ATF Build review - Bedford QLD & QLT trucks (A03306)

stuzzar · ATF Build review - Bedford QLD & QLT trucks (A03306)

Airfix 1:76 scale Bedford QLT and QLD trucks (A03306)

I have carried out a brief in-box review of this kit (kindly donated for review by Airfix via Ratch) This shows the box contents, sprues etc so I will not reproduce them here. The in-box review can be found at the following link

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about23937.html

The next step is to carry out a fairly in depth build review, the build will be straight out of the box with no additions, changes or extra detailing (although I may make a few recommendations on the way), the aim is to see what can be produced from these kits without recourse to any further expense or knowledge of advanced modelling skills.

The instructions start with the construction of the Bedford QLD, but I will build both trucks at the same time to illustrate the differences between them, both vehicles have similar chassis/engine block/drive gear although the QLT chassis is noticeably longer

The injector pin/sink marks mentioned in the in-box review are clearly visible in this picture but they are all on the underside of the chassis so do not really cause any real problems

The first eight sections deal with the construction of the chassis starting with the insertion of the engine block which slots fairly securely into the groves provided, just a little glue is required to fix this

Next comes the front drive shaft and the transfer case, fitting of the drive shaft was a little fiddly for someone with fat fingers like me but I am sure that more agile modellers will have no trouble

The following pictures show stages 2 through to 8, all parts fit very well, the springs slot very securely into the notches provided and it is all fairly fool proof

The front drive shaft installed and connected to the transfer case

The front ‘bumper’ section added

Front axles assembled and awaiting attachment to the springs/chassis

Front springs in place, no problems so far

The front drive, steering assembly completed

The rear springs and axles in place

All of the above stages were fairly simple to assemble with a minimum of cleaning up required although there is small sink mark in the rear axle gear housing but it is so tiny, and on the underside, it can probably be ignored or perhaps filled with paint

Stage 9 deals with bracket that holds the QLD’s fuel tank and on the QLT the two brackets at the rear underside of the chassis that form part of the spare wheel support, the QLD bracket parts are shown on the right and the QLT parts on the left, in the picture below you can see how the QLT spare wheel support brackets fit onto the chassis, again this is fairly straight forward

Stage 10 on the QLD shows the construction of the fuel tank, this sadly comes in two halves which is fine but leaves quite a large gap at either end of the tank which will be difficult to fill, particularly on the end with the indentations on it, the fuel tank also has very weak detail where the bands/straps go around it, these can of course be added with thin card or paper

The fuel tanks on the QLT are thankfully each moulded in one piece, after a little cleaning up they fit pretty tightly onto the two brackets that protrude out of each side of the chassis

Stage 11 on the QLD shows the positioning of the fuel tank support bracket, this fits over two of the lugs on the top of the chassis and is illustrated on the instruction sheet with an enlarged section drawing, this rather nice feature appears throughout the instructions and it is pretty handy to have a couple of views where some of the more involved construction is concerned

Kit supplied for review by

That is as far as I have gone so far, next up is the construction of the cabs and the start of the painting

Cheers

Stu

IanA

Another great build review, and right on queue for me.

After building a couple of tanks and getting the military vehicle bug, I've just started building the Ex-Matchbox Revell Morris C8 truck, 17pdr and Jeep. I was going to ask about what the paint job was on the chassis, drive shaft(s), differentials, leaf springs and other general underbelly stuff on WWII trucks i.e. did they just slap green paint over everything?

I will be watching with great interest (and if my Morris build goes well, I'll probably buy the Bedford's).

Ratch

Looking forward to this one Stu

TimJ

I'm looking forward to seeing the next instalment of the review.

Corricon

Me too, Tim!

stuzzar

Part 2

Apologies for the delay in posting this next instalment, I have rather thrown myself out by deciding to use enamel paints for the main body colour (H159 as suggested) and am not used to the longer drying times as I usually use acrylics on small scale vehicles/armour

.

I kept picking things up and smudging them expecting the paint to have dried.

Here are the chassis assemblies of both vehicles after a couple of coats of H159, I soon learnt to give a good 24 hours over to drying before applying the next coat of paint or attempting further assembly work

.

On with the build

Stages 13 to 17 (13-15 on the QLT) deal with the construction of the cab, once again this is the same procedure for both vehicles and causes no problems, just ensure that you have the seats in the correct position, they are slightly different so need to be placed according to the instructions

Cab interior is fairly basic, there are no gear levers nor hand brake provided, but this will not be noticed once the cab is assembled unless you plan to pose the doors in the open position.

I painted the cab interior in H159 picking out the seats in a light khaki drab colour (H83, ochre on the instruction sheet) and the steering wheel and dashboard instruments in dark grey (H21, gloss black is suggested on the instructions)

The dash board section fits neatly onto the cab front, there are some injector pin marks on the inside of this piece but they are easily removed

Prior to fitting the cab front to the floor it is best to fit the glazing for the windscreens in place, earlier I mentioned that I thought the glazing to be a little too thick, perhaps it is but it fits very tightly into the opening and its gauge isn’t noticeable once in place, just make sure that you have the pieces arranged in the correct position as there is a slight angle to each windscreen.

I must confess that I made a bit of a mess of these mainly because I had painted the inner frame area and when I inserted the glazing along with some glue the paint lifted and fogged the edges a little, a lesson learned but the resulting smudges should not be too difficult to fix at the weathering stage.

With the windscreen glazing in place the cab front (and rear wall) can be attached to the floor and the doors with glazing added, again the glazing fits into the doors without major problems. If you do wish to pose the doors open there is some nice detail provided in the shape of the window winding handle although there is also a rather large and deep injector pin mark on the inside of each door which could be difficult to remove without damaging the handle detail

On the right hand door above I have made a start at removing the pin mark, the left hand door still shows it in all of its glory, needless to say I decided to have the doors closed

The doors and the cab roof can then be added, there are no real fit problems here, the doors have a slight gap, either top or bottom depending on how you fix them but this will not be noticed once painted

The raised lip around the opening on the QLD cab top has to be positioned correctly to align squarely with the cab roof, this is probably best fitted in place before glueing the roof to the cab assembly as it does take a little bit of adjusting to get it right

I have missed out section 17 (15 on the QLT) which deals with the fitting of small detail to the cab front, headlamps and such, I will leave these parts until later in case they are knocked off or damaged during later stages of construction

Sections 18 to 20 on the QLD deal with the construction of the cargo body (sections 16 to 22 on the QLT which is much busier with all the seats and other brackets), again there are plenty of pin marks to deal with, some on the inside of the body sides and a lot more on the underside (of course these ones will not be noticed unless the vehicle is turned upside down)

Those on the inside of the body panels were easily removed with a little sanding and the body assembled without any fit problems

That is as far as I have gone for this stage, just to point out that there are plenty more pin marks to deal with on the QLT body,

most of them will be hidden once the vehicle is assembled but there are some that will be very hard to get rid of like those on the back pads of the central rows of seats

Cheers

Stu

feanor

Ayup Bruv...

Nice work mate. Are those half-round drums on the front supposed to be winches do you think ?

stuzzar

Ayup Bruv

That is what I had them down as, will have to do a little research though to make sure

Cheers

Stu

feanor

Ayup Bruv...

Ratch

Quite a few nasty ejector pin marks

TimJ

lufbramatt

the "half round drums" on the front of the chassis is just a bent bit of metal that protects the bottom of the radiator

The only QL's that had a winch fitted were the QLB bofors gun tractors and QLW "winch tippers" which had a meaty heavy duty winch mounted on the chassis behind the cab, under the body.

stuzzar

Thanks lufbramatt

The only reference I could find to a winch being fitted were on those types that you mentioned although I would have thought that the 6pdr portee might have one, perhaps it just had a hand winch rather than one operated by the drive mechanism

Will post up the next review instalment this evening, it mainly involves several coats of H159

Cheers

Stu

stuzzar

Part 3

Assembled parts have been given a couple of coats of H159, may need more

The various racks, boxes and mud flaps are added beneath the QLD, they fit over lugs and again fit of parts is fine

The QLT body was put together as per instructions, I painted the fold up seat on each side panel and the areas around them before assembly as I thought it may otherwise prove a little difficult to get to

I then put together the central row of seats for the QLT, I painted these prior to assembly but think perhaps it would have been easy enough to paint them after. I also left the flow of the instructions here as these are shown being added to the rear truck bed before the side panels are added, I have left them, and the two side strips of seating off as yet as I will want to give at least another coat of paint to the inner walls and floor of the body, I hope this works out

and then beneath the QLT body the racks, boxes and mud flaps were added, much more going on here than on the QLD

Next comes the assembly of the canopies for the rear of the vehicles, (section 21 on the QLD instructions and 23 for the QLT). A nice feature on these is the inclusion of the internal framing for the canopy supports, this could easily have been ignored and although it possibly will not be seen once the canopies are assembled it is a nice touch of detail

Here are the various sub assemblies awaiting another coat of H159

Next come the wheels and then the bringing together of all of the parts

Here is a shot of the wheel hubs prior to painting, very nice detail on them, the picture does not do them justice

Cheers

Stu

Ratch

Good work Stu

feanor

Ayup Stu...

Cracking Builds. looks like a Saturday Purchase at last !

strider4142

nice builds, I really want these so I hope they are available at my model shop soon as I have seen no sign of them in NZ yet
keep up the good work
strider

IanA

Going great. Mine arrived yesterday (in a slightly courier battered box) so I will be starting them soon.

One question, if slightly off topic, is the 159 paint call out Airfix's match for SCC15, or were the trucks painted a different green? I know how controversial / debatable SCC15 can be so a simple yes / no will be best.

Cheers.

stuzzar

Ian, Mike Starmer has some very helpful input on colours for these in the 'In-box' review thread which can be found at the following link

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about23937.html

Cheers

Stu

IanA

Thanks for that stu, although I have read that thread.

Unfortunately I'm an Acrylic man so none of the recommended Humbrol mixes I can do. I have a Revell guinea pig however awaiting a SCC15 paint job so will try an acyclic mix I was advised to give a go. Cheers.

stuzzar

I am usually an acrylic man too, just thought I would give the enamel colour ago on this kit as it was donated by Airfix.

I usually use Citadel Catachan Green for the base colour of British vehicles, not strictly correct but by the time I have washed, dry brushed and weathered on top of it it looks OK to me.

H159 seems abit too bright but I am no expert

Cheers

Stu

feanor

IanA

Ayup,

I generally always use Revell Guinea Pigs for my experiments.

It may trouble some people, but the only alternative would be to experiment on a living Airfix, which many here may find morally unacceptable ROTFL

feanor

Ayup Ian...

You'm right there !

ROTFL

Ratch

What has this chit-chat got to do with the review Off Topic

stuzzar

Part 4

More painting has been done with the canopies being given a coat of a slightly lighter shade of brown than Dark Earth, I did this as I will be giving them both a wash of a darker colour, here they are after having the joints sanded down

The wheels and tyres have also been painted and now await attachment to the chassis assemblies

I did a test fit of the cab/body and chassis assemblies and they seem to go together fairly well, almost clipping into place

They just need a little more detail painting, a wash and dry brush before all of the sub assemblies can be brought together

Cheers

Stu

Ratch

Looking really good Stu

feanor

Ayup Bruv...

Both Lorries are coming together well. Pity there's no 'Elvis' figure...

stuzzar

I will post a further update on this later today (as soon as I can wrestle the lap top from Mrs stuzzar

).

Basically both trucks are virtually complete ready for decalling, the only items still on the sprue being the bicycle and Bren gun for the QLT. There has been a lot of paint work as you will see when the next instalment is posted

Cheers

Stu

mosquito ace

Good work Stu

regards;kevin

realthing

Looking forward to seeing some more pics

stuzzar

Part 5

Here is the final part of the build and it starts with the assembly of the wheels which are covered in sections 22-24 for the QLD and 24-26 for the QLT on the instruction sheet

I painted a large area of the tyres and also the hubs while still on the sprue and also chose to insert the hubs into the wheels why still attached, they are a very nice tight fit.

The wheels are moulded with a flatish area on one side to replicate the weight of the vehicle, so it is important to get this side of the tyre at the bottom when assembling, the wheels fit over square pegs on the axle ends so is fairly easy to get this lined up

Here is a test fit of the wheels on the QLT chassis

I moved away from the instruction steps again when putting together the body of the QLT, they call for the rear doors to be added nearer the end of the build but I wanted to get them on and the rear body painted before putting the various sub assemblies together

Here is the rear section with all of the seats in place, I mentioned earlier that I assembled these in a different order to the instructions and must say that I probably made a mistake in doing so, it was quite difficult to get them all in place and lined up once the body side were on

I then put all of the smaller details onto the cabs that I had omited earlier, bridging plate etc and the vehicles were now ready for the final paint application.

There is quite a bit involved in painting the Mickey Mouse camouflage and it is fairly difficult to get looking right. The instructions call for the camouflage pattern to be painted in black but this often looks too stark in this scale so I used a very dark grey called anthracite, and ticked in fairly roughly how I wanted the design to look, I hope you can get the idea from the following picture

When I felt that I had this looking OK I filled in the areas with anthracite,

this was done on all panels and tarp covers, while I had the dark grey on the brush I also completed the tyre painting, here are the sub assemblies both trucks with the initial stage of the camouflage applied

I then carefully lightly dry brushed the dark grey areas and added some shading to the lighter 'canvas' areas, not sure that it is too clear from the next picture of the QLT rear section

Section 25-29 (QLD) and 27-30 (QLT) on the instructions deal with bringing all of the sub assemblies together

Here is the QLD

and the QLT

Continued....

feanor

Ayup Bruv...

Well done. I MUST get these two Trucks...

strider4142

Good Job

From the photos, that anthracite stuff seems to look a lot like Hu. 67. would that be right? Or what humbrol colour would be the best to replicate anthracite grey? Cheers, Strider
(Oh please come to NZ Airfix Bedford set)

Arpie

They really are looking superb, the amount of detail OOB is impressive and other then the ejector pins a simple build.

stuzzar

... quite a lot of pictures in this so I thought that I had better split the post

On with the build, instruction sections 30 (QLD) and 31 (QLT) deal with adding the exhaust pipes to the vehicles, this is fairly straight forward, I painted them in rusty red colour after cleaning them up

Section 32 (QLT) shows the final parts of the spare wheel bracket being added to the QLT, I may be wrong but I think that in true Airfix style it is possible to make this as a moving part with the lower portion of the rack able to be swung down to release the spare

Apart from the bicycle and bren gun assembly is now complete. I chose to add all of the decals before adding the last two pieces but painted them in preparation anyway

The instructions call for H159 for the bike but I chose to go for a little bit of contrast and painted it in Dark Earth, picking out some smaller details and the tyres using Anthracite.

The trucks were then given a coat of Klear (a few coats where decals were to be applied).

and decalling began, as mentioned earlier the decals are nicely printed and they gave no problems apart from the Allied stars on the side of the QLD, there is a bit of raised detail here and the stars would not settle no matter how much Decal-fix I applied. I eventually pricked some very small air holes in them with a very sharp scalpel blade and they almost went all the way down, Those on the side of the QLT were not so troublesome

I did have one other small problem with the QLD decals, on the rear of the vehicle the instruction show the serial number running along the bottom of the rear flap but this would either put them other the 'toe hole' in the board or the foot step lower down so I moved it up to the top of the flap but it doesn't sit well here as there is once again raised detail to deal with, perhaps I should have left it off

Once all of the decals had been applied I masked out the windows with Tamiya tape ready for a coat of matt varnish which was applied using Army Painter Anti Shine Matt from an aerosol can

Finally I added the bicycle and the Bren Gun using super glue and the build was complete

Here they are together

Thanks again to Airfix and Ratch for supplying the kit for this build review.

Both trucks are a joy to put together with very few if any real actual construction problems, indeed most parts fit so tightly that glue is almost unecessary, the skill level shown on the box side is 2 which I would say is about right as they may be a little involved for an absolute beginer to the hobby.

There is quite a bit of work involved in completing the Mickey Mouse camouflage but other patterns could be used if this is thought too difficult.

The Decals are well printed and give a good selection of Arm of service marks, Divisional signs and serial numbers. All of the units depicted are from the NW Europe campaign but after market decals could be purchased to depict vehicles from units in other campaigns.

The main issue found were the amount of ejector pin marks, it has to be said that most of these will be hidden once the models are completed but those on the rear of the bench seats on the QLT are tricky to remove.

My only other dislike was the two part fuel tank on the QLD which left a large gap across the ends of the tank maring the detail here, this was a little disapointing given the quality applied to the design of the rest of the kit.

So two small gripes on what otherwise is an excellent kit, enjoyable to build and very good value for money. If these two trucks are a taster of what is to come from Airfix in their 1/76th scale military vehicle range then I will be a very happy chap indeed

.

Cheers

Stu

stuzzar

thomasweir

Superb work Stu

Great painting as well

mosquito ace

Two great Builds and a great review Stu

regards;kevin

realthing

Lovely job

IanA

Nicely done, and a very accurate, well presented, review of these kits. I have got my trucks basically finished but on hold until I decide to apply the Micky Mouse camo or not, which, to be honest, I don't like much.

feanor

Ayup All...

The only thing I'm miffed about is that an 'Elvish', sorry, driver figure Isn't included apparently as per the box Art...

Ratch

OK, you've convinced me I need one or two

Airfixfan

Thanks for the review and the host of pictures.
I'm not sure I would use Klear on these vehicles; it makes them too shiny for my liking. I prefer the matt and dustier look.
I was surprised by the flat wheel portion, I think it's a great idea by Airfix; up to now I had to make those areas myself. I used sanding, which helps in getting a vehicle to sit straight; or very careful application of a heated surface, which is iffy, but when it succeeds, you get a nice sideways bulge where the tyre stands.
I ordered this set (and the Churchill Bridge Layer) at my LMS yesterday. After this review, maybe I should order two sets? I love wheels and they are always more common than tracks. These Bedfords are great! I hope they come in soon!

stuzzar

Thanks for the comments chaps

strider4142

stuzzar

Airfixfan

MM Camo: This might help:
http://www.miniatures.de/mickey-mouse-pattern.html
To shine or not to shine: I had a feeling the Klearing was for decalling. A factory-new look is always nice.
Any chance we can expect pictures of the 'in use' versions?

stuzzar

Thanks for that Link Vinz

, I was thinking of that site while painting my version of the MM camouflage but had lost my link to it

, must try the stencil method on the next batch of Bedfords, looks much easier that way.

I will dirty these up a bit now that the build review is completed

, I will put pictures in the Airfix kits gallery once completed

Cheers

Stu

Richard M

Nice review, they're good looking little kits.

strider4142

Brian Artillery

I have made a couple of these little beauties and I wish that I'd had the photographic help when so doing! The instructions are fine, but the photos let you know that you're doing it right. My QLT, when finally finished [my job keeps getting in the way - no consideration from my boss for the struggling modeller, he still keeps wanting me to go in], will contain a squad of the very nice HAT 'British tank riders'. The cab contains a driver converted from the old 'RAF Emergency Set', head removed, and replaced by a HAT one wearing a battle bowler.

scammellfan

absolutely fantastic review. i want a couple of these kits. well done.