I am looking for information, photos and plans of the Ford Model T based armoured cars used by the British RNAS in Russia. I've seen the excellant photos posted by Ivan on this forum (here) as well as the BBC web page (here). I've also seen the write-up and plans on the landships site (here, here, and here).
I am trying to get as much detail as I can about the construction of these vehicles in preparation for a full scale, functional replica that is being considered by the Vintage Aviation Historical Foundation. To date this organization has constructed numerous replica WWI aircraft as well as a pre-WWI American armored car. At this point the viability of the project is being considered, so we need to amass as much technical information on this armoured car as we can. Any information, plans, photos, or links to potential sources of additional information that can be posted here or emailed to me directly are most appreciated!
I'll keep everyone here posted if/when construction of this 1:1 scale landship model begins.
I've just come across a reference to these armoured cars. Apprantly, there was a write-up in "Tankette" magazine regarding them. (Vol 17, #2) Have any forum members out there seen this article? Is the information there likely to be useful? Are there any plans or photos?
The Polish booklet "Samochod Pancerny Ford" by Janusz Magnuski may be of some help. It shows a similar vehicle with a spare wheel on the cab roof and a machine gun in the rear.
The caption says: Ford T opancerzony wg. projektu L Gutteridge w grudniu 1916 w W. Brytanii i uzywany w Rosji od 1917. Calkowicie osloniety pancerzem byl tylko kierowca natomiast strzelec karabinu maszynowego mial tylko czesciowa oslone.
Hi MarkV, Have sent PM requesting E Mail address.Tankette article is scanned and ready to send.It also refers to an Airfix article in the dim past which I will search for in the archives.
Another view also appears in the Polish booklet "Samochod Pancerny Ford" by Janusz Magnuski. The caption says:
Ford T opancerzony wg. projektu L. Gutteridge w grudniu 1916 w W. Brytanii i uzywany w Rosji od 1917. Calkowicie osloniety pancerzem byl tylko kierowca natomiast strzelec karabinu maszynowego mial tylko czesciowa oslone.
'Ford according to project in december in (to) .l 1916 armored britain T Gutteridge W. and in russia from 1917 uzywany. However, driver archer of engine rifle armor only only Calkowicie osloniety byl mial czesciowa oslone.'
Which I think means that only the driver, the engine compartment and the gun were armoured!
And, slightly related, on this forum they show a replica Ford Tfc being built:
I'm the author of the Tankette article - lo' those many years ago! After reading the old Airfix article from Bryan Perrett, I became interested in the Ford and decided to do my own research as the Airfix version didn't look right to me.
I pretty much obtained all the photos that were available at the time from Bovington and came up the drawings from there.
The Ford used was a righthand steer car, and the rear of the car is curved instead of square - as per the Airfix article.
The color was likely khaki and markings were pretty sparse - a russian roundel and some car numbers. Let me know if I can be of any help!
A fabulous recreation. Well done to all those involved... and top marks to whoever spotted, and identified, what that odd bit of armour plate in the trench belonged to.
The Tfc site also has posted a copy of the picture appearing in Magnuski's booklet.
Hi members, I was reading this thread for some thing to do and there are a few things needed to build one and there is a error here, to nail creek, I did a story on these for the ford club some years back and I paided researchers to go through all the records and from what we found was that it was a navy build and they used the old battle ship grey, which if you check your photos you should see the light colour. The only markings we could find listed was a british plate numbers which can be seen in some photos. I also obtained a full size body plan drawn out for use to build one as a unit of the Australian Army had pie in the sky ideas of building one for show or the officer did as one came out here but was destroyed for scrap metal. It was returned as a war trophy from our troops in Russia in the late teens as they collected all kinds of goodies. the body was built out of about 1/2inch boiler plate with lots of mods to the running gaer to hold the weight but the idea for the rebuild was to use ballistic aluminium of the same thickness but 1/3 the weight and real guns. I am happy to give any details that I have if you want them and I can be contacted at ...... stralgren@yahoo.com.au signed RG
I have purchased a Model T with a view to building this AC. Would you be willing to share your findings!? How far have you got with your build? Any help would be very much appreciated.
Hi, These plans came from a Russian website which I cannot find again. so all credits go to the owner. Hope they are of use. Paul
I would be guessing Aleksandr N. Kalashnik, Omsk December 1992 (but my Russian is hopeless) - could still be around but note stral gren's post following that post.
I have looked at this AC, I bought a Lindberg 1/16th T to build an ambulance or TT but the kit is not too good, so I thought of using it as a basis of the AC. A query on this forum brought some if not all the photos attached.
-- Edited by LincolnTanker on Thursday 15th of December 2011 01:44:00 AM
The first set of phopto's are from the gallery of Landships 1,they were built by Libor Matejka ,who I think was (is) the owner of Panzer shop.They are 1:35 scale. I am not sure but I think he released it as a kit.
Hi Rob, the Revell T is 1/16th. I wonder if this is a badge engineering job as it is crude in some areas, wheels, springs, rear axle. I wonder if it's the old Union tooling. Heck of a lot better than the Lindberg one. Not up to the usual Revell standard.