The model started off as a static kit from a long out of business company called M&C flat armor. the kits were very basic and were designed to be a economical simple rendition of the 222. They were made out of water jet cut Styrene sheets and you would cut them out and glue them together
Very few of these kits were produced back around 2005 and the company went out of business shortly after 2006. One advantage that the kit has was the feature of having a separate body from the chassis frame. It was because of this feature I was able to start with the rebuilding / scratch building. For this project I was going to use from the kit the Body, frame parts, and the turret. Everything else including the suspension, transmission, interior, Flak Gun carriage, and exterior detailing will need to be scratch built.
Starting with the frame only two of the side panels were used, there shape was modded to make them more accurate, and they were thickened to mimic the steel tube structure that the 222 frame was compromised of. Once thickened the frame was assembled.
Once the frame was together I then focused on the differentials and the suspension. The suspension on this model is full function complete with both steering and shock articulation
Once complete the transmission was fabricated and mounted, which then completed most of the chassis. Because I was unable to find any good references on the engine, no engine was fabricated for this build. Once the last of the chassis parts were fabricated the chassis went into paint
To which I was then able to start fabricating the interior details
Once the floor boards were done I then concentrated on the body assembly / interior
Once all the interior details were done the interior was painted / weathered and the body was attached to the frame via mounting straps like the real vehicle. the side door detailing was also completed and were made functional. Due to the shape of the 222's hull the handles had to have been made functional as to keep the door on the model from opening up all the time. To open from the outside you use an allen wrench as a key which was similar to the real unit.
After the interior was wrapped I then worked on the grillwork. This was all scratch built out of metal strips and was soldered together. All intricate details were modeled into this component.
Once complete I moved on to the turret fabrication and the gun. The turret is the kit original and is waiting to be modded once the gun is complete.
The gun carriage has been taking me the most amount of time thus far, it is 100% scratch built. it utilizes a Dragon MG34 and a Dragon Flak
Lots of time have been spent analyzing detail photographs and tooling up all the various components.
The carriage features full details and functionality including recoiling flak mount, adjustable seats, and real spring / cog chain controlled elevation buffer
Currently the mount is 90% complete and I'm tooling up the last small bits... which should be done within the coming weeks
Lots of pics of this project were posted on the ECA facebook page,
http://www.facebook.com/EastCoastArmory
and many youtube videos were made during the duration of the build. There is a whole playlist in chronological order so you follow the coarse of the build,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewET0JI ... Yt-c3Zh05v
Also the full build with all the technical and historical info is found on the following link,
http://sixtharmygroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18722
With the gun almost complete the rest of the build should be down hill, and may be completed by the late winter of 2016. More to come!
