I have managed to get side-tracked for a bit here with model building. Most of my current efforts have been focused on the pair of 1/24th scale MPC Space 1999 Moon Buggy /AmphiCat 6X6 ATV kits. I combined the kits into one box. Gave away the astronaut figures to a guy at the last Seattle IPMS meeting and then spent a lot of time going through the various containers and bags of vehicle peculiar parts to see what could be used in building the two AmphiCat 6X6 ATV into something not Space 1999 related.
One of the first things I realized on the AmphiCat was the lack of space for passengers. Couple that with the fact that these AmphiCats are now no longer 1/24th scale but 1/35th scale the vehicle was suddenly much larger and thus should be able to accommodate a lot more than just two figures. While I am not going to add more than one seat for each vehicle I finally decided on a pair of seats from a pair of ancient ESCI HMMWV Avenger kits. The seats from the Avenger turret were about all that was saved from the two kits as they were quite simple and toy-like, a feature that many of the old ESCI kits seemed to have featured. Now with the seating issue out of the way I could focus on other modifications to the two vehicles.
The rear of the AmphiCat/Moon Buggy is not that spacious in the original scale but in the 1/35th scale interpretation that same issue still prevails and due to the vehicle being much larger all around the large bump in the center over the engine compartment was now kind of in the way since the engine would not be anywhere near as large in 1/35th scale the big hump had to go. My first attempt was to hack up two pairs of bulkheads from some DML/Dragon Models OH-6/Hughes 500 helicopter kits that I had disposed of years ago. This seemed to work but it was just not quite where I was hoping it would go so I tossed the bulkhead bits and started digging through the parts containers again. Bingo! Found my solution in the cargo ramp section of a pair of now long gone CH-46 Sea Knights that with some modifications fit perfectly in the space provided by the original engine cover/rear deck. The cargo ramp features were ideal for what would be an area intended to carry small loads secured to the vehicle.
I did some additional modifications to the portion of the engine cover to use the front portion that was supposed to hold the passenger/driver seat so that it would take the replacement seat and move it forward into the driver/passenger compartment and make up for the larger open space now that the vehicle was being converted to 1/35th scale so it was much larger in this area than it neded to be. Some fitting issues were encountered but after much fiddling around the problem was either ignored or I sanded enough material way so that the problem disappeared. Either way, success!
The lower body is pretty much unaltered save for some modified parts added to the sides between the wheel locations to suggest reinforcements to the lower body and a means of securing the vehicle to something during transport. The parts were sourced from an AFV Club Churchill AVRE that carried the Snake linear explosive mine and obstacle clearing charge on either side of the vehicle. I had obtained these parts from one of the eBay selleres that offers kit parts at sometimes reasonable prices. These particular parts had been taking up space with no foreseeable purpose beyond taking up space prior to disposal so it was nice to put the bits to use and be done with it.
The upper body section of the AmphiCat/Moon Buggy has been modified with an exhaust pipe had been saved from an Italeri Panther tank kit was parted out/disposed of a long time ago. The exhaust pipes had some nice detail but were always just a bit "off" for being put to use until now. I cut the exhaust pipe proper away from the armored mount that left me with the exhaust pipe and the armored part that still had potential use. Since the scale-o-rama AmphiCat needed some kind of engine air-intake feature in addition to the exhaust pipe this armored bit was attached to the inside of the upper body at the rear and now serves as the engine air-intake feature. It takes up space in the corner opposite of the extended exhaust pipe that occupies the other rear corner. Problem solved! The extended exhaust pipe has a structure in front of it to blank off where the pipe meets the deck in the corner of the vehicle and this was created from the back bracing component of the passenger seat. It had a "structural" look to it and was either going to be put to use or tossed in the trash. I think this was the better choice. The original exhaust pipe part from the kit was quite small and the instructions called for it to be attached to the lower hull just behind one of the rear wheels and completely out of sight. The new exhaust pipe looks more appropriate for a larger AmphiCat vehicle and sticking up above the vehicle as it does, gives it a more all-terrain vehicle look, certainly much more powerful/purposeful than the original kit part.
With the exhaust and air-intake issue resolved there is not much left to do with the upper body so my last effort was to add a small flat area to the left side of the upper body where some kind of stylish design feature had been located. This same feature is at the oppisite and also on the rear of the upper body. It may have been part of the original design to add additional lights to the front and rear to make the vehicle road/street legal but there is nothing in the kit instructions as to what these features are for. I opted to add a small piece of flat plastic to the right side feature to create a small platform upon which things could be placed or perhaps some nimble and sure footed person could maybe stand on while surveilling the area around them such as when exploring new territories or hunting apex predators. Keeping it simple is the main focus and avoiding the dreaded siren song of adding more details and cluttering it up further is where I was trying to keep this project going and so far it seems to be working.
The original MPC Moon Buggy kit has no instrument panel so that was a blank slate right out of the box. The tiller handles/driver controls are far too large to be used for the 1/35th scale project so something new had to be created to address this issue. I modified a pair of 1/48th scale F-16 instrument panels by removing the outboard sections to leave me with a small irregular shape that just fits across the span of the front of the upper body in the passenger/driver area. The instrument panel has one small CRT and a number of buttons, just enough to look busy and as if it belonged on this vehicle. The driving controls are the next issue. I found some ancient HobbyCraft Ar-234 control yokes and decided that these would be ideal for the driving controls. As an alternative to this I may have to use something else but I am hoping this will pass as looking the part. All will be determined once I have sorted out how to mount the things to the vehicle and make it look ergonomically appropriate.
I have yet to attach the axles or assemble the wheels/tires so that portion of the project remains in limbo for the moment.
