A survivalist's mobile home

Vroom vroom! Grumpy's survivalist vehicle is nearing completion! Those zombies had better watch out!



This is what it has taken to get to this stage...



First, the rivets were drilled out and the vehicle was disassembled. I'm afraid that the interior probably won't survive the refurbishment in its original 1960s orange!

Although it's difficult to see here, the white body shell needed a little bending with a pair of pliers to get it back into shape. At some point, it had been slightly caved in, damaging the door, but after a couple of minutes I had it pretty much straightened out.

So... what do we need to protect us from zombies? One of the most obvious requirements is something to stop attackers climbing in through the windows. This mesh came from a model railway shop, and seemed like just the thing. It sticks quickly and easily using superglue (cyanoacrylate), in this case applied carefully using a cocktail stick. The mesh was cut to size, constantly checking against the vehicle to make sure it matched the shape of the windows. I've already used some of the mesh for fencing around one of my shacks.

Here we have the motor caravan with the window grilles stuck in place. I have also assembled a collection of useful items from my bits box, mainly 1/72 and 1/76 scale WWII and modern accessories in resin and white metal, with a few left over kit parts. Let's see what might come in useful during a zombie apocalypse...

From top left to bottom, left to right, we have the following items:

Thick cables/hoses (ie. guitar strings - 2 sizes)

Hatch (spare from Old Crow Glaive APC)

Missile launcher (another spare from Glaive)

Vickers Machine gun on vehicle mount (Continental Model Supply Company)

Jerrycans (I think these were from an Italeri WWII accessory set)

Another jerrycan (from the same set - being a different style, this one will probably be a water container)

FV432 stowage box (CMSC again. One sits either side of the rear door on an Fv432)

Generic stowage box (CMSC)

Wooden ammo box (CMSC)

Wire coil (hand made from fine fuse wire)

Shovel and disassembled pick-axe (from an old Matchbox Challenger MBT kit)

Wing mirrors (CMSC)

Dozer blade (cut from plasticard)

Assembly almost complete! Some items have been dropped, others added. The bulldozer didn't really work, so I've built some bull-bars from brass rod instead. These have been superglued to the chassis, sitting in a couple of grooves cut in with a steel file.

You can see the hatch added at the front, over the passenger seat. I had intended to fit the machine gun here, but there wasn't really enough space. I've saved it for another time. I also left off the wing mirrors as I didn't think they'd survive rough handling during a game.

Spare fuel cans go on the back. At this height, they're easily to hand when you need to refuel in a hurry- or quickly burn out a nest of zombies. You can also see the heavy duty cable linking the missile launcher to the stowage bin.

The top views show the tools tucked safely between the front stowage box and the wooden crate, and the water container by the rear stowage bin.

The interior will certainly need to be repainted. It definitelyl needs to make it into the finished vehicle; although nominally 1/114 scale, GZG's seated NAC marines look pretty comfortable.