TGAA - An Armoured Car for The New Guard!

I've been banging away at another Improvised Armoured Car for the Great Antipodean Adventure campaign this time for the New Guard, mind you these vehicles are interchangeable between factions as they can easily be captured during the street fighting!

Two period photographs of Colonel Philpot and other members of the New Guard posing by their new Improvised Armoured Car early in the morning of Sunday May 29 near Fig Lane Park...

Some 'Historical' Stuff...

With the appearance of various Improvise Armoured Vehicles in the streets of Sydney the Leaders of the New Guard believed they need their own Armoured Vehicles, they also wisely acquired several Anti-Tank Rifles off the arms market to counter other factions vehicles! The New Guard's agents approached the Randwick Tramways Workshops regarding constructing an Armoured Truck for them. They declined as the Workshop was already overextended maintaining the Tram fleet and producing other groups Armoured Vehicles. Not to be without such vehicles the New Guard met with management of  the Meadowbank Manufacturing Co who were only to happy to divert a few of the workers from their rolling stock production to upgrade a truck for the New Guard albeit at what the New Guard leadership thought was an exorbitant price! Using a photographs of a twin turreted Russian Armour Car for inspiration the railway draftsmen drew up plans that the rail workers quickly turned around using a Crossley Truck for a drive train. The armoured box was spacious and also encompassed the divers cab, it had two doors for easy access. Each turret was armed with a Vickers Machine-gun and was geared to be manually rotated with a crank handle. The construction was rust proofed and painted grey as that was the paint they had the most of in stock! The initial test vehicle was delivered to the New Guard on Saturday May 28. The New Guard announced that trials would be carried out the next day and an order for six more vehicles would be placed with the Meadowbank Manufacturing Co if they were considered a success... 

The Model Build...

The base for this A/C was an like one of my others was an old Matchbox Crossley Truck, the Lowenbrau one, I kept the roof and barrels as this conversion is meant to be reversible (also the barrels could be good scenery in games when not on the truck 😊). The build just like the other A/Cs for this campaign was pretty straight forward. I used styrene sheet to create the main rear fighting box and cabin cover. This time I made the turrets full length out of plastic conduit pipe with a goggle eye as a top to give a domed look as they protuded from the side of the armoured box. A coupe of port holes and handles were added using washers and a paper clip. Lastly the MGs were made with lollipop sticks and coat hanger wire as I have done with many other projects! An 'armoured plate' was cut out so it could be placed to cover the front of the radiator. The whole thing was painted using rattle can grey primer paint. 

The donor truck...

The armoured section built and ready for paint... 

Test fitted awaiting paint...

The completed vehicle and diorama set up... 

Hope you like this new Improvised Armoured Car!

Next time I will discuss a change in rules for The Great Antipodean Adventure! We're not ditching The World Aflame Rules because as I have previously said it has great features for this period but we are changing just the activation sequence and morale rules!