Accurate Armour
RUC HOTSPUR Armoured Landrover
Series III 109
LR011
By Roy Kinsella
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The HOTSPUR Armoured Land Rover was developed and used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland and is based on the 109" chassis Series III Land Rover.
The first examples of the Hotspur were introduced into service with the RUC in 1976 in response to intensified attacks from disident Rebublicans and an alarming growth in organised public disorder and rioting directed towards the security forces.
Protective grills and field produced armour plates had been introduced to the early RUC Landrover fleet as far back as the late 1950’s. Throughout the 1960’s various armour production companies and defence agencies had been testing and fielding various armoured kits for Landrovers used in Northern Ireland in the ever growing unrest there.
The Hotspur was a direct result of lessons learned from the VPK (Vehicle Protection Kit) and Shorland SB301 Armoured Landrover Variants used during the 1960’s. The name HOTSPUR comes from the brand of armour plate used and concealed within the design.
The Hotspur was the mainstay patrol vehicle for the Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1976. Throughout its career the vehicle had many additional upgrades. This particulor variant is from the mid 1980’s with the upgraded 3.5 V8 Rover engine (also currently used in the present TANGI Land Rover variant). Among the standard protective equipment of early Hotspurs, this later series features visable improvements such as polycarbonate plastic panels fitted over the original bodywork (to take massive beatings during riots), plastic glass shields, the Louvred radiator grille, blue lamps on the roof above the driver and passanger doors and expanded metal grilles with rubber skirts to the lower body. The purpose of the shields was to protect crew using the vehicle as a shield to prevent projectiles being thrown underneath injuring personel in th lower legs. Other more interesting items used by rioters included beer kegs being rolled underneath the vehicle with the intention of immobilising the vehicle).
The HOTSPUR was withdrawn from RUC service in 1991 and replaced by the Tangi series of armoured Land Rover. However a pair Hotspurs were “tidied-up” and used by ITN News to cover the war in the former Yugoslavia.
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Kit Contents
3 bags of resin parts
1 photo Etch sheet
1 decal sheet
set of clear sprues, red, orange, blue and clear.
1 clear plastic window stencil
1 brass wire
Anyone used to Accurate Armour kits will not be surprised by this Instruction guide, new comers however will have to take time to study this before embarking on construction.
The guide is broken down into fourteen small colour pictures with number references pointing to differing parts of a finished model. Every part is more or less covered in all these photos and there is a written text covering the rough construction sequence of the kit. If followed to the literal letter, the builder should not have any problems as the more troublesome areas are covered in this text.
The Photo-etch parts are more or less straight forward but don’t expect any assistance with the instruction guide as to which way to bend the PE parts. There is only reference photographs of finished pieces attached to the model in the correct position.
Taking into account this is a resin kit, the builder should have quite a good deal of model building time under his or her belt. If that is the case, the overall build process should not throw out any problems which cant be overcome.
Resin Sprues
The resin parts are produced in light grey and all of them will have to be cut from the sprue and will then need a degree of cleaning before construction. The layout of the sprues is very neet and everything is numbered to help. Cleaning wasn’t much of a problem as the resin is surprsingly easy to cut and work with.
I numbered all my parts with a small permanent pen before removing each part from its sprue so that later it was easy to find everything.
Building Process
After I had cut away and cleaned all the parts (as mentioned above) I began construction first with building the chassis and its components. Everything went together easily enough but I took good care to double check everything with the instruction guide just in case.
The only problem I really had at this early stage was that I noticed that in the instructions Part 15 should be listed as part 17 and vice versa. The chassis is moulded with a lot of the detail of the underside done already for you. All you have to do is simply attach the exhaust system, shafts, axles and wheels.
I built the rear section next starting with the rear bed and then added the armour panel walls. During my research I had discovered that each rear viewing slot had a drainage tube/pipe running from the slat down behind the rear seat which led to the underside of the vehicle. This ensured the slats could be drained easily if they became clogged with any substance. As these were not included or mentioned in the model kit I decided to add these simple details. I stretched for plastic sprue over a heated flame and manually bent them slightly at the top to replicate the piping.
Another slight addition I made was adding a grab handle to the middle of the interrior ceiling in the rear section. I also added a scratchbuilt simple shelf above the drivers area and I ran a wire to the area beneath the roof where the flashing blue strobe would be to simulate the power cable. This was all done with a small piece of plastic card cut to the appropiate sizes and glued in place. Not much detail was needed as these items would be out of sight most of the time when displayed.
When this was complete I decided to spray the chassis and all its compontents Matt Black. When everything dried I added the gear lever & shifts to the main cab area. I spent quite a lot of time mixing differing Tamiya grey colors until I found what I felt was a good match for the overall grey colour for the Hotspur. I then masked off the chassis and decided to give the cab area a few coats of this grey.
I then decided to spray the cab and all the other main body parts too with a few coats of grey, making things easier for me later when finishing painting the model. When all this was done I painted and weathered the finer details and left them to dry.
Next I decided to dry fit the front section of the Landrover & attach the foot pedals. Everything fit nicely with no snags.
Following on, I next dry-fitted the engine. I had sprayed the one piece engine entirely matt black as I would not be displaying the engine as it would be closed off from view. I discovered quickly that the engine had fit issues when sitting in the engine bay and glued to the chasis. The result being that the entire front section would be off-set to the right if not adjusted. To remedy the situation, I was forced to shave away a small section of the engine to correct this. Once complete I attached the front grill to the forward section and everything sat snugly together when finally glued.
I began next to add the partially built rear section to the main body and chassis. I attached the front engine grill panel & followed that by adding the driver and passanger seats. Each seat was painted two coats of matt black before dry fitting and then finally glued into place.
I then attached the windsheild and glass. The windshield glass has a hint of blue and its quite thick as this is to replicate the armoured glass added to the Hotspur for added protection against small to medium calibre rounds. The dashboard is already attached to the windsheild as a full cast and I decided to paint and detail this also. Later I added the steering wheel.
Next I added the bonnet/hood but I had a lot of sanding and cleaning to do here to get a satisfactory fit. From my research photographs I noticed that the kit had too many bolt marks where real polycarbonate plastic meets the normal steel body on the bonnet. I decided to remove every second bolt mark to correct this.
I then added PE seat belts left over from a previous kit to the rear bench seats before airbrushing them Matt Black. A small fire-extinguisher is included, so I sprayed this Green before adding detail. With the Spare wheel recently painted I also glued the rear bench seats into place and let everything dry before adding the roof section. I had some fit issues with the roof section and to correct this I used putty to fill the gaps. I next added the ear-like blue strobe boxes above the driver and passenger areas on the roof.
I constructed the driver and passanger doors next, adding the glass sections and some PE which is used for supporting the clear plastic window shields. Everything sat down comfortably but more small gaps had to be filled to ensure a snug looking fit. I also added the PE rubber protection strip where the engine hood (bonnet) meets the windscreen.
Next I built the Armoured grill which covers the windscreen. This is constructed from small PE strips which need to be carefully placed in a specific order inside an additional PE frame. This was tricky as you need to have the armour frame folded exactly to ensure a comfortable fit. I Air brushed this sub-assembly when complete.
Whilst waiting for the window grill to dry I added the side armor panels below the driver and passenger sections. I then attached the expanded armoured mesh side skirt panels to them.
Moving on I constructed the step into the rear compartment using the PE bits and then I attached the rear compartment doors. I left these in the open position so the inner compartment detail can be seen inside.
Next I decided to paint the wheels. Once everything had dried I glued them into place and felt that the vehicle suspension was sitting a little too high when compared to my reference material. This would be ok for normal Landrovers but taking into account the weight of the armour of the Hotspurand I felt the vehicle should be sitting quite lower down with less exposure of the wheel arches as a result.
I continued on with attaching the front registration plate using the PE set and I began assembly of the front bumper mesh guard and rubber strip. After assembling this I glued it into place attached to the front bumper.
Once everything had dried firmly I added the rubber strips below the extended mesh guards. I didn’t realise until close inspection that these rubber strips actually hang from the mesh guards as opposed to being an integral part of the mesh.. They are attached at 5 ponts on each side by small hooks. This change was easier than expected and looked great when completed.
I added the Plastic window shields to the driver and passenger windows. After adding the clear headlamps to the front of the vehicle I then added the smaller protective plastic shields to the front headlamp sections as well.
To finish the construction of the Hotspur I added the mirrors, attached the windscreen protection grill and added the pully bar which operates the grill from inside the vehicle. I glued the clear lights into place and added PE protective cages to these lights. the Mud Guards where attached and I added the mesh bin over the roof strobe light. Some adjustment was needed to the strobe light to ensure a clean fit. Lastly I added the protective grills to the ear like blue strobes above the driver and passenger sections. Unfortunately I miss-placed these PE parts and I had to adapt some spare PE from my left over stash to replace them. Thankfully, they looked ok on the finished model.
Painting and Decals
I painted the finished Hotspur my mix of Tamiya greys, I’d love to give you the exact mix formula but I lost count after continually adapting it until I was happy. The color is slightly lighter than battleship grey if that helps. Interestingly, later Tangi model Land Rovers where actually Battleship grey and seemingly slightly darker in appearance. I then gave the plastic glass shields a coat of matt varnish to highlight the plastic non shiney look of these sections.
I chose to build Hotspur Reg No. YOI 8813 as I had good reference material for this vehicle. Other options include EXI 396 and YOI 1486. Photos I had of EXI 396 showed the vehicle without the extended mesh barriers below the lower skirts. Although decals are provided to display the Hotspur with the Confidential Telephone Number on the side I decided not to add these for my Hotspur. The reference material I had for YOI 8813 does not show this feature in any photos I had of the real vehicle.
The Decals themselves were very neat with no flash whatsoever. Once placed on the surface of the model they sat comfortably and dried to a very satisfactory finish. I only added one coat of solvent for reassurance. As noted in the instructions there was a slight error in the decal by designing the rear Reg Plates with rectangulor plates instead of square. However, this is not really a big problem if you just cut the decals in half with a sharp craft knife and tidy up the remaing sections before applying them to the model.
ITN News Vehicle
Included in the decal sheet are decals for Hotspur reg No.YOI 1486. This was formally an RUC Land Rover but after retirement was later converted for ITN News crews covering the war in the former Yugoslavia. This is an interesting alternative to building the RUC vehicle.
There is no color guide in the kit to replicate the ITN vehicle, only a written reference to the vehicle in the instructions. According to a reference photo in David Dunnes book titled “Armoured and Heavy Vehicles Of The RUC 1922 – 2001” This vehicle was painted a Dark Maroon color over all. One ITN decal should be placed just below the centre frame of the windshield and slightly to the right. Another ITN decal should be placed just behind the driver and passenger doors where the side panels meet the roof section. The Union Jack flag is centered on the armoured side panels in-line with the driver and passanger side windows. The Union Jack in the photos show them to be attached using a frame of Thick Grey masking tape similar in size to the center horizontal red line in the union jack flag.
To build this version you will firstly need to find an alternative front grill, equivialent to the standard grill found in other AA kits but unfortunately not included in this kit. The roof above the Driver and passenger sections will have to be converted as this replicates that of the standard Landrover style with the three protruding bar frames running from the front roof down to the windshield. The engine hood (bonnet) also has the polycarbonate plastic removed showing the dip where the spare wheel should be placed on standard models. The front reg plate should be attached to the centre of the front bumper and there is the exclusion of the strobe lights, plastic glass shields, extended front mesh guards and side skirts on this variant.
Being from Dublin, growing up I remember making frequent visits to Northern Ireland with family and friends throughout the 1980’s. As a young kid I was fascinated by the big grey landrovers at police and army checkpoints. From early on in my modelling years I always had at the back of my mind a real urge to build one of these Hotspurs. When Accurate Armour announced they were releasing a series of these vehicles I was over the moon and knew I had to get one as soon as possible for my collection!
Waiting in anticipation for this kit's arrival, to my delight it lived up to my greatest expectations. This is another delightful release from the guys at Accurate Armour. Although there were a few fit issues here and there, there was nothing that could not be overcome with basic modelling skills.
I would have liked if there had been more parts and options included in the kit like a roof mounted spot-light and cage to accompany the blue strobe. The option of using a wire mesh cage to cover the front headlamps instead of the plastic shields (as shown in most of my reference photos) would have been a nice addition too.
However there were surprisingly less parts than I expected in comparison to the other highly engineered Accurate Armour Landrovers I had built in the past. The great thing was that even with less parts there was no compromise in detai.
Overall the detail of this model is exceptional and accurate. Building it was relatively easy enough when compared to other resin kits. I found this kit be good, fun build and it looks great next to my other ever growing Land Rover collection.
I’m really looking forward to more releases of these Land Rovers used in Ulster from Accurate Armour in the future!
THIS MODEL IS A MUST HAVE!