'Play Dirty' movie truck

[Estnische]

I'm in a bit of a funk with all my other projects, so I'm going to do what comes naturally and start another one.

I bought a B36KM Ural kit to complete my Fayee truck build, so now I have more than enough left-over parts to build something else. I want a WW2 four-wheeler, perhaps some kind of rock crawler that isn’t a freaky looking cartoon image of a truck. That kind of tough terrain inspiration made me think of Lee’s LRDG truck build and subsequently, the desert war movie ‘Play Dirty’ that featured Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport.



The plot of the movie is a bunch of British commandos being sent across the desert in a jeep and two light trucks to blow up a fuel depot. The unit is dressed as Italians to fool any local Bedouin they may encounter and the trucks appear to be Mercedes Benz with Afrika Korps markings and MG34s.





The movie was made in 1969, and it turns out however, that the trucks are thinly-disguised Dodge M37s from the Korean War era. This is fairly typical of military movie making of the Sixties, having had T34s and Pattons dressed up as German tanks. Spoiler alert - Pattons make an appearance as British armour at the end of the movie.



It seems to me that the conversion of the M37 drew some inspiration from the Sd.Kfz.8, although it was a half-track, made by Daimler Benz and others.



Making an exact model of the Play Dirty truck is not going to be possible using the parts at hand - the wheel base, wheels and body are all wrong. But given the conversion of the M37s to be a Mercedes Benz, I don’t believe that it is necessary. For a bit of fun I think I can make something similar that, when covered with supplies will be close enough.



The Ural styling is a bit modern even taking into account its Russian heritage, so I got a JJRC Q61 body and wheels to backdate it a little. My main aim was to transplant the mudguards. The headlights were a bonus, but it’s a shame the body did not come with that front bumper bar.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

This will be fun to watch. For simple starters, this is the first time I have seen all the parts in the kit version of the WPL trucks. It’s surprising that as long as the WPL trucks have been ubiquitous, I have not seen that photo. Thanks!

[43rdRecceReg]

I've not seen one of those kits either, Brett, and It's interesting, as well as instructive to see just how many bits are involved.
Have fun!. We'll have fun vicariously, as you progress

[Estnische]

this is the first time I have seen all the parts in the kit version of the WPL trucks.

The KM kits are extremely good value for money. That and the fact that the motor trays, spring mounts, chassis rails and cross-members are identical, means you can make all kinds of Franken-trucks simply and cheaply.

Not sure whether I got this link here, but https://www.xinlehongtoys.com/ is great source of parts for all the WPL stuff. Without widespread knowledge of the various brands, it is time-consuming to navigate their range of models.

I'm still waiting for more parts to show up, such as the controller with a sound card. Light up a durry and I hope you are entertained.

[Will01Capri]

Enjoy, the kit builds from WPL are much better than buying assembled.
I still have a few of those B36 & B16 and others upstairs in the loft. There must only be 20 left haha
The great thing about getting them in kit form is being able to take your time to build them properly unlike some of the pre-assembled models.
But also you can just throw bits away and remake and upgrade at the time of the build.
Enjoy

[Estnische]

Starting with the box of left-overs, I assembled the Ural cabin. It is a credit to how far Heng Long has come, that it clips or screws neatly together without any glue. More importantly, it can be pulled apart without any damage. (Not my pic - forgot to take one)



I added it to the chassis, along with the drivetrain in 4x4 configuration. Then came the Ural tray and Q61 wheels to give me some bearings. It was immediately obvious that the wheelbase would be too long.



The chassis would be easy enough to drill to relocate the rear axle, but would be dependent on driveshaft length. I again went to the spares and found a shorter one. Another trial fit showed I could reduce the wheelbase by around 12mm (or half an inch for the Revolutionaries).



With the axle back in place, I now had a better reference for the size of the rear tray. I then cut-and-shut the tray by taking a slice out of the raised hump for the double-axle wheel wells, to better suit a single axle. The chassis rails were then cut to fit under the tray.

[Estnische]

Next, the tray needed new semi-circular tubs for the rear wheels, and on the Dodge they also form the mudguards on the outside. These were made from 90mm PVC plumbing pipe.



From there I repurposed the Fayee tray sides. There had to be a lot of cut-and-shut, shortening and narrowing the tray sides – the WPL truck tray also sits much higher than on the Dodge. I also had to reshape the tailgate to suit to make use of the original Fayee pivot points. The movie truck kept the original Dodge fuel filler neck behind the rear wheel, so I used another left-over piece, this time from a Heng Long Panther.



I used more pieces of PVC pipe to form the rolled edge of the mudguards. I also made mounting points on the tail gate for some Heng Long pioneering tools. Again it’s an approximation rather than a replication of the movie truck.

[Estnische]

Then it was time to move on to the cabin. Sawing off the roof was fairly straightforward - I chose a body crease as the appropriate line to make the cut. To imitate the movie truck, I placed a spare wheel on the bonnet, but it sits so high that it looks out of place – not exactly what I was hoping. The cabin is also significantly narrower than the rear tray, so I’d have to address that.



The Q61 nose has a similar taper to the Ural, so the guards were cut off along the sides to make way for the Q61 versions - the headlight buckets have to go as well. And it looks better with the spare in the back tray.



With the guards off that leaves square holes. These don’t match the curved guards, so I made some plasticard infills and strips. I also spliced-in a widening strip for the rear of the cabin, and cut out the 'fire-grate' grill.



With the cabin now exposed, the seats and steering wheel look a bit too modern. You can see that the wider cabin is now closer in width to the rear tray. The Ural grill has also been removed, to be replaced by the imitation Mercedes version. The pile of Ural off-cuts and green plastic dust is getting bigger.



For a while it felt as though there weren’t going to be enough matching points to attach the Q61 guards. But lots of trial fitting, grinding and gap filling, eventually saw them glued securely, and to my relief, symmetrically.

[Raminator]

Really neat work with the surgeries Brett, the PVC pipe for the mudguards is a big-brained move. If you can't fit a spare tyre on the bonnet, could you maybe have the windscreen folded down? Might be a way to add make that big, flat area a little busier in line with the inspiration.

[Estnische]

Great suggestion Ram - you're getting the 'look busy' appearance. But my though is a flat glass surface would reflect the sun like a giant beacon. I think a roll of canvas strapped across the front might work.