Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Build

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NickDonitz
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by NickDonitz »

great build....... people dont realise how complex a Ludwig kit is till they get into it, very time consuming .....Great stuff so far
I'm manning the gun's ! Who's driving ?
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lmcq11
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by lmcq11 »

Hi, thank you everyone for your encouragements.

Continuing on this relatively fast build.

The right side has been completed along with the rear hatch.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
The rear hatch is complicated by this opening mechanism, as seen in Squadron Signal V-100 walk around.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Someone could easily spend 2 weeks or more recreating it with the various elements. As this is not my style, I am just a guy with basic hand tools and degrading eyesight... I recreated it the best I could, a 2 hour job in total. I think it is enough detailed to satisfy my average modeller requirements, without getting discouraged or over my head.

It still need some fine tuning. The hinges on this armored vehicle are very small and there is a limit to how small they can be made with plasticard without breaking, but I think I can still reduce them a bit to be closer to scale. Also had to adjust everything to the hole created for the door, which is not exactly accurate.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
And it still need to open... I will likely have a figure in the back, manning an M60 machinegun.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Next step is to finish the inside of the hatches, rear exhaust and top hatches.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
The model as it stands today.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Regards, Louis
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lmcq11
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by lmcq11 »

Hi,

Tonight was the turn of the exhaust stack. It is quite large for such vehicle.
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
No parts at all are provided by Ludwigs for the exhaust so everything must be studied from pictures and built from scratch.
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
Those grills are time consuming and are of course as good as the time you are willing to spend on building them. I had time to build the top hatch. I am realizing that this recon vehicle has a lot of hatches and I am getting a bit anxious of getting through the process of building the required hinges.
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
The exhaust stack
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
LudwigsV-100 Commando
Regards, Louis
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HERMAN BIX
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by HERMAN BIX »

Would look right at home in a modern peace keeper unit !
Is that exhaust grille for amphibious reasons or just to allow a more human friendly fighting compartment ?
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
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Ad Lav
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by Ad Lav »

Quite a big unit isn't it - progressing well.
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BarryC
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by BarryC »

Louis,

Great looking build, looking forward to seeing the end results. If it's anything like the M-113 it will be another awesome finish. :thumbup:

Our security forces on our airbases in Vietnam and Thailand used this vehicles to patrol the base perimeters.

Cheers,
Barry
"Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail."
Leonardo Da Vinci
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lmcq11
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by lmcq11 »

Hi,

Yeah, that big armored exhaust stack is protecting 2 mufflers inside. It breaks the perfect lines of the vehicle a bit but it got to be there.

Now, the engine top hatches.

I am finally done with the hinges. To build this model, you need to make 26 of these, most functional if you want to open the crew hatches, carefully...
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
I do not recommend using the oversized kit parts as the base for the hinges, it seems that downsizing them only make things more complicated. I recommend creating a small assembly chain with part cut at the right size from leftover plasticard from the kit and assembling them all at one. Knupfer M1x4 type 301 bolts and type 302 nuts being required.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Very little is provided in the kit for the engine top hatches, only a base plate, so everything you see need to be scratch built, including installing a light plasticard strip for the gutter around the hatch, all of the hatches actually.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
The cover you see on top of the engine air intake was added to production vehicles to prevent cocktail Molotovs from entering the engine compartment.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
This engine hatch was not made to open so I created a static latch. I did not think my plasticard hinges would last long with such big hatch. More skilled builders than me would certainly want to create metal hinges for this vehicle. I am not at that stage yet.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Top rear view
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Next step is to recreate the Warrior V-100 turret in plasticard material, and design a system for turret rotation and gun elevation. Now, this wheeled vehicle will not have the benefit of a tank control board. It will have a regular receiver that will control the direction servo and a ESC speed controller. A sound unit linked to the speed controller will produce engine sound. I am thinking of having a servo providing some rotation to the turret, and a smaller servo managing MG elevation. As for MG flash and sound, I am open for suggestions...
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Getting there
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Next to a 1/35 kit chassis that is also helping as reference.
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Ludwigs V-100 Commando
Regards, Louis
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lmcq11
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by lmcq11 »

Hi,

Here is a snowy Sunday project, a V-100 turret, Part 1.

My initial plans were to mimic the Warriors resin turret but it did not take me long to notice that once compared to reference, it has many issues and cannot be used as a model. The angles of the armored plates should be around 63 degrees instead of 55. And you can see that the distance between many key markers are wrong.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
The first step after having gone through all available references is to build the 3 rings to be used as the base, with 64, 73 and 77 cm diameters, without being verified against accurate blueprints.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
The mount for the Machine gun is made of glued overlay of plasticard tubes of increasing sizes, over a central brass tube core.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Creation of the turret, it went rather smoothly, making sure the angles and height are respected at every steps.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
The core components of the turret are created. The turret is of an easy design so it is equally easy to build it with basic tools (blade, ruler, pen...) in relatively short time. It took about 6 hours up to this point, with no major mistakes slowing me down.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Next steps will be to create the hatch, visors and other small details. The turret offers the ability to be armed with either two .30 or a combination of a .30 and .50 Cal MG. My turret will of course have an M2 50 cal.
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Ludwigs V-100 commando
Regards, Louis
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Ad Lav
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by Ad Lav »

You are very modest fobut your amazing skills. Well done :)
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HERMAN BIX
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Re: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando Armored Car - Vietnam - Bui

Post by HERMAN BIX »

Extraordinary..........shame you had to re manufacture a turret, but it really will be well worth the effort.
Are you planning a crew for this one ?
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
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