Vehicles: Re-grouping in the Ghost Roads: Laundryverse diorama

The base of the vehicle came together nicely. I went for a lovely bright yellow floor but weathered it a bit too much.  

The chairs a brown leather, they’ve been cleaned up a bit. 

 

The under carriage is beautiful, Zvezda did a great job. 

Quite a lot of Siberian dirt clinging to the bottom of the vehicle, quite pleased with that. 

This was easier to do than it looks! 

Repainted the floor and touched up the cabin. Should have varnished it! 

 

Did the base colour of the hull on the sprue. 

Test fit of the vehicle with the figures made so far. I think the hats could be an issue with the roof. I’ll probably not glue it down but even so this is an issue coming up. 

My fine brushing of the window rubber is poor and the weathering is a bit OTT. In my defence I was in an advanced state of refreshment by this point. 

The figures do look pretty good in situ. Mo, in the scarlet dress - if that is who I cast this figure as - looks like she is midway through casting a spell, mainly because the model’s umbrella fell on the floor 🙂.
The seats eventually came out ok but I managed to get the bench back to front. It’s not that visible but the figures aren’t as stable. The picnic table was a bugger to get right, I eventually dry brushed it with aluminium until it looked like a battered tray.  

The sides and back of the van look good, and Zvezda did a good job making the bits go together… most of the time. But joining up the floor and undercarriage with both sides and getting them straight was a right pain. I probably did several things wrong during construction. Much superglue was used.  

Love the detail of the fuel cap and the metal step, really nice. Very few panel lines needed sanding. The indicator bulbs should go in the hole at the right if the panel but I couldn’t get it to fit so gave up. They were pretty too. Probably another mistake. 

The mini van is pretty much done. I managed to add open doors so I can add figures inside. 

Starting the Academy M113 now. This is a very old copy if the kit from eBay. The plastic needs a bit more glue but it goes together well detail is surprisingly nice. 

The M113 engine block scrubs up quite nicely.  

The mini van before the front doors went on. Lots of detail. 

Evelyn Starkey clutching her family’s magical book, in the passenger seat of the cab. Her character is introduced in Dead Lies Dreaming, the first volume of the New Management series within the Laundryverse.  

The radios came up nicely with dry brushing the details with chrome and a few spots of red paint. 

 

Naturally I upgraded the interior colours since this armoured personnel carrier is owned by Penelope Hazard, who has a taste for posh vehicles. Hence purple seats. 

Drivers compartment is quite nice but the decals are poor on the Academy kit. 

The rear view. 

Rear view with the lid on. A fair amount of light comes in when the hatches are open.  

Side view with the lid on. I carefully checked the fit of the roof throughout the process to make sure it would go in neatly. Finished the interior and would it go on properly? Would it f**k. This is going to make the final diorama messy.  

Added the cupolas. This was fun with just a couple of cockups.  

 

 

It’s beginning to look more like a metal machine. Decent model for its era although the fit is tricky, probably user error. 

A test shot of the APC before I put decals on.  

Engine bay is probably going to be open in the final diorama.  

With the lid closed it looks quite purposeful.