I recently purchased a toy German SdKfz.222 armoured car on Ebay, intending to rebuild it
as a scale model (as with the Sherman and Bradley). It arrived today and, though I knew it
was large (it is an “Action Man” toy) I wasn’t prepared for how HUGE it was - the vehicle
is 19 inches long, which works out at roughly 1/9 scale. I’m still not sure where to put it 
- particularly since I have also purchased the Scorpion and Sheridan tanks in the same toy series (haven’t received them yet though)
On the other hand, its huge size gives it equally huge potential for adding scratchbuilt detail both
inside and out. The AFV Interiors website has a large number of B&W and colour photos of the vehicle,
both archive pictures and photos of a restored example, and I have printed these out for reference.
Though it’s a toy, the 222 seems pretty accurate in terms of shape and external detail. All the hatches,
etc. are in the right place. The surface even has a quite convincing “rough steel” look with weld seams.
The headlights and tools are very crude though and will have to be sawn off and replaced with scratchbuilt ones.
Also, the gun is missing, but from photos I’ve seen, the gun on this toy is very oversized and inaccurate, so it would have to be replaced anyway.
Unfortunately like all the Action Man vehicles it is made from a slightly soft, non-styrene plastic which means I’ll
have to use cyanoacrylate to attach the scratchbuilt parts.
I may try to motorize the model if I can find a suitable motor and gears. Unfortunately, being a wheeled vehicle,
it isn’t really suitable for converting to RC, as there is no way to steer it (adding a working steering system is a bit
beyond my abilities) but a simple on/off motor powering the rear axle would be feasible.
Anyway I’ll keep you updated on progress with the model.
Here are some pics of the armoured car - in its “out-of-the-box” state, no work done yet…
To give an idea of its size, see if you can spot the Airfix 1/72 SdKfz.222 in this picture
HEY,
Man, i dont know how you could do stuff like that. But then again, im sure its wicked fun. Gonne be a nice projects for ya. Is that a smaller cersion of it in the last pic? Nice touch. Make sure to post some progress pics.
Randy
Drawde,
looks like there is a lot of potential there for another very cool upgrade/build - up.
make sure you check out
http://afvinteriors.hobbyvista.com/222/222a.html
they have 3 pages (links to pages 2 & 3 are at the bottom of the first page)
of very good reference stuff if you are going the super detail route.
keep us posted on your build.
hmmm. nice size. many ideas floating around now.
joe
Look like you’ll have fun this this action, man!
[:D] thats big,lots of room to play,it will be a cool build when its finished[:D]
gdarwin[roy]
Very interested in how this turns out, keep us posted on your progress. The Bradley was cool to see come together, I’m sure this one will be no different. [tup]
You sure love a challenge! Look forward to your progress, it is a favourite vehicle of mine.
The size is indeed very big.
I used to own this one, a tank and a 2 seater helicopter of that series when I was a little boy.
Nice buy! Nowadays I wish I didn’t get rid of my action man collection.
I’ve decided to postpone rebuilding this until I have finished the Bradley (which still needs some minor external
details, a driver’s instrument panel, external and internal stowage/clutter, and of course painting and markings!). I
don’t really have enough space to work on two projects this large at once!
The Sheridan should arrive in the post in a few days and I’ll post some pics of that also if anyone’s interested.
There were quite a few military vehicles in the Action Man series and most of them are reasonably accurate scale models though many of them (including the 222) suffer from crude moulded-on details such as tools and fuel cans. They seem to all be between 1/8 and 1/12 in scale. The ones I’ve seen (on Ebay and at car boot sales) are:
- Alvis Scorpion tank (the most accurate and cleanly-moulded of the lot, it even has working hatches!)
- Sheridan tank (basically accurate although it has only 4 main wheels rather than 5)
- M41 Walker Bulldog tank (hull/turret are basically accurate, but the suspension, other than the sprocket and idler, are
moulded as a single block, which looks terrible and would be a lot of work to correct)
- SdKfz.222
- SdKfz.251 halftrack (this one is -very- inaccurate in shape, and would be virtually impossible to make a decent model
out of)
- Ferret scout car (turretless - you could probably scratchbuild a turret from Plasticard to convert it into a standard
Ferret armoured car)
- Samson APC (based on the Scorpion chassis)
- Fox armoured car (Saladin chassis with a Scorpion turret)
- another British turretless scout car (unsure of the type but it is not a Ferret)
- Bedford truck
- Jeep