FoW: Slovak Trucks, tractors and Staff Cars

... and so finally we come to the end of our Slovakian odyssey (of course that's not to say in the future I won't consider adding some Praga AV staff cars and some LT vz.38's and 40's) but for now? No!!! That's it! I'm done with all things Slovakian for a while.

I thought we would tie the rope around the neck of the project with a look into the vehicles that I actually sculpted and cast for the army. Just a short section on each, y'know a bit of history (as I am wont to do on occasion) a description of how I painted them and a couple of photos of them in production and finished.

Nothing too labour intensive! I want to finish on a high note if you know what I mean?

So what are we going to take a look at then?

Well first of all it has to be the backbone of the Slovak Mobile forces; the Praga RV truck of which I made three types; the canvas back, the box back and the pioneer truck.

Secondly we will look at the Praga T-9 artillery tractor. A big beast of a machine that sadly only saw a short service lift BUT looks great when its put with its heavy anti-aircraft batteries.

Finally we will take a look at the Tatra 57k 'Hadimrška' staff car. I chose this one over the larger six wheeled Praga AV staff car because primarily it was quicker and easier to knock out, secondly the Germans used plenty of them so they were a good analogue for a German staff car as well and by the time Slovakia marched across the border of the Soviet Union they were using so many different types of automobiles that I didn't think it made much difference what I chose.

So... let us begin!

The Praga RV 

The Praga RV was an army off-road truck model that was designed and manufactured by Praga between 1935 and 1939. It was predominantly used for transporting military cargo and personnel, as an ambulance and for towing artillery in the Czechoslovakian and later Slovak, German and Romanian armies. A total of 3290 vehicles were slated for use in Czechoslovakia whilst the rest of a total of 5500 produced units, were exported to Iran, Peru, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

The Praga RV engine was able to work up 3468cc providing 68 horsepower at 2600 rpm. The fuel consumption was anything up to 35 litres per 100km which was a respectable figure (the German Opel Blitz for example used 30 litres per 100km which was one of the best in its class). The PRaga RV had three axles of which both rear axles were powered. It had four forward gears and one reverse gear so it was easy to drive too. It had a rated payload of 2000 kg and was capable of travelling at 43 mph for a total of 390 km without needing to stop to refuelling its 137 litre fuel tank.

When carrying infantry the typical capacity was 8-12 men with all of their equipment. 7-11 in the rear deck and one more in the cab with the driver.

On top of all of this it was also capable of pulling a three ton trailer load, be that an artillery piece or other wheeled vehicles although with the trailer the fuel consumption did increase to 49 litres per 100 km.

In 1938 fifty nine of the trucks were chosen to be converted into radio communication vehicles for use with the Fast Divisions and motorised assets.

Feedback on the use of these trucks under combat conditions was favourable with Maczeks Polish Black Brigade's reconnaissance battalion using a lot of them in their campaign across Southern Poland in 1939. The Slovakians kept a hold of these vehicles as long as they could due to their reliability and longevity whilst no complaints were heard from either the Germans or the Romanians!

The Praga T-9 Artillery Tractor

So, this is one of my favourite pieces in case you couldn't tell?

The Praga T-9 was a Czechoslovakian heavy artillery tractor designed in the late 1930's and was used by Slovakia and Germany during World War 2 in order to pull their heavy anti-aircraft artillery.

In 1937 a heavy artillery tractor was developed at the Ceskomoravska Kolben Danek (CKD) plant in Prague for the Turkish army. This vehicle was designated T-9. Turkey ordered a total of 66 vehicles of this type but between 1937-1939 only 16 tractors had been manufactured and sent to Turkey (as seen in the image above).

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany in March 1939 further production of this vehicle was assumed by Germany and after completion an additional series of 10 vehicles was also produced. Production ceased completely in 1943 by which time a total of 76 T-9 tractors had been manufactured between 1937-1943.

The tractors that were taken over by the Germans assumed the identity Schwerer Raupenschlepper T9(t).

16 of the tractors produced were supplied to the Turkish army whilst the Germans took 55 for themselves leaving Slovakia with a grand total of five where they were used to tow the newly provided 88mm anti-aircraft guns in the Slovak Fast Division.

The T-9 was constructed around a tracked chassis which supported an enclosed unarmoured crew cabin and a cargo compartment that could be covered with a tarpaulin. The cargo deck had room for six soldiers with all of their equipment.

It was equipped with a 6-cylinder petrol engine with a capacity of 14,230 cm cubed, was water cooled with 142 bhp and was adapted to tow a trailer or pull an artillery piece weighing up to ten tonnes as well as being able to carry a further ton of weight on its cargo deck.

Due to problems with the engine and transmission the Praga T-9 was withdrawn from service by the Slovaks towards the end of their campaign in the Soviet Union and replaced with German tractors instead.

The Tatra 57k 'Hadimrška' staff car

So this innocuous little car was produced by the thousand by Czechoslovakian manufacturer Tatra. The 'k', from the German 'kubelwagon' was a military version of the Tatra 57 produced between 1941 and 1947.

The car was derived from the Tatra 57B, with the chassis being given greater ground clearance than the 57B to enable better terrain negotiation. This was achieved by adjusting the location of the front axle pins and using reinforced leaf springs on both axles.

The front of the body almost matched the 57B but moving from the windscreen back there were a lot of differences between the cars. The angular five seater body had four small doors, a folding canvas roof and makeshift side windows.

A spare wheel and two 20 litre jerry cans were hung on the back on an upright tail wall. Some cars were also fitted with a folding windscreen. In addition to this the car was equipped with a dashboard lubrication pressure gauge, Furthermore, closures for direct dispensing of gasoline or ether were placed in the suction line to facilitate starting the engine in extremely cold weather.

The car was designed and manufactured at the Ringhoffer Tatra Werke AG factory for the Wehrmacht up until 1944 of which a number were provided to the Slovakian armed forces. During 1941, 200 T57k cars were produced, more than 2,000 the following year and more than 3,500 in 1943.

After the war the production of the T57k series continued and amounted to the sum of a further 500 units by Tatra which were used by the newly reformed Czechoslovakian military and Ministry of the Interior before being gradually replaced.

It had a 1256cc overhead valve flat four cylinder engine that produced 24 bhp. Its fuel consumption was between 8-10 litres per 100 km and the bodies that were available included a four seat saloon, a four seat convertible and a two seat convertible. All versions had only two car doors.

So I think thats enough of the history, now why don't we crack on the with the modelling?

With regards to the sculpting and casting of these vehicles I would like to say that its a lot simpler than you may be inclined to think.

Essentially I work from schematics that have been scaled to the size of the piece that I want to produce and then I use different types of plastic sheet, rod and tubes, along with brass sheet, rod and tube and a selection of different sculpting resins to think my way around how to produce the shapes.

Below are examples of the types of schematics I use:

Once the master has been produced I then need to create the mold for it and get them cast up.

You can see an example of one of my finished masters above; the Praga T-9 artillery tractor before the side plates for the track sections are applied to it. This was cast up in three separate pieces, with the main body and the two separate track sections.

... and above you can see an example of a single piece casting. After I completed my Black Brigade project I reflected that one of the most problematic areas was the fact that I had cast all of the wheels separately which turned out to be a monster pain in the ass so when I was sculpting all of my new vehicles with a solid plinth which allowed me to place the wheels directly onto the master without an introduction of a weakness into the vehicle.

One of my previous posts is about the casting up of all of my Polish Black Brigade vehicles so I wont waste time with it here suffice to say that I use two part silicon to create the mold. It is poured over the vehicle I am making the mold for which is placed onto a blu-tack plinth on a wooden base board and surrounded with Lego walls.

When the silicon is poured the whole thing is then placed in a vacuum cylinder until the majority of the air bubbles are forced out of it. The whole thing is then placed on a shelf overnight until ready for the casting.

The casting is conducted in the same process as making the mold except this time instead of the Lego wall and wooden base board the two part resin is poured directly into the mold which is then immediately placed into the vacuum cylinder until the air is drawn out.

If you don't do this the final cured cast of the vehicle will be covered in tiny holes... not a nice end to your work.

Once all of these vehicles has been cast up and placed to one side they then need to be cleaned up. Without a doubt the messiest part of the job.

As you can see from the image above, all of the cast vehicles come out of their molds still mounted on a resin plinth. These need to be removed.

It is this particular part where all of the mess is concerned... a lesson that I had to learn the hard way! With over 40 vehicles to cut off of their plinths with my Dremel disc saw I certainly wasn't expecting what I got.

My work room was covered and I do mean COVERED in resin dust!!!

However the final results can't be argued with.

Truth be told though, after three hours or so of cleaning vehicles with a disc saw I walked out of my man cave somewhat covered and thanking God that I had a decent face mask... could really have done with some decent goggles though... Take note guys!

So the painting of these vehicles is where the real complexity begins, however one good thing is that the same paint scheme is used all the way across all of them. I should also point out by the way that I have opted not to apply mud and spattering weathering to these pieces as I kind of really like the clean but battered look of them. They do have plenty of knocks and rusty battered parts which adds to the scheme but that is where I have chosen to draw the line.

The main paint scheme  is done by airbrush using my MIG Aircobra for the Priming and Basecoating and my Harder & Steenbeck for all of the shading and highlighting as my H&S has a 0.15 needle and provides a hell of a lot more control... but the MIG is SOOOOO easy to clean it just makes sense to use it where I can...

The Airbrushing steps are as follows:

i) The model is primed with a Matt Black Etch Primer

ii) The basecoat is Tamiya's XF-58's Olive Green

iii) The first highlight is LifeColors UA221 Khaki Olive Drab applied in a panel highlight fashion

iv) The second highlight is LifeColors UA224 Olive Drab Faded Type 2 applied as above but a bit lighter and gathered in along the edges and prominent areas

v) The third highlight is a 50/50 mix of LifeColors UA224 Olive Drab Faded Type 2 with LifeColor 01 White. This is applied sparingly just along the edges and prominent areas.

So that's the airbrushing complete and don't be overly concerned if your third highlight was too heavy as the next step will, if done correctly will tone the whole contrasted effect down.

vi) Now we apply the Filter over the whole thing to unify the colour aesthetic and clip the contrast a little. I apply MIG's Filter 1506 Brown for Dark Green.

vii) Once dry, wipe off any serious excess from where it may have pooled but otherwise leave it untouched.

viii) At this point I apply the first layer of Varnish. It doesn't matter which varnish you choose so long as it fixes the Filter layer as its an oil based layer.

Once the varnish is dry its time for the next layer which is where the real depth starts to come out.

ix) Over every detail laden part of the model apply a Wash. I use AK Interactives Wash 075 Wash for NATO Camouflage Vehicles. Don't be shy with this step. Slap it on aplenty! Then leave to dry for a while.

x) Once its dry use cotton buds (cue tips for you Yankees out there...) and use a gentle white spirit to wipe away the excess leaving great detail and shadowing around all of your detail areas and a general lowering of the overall chroma luminosity. Personally I use Winsor & Newtons Artists White Spirit as I had a bad experience with normal white spirit and have no wish to repeat the disaster!

xi) Once the whole piece is dry to the touch apply another layer of varnish to fix everything in place.

... once all of the actual painting steps proper have been squared away the last thing to do on the miniature is actually the rusted patches. For this just use an old kitchen sponge and dab on Vallejo's Panzer Aces 302 Dark Rust along the edges of the gun shield and other edges and spots across different patches of the model.

These Dark Rust elements then have the heaviest sections lined with Vallejo's Model Color 819 Iraqi Sand. These lines need to be very fine but also work well to work in as actual scratches into the overall paint scheme.

The canvas backs on the Praga RV's and the Tatra 57k had a base coat of MIGs Khaki Green No.3 (Brit 1939-42). The first highlight was applied with Vallejo Model Color 821 German Camo Beige and a final highlight of Vallejo Model Color V819 Iraqi Sand

The windows are all painted the same way with a GW Base Abaddon Black with thin white lines (any white will do) to emulate reflections.

The very last thing that needs to be done with the painting is the wheels and tracks. The wheels are painted  with LifeColor's UA733 Tire Black and highlighted with Vallejo's Model Color 995 German Grey.

The Praga T-9 tracks are somewhat of a different proposition though with a number of steps as follows:
i) A basecoat of Vallejo Panzer Aces 304 Track Primer is applied all over the tracks
ii) Vallejo Model Color 863 Gunmetal Grey is drybrushed across the tracks
iii) A wash of AK Interactives 083 Track Wash is then applied across the tracks.
iv) A light coating of AK Interactives 065 Afrika Korps Filter is then applied to the bogies
v) Once the above coat is dry the profiling of the tracks and bogies can be done using AK Interactive's 075 Wash for NATO Camo Vehicles with the excess then wiped away and then left to dry
vi) Now is the time to apply your weathering pigments if you choose to go this far,

Varnish one final time with a super matt varnish and just to finish everything off completely put a super gloss varnish over any windows that you have painted and that as they say is that!

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of my Slovakian adventure. We've covered a lot of ground and I hope that if there are any of you out there that want to do a Slovak army that all of these posts will provide you with a solid basis of being able to put your own one together...

Now go have fun and remember to pack your bayonets!