Wheeled Desert Caravans and wheels...

The start of a new Model, a wheeled Desert Caravan, in both a 4 and 6 wheeled formats. The actual suspension for the wheels is yet to be decided, though I am leaning towards a regulare under the body sor of suspension for the 6-wheel and the external strut for the 4-wheel. Conceptually a combination of gypsy wagon, antique truck (cab-forward 1910-1920s) and SF off-road truck. 

First up is a picture of the cartoon of the model.

Following are pictures of the construction of the wheels. I am using a new idea for these the core is made up of 3/8ths of an inch (approx. 1 scale meter) chunks of telescoping styrene tube from Evergreen Plastics. The end cap is a bit of card glued on then trimmed to round. I used a little electric cut-off/miter saw from Harborfreight for my cuts. I nested the tubes to my desired width, and marked my depth on the outer tube and cut each chunk as a whole to minimize the number of cuts, Though a miter box and razor saw wouldn't have been much effort either.

Note on scale, I use 3/8ths of an inch as my default 1 meter in scale while it tends to give a absolute scale of 1/95.75th, once the skin is on most vehicles it rounds out to approx. 1/100th. This allows use of the prevalent measuring system of materials to speed construction. 

 

Here are some rough cut chunks bamboo stick, for use as handles durning construction. A dab of Greenstuff keeps the handle in the center of the smallist tube. I would have used styrene rod, but I want to keep the option of placing the wheel in the chuck of a rotary took for sanding and shaping, and the styrene rod won't hold up.

Pictures of the wheel hubs being put together. 

The Greenstuff tires started. The detail doesn't show up very well in this picture. 

The last part of this project is figuring out what the crew of these vehicles are going to look like. This year I am trying to have a crew picked out and finished alongside the vehicles I make. Kinda a Pimp my Ride and Crew Pledge. This pledge may extend to buildings as well, depending if I get Wastelands Village Buildings idea up and running. It basically is a generic idea of building the survival basics as terrain, so House, Water Source, small plot/Greenhouse farm, assorted workshop/business and Defensive buildings plan. All are to be build on standard bases, I am using Flames-of-War large bases as they are relatively cheep and a good size.