv.com/ww1/russia/Putilov-Garford

This is the website where I grabbed the screenshot. All credits belong to the person who owns / operates the webpage. I also found some information on Wikipedia.

Take care buddy.

Today was weathering day, which is my favorite part of most models. I spent the morning using various colors of artist's oils to add some panel variation, fading, and rust. I have never used dry pigments on a model, so I spent the afternoon doing a little experimentation. You can use pigments just like artist's pastel chalk and simply brush the powder onto the model and blend it in. If you don't like it, you can use water to remove it and start over. For this build, I wanted to try to use the pigments to create accumulated dirt and mud. I read somewhere that you can mix the pigments with a binder, such as Odorless Turpenoid, and brush it into place. Well, it worked as advertised. I brushed and stippled the mix into place and moved it around with a brush that was damp with Turpenoid. Even after it was dry, I could take a damp brush and adjust the pigment. I found it a little difficult to judge the effect since the wet pigments are much darker than the dry pigments.

That was it for the day. I am thinking about not building a diorama base and just add a figure to the model for scale purposes. I plan to let things sit for a day and then see how it looks. The pigments can still be adjusted tomorrow if necessary. Basically the model is done, except for possible adjustments in the weathering.

Cheers everyone.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Man oh man, I think what must have gone through the minds of the soldiers back then, especially the one more prone to thinking about details. On the surface, to an uneducated person, (of which I am sure there were many), having the armor would make them feel invincible, but the thinking man would probably know better and wonder about what would happen when an explosive got inside with all those men in there trying to get out.

The car looks great George (@gblair) and the figure does a good job of giving a sense of scale. Perhaps for the base, start with a simple ground cover base and then if you feel like it, add other details later.

Looks amazing after weathering, my friend @gblair! Adding a figure sounds a great idea!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). Now that I have decided to wait on the diorama base, having a German officer sitting on a Russian armoured car may not make sense. I may see if I can get a Russian figure to go with the model. Odorless Turpenoid works great over acrylics. I always apply a clear coat over the decals, but I have used the Turpenoid over both acrylic colors and acrylic clear without any problems. It has never softener or removed the acrylics. I have always thought that anything oil-based should work over acrylics, but the only thing I have ever used has been Turpenoid. I don't know if it makes a difference, but the only Turpenoid I have ever used is the one sold in art stores. Home improvement stores sell odorless thinner, but I have never tried it on my models. Also, 99% of my models are painted with either Tamiya or AK Real Colors, which are "hybrid" acrylics. I don't know if that makes a difference. Always test first, even with Turpenoid. Even now, I always find a place on the bottom of the wing that I test on. :o)