Commercial Trucks, Vans, and Bus Type Vehicles

[Mossie]

I think this is an a largely un-tapped vein with a few noteable exceptions from the likes of Greg & Macal.  Civvy vehicles can be readily converted into military vehicles with a bit of added armour & a few weapons.

The thing that spurred the thread was this:


I was in one of the local models shops at the weekend & the guy in shop fished it down for someone to oggle over:


It's chuffin' huge (& expensive but worth it for the amount of plastic you get)!  I thought there must be a way to whiff this!

Italeri's Iveco Fire Engine could be converted to a number of support vehicles or you could replace that ladder with a scratched up SAM or SRBM launcher.  Revell do a Mercedes variant of it too.


Aoshima Hiace, they do a few versions of this.  Cut down the rear, mount something nasty on the flatbed?  Must be tons of milita's do something like this, it lends itself to an apocalyptic style build too:


What else can we do an 'A-Team' job on???

Simon

[kitnut617]

Well the cityliner could be converted into an urban warfare vehicle, as in the Bill Murray movie 'Stripes'   

[philp]

I think you need to convert the Cityliner into an armored half track.

I think a lot of this lends itself better to the Car Wars, Mad Max type scenerios.  Or for warlords, smaller countries, or those made up small nations.

Only real issue is finding 1/24th scale weapons to arm up these bad boys.  There are some stuff out there but it is hard to find without buying a whole kit just to get a .50 cal.

I think it is easier to convert the 1/32nd stuff with 1/35th weapons.  Just not nearly as much selection in that scale for vehicles.  Monogram did some Semis and there is that firetruck.

[Arc3371]

The fire truck could be turned into a mobile radar or coastal gun.
There was an old post nuclear war Chicago pocket series  where the bad guys rebuilt three buses into mobile fortresses. I dont now what the series is/was called in English but the main players were Chicago smugglers (with the hero Bonner), the east coast Slavestates (Stormtroopers), northern Snowstates and southern Hot States (Devils).

[jcf]

... or one could go the other direction and convert military vehicles into civilian transport, construction and agricultural vehicles.

Humvee into a Jeepney is a natural. 



Jon

[RP1]

I like big trucks and I cannot lie:

http://www.nov.com/Products.aspx?Puid=isBhYngi1se9oD&nodeId=%2BRMURHMW7DANO43NWI1WHU1B2MQ%3D-ISBHYNGI1SE9OD

http://www.amphibiousvehicle.net/amphi/Q_R.html

Maz's products probably don't count, since they have already had everything up to and including ICBMs strapped to the back.

RP1

[Hobbes]

For civilian vehicles, there's more available in 1/87 than in the larger scales.

[dy031101]

I heard that in Phillippine, many surplus US military tactical trucks (some of which, IIRC, are the light ones such as jeeps) were taken by local civilians and converted into buses.

What if those buses were once again requisitione for military use? 

[jcf]

I heard that in Phillippine, many surplus US military tactical trucks (some of which, IIRC, are the light ones such as jeeps) were taken by local civilians and converted into buses.

What if those buses were once again requisitione for military use? 

You mean Jeepneys with guns?
According to a pinoy friend that has actually happened during the various political upheavals.

Jon

[dy031101]

Oh oh oh, and do you know that the ROCMC used Suzuki Sidekicks as reconnaissance vehicles (with a MAG copy) and recoiless rifle carriers?

I need to find the pics from my old hard drive......

[Mossie]

... or one could go the other direction and convert military vehicles into civilian transport, construction and agricultural vehicles.

Not too far from me is the Defence School of Transport.  The MoD being the MoD, many of the thirty year (& more)old Bedford MK 4 tonne lorries are still in use.  They are starting to replace them & the Leyland trucks that were originally supposed to replace them with a combination of contractor owned vehicles & the new MAN trucks.  The MK's are being snapped up cheaply by private owners because on civvy street it's considered a classic truck.

Oh, & the MoD only got rid of the last of their fifty year old Green Goddess fire engines (based on the Bedford RL chassis that predated the MK) last year!  Some of these have gone to collectors, a lot have gone to Africa & India to soldier on in the fire fighting role.

Oh oh oh, and do you know that the ROCMC used Suzuki Sidekicks as reconnaissance vehicles (with a MAG copy) and recoiless rifle carriers?

I need to find the pics from my old hard drive......

This is a pic I never tire of posting.  The French modified many Vespa scooters to act as a mobile recoilless gun mount, they served in Suez & Indochina.  And in answer to your next question, yes it could be fire on the move!

[frank2056]

I've always like those three wheeled car/motorcycles that meter-maids use. I have a few of these 1/32 kits from Arii, like the 1957 Daihatsu Midget or the 1958 Mazda K360

Add a .30 cal on the back, or use it as an urban troop transport or put on some 1960s high tech laser, it would make an ideal weapon to attack the monsters that infested Tokyo in the 50s and 60s.

[lenny100]

Talking about conversions
i turned this


into this

[Mossie]

Remember that from Huddersfield Lenny, great stuff!

[dy031101]

As promised, ROCMC Sidekicks (which, IIRC, are called New Escudo in Asia and by extention the ROC).