Vauxhall type D, 1912-1922, scale 1-148

The Vauxhall Type D was an upper-class car produced by Vauxhall Motors from 1912 to 1915 and again from 1921 to 1922 as the Vauxhall 25. More than 1,500 were delivered to the British Army as command staff or ambulance transport vehicles during the First World War. After the war many of them were sold, similar as with the war department lorries and used in civil service or as private cars.

Some notes to the models:

To preserve the chassis’ subtle character, I couldn't print the wheels together with the axles. Therefore, I reverted to printing them individually, something I haven't done in a long time. To solve the painting problem, I designed a two-part masking tool. First, paint the wheels silver (spoked wheels) or the desired color (disc wheels), then place them into the tool and airbrush the edges with tire black in two runs, rotating them between runs.

The next problem with individual wheels is securely gluing them at the axle tips. I've designed a special assembly tool for this as well. It's best to first fully assemble/glue together the body and chassis (except for the closed soft top) and then glue the wheels on as the final step. To do this, press the chassis into the tool's corresponding recesses, apply glue to the axle tips, insert the wheels into the corresponding grooves, and press them against the axle tips. Leave the assembled vehicle to dry in the tool so that the wheels stick in the correct position.

As usual, I created the windows using “Mikro Kristal Klear” (MKK). This isn't always easy, because the steering wheel or seats are directly behind them, and some of the windows are quite large. Using the standard toothpick method easily creates clumps all over the vehicle. Therefore, I often wedge a piece of old FEP film behind the window and then create the glass on top of that film. Once the window is created, I very carefully peel the FEP film upwards to give the glass surface free. Then, I remove any remaining residue from the back and let the MKK dry. It is also possible to let the MKK dry first and then remove the FEP film. All this works on a small scale; for larger scales, you must cut out glass surfaces from foil or print the glazing I created with transparent resin but be aware I never printed and used them myself – so it’s on your own risk.

Have fun printing, painting, and assembling! Feel free to show me photos of your models and their use in layouts or dioramas... that always motivates me to create and share even more models.

Model sized for British n-scale (1:148). Conversion values:
Continental N-scale, 1:160 -> 92.5%
TT-gauge, 1:120 -> 123%
HO/H0-gauge, 1:87 -> 170%
OO/00-gauge, 1:76 -> 195%
S-gauge, 1:64 -> 231%
O-gauge, 1:48 -> 308%

Please note the license:
This design is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license, which means that you can freely use this model for any non-commercial purpose and may remix this model freely as long as you provide attribution to the designer and share with the same creative commons license. Feel free to contact me if any questions.