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SCRATCH-BUILD YOUR OWN M-311 VERMIN APC Written
by Risto "Griefbringer" Koivunen
(rkoivune_at_cc.hut.fi) This article features how
to build your own Vermin using very simple and
cheap materials. In addition to these written
instruction you will need the sheets of templates
for making the parts last two pages, and a
sheet with pictures on how to assemble the parts
together incorporated. When properly used,
cardboards or plastics make for a surprisingly
sturdy but light vehicle - you cannot break a
vermin just by dropping it on the floor (you
wont even scratch the paint), but if you manage
to damage it badly you might be forced to
construct a new one (however, some of the more
difficult parts - wheels and turret - are easy to
reuse in a new vehicle). You can use the old
one for your damaged vehicle if it gets blown
up!-Veez Notice Warzone and Mutant Chronicles
are registered trademarks of Excelsior
Entertainment. M-311 IMPERIAL VERMIN APC M-311
Armored Personnel Carrier (commonly known by
nickname Vermin) is the most common armored
vehicle used by the Imperial Army. Moving on six
large wheels, Vermin is capable of carrying a
fully armed squad with their equipment. Vermin
has got a crew of two a driver sitting in front
of the hull and a gunner manning a heavy machine
gun mounted in a turret on top of the
vehicle. For a bit more information on Vermin you
can check out the MC RPG Imperial Clans of
Damnation sourcebook (that also contains rules
for using Vermin in MC RPG). Also page 61 of the
MC RPG main rulebook contains a small picture of
the Vermin. REQUIRED MATERIALS AND
TOOLS -stiff, but not very thick card (cookie
packages do fine) or plasticard -normal paper -4
wooden cocktail sticks -Heavy machine gun
(plastic or metal - ideally Charger from Target
weapons pack, or from Blood Beret or Regular HMG
specialist) -a bit of wire mesh (plastic or
aluminum - optional) -glue (at least PVA glue -
optionally contact glue) -knife (and optionally
scissors) -a small drill or large needle (for
making 2mm holes) -a ruler
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GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS All measures are given in
millimeters (for the non-metric people 1 Inch
equals 25.4 mm). I have constructed my vehicle
using PVA glue, but if you want your model drying
faster you can always try using contact glue. PVA
has the advantage that you can freely adjust the
piece into a good position, but you got to wait
for the glue to dry (and support the model during
that time - for support you can cut small
triangular brackets of cardboard and glue them
inside the vehicle to support the outer
pieces). Always test out that your pieces are cut
to right size (it is possible by accident to make
them a bit too large and you need to trim them a
bit), if you have cut the pieces a bit too small
you can always cover the gaps with a piece of
paper and some PVA glue. If you are using
cardboard scavenged from package materials, it
will probably be coated and colorful on one side,
and matte and white on the other side - it is
probably better idea to have the matte side as
the outer surface of your vehicle, as the coated
side can look too shiny once painted. And
remember to be careful with your knife - you have
only got one set of fingers to lose. STARTING F
irst print out the plans (make sure that the
printout is in right scale by measuring the 50mm
long line in the bottom). Printing out these
assembly instructions and the diagrams will help
too. Then reproduce the templates on thin card
(either by cutting them out, placing them against
the card and drawing the outline or by placing
the whole paper on top of the card, pushing pins
through the paper and then connecting the dots so
formed on the card with lines). Next cut out the
parts and start construction. You need to make
multiple pieces of some parts given in the sheet,
these are the following H2, H3, H4, H6, T6 (2
Pieces of each), T3 (5 pieces), W2, W3, W4 (6
pieces of each), W1 (12 pieces) and W5 (30 pieces
per wheel). All the parts are made out of card,
except W2, W4 and W5 (which are made out of
paper), the axles (cocktail sticks), the mesh
inside D11 (plastic/aluminium mesh) and the HMG.
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H3
CONSTRUCTING THE HULL Place the bottom piece H1
on the table. Glue the rear hull piece (H6)
standing on one end of H1 (this will be the rear
of the APC). Once dry, glue the lower side
pieces (H2) standing on the sides of H1, so that
they are supported by H6 (and so that the flat
sides are touching the rear of the vehicle).
Once these parts have dried out, glue in the
upper side pieces (H4) on sides of H6, so that
they are at 45 degree angle. Then glue the roof
piece (H5) on top and fill the gap between pieces
H4 and H2 with the central side pieces (H3) and
let dry. To finish the hull glue lower frontal
piece (H7) to the front of the hull so that it is
supported on sides by H2 and from the bottom by
H1. Then glue in the upper frontal piece (H8)
between H7 and H5, and fill the gaps on the sides
by pieces H9 and H10, let dry and the basic hull
is ready. DETAILING THE HULL Before detailing,
make sure you have enough room for the turret to
traverse. The rear doors (D1) are glued to the
rear of vehicle on the piece H6. Make the hinges
and handles marked on the plan out of small
pieces of cardboard - to make the hinges look
better glue a small piece of paper on top of
them. Glue the top hatches on top of the hull
(H5) so that there is about 5mm between them and
the rear of the vehicle - the hinges will be
glued on top of the side plates. The turret base
plate (D3) is glued on the top of the hull too,
in front of the top hatches (about 50mm from the
rear of vehicle). The side hatches (D4 and D5)
are glued on the sides of the vehicle (H4), about
5mm from the front edge of that piece - D4 is
glued on the left side (looking from rear) and D5
on the right side. The drivers view port (D6) is
glued to the front of vehicle (H8) on the left
side (still looking from rear) - the shaded area
inside this part should be cut out to make it
look correct (but dont make as big opening as in
the blueprint - that opening is a bit
exaggerated). Glue the front hatch (D7) next to
the D6 in the front of the vehicle. Glue the
front amour plate (D8) on top of H7. Construct
the drivers periscope (D9) and glue it on top of
hull just over D6, then glue the drivers hatch
(D10) behind it. Then take exhaust vent plate
(D11), cut out the shaded area in the middle and
glue it next ot the drivers hatch. Replace the
cut out area with similarly sized piece of fine
mesh (plastic or metal), if you dont have any
mesh available leave that piece out of the
vehicle.
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T5
T3
CONSTRUCTING TURRET Start by placing turret
bottom piece (T1) on the table, glue 4 of the
turret sides (T3) on the sides of the turret
bottom, leaning to each other. Take your heavy
machine gun piece and then make to the last
turret side a suitable opening to push the HMG
barrel through. Then glue the HMG and the last
turret side on the turret (you might need to cut
your HMG a bit to fit it inside - especially if
you are using the Imperial Charger HMG that you
can get from one of the targets weapon packs).
Then glue the turret top (T2) in place. Make a
suitable hole for the HMG to the front of gun
shield (T4), cut it into four pieces along the
lines given and glue it around the HMG (the
triangular pieces on side, the large piece with
hole in the middle to the front - HMG going
through the hole - and the small rectangular
piece on top). For detail glue the gunners hatch
(T5) on top of the turret (make the handle and
hinges out of small pieces of card as for hull
hatches) and glue the side plates T6 on the
turret sides on both sides of the HMG.
MOUNTING THE TURRET You can either just glue
the turret on top of D3 - or then you can
construct a rotating turret. For this you need to
reinforce the turret bottom - make another piece
of T1 and glue it to the bottom of turret. Then
using a small drill or a needle make a hole to
the middle of D3. Then take one of the cocktail
sticks and cut out the sharp ends so that it is
about 40mm tall - then put some glue to one end
and push it through the hole all the way to the
floor and let dry to that position. Then make a
similar hole to the bottom of turret and trim the
out-sticking part of cocktail stick to suitable
length so that it wont scrape anything inside
turret once the turret is placed on the D3 with
the end of stick going through the hole in turret
bottom. The turret should be able to rotate
freely now over 360 degree arc (note if you want
to make a rotating turret you got to make that
there is enough room left inside the turret when
placing the HMG).
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CONSTRUCTING THE WHEELS Constructing the wheels
out of cardboard takes some time - you can save
time if you manage to find a suitably sized (28mm
diameter) wooden cylinder - just cut it to 10mm
thick discs. Or even better if you can scavenge
wheels from some plastic model set. You need a
total of six wheels. To construct a wheel out of
card you need two of the big circles (W1) and one
wheel trim (W4 - cut this out of paper) and two
square (10x10mm) pieces of card (W6). Place the
first circle on the table, glue the squares (W6)
standing on top of it in a T-form (supporting
each other), then glue the other big circle on
top of this and glue the wheel rim (W4) around
the edges (you will need to curve the paper a bit
to make it fit better around the wheel - do this
by wrapping it a couple of times around a
pencil). Let dry and you have a wheel. For more
detail cut out a round piece of paper (W2) and a
number of small paper strips (W5 - about 2x15mm)
- you will need about 30 strips for each wheel.
Glue W2 on top of the outer side of the wheel
(choose which side this is), then glue the strips
to the wheel rim, leaving about 1mm between each,
and bend their edges so that they touch W2. Then
cut out wheel hub (W3) out of card and glue it to
the middle of W2. All this detailing makes the
wheel look more real - but it also takes some
time, you can skip it if you are in
hurry. CONSTRUCTING THE AXIS The Axis are
mounted to the bottom of the vehicle to make it
easier to mount the wheels (they are not usually
visible when looking at the model on table) - the
axis are constructed out of three cocktail sticks
- just trim of the sharp ends so that the sticks
are about 65mm long. I glued my sticks to the
bottom of the vehicle so that they centers were
22, 56 and 90 mm distant from the rear of the
hull. I also mounted small strips (2x42mm) strips
of cardboard on each side of the axle to better
hold it in place. To mount the wheels on axle
ends you will need to make small holes for the
ends of cocktail sticks to pass. These are made
on the sides without the wheel hubs, at the
center of the wheel using a similar method as
with the rotating turret mount. Dont glue the
wheels on until you have painted the model
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FINISHING TOUCHES You can add all kinds of bits
(like tools, boxes, jerry cans, camo netting -
check out 1/35 scale plastic vehicle accessories)
on the model to give it more detail. If you are
enthusiastic enough you can even build the model
so that the gunners hatch is open and he is
peeking his upper body out of the turret - such
model is converted by cutting the legs and lower
torso of some suitable figure, and perhaps
cutting off his weapons. Some people might even
want to add radio aerials or banners - these can
be made out of thin brass wire. Painting the
vehicle is essential - plain cardboard doesnt
look too good on the table. A good undercoat is
useful, but varnishing is not needed (card
absorbs the paint and it is very hard to scratch
it off), though any plastic and metal bits will
need a coat of matt varnish. Some decals applied
after painting will improve the appearance
further (check out your local store for
historical transfers - you can find some very
nice designs). I painted mine greyish-brown (like
my Regulars), with dusty grey highlights and dark
brown/black shading. The HMG, axles and wheels
were painted black with grey highlights, as well
as the exhaust vent grid and the drivers and
periscope lookouts. But a green, grey or desert
color scheme works equally well, depending on
where you want to field your vehicle. The picture
in MC RPG rules book features a large Imperial
logo painted on the front hatch and tools (spade,
pick, axe) hanging on the sides, as well as
something that looks like a small searchlight
mounted on the turret. EE has decals available
now. Remember to paint the vehicle and wheels
before gluing the wheels on their spot - it is
hard to reach the area of hull between the wheels
once the wheels are on their places. VARIANTS Of
course all Vermins dont carry a HMG - there are
probably unarmed versions used as command posts,
ambulances, for supply duty and such - these are
easy to construct by just leaving the turret off
the model altogether. Also Vermins can be
converted for special purposes by changing the
main weapon with heavy flame-thrower (for jungle
use), mortar (for close support), rocket launcher
(anti-tank duty) or twin-LMGs (for anti-aircraft
use). Feel free to develop new variants as you
feel. M-311 VERMIN APC IN GAMES OF WARZONE The
simplest way is just to use your APC as a static
piece of terrain (say that it is destroyed or has
run out of ammo and fuel before the game or
something), it can even act as an objective of
scenario (catch the important equipment left
inside before the opponent). Most players want to
field their Vermins on the battlefield as part of
their Imperial army, but it could serve as the
APC for any human unit, or a corrupted version
for the Dark Legion.
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USE OF THIS ARTICLE This article, as well as the
related sheet containing templates for making the
cardboard pieces and assembly instructions, can
be freely distributed non-commercially, as long
as the content wont be changed and the original
author is mentioned. However, I would appreciate
to be notified by e-mail if you publish this
article in your web pages or in some non-profit
fanzine (my e-mail address is rkoivune_at_cc.hut.fi).
Risto Koivunen Helsinki 14.2.2000 Original
images and instructions can be found at
http//users.tkk.fi/rkoivune/trenchzone/vermin/
ADDITIONAL NOTES (AND APOLOGIES) Taking
Ristos fantastic article a bit further I have
cleaned up a couple small items and converted it
to a format slightly more user friendly. A
couple small items the scale is now off in its
current format. This is due to my laziness and
lack of access to a viable ruler. That said the
change in size is universal so all the pieces
should (should!) fit together well. I have not
dry fit all the pieces, especially the front end,
so expect some fine trim work. I apologize in
advance for any frustration. Why PowerPoint? It
is universally available (if not also universally
hated) and easier to work with than making it a
word document. It is not a drawing program but
what it does produce is clean and easy to work
with. Very few of us have access to the kind of
CAD programming that would make this project
shine. Ian Veez Arvizo 2005
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UNDERNEATH OVERLAP ABOVE TIRES
H5
BACK HULL
TOP HULL
FRONT SIDE RIGHT/LEFT (ANGLED) HULL
FRONT SIDE RIGHT/LEFT (ANGLED) HULL
H4 X 2
TOP SIDE (ANGLED) RIGHT/LEFT
H8
FRONT TOP (ANGLED) HULL
BOTTOM HULL RIGHT/LEFT
H7
FRONT BOTTOM (ANGLED) HULL
H1
BOTTOM HULL
W1
W2
W3
9
W5
W6
TI
D8
T3
D6
X4
T2
D11
D9
D2
D3
W4 X 6
D1
X2
ORIGINAL SCALE50 mm / 2 in