Saturday 6 October 2012

1938: Protected Truck


I think I will stop tinkering with my1930s protected truck.There was a vogue for these with political militias because they could be knocked up by anybody with a wielding kit. A Freikorps versin is shown at the bottom. This one is owned by my Canterbury Militia and is in 1/72 scale. It is armed with a Spandeau on an AA mount.

They were a disaster. The lorry's suspension and transmission would be heavily overloaded and prone to failure and the vehicles centre of gravity was too high, so they rolled over at the slightest bump.

The 'armour' was of doubtful value except as a morale booster. Real armour is a little more sophisticated than a sheet of old iron. I suspect these things were death traps.

Nevertheless, the poor man's armoured car come APC, they turned up all over the 1930s hot spots including the Spanish Civil War.




4 comments:

  1. I like that, I like that a lot. To me that says home made, Heath Robinson and is the essence of VBCW and Inter-war wargaming. Top Job

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    Replies
    1. Dear PK
      Why thank you. I was definitely going for a Corporal Jones look.
      J

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  2. A static discharge will only cause an explosion if it occurs inside the container. If the tanker is sealed, sparks and static on the exterior will not affect the contents. Before a tanker is opened or emptied the truck is grounded to avoid the possibility of an explosion. It is grounded by bringing a conductive strap from the truck to a grounded point on the ground. A grounding point can be a any bare metallic point that is deemed as ground. Fire hydrants, ground rods (a piece of metal shoved into the Earth), etc...
    Extendable Trailers

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  3. Dear Laira
    Thank you for your contribution.
    J

    ReplyDelete