AT Commander's



Adventure Team Vehicle
(The Schwimmy)

 The original AT vehicle was terrible, or so I thought as a kid. I knew about Schwimmwagen (also called the Schwimmkubel) amphibious jeep that Ferdinand Porche designed for the German army; I thought it would have made a much better AT vehicle. It took 35+ years before anybody made one for Joe, though! scwhimThis "AT Schwimmy" began life as a grey 21st Century Schwimmwagen. I removed the MG and added a searchlight instead. Otherwise the project amounted to nothing more than a paint job. I disassembled the whole vehicle before painting anything. Hats off to 21C for making a vehicle that was so easy to disassemble! At left above is the original Schwimmwagen. At the right is the "after" pic showing the vehicle proudly displaying its AT Yellow color.

 


This project required a LOT more paint than I'd imagined. I had to use a zillion coats of paint to cover up the grey. A word of advice: if you try this at home, you'd better use a coat of white primer to cover up the grey before adding the AT yellow paint! Hindsight 20/20. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have started with a tan Schwimmy instead of a grey one. (Actually, I've got a tan one, too, and that's an AT Schwimmy as it is - no repainting required! They should've used tan for the AT guys anyway, IMHO!) I left the dashboard, seats, side rails, and front bumper grey - mostly because they were soft plastic and I wasn't sure how well they'd take and/or hold paint. This was made to be played with, not to be a shelf warmer, so play value controls. I have yet to paint the propellor white, but otherwise it's done.





The AT Sea Adventurer really likes the Coast Guard outfit. It looks cool with the AT Schwimmy, too! You may notice the 21C luger that takes the place of the AT Lebel revolver. The Lebel was an anemic round that was pretty lame in both velocity and stopping power - even in its own era (1890's). This was a lame choice for the Adventure Team, so most of our AT members carry M1911s, Browning Hi-Powers, or Lugers. Here are some pics of the venerable Sea Adventurer and his sidekick (Jane) emerging from a stream with their AT Schwimmy outfitted for an adventure. Jane's wearing a USCG outfit, too. We took in the blue T-shirt as well as the trousers so they'd fit Jane's more petite form. The USCG cap looks good, too. They've got packs, a tent, a cage for the White Tiger, and (of course) life preservers. (Safety first!) They've also strapped on an extra tank of fuel because they know it'll take more fuel to go upstream than it did to come down!





The best part of this project is that the Schwimmy now holds 4 AT members instead of 1 like the old fashioned 6-wheeled AT Vehicle did. This is a decided improvement… with more hauling capacity, better detailing, bigger wheels, and better ground clearance.




 

 

Here's a REAL Adventure Team vehicle: the Dutton!

It's built in England and is a cross between a Suzuki Samurai and a jet-ski.

Extremely cool!

 

For more info about this, see the Dutton website at http://www.timdutton.com/4Wheel-Drive.html, or click here:  Dutton .


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