Dale's RV - The Walking Dead: Days Gone By

Mantic sell an MDF and cardboard model of Dale's RV that is designed to fit the same space as the 2D representation supplied in the Days Gone Bye supplement. It is supplied by Sarissa Precision.

The instructions are comprehensive, though I would assemble the base plate, axles and vertical  central piece together, as shown below,

The wheels are assembled later in the instructions, but I assembled them on the axles but did not glue them to the axles. The axle provides the required centring of the two main parts of tyres and the hub cap.

I marked the parts Left, Left Inside, Right, Right Inside to ensure I got the bits in the right place.

The MDF shell is covered with a card wrapper with laser etched details including doors and grills.

The card surface is not as smooth as the MDF, and this texture is exacerbated by the application of masking tape when spraying the interior black, and during the construction process.

The back of the RV only has two bends, the lines laser marked in the card were deepened using the back of a scalpel blade and a steel rule.

The front has four bends, the ones at the top are very tight. The thin windscreen pillars are very thin and are vulnerable to inadvertent bends, which can actually lead to them breaking. Which is of course what happened while assembling the front. PVA glue was applied both to the body and the wrapper. The wrapper was pressed down to the body and the bottom part held in place with masking tape. Two pieces of masking tape taped down the top part vertically down the front.

The ventilators and aircon unit were removed from the card sheet and assembled on the body. The luggage rack was also removed from the sheet and glued in place. The bumper was filled smooth and glued to the front.

The canopy was assembled according to the instructions.

Now it is ready for undercoating.