Many moons ago, when Airfix Magazine was king, there appeared a series of conversion articles covering military versions of the Model T Ford. At that time there were two Airfix Model T Ford kits available, a two seat and a four seat type, and most of the conversions were based on the 1912 two seater. One such was a tender, or pick-up in modern parlance, and when recently asked for a copy of the drawing I realised that I had a kit set aside for just this project. Feeling a little jaded and suffering from a bad case of "modelers block" I thought the change might do me good.
The original Airfix Magazine model retained the kit's soft top, but I wanted mine to have a hard top. Scratching around for references on the net I stumbled across the web site site of the Model T Ford Club of America, which is a must see for anyone at all interested in modeling the tin lizzie. There are dozens of photographs cross indexed by year of manufacture, type, purpose, and any other way you can imagine. The vehicle shown here is a 1913 van, actually a hearse, and my aim was to capture the feel rather than accurately portray every feature and detail. This one was strictly for fun and I wanted to keep it simple.
As many kit parts as possible are used and everything below the running boards is straight out of the box. The running boards themselves are only slightly modified, the rear mudguards (fenders) are bent to a more circular form and trimmed to accomodate the pickup bed, and the tread plates simply skinned with 10 thou card to cover the various details not appropriate for the model. The bonnet (hood), radiator, headlights and wheels are used as is, but the spare has the spokes removed to be different. A new flat fronted scuttle was made from card so that the cab could be moved forward slightly to match the proportions of the reference photo, and everything else is card and strip. The kit part wrapped in suitably bent and shaped card is the basis for the cab, and the kit seat is used, but with the back removed and replaced with simpler version also made from card. All planking is represented by scoring with an Olfa "P" cutter and steel rule.
Overall I am quite pleased with result and still have the much nicer Pyro Model T stashed away if I should one day decide to try something a little closer to magazine article . Perhaps at some stage it will be incorporated into a 1/32 scale diorama, possibly with a Hobbycraft Nieuport. If not, then at least I have broken my modelers block and filled a little gap in the display case into the bargain. Most of all I enjoyed not having to account to myself for every millimetre. No wings, but definitely an OT "T".
Home
