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Old 09-26-2021, 04:11 PM
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CharlieC CharlieC is offline
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Ford 3 ton artillery tractor

At Don Boose's suggestion here's my take on the Ford 3 ton tank.

In 1918 the French Army tested 3 (I think) Ford 3 ton tanks in France against the local Renault FT. They thought it was inferior to the FT as a tank but thought that it would make a useful artillery tractor for light field pieces such as the 75mm Mle 1897 and 105mm Mle 1913 guns. The French Army was mechanising as much of their artillery as they could and were proposing to use the local Peugeot T3 light agricultural tractor to tow light guns. French industry was unlikely to be able to build the required number of tow vehicles so the Ford vehicle was viewed as a viable alternative. Some 1500 were ordered but with the end of the war the orders were canceled before any French 3 ton vehicles were delivered. I thought a 3 ton artillery tractor might be an unusual model.

The model is a free 3 ton tank model from (I think) a Russian designer. It's a few years old, my copy has 2012 as a file date. Instructions are minimal and the original colour was green - I changed this to approximately "gris artillerie" (Artillery Grey). The fit of parts is reasonable once you figure out where they go. Made lots of changes to the original model - some which might have been reasonable for an artillery tractor and some to get around deficiencies in the model - here are some of them:

- The machine gun port was covered over - an armed artillery tractor is just silly. (Before I get complaints that the US Army had armed artillery tractors in WW2 this wasn't so in WW1).
- The tail was left off - trench crossing was never going to be a thing for a tractor.
- The tow hook was a scan from a 1:25 model of a Latil TAR truck so the shape is close to French WW1 tow hooks.
- The exhausts from the two Model T engines are scratch built the model didn't have them.
- The rivets are the tedious small disks shaped with a ball ended tool and glued on - fortunately it's a small model so insanity (more than the usual) didn't ensue.
- The tracks were a nightmare - I just built something from the parts which looked something like the original. I used the technique of gluing the cut band track elements to baking parchment them gluing the tow sides together. It gives the track model some flexibility.
- The driver's cupola is a mess - I might try to fix it in the future.
- The hull box is weak so the axles for the drive sprockets and idler springs go right through the hull.

And now I've got to finish the model of a gun for the tractor. I had a 1:25 GPM Mle 1897 in my stash. It's a simple model and not very accurate but will do for this purpose.

The images are pretty average - taken with my old, cheap phone.

Regards,

Charlie

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Attached Thumbnails
Ford 3 ton artillery tractor-3_ton_1.jpg   Ford 3 ton artillery tractor-3-ton_2.jpg   Ford 3 ton artillery tractor-3-ton_3.jpg   Ford 3 ton artillery tractor-3_ton_4.jpg  

Last edited by CharlieC; 09-26-2021 at 04:28 PM.
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  #2  
Old 09-26-2021, 04:23 PM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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An outstanding model, Charlie, and a lot of good information. Having built a VERY much simpler version of the Three Tonner, I can appreciate the skill and effort that went into this model.

It will look great with a gun behind it.

Don
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Old 09-26-2021, 05:23 PM
rmks2000 rmks2000 is offline
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Very nice detail.
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Old 09-26-2021, 05:42 PM
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Vinalssergio155 Vinalssergio155 is offline
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Wonderful work Charlie, and with valuable information for which we do not know much.
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Old 09-27-2021, 11:41 AM
rifleman rifleman is offline
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i echo the others and well done
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Old 07-15-2023, 07:25 PM
MajorCarnage MajorCarnage is offline
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Hi Charlie. I have been looking everywhere for a model of this vehicle. Do you still have the file, and if so could you send it to me?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Shawn
shawncarreau at hotmail.com

Last edited by Texman; 07-16-2023 at 05:00 AM. Reason: Edit email address to prevent spambot harvesting
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