POMA vs. TOMA

 


Scale : 1/87
Start: 14 October 2013
Finish: 27 December 2013   

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During "Gezi Park Protests"; in 3 June 2013 night, an excavator was hijacked by ÇARSI (Besiktas FC supporters) members and used against police forces' TOMA vehicles (Turkish: Toplumsal Olaylara Müdahale Araci, English: Intervention Vehicle to Social Events). This excavator was nicknamed as POMA  (Turkish: Polis Olaylarina Müdahale Aracı, English: Intervention Vehicle to Police Events).
This is a diorama based upon a photo taken that night, below:



 
14 October 2013:
First, I had to find models suitable for the purpose. Mercedes Atego vehicles are used for construction of TOMAs, I bought  a fire engine model from SIKU. For the excavator, the actual one was Sumitomo SH290, but no models were available so I bought a similar looking one. However, the one I bought was much bigger than the actual in scale, so I had to make the excavator from scratch.
I ordered the 1/87 figures from China, they were carelessly painted so each had to be painted over.
I began with TOMA, disassembled the model.
I cut the chassis and the body to meet the scale wheelbase of TOMA.

I glued the body halves with epoxy, the parts taking care that they stayed orthogonally aligned.

The view of the body and chassis after joining.

16 October 2013:
I disassembled the excavator. I figured out that I could use the operator cabin as is, and the chassis and tracks after some cutting. The rest was useless.

I modified a figure by heating, in sitting position and placed it inside the cabin.

I had to shorten the chassis in both axes. I cut the chassis as in the first photo. The track arms came to proper length but for widthwise, I had to install a balsa block.

I made the upper part of the body from balsa sheets and applied putty.

Returning to TOMA, I made the rear part from beass sheet.

 17 October 2013:
After checking the mating of the rear part, I made the wheel guards from styrene and the base for the water cannon from balsa. Fixed all with epoxy.

I made the bulldozer blade from styrene.

 18 October 2013:
I applied putty again and primed, made the front protection shield from styrene.

 24 October 2013:
Returning to the excavator, I made scaled drawings from its technical sheets, cut the arm sections from balsa and fixed styrene sheets at the top and bottom. I made the hydraulic cylinder brackets from brass sheet and embedded into the balsa.

I made the cylinders from styrene tubing, the piston rods and eyes from brass rod and tubing with solder. I painted them chrome silver.

26 October 2013:
I made the bucket from brass sheet. However, I faced problems in soldering the sides.
 

I first soldered the central part to blank sheets at the sides, then cut along the soldered line and smoothed with a file. Finally, I soldered the brackets.

27 October 2013:
I covered the upper body with aluminum duct tape and scribed the panel lines. I cut and shortened the rubber tracks and joined them with staples.

28 October 2013:
I continued with the arms, made the hydraulic lines from wires and fixed with CA glue.

29 October 2013:
The arm as painted. I made its base from brass sheet, the end linkages from hammered solder wire. I also used solder wire for the pins at joints. The system operates actually, but it will be fixed in the diorama.