Steve,
Fantastic collection of Armored Cars and Artillery my old friend. The Renault-Mgebrov is new to me,did the French also use the same vehicle? Not a clue as to why but I've developed a thing for Renault vehicles. Wouldn't mine building more of them.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette
Hi Gregory
Thanks for liking my little Renault-Mgebrov armoured car model. I love early armoured cars, they are a very interesting subject.
Yes please, build, build, build more Renaults
Firstly, much of what the Russians got up to in both the first and second world wars is not well understood in the west. There is a significant language barrier here before we even start to untangle the historical records. Additionally, lets not forget that most of us are also Cold War babies, that is to say, post 1945 our Russian buddies didn’t really get much good press in the mainstream media and this is still the case today. So there’s a lot of documentation in the East that has not really seen the light of day because of complex, politico-historical reasons.
The main thrust of the story with these early armoured cars is…..(and you can also find this in the tank forums)..
Tsarist Russia at the turn of the Twentieth Century was a very under-developed country and she did not have a sophisticated automotive industry. Uncle Nicolas went on a pre-conflict buying spree and purchased a lot of armoured cars, including regular car and light truck chassis from his European neighbours ( the French, British & Italians). He also got some Ford light trucks from the Yanks. A Russian officer (surname Mgebrov) was tasked with turning the Renault 1914 chassis into an armoured car.
Mgebrov’s great insight was to slope the armour on the front of the car and the improved ballistic properties enabled a decrease in the thickness of the armoured steel plate. Decreasing the overall weight of the car improved its performance and an AFV legend was born. This makes the Renault-Mgeborv armoured car historically significant. Modellers who also love the early Russian tanks (circa WW2) may recognise the significance of sloped armour on the front of the legendary T-34 tank and make a connection back to the development of the Renault-Mgebrov.
If you’re interested in this subject, there’s a lovely book by James Kinnear (2000) Russian Armored Cars 1930-2000, Darlington Publications, Maryland. The introduction of this book describes the development of these early Russian AFVs.
They were hybrid vehicles, Russian innovations applied to imported car and truck chassis.
Also, don’t forget, Ivan from Yellow House Models, he's a lovely bloke with a young family. Ivan's is a small, cottage industry, modelling concern and most worthy of support. Ivan has a wealth of knowledge in this area and he is easily found with a quick Google or Facebook search. I reckon he won’t mind if I include a couple of inspirational photos for the WW1 forum modellers.
The photo of the Russo-Balt armoured car is from a model made by Alexandar Rogozin and they don’t get much better than that.
This is lovely weathering on the canon.
I tried to have a conversation about weathering models with this young fellow but he just wasn't interested 
That's BS about the conversation, I got the photos off FB from a group of European re-enactors.
You have to admire dedication like this. 
It that shit on my nice new uniform!This is a very interesting photo, please note: the lovely green paint job on this reproduction car and the chains on the wheels to cope with a very wet and muddy field. I have some idiosyncratic ideas about weathering armoured vehicles but I'm still an armoured vehicle modelling virgin, so if you won't respect me in the morning, I just can't kiss and tell my new weathering technique at this stage.
Cheers Big Ears
Otto from Blotto
