I am happy to say that I have finally made the step from scale modeling into the 1:1 Military Vehicle world. Last Saturday Dirk Leegwater and I agreed on the purchase of a Cab 11 Chevrolet C8 restoration project, which will be delivered to our new house in March.
Over the past few years I was able to find a lot of information for my modelling projects on MLU and hopefully equally helped others with pictures and information. The line between 1:1 vehicles and scale modelling became thinner and thinner and slowly I was running out of excuses not to buy a MV myself. When my girlfriend and I bought a new house last November; space was not an issue anymore and a more serious information quest began. I do have some experience with restoring Italian classic cars, but heavy military stuff is new for me. A certain Scottish individual suggested I’d buy a carrier, some Dutch individuals suggested I’d buy a CMP truck. I studied options like the Austin Tilly and a British or Canadian 8cwt. In the end I chose a Monkey face restoration project.
Below you will find a few pictures of the C8, which featured on MLU before; it spent several years in Elliotts yard Ontario, before making the jump to NWE, 60 after its brothers!
A big thanks to Nick Bullock, Dirk and Stefan Leegwater, Nigel Watson, David Moore, Max Hedges and Tony Smith for answering all my questions over the past few weeks/months. I am sure I have lots more when I start the restoration, as a lot of techniques are new for me.
The Chev does have to wait a little before the restoration will start; I have to finish my girlfriend’s Fiat Giannini first.
By the way, I will still keep on scale modelling. In fact I am currently building a range of CMP masters for a Belgian modelling firm.