WWII British Armoured Car

Pattern 1920 Mk. 1

 

 

 A Brief History of the Vehicle 

 

In 1914 the British Government requisitioned all available Rolls Royce Silver Ghost chassis to form the basis for a new armoured car for use in WWI. Following WWI, the vehicle was modernized in 1920, and again in 1924. These vehicles saw service from WWI's Western Front and Middle Eastern campaigns { ever see Lawrence of Arabia? }, the Irish Civil War, and on into the early days of WWII, serving again in the Middle East, Western Desert campaign, and Home Guard duty. Two vehicles have survived, including one located at the Bovington Tank Museum, UK.

 

As you may surmise by the kit's name, the vehicle built with this kit is the 1920 version, distinguishable mainly by new solid wheels replacing the older wire wheels, and thicker radiator armor.

 

What's in the box?

 

The kit comes packaged in the standard lid and tray box. The 8 olive green sprues are bagged, no damage was noted initially but further examination showed two parts to be broken. The instructions consist of a 12 page booklet in 3 languages { Russian, German and English} with a paint color key {Model Master paints}, 2 pages of sprue diagrams and 1 page devoted to paint and markings diagrams {2 schemes}. There are 2 sprues of 4 vinyl tires, 1 decal sheet and 1 very small sheet of marked acetate for the headlight lenses.

 

The Sprues 

 

Sprue A

 

 

 Sprue B

 

 Sprue C

 

 

 Sprue D {x2}

 

 Sprue E

 

Sprue F {x2} 

 

 Sprue G {x2}

 

 

 Decals and Acetate sheets

 

Instructions

 

Building the kit

 

A closer look at the sprues show some fairly heavy mold seams and flash present on a lot of parts, several sink marks, two pieces incompletely molded {short shots}. Parts detail while somewhat heavy in spots, is adequate. The manufacturers did a nice job on all of the bolt head detail. All in all, the kit parts look adequate, but not quite up to Asian standards we take for granted nowadays.

 

Steps 1 - 5, Engine, Gas Tank

 

The engine and it's associated plumbing consists of 23 parts. It appears to be pretty much complete, and is nicely done. However, this kit isn't really made to show it off. The hood isn't readily or easily made to be posed opened, and if you did perform the needed surgery the engine compartment walls would appear grossly out of scale.

 

There are some issues with the instructions here. The diagram for these steps doesn't adequately show the relationships between several of the parts, notably some of the "plumbing". Some guesswork was required to fit some of the parts.

 

Huge sink marks noted in engine block halves 4E and 5E, luckily they won't be visible.

 

 

 

 

Steps 6 - 9, Wheels and Tires

 

As noted earlier, the tires are vinyl. They have a total of 3 sprue attachment points and 1 "nub" on the inside of the tire. If there is a way to remove these vinyl sprue attachment points without leaving an ugly, nearly impossible to clean up scar, I don't know it. I am not a big fan of vinyl tires, particularly with this many scars left behind. The tires also had flash to deal with.

 

 

 

 

The tires need to be sandwiched between the 2 pieces of plastic that make up the wheels, the fit was uncertain at best. Wheel parts 2F and 4F have very deep pin marks needing to be filled, as they are somewhat visible {inboard side of wheel}. I used Gunze's Mr. Dissolved Putty for this.

 

 

The tandem rear wheel sets do not lock together very well, you will need to take care to line them up properly, also ensuring a constant spacing between the tires all the way around them. This may be a bit tricky {it was for me}!

 

One last issue with the wheels, step 8 has a GOTCHA! The diagram appears to have you construct two identical assemblies. THEY ARE NOT IDENTICAL. THEY ARE MIRROR IMAGES {parts 9C and 8C, the drawing for step 17 illustrates this}.

 

 

 These are the corrected assemblies

 

Steps 10 -15, Cabin Interior Detailing, Radiator and Radiator Armored Shutters, Exhaust System

 

No problems of note were encountered throughout these steps, other than some "square peg into a round hole" issues with parts attachment points. Part 2E on the exhaust system had another bad sinkmark on it, but again, it will be almost impossible to see due to it's location {underneath the engine}. 

 

The diagram for building the armored radiator shutters and retaining arms wasn't particularly clear to me. The arms 2D need to pass well through part 23A to be in proper position. A LOT of sanding to reduce the width of the arms was needed before they'd fit through the holes.

 

Armored Radiator Shutters Assembly

 

 

Various assemblies through Step 15

 

Step 16, Frame Assembly  

 

For a step requiring simultaneous placement of a whole bunch of parts into two halves of a frame at the same time, this process went quite well. Three hands would really benefit the builder here, but with care and patience all parts will go where intended. Do your best NOT to glue part 29C in place, it's part of the steering linkage and will need positioned later on.

 

I found one of the frame truss rods { part 1C } was broken, easily fixed with Tamiya Extra Thin. The truss rods are delicate, cleaning them up requires a very light touch.

 

 

Top view of Frame Assembly

 

 

Bottom view of Frame Assembly

 

Steps 17and 18, Wheels and Suspension

 

 

The rear suspension went together well, the parts fit nicely into the frame for a positive fit. The leaf springs required the usual tedious cleanup. I hate cleaning up leaf springs. I had a wee bit of confusion on how the parts 17C and 18C  {I have no idea what to call them} tie into the front axle, but dry fitting finally showed me the light. The wheels { both front and rear } were slightly sloppy on the axles, so I used 5 minute epoxy to secure them with books used as straightedges in an attempt to keep the wheels aligned properly.

 

   

Rear Suspension parts - this was where I discovered the GOTCHA on the parts assembled in step 8. This picture was taken BEFORE correcting the error.

 

 

Rear suspension mounted to frame

 

 

I mounted the radiator and cabin floor to the frame and basecoated them prior to mounting wheels

 

 

 

Step 19, Mounting cabin floor, firewall, Radiator, misc to frame

 

If you will be opening the cabin and turret hatches, you'll need to take care of some large pin marks on the firewall. It's not clearly shown anywhere, but a short strut on part 30C installed in step 16 should fit into a hole on the bottom of the cabin floor. This is a part of the steering linkage. There were no other issues with this step, fit was okay.

 

Steps 20 -22, assembling the Hull rear deck / cargo area  

 

 

Steps 23 and 24, Hull

 

I really like the looks of the hull, lots of neat looking rivets / bolt heads. The bulk of the hull is made up of just two parts, mating in the rear {middle of the rear access hatches} with a butt joint and held the proper distance apart mid-way with a spacer that at first glance looks like it'd be the cabin's dashboard. The hood of the vehicle is made up of two pieces, both of which just sit in place on top of the hull sidewalls. There are no placement aids {pins, lip, tabs, etc.} of any kind.

 

Again, if you'd be wishing to have the hatches open, there are more wicked huge pin marks on the interior hull walls to be dealt with. In the photo below, you can see to the left of the rear hatch opening where I'd done some work towards this. Given the fact that the kit interior is extremely basic, I quickly abandoned the thought of having open hatches on this model. 

 

 

The hood  - no attachment guides, just put it on! Thankfully it fit well.

 

After seeing some photos on the internet with the armored windshield visor up, I decided to do the same with this kit. I also found photos that helped me with placing a lifting rod for the visor {styrene rod} and the missing hinge pins {.020 brass rod}.

 

 

 

 

Here's something that puzzled me, the rear cabin hatch hinges are flush with the hatch, but there are recesses in the outer hull walls immediately under where the hinges are, resulting in the hinges sort of "floating" above the hull sides. With the haches / hinges being completely flat on the side that mates up to the hull, there's no way the hinges will nestle into the recesses on the hull. ???

 

I filled the recesses with some superglue, shook my head, and moved on. Adding insult to injury, the bottom hinge on the  left hatch was incompletely molded.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Above: components ready to mount to chassis

 

Step 25, Hull to frame, fenders, rear deck, running boards

 

This step was a bit of a moment of truth. I'm sure we all dry fit as we go along with a kit, but with so many contact points and potential for problems, this was still worrisome to me. Everything mated up really nice to my immense relief. I was unclear on the precise locations of parts 20D { x2, one each side} but referring to drawings further along in the instructions and some pics of the real thing helped me along.

 

The front fenders have really nasty elongated pin marks in spots that will be quite visible, you'll need to get rid of them. The fender mounting pins {to frame} need to made a bit smaller, they do not fit well at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fenders - note pin marks

 

 

 

Main hull all assembled

 

 

Parts 20D {sand channels? bridging units?} under running boards

 

Steps 26 - 32, Misc. hull fittings

 

The spare tires, running and spot lights, etc were assembled. The kit came with a small sheet of acetate to be used for lenses on the lights. After having assorted problems with the first acetate lens, I opted to paint the cavities of the lights silver and fill the cavity with clear, 5 minute epoxy.

 

 

One of two headlights - the post needed to be thinned a lot to fit into frame recess.

 

 

To give the headlight brackets something to grip, I drilled holes into the lamp

 

Steps 33 and 34, Turret

 

The turret base fits nicely into the hull roof, it attaches with the usual tab / slot arrangement. A Vickers gun and mount, a water can and a chain mounted seat are the only interior fittings inside the turret.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The turret itself is made up of 4 sides, the base and the roof. Roof and sides are beveled to fit, and they fit fairly well. The Vickers gun pokes through the front panel, and has a smaller armored shield attached to it. I drilled out the muzzle of the Vickers. There is a hatch centrally located in the turret roof, I left it closed. 

 

 

 

Turret interior - rather spartan

 

Steps 35 and 36, Final details

 

The spare tires were mounted, all light fixtures were placed, and a couple of stowage type items were placed on the running boards. My favorite item in this step is the magic {or is it magnetic? } shovel, placed on the side of the stowage box on the left rear fender. Mounting brackets will be made and placed...I promise!

 

Painting and Markings

 

Finally! My favorite part of the build {and of the review, because I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!}. Options given in the instructions are somewhat sparse, only two examples. The first example is based on the Bovington Rolls, a 1939 anti - invasion scheme, and the second is a bit more exotic, a Rolls from the Mideast { Egypt - Iraq} , 1940-43.

 

I opted to go with the latter. I basecoated the model with Tamiya Desert Yellow, lightened just a bit with Buff, and then post shaded with more of the same mix, only with roughly 10% Flat White added. The post shading was done pretty lightly, to attempt to show sun fading. After letting the paint cure, I airbrushed a light coat of Future on the model as a base for the decals. The decals are pretty good, although they seem a tiny bit thick to me. They responded well to Micro Sol and settled right down into the paint nicely.

 

A confession - the markings for this version of the Rolls has an enormous aerial recognition rondrel {?} on the turret roof. It would have required painting the entire turret roof white, and not installing a couple of parts on the turret roof until after the decal{s} were placed. I completely forgot about it, and by the time I realized it, I didn't really feel like reversing course. Next time.  While neat looking, these aerial recognition markings may not have been all that common anyway {that's my story...}.

 

After placing the decals, a light misting of Future mixed w/ Tamiya flat base killed the shine quite nicely. A little bit of pin washing with Winsor Newton Burnt Umber and Turpenoid, some light chipping with Vallejo German camo Brown /Black and that's about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusions

 

As stated above, this kit in some very fundamental ways doesn't quite meet todays higher standards. Maybe we modelers are becoming spoiled. This kit costs as much as many of the kits coming out of Asia, the ones with full interiors, photoetch, metal barrels, and so on and so forth, and it just doesn't match up. I was slightly disappointed with the flash,  the sink marks, the oversize pin marks, and the mounting pins/ holes that just did not mate up at all until the part was reshaped. This kit felt much like a circa '70's kit in many ways.

 

This kit absolutely screams for aftermarket resin wheels, an interior set, and loads of photoetch. This kit can be the basis for an amazing model. Hopefully, the folks that produce these things are on the ball and already gearing up to capitalize on Roden's effort. 

 

I applaud Roden's efforts in producing this kit, and hope they do even more in 1/35 armor. This is a solid start. I just hope that they can build on this effort and take the steps needed to meet the expectations of today's informed modeler.  

 

Pros - Unique and interesting subject. The kit builds into a nice looking model if you are up to a challenge. Despite some of the extra effort expended in some areas, it was a fun build. This is definitely not an "add glue and shake the box to build" kit.

 

Cons - parts quality varies as stated above, sometimes vague instructions, fairly pricey for a kit with no "bells and whistles".

 

 

 

Recommended with reservations

 

Thanks to Squadron for the review sample

 

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

 

 

*****