Supacat ATMP

Supacat ATMP

Barrage Miniatures

1/50 scale (nominal)

£13.00

In my continued quest for modern military vehicles in 1/48 scale I have a habit of scouring the wargames manufacturers websites. Much of what's available isn't of sufficient quality to be of interest. Scale perfection and accurate profiles are not generally the gamers' priority so vehicles tend to be basic approximations of the real thing.

That said, a number of manufacturers do make the effort to deliver decent quality kits and they are often around the 1/50 scale mark, which makes them good companions for my 1/48 scale collection. I recently came across a small Spanish wargames emporium and, quite randomly, they offer a model of a Supacat ATMP, which they claim is 1/56 scale (the 'standard' 28mm wargaming scale). However, the published dimensions of the model indicated that it was closer to 1/50 scale and on that basis I decided to take a risk on the model. It looked basic but reasonable in the photos and would cost me around £13.00, including delivery from Spain.

When the kit arrived, it lived up to my expectations - it was indeed a basic rendition of a Supacat, but fundamentally sound in profile. The main hull is a single moulding, to which are added six individual wheels and a three-part roll bar. The hull had been sprayed in some form of primer and looked very rough. However, it wasn't all that difficult to remove and the base hull was actually better detailed than I initially thought.

The question was how far to take the detailing and additions. I definitely wanted to add the steering handlebars and replace the roll bars with something more accurate, but what else could I do? The moulded treadplate on the fenders is both vastly overscale and the wrong pattern, whilst the wheels benefit from a little bit of tinkering, but the most significant change was to fit the 'cat with a Milan ATGW.

Work started with the handlebar steering system. The Barrage Miniatures kit doesn't provide any form of steering bar so one was fabricated using plastic rod and some scrap plastic carved to roughly the right shape for the steering column.

Moving back along the hull, a frame was added over the engine cowling in the centre of the vehicle. There are a number of different frames that can be seen on Supacats and this one was chosen because of the decision to fit my Supacat with Milan system.

The aforementioned treadplate was sanded away and replaced with panels of 4-bar treadplate from Accurate Armour. The sheet was cut at 45 degrees so that the tread pattern is 'diamond' in orientation. I also added a mesh screen to the front of the vehicle to tidy it up.

I remembered coming across several photos of Supacats carrying Milan missile systems a few years ago. They belonged to both the Green Howards and the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (DERR) and were being used on exercise in Germany. It was immediately obvious when I rediscovered them that the changes would make the model very different from the standard load carrier.

The Milan unit itself would be easy to source - Gaso-Line offer it as an accessory item in their 1/48 scale resin range. The challenge would be the missile reloads as they are unavailable in plastic or resin. I was confident I could produce a single reload, but making multiple ones that looked identical was a much greater issue. Instead I contacted a friendly aftermarket producer who I purchase fairly regularly from. They said they would be willing to cast a number of copies from a single master and having agreed a price with them, sent off my completed master. I ordered several more Milan reloads than I needed for the Supacat because I have a couple of other projects that I can use them for.

The next question to resolve was the exact stowage pattern to use. Several of the DERR vehicles carried a pair of stowage racks on the fenders, each one able to carry four missiles. The Green Howards vehicles carried a series of three or four reloads strapped directly behind the roll bar in the centre of the vehicle. Ultimately I preferred the look of the racks on the fenders but I had to compromise slightly as I could only fit one rack due to the configuration of the kit.

Also fitted to the DERR vehicles was a large stowage box. I believe the box is part of the normal Milan shipping package and I did my best to fabricate something similar from scrap plastic, which was then carved and sanded to shape.

Being a wargames kit, the inner faces of the wheels are intended to glue straight to the lower hull. This didn't look right, especially as it made the wheel track look too narrow. Small spacers were added behind the wheels and a stub axle fitted to ensure a sturdier fit. A word of warning here. The rear pair of wheels have a different hub arrangement to the front two pairs so don't get them mixed up!

Paint options for the Supacat include overall green, green and black two tone disruptive or overall desert sand, depending on your chosen theatre of operations. Since mine was European, I had the choice of the first two and plumped for the green and black style. An initial grey undercoat was applied to all the parts, before a base coat of Tamiya Olive Green (XF58), lightened with a touch of white, was sprayed on and left to dry thoroughly. For a model of this size and configuration it was easier to hand paint the disruptive bands of black (XF85 Rubber Black)

Stowage consists of various items in resin and plastic, most if it from Red Zebra Models. The registration plates are home-produced decals.

That left a decision about what format the base would take. Many years ago I came across a photo of some British Paras crouched down by a German picket fence and that image stayed in my mind. I'd also seen a convoy of German Fuchs APCs parked up in a surburban German street, clearly on bin collection day as there were green 'wheelie bins' neatly placed at the end of each driveway. Again, this image stayed in my mind for many years.

The fencing is part of a 1/48 scale Tamiya accessory pack and the wheelie bin is a 3d printed item from Shapeways. Add in a scratchbuilt pavement and some simple groundwork and hey presto, I had a small scenic base on which to display my Supacat. I have yet to find any decent 1980s-era British infantry figures. The Airfix figures are too modern and many of the 28mm wargames figures are likewise too modern.

Foxhound LPPV (Light Protected Patrol Vehicle)

This is the second 1/50 scale vehicle released by Evil Bear and as such marks a significant improvement in accuracy. Whilst the Panther CLV was well cast and finely detailed, it had some significant dimensional issues that detracted from an otherwise nice model. The Foxhound is visually better proportioned and whilst there are still some detail errors and omissions to be dealt with, the basic body is an excellent starting point for a project.

Like the Panther, the Foxhound kit has clearly been mastered using a CAD system and then 3d printed to create a set of moulding masters. The kit is cast in a grey resin for the main body parts and wheels, whilst white metal has been used for the detail parts such as the suspension, hatches, ECM boxes and armament. The body is cast in two main parts, the 'skateboard' chassis with attached engine compartment and then the main crew compartment. This split mirrors the real vehicle. Both parts are solid 'lumps' so there is no opportunity to add interior detail. This is to be expected of a kit primarily aimed at the wargames market, where robust construction is a priority and fine detail is more of a hindrance that an advantage.

The wheels are well cast with a good tread pattern. However, the wheel hubs are inaccurate and short of a complete re-work there isn't a lot that can be done (so I ignored the problem because life's too short...). The white metal parts are also well cast and finely detailed, except for the two GPMGs, which are traditional, wargames-style 'heroic' size (ie deliberately overscale).

Which brings us to the fact that there are no assembly instructions included in the kit. I strongly recommend that you study the photos of the kit shown on the Evil Bear website (www.evilbearwargames.com) because this should resolve most of the location issues. There are also a good range of photos of the real thing scattered across the Internet, so some image searching via your preferred web browser will also pay dividends.

The two main body parts require a small amount of clean-up to remove some casting nubs, but far less than you would expect on a lot of resin kits. Then the fun started.

The lower skateboard chassis was left largely alone after it had been cleaned up. The only change underneath was to boost the suspension units by fitting a 1mm spacer between them and the chassis. This provides additional clearance between the front wheels and the wheel arches but exacerbates the problem over the rear wheels where the spacing is already too great. There is clearly a dimensional error somewhere in the kit but I'm unsure exactly where and wasn't something I particularly wanted to pursue on this project. As an aside, I think part of the issue is that the wheels are too large, hence the clearance issues under the front wheel arches.

The engine compartment forms the upper part of the chassis unit - reflecting the configuration of the real vehicle. There are two lifting eyes located on the bonnet which need to be removed. They are an incorrect pattern and in the wrong places. However, this makes it easier to add the next item. The bonnet lacks a non-skid panel so I cut one from a sheet of etched metal four-bar tread plate that is sold by Accurate Armour. Whilst the tread plate is overscale (1/35 scale), it is still a good match for the pattern used on the real vehicle. The panel needs to be cut at a 45 degree angle to represent the configuration on the bonnet and the rear end of the panel should be carefully measured and cut to shape so that it fits around the intake cowls.

Another small change worth making is the addition of a cut-out in the bonnet to accept a new container fitted to the main body, just below the windscreen. The latter is a simple block of plastic beam, sanded to shape and attached with cyano glue. The kit provides two ECM boxes for the bonnet and these were duly cleaned up and fitted. More recent photos of the Foxhound show additional brackets fitted just above the front bumper and these too are probably for some form of ECM equipment. Also tackled at this stage were the headlights. The kit items are moulded into the resin and replacing them with aftermarket lenses really makes a difference to the finished vehicle.

Perhaps the biggest faux pas on the kit was to 'mirror' the right and left sides of the vehicle. In practice they are different but the Evil Bear Foxhound is the the same on both sides. The bulk of that will be dealt with when the crew compartment is tackled, but it does mean that some work needs to be done on the right-hand side of the engine compartment too. There are three moulded vents where there should be four on this side, a detail I ignored. However, the rear triangular vent needs to be filled in and a filler cap arrangement fitted.

The final chassis alteration was to open up the rear step and add brass mesh to create the step surface. Earlier vehicles have a solid step with a central slot - the step was designed to fold up and the slot allows it to nestle either side of the towing hitch.

The main crew compartment is an independent armoured 'cell' that fits onto the chassis, just like the real vehicle. The kit part is a solid lump of resin, finely cast and well detailed. However, like the engine compartment it is identical on both sides. The production Foxhound only has a door on the left side, although the earlier configuration of the original Ocelot company demonstrator had doors on both sides. Removing the hinge line, door handles and small 'cross' detail on the lower hull is straightforward and immediately improves the look of the vehicle. Where you go from here really depends on how far you want to take the detailing. Since I wasn't producing a vehicle for the gaming table it was practical to add more fragile parts, safe in the knowledge that they would be knocked off or damage through constant handling.

Starting at the front, a wire cutter needs to be added beside the driver's windscreen. Evergreen strip was used to create the lower 'C' section profile as well as the tapered upper section. Moving to the roof, the kit offers a couple metal parts that may be CCTV units. However, neither is especially detailed so new ones were fabricated from plastic beam. One fits on the front right corner of the roof and the other is located over the rear doors. Over the cab, the raised roof area had its detail removed and replaced with smaller panels and discs.

Grab handles were added beside each roof hatch and some additional detail added to the hatches themselves. Both MG mounts were rebuilt from plastic bar and strip. For some unknown reason, both the Evil bear guns have the ammo boxes on the wrong side of the gun. They are also over-scale. I kept putting this task off as I couldn't glean enough detail from photos to understand the bracket and cradle shape for the mounts. Eventually I felt I had sufficient information to at least come close to their configuration.

The bulk of the roof detailing is at the rear end. In addition to the aforementioned CCTV housing there are two whip aerials, a satellite communications unit, some form of comms or ECM box inside a cage and some electrical trunking. The whip aerials are lengths of brass rod and tube, with a plastic collar at the bottom. The sat-comm aerial is plastic strip and rod, all mounted onto a disc of thin plastic card. The comms box required more effort as I wanted to replicate the vaned appearance of the upper surface. Alternate strips of 10x40 and 10x60 thou strip were sandwiched together into a block and left to set overnight. The block was then trimmed down to size (guesstimated) and additional thick card added to the bottom to build up the box shape. The protective bars are 0.5mm brass rod bent to shape and slotted into pre-drilled holes in the roof.

On the back wall of the crew compartment I replaced the moulded stowage bins either side of the doors. Although they are correct in profile they are too small. The inner wall of each bin should be touching the hinge line of the doors. To make the new bins I sandwiched three lengths of 80x125 thou beam together to form the basic block. The bevelled long edge was created by gently sanding the block at an angle. From this plastic 'blank', I then cut the bins to length. Building them in this way meant that both would be virtually identical

This also gave me the opportunity to add some of the detail missing from the kit bins. Like the front of the vehicle, there are mounting plates for the vehicle protection suite under each bin, as well as a metal carry frame of some description under the right-hand one. Once again, the frame was fabricated from brass rod, with scraps of plastic for detailing

I removed the moulded handles on the doors and scimmed both with filler before sanding them flat again. This helped to hide the printer 'layering' that is obvious on the kit - perhaps my biggest bugbear because it suggests a lack of attention to detail when preparing the master.

Painting

Everything commenced with a decent undercoat of grey primer. The wheels were left separate at thi sstage, as was the tow bar and one of the MG mounts. A couple of days later the main coat of Tamiya XF57 (Buff) was sprayed on and again left for a couple days. The Buff provides a good base for the weathering and shading that followed. It's lighter than the typical British Army Sand, but the weathering process darkens the shade.

Weathering was a mix of thinned oil paints to add texture and shading to the base coat, along with some careful dry-brushing using XF-55 (Deck Tan) - don't be tempted by Tamiya's newer shade of XF-78 (Wooden Deck Tan) which is more of a desert sand colour and too close to the base coat of Buff.

Markings

No markings are provided in the kit and to be honest, there are very few tactical markings present on operational vehicles. However, there are a significant number of 'NO STEP' stencils and I wanted to replicate these. The text was created in a graphics package, although MS Word would be a simple option for this type of stencil too. The text was designed very large, but the image was then printed at only 6% of it's nominal size in order to maintain a high quality level. Several test prints onto ordinary white paper were tried first in order to determine the best combinations of size and definition, before a final print was done onto clear decal film. The decal film is inkjet printer compatible, but the designs need to be sealed onto the surface with a coat of clear varnish before they are used (as standard waterslide decals). Also created were a pair of registration plates, using photos of actual vehicles to ensure the registration sequence was accurate for a Foxhound.

Application of the decals followed a familiar pattern. Areas to be decalled were coated with Johnson's Klear to provide a glossy, smooth surface. Once the decals had been applied, a coat of flat varnish was applied over the top.

Final tweaks

The rear lights received an undercoat of solver, followed by top coats of clear orange and clear red as appropriate. The headlamps were replaced with suitable items from Little Lenses and the windscreen and side windows painted up in a clear blue applied over a base of mid grey.

A simple scenic base finished off the project. The Hesco bastions are from Barrage Miniatures and came free with another purchase I made from them.

Overall I really enjoyed building the Foxhound. It isn't a perfect kit and there are some dimensional errors that can't be fixed but it has the beefy look of the real vehicle and is a great subject for painting. Most of the vehicles in Afghanistan were covered in Barracuda camouflage on a permanent basis but recreating this in 1/48 scale was beyond me, so I left it well alone. Yet again, we have a good quality wargames kit that, whilst not as detailed as a scale model, responds well to a little TLC and looks the part.

Warthog

Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company
1/48 Scale
£30.00 (plus postage)

Warthog is the latest in a range of dual-body all-terrain tracked vehicles purchased by the British Army over the past few decades. Previous vehicles of this type traditionally came from Hagglunds in Sweden (long since taken over by BAe Systems). Although designed for use in Arctic environments their low ground pressure means that they are equally useful in marshy and desert areas. The Warthog however is produced by ST Kinetics from Singapore. It is a modified version of their Bronco and was sourced by the MOD to replace the BVS10 Viking AATV being used in Afghanistan. It is a heavier, more robust vehicle than its Swedish cousins.

The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company (HLBS) isn't a company that will be well known to modellers, although if you're a wargamer it is likely to be more familiar. Amongst their wide range of figures and accessories are a series of modern AFVs manufactured to a 'true' 1/48 scale. It is important to mention this because modellers and wargamers have a different interpretation of 'scale'. Where armour and aircraft modellers work to a series of 'proportional' scales (1/72, 1/48, 1/35 etc), figure modellers (and by extension, gamers) generally work to scales that are defined by the height of the figure (nominally ground level to eye level). Popular gaming scales include 15mm, 25mm, 28mm and less commonly, 40mm. It is not easy to do a straight conversion from one to the other as gaming scales allow greater latitude in the interpretation of the physical size of the figures and vehicles. However, a very rough comparison would equate 20mm to 1/76 scale, 28mm to 1/56 scale and 40mm to 1/48 scale.

The two main body units are cast as single pieces and each track unit is also cast as a single item. The complex steering unit located between the two cabins is cast in brass to provide strength and rigidity (that's another two parts) and then there are the roof cargo boxes, mudflaps, machine gun cupola and shield, brass .50 cal MG and that is about it. The parts are well cast and the solid body units include a good amount of detail. The track units are also well defined.

Inevitably there are compromises to be had with a wargames model. The hull units are solid lumps of resin so windows will need to be defined with paint rather than glazing (unless you feel like some  major surgery); the track units have no detail on their inner surfaces and some of the detail on the parts is a bit chunky. The aim of this build was to refine the kit into a something more appropriate for the 'scale model' genre. What this meant in practical terms was to add detail in some areas, replace some of the parts and ignore problems with others.

Starting at the front...
There are a couple of features missing including forward lifting shackles and a distinctive grille/inset panel. For the shackle points, a 45 degree slot needs to be carved into the solid resin above each track run. Into this a small shackle point carved from 40x80 thou plastic strip was added.

The next element needs some more serious resin carving. The British vehicle has a cut-out in the lower front panel of the hull. Into this slot fits a plate with a slotted 'V' profile. The resin is easily carved so with a bit of care, the relevant area can be marked out and removed with a scalpel  and dental burrs before being tidied up with some sanding sticks. Next a panel of 10 thou card was carefully marked out with the profile of the grille and the slots cut out with a new scalpel blade to ensure a clean cut. The 10 thou panel can then be attached to the resin body with superglue.

The solid headlights were carved away and replaced with new units constructed from plastic strip, with stretched sprue used to create the bars across the front. The units were left off the model until the last minute to allow the headlamp lens and sidelight bars to be slid into the units after they were painted. Wing mirrors from an Airfix Landrover were salvaged from the spares box and fitted to new arms before being attached to the headlight guards. Also at the front of the hull there are a pair of mudflaps but they will be dealt with later in the build.

Above the front windscreens are a pair of sensors (part of the ECM suite). The kit provides them as moulded-on square lumps but they should actually be larger and rectangular in shape, plus they need to angle downwards. Once fitted in place, holes for the wiring were drilled for both the ECM units and also the smoke grenade launchers. The kit-supplied smoke grenade launchers had their tubes replaced with thin plastic tubing to give an 'empty' look.

HLBS provide a weapons station above the front cab mounting a .50 cal heavy machine gun. Closer inspection revealed that the shape of the turret had been simplified and the temptation to build a better example proved too much. Before tackling the turret itself a circular collar needs to be fitted to the cabin roof. It's 12mm in diameter and 3mm tall.

The real turret is fabricated from bulky composite armour rather than metal plate, so even in 1/48 scale, the side walls are quite thick. It has a roughly hexagonal shape when viewed from above, although it isn't that straightforward. The walls are also bent or curved in places and the various wall sections are different lengths. Construction commenced with a floor cut to something approximating the final size of the turret. The hatch opening , previously marked out on the plastic can then be cut away with a compass cutter. A second plate also needs to be cut, slightly smaller than the first one and then glued to the underside of the larger one.

The first two panels to be fitted were the main side units. Each was cut from 30thou (9mm high x 12mm long) card and then bent slightly in the middle to create a shallow 'V' profile. The forward edge needs to be cut back at a slight angle to accommodate the slope of the front armour panels. Next, the rear panel was created and glued into place (it should be vertical rather than canted backwards, but hindsight is a wonderful thing...)

Once these main panels had been fixed into place, the rear corner panels and the shorter front panels   could be fitted. The basic shapes were cut by eye and left oversize. Each was then carefully trimmed and sanded until it was a snug fit. Small amounts of filler soon sorted out any minor imperfections. The gun shield is again quite thick so 30 thou card provided the raw material. Measurements from the resin original were transferred to the card and the whole shield cut and bent to shape. A basic gun mount filled the front of the turret and then a range of smaller details were added to finish it off.

The most distinctive elements are the wire cutters. These were gently shaped from sections of 10x60 thou plastic strip and made as identical as possible. The front units (on the gun shield) are made up of two 'hooks' each, whilst the rear pair are a single 'hook' with a plain lip to provide strength. The rest of the detail is strengthening ribs and bolt supports.

A brass casting of a .50cal MG is supplied but it lacks finesse. The spares box produced a Tamiya example which was cleaned up and had a new ammunition tray built to house a modern .50 cal ammo box (sourced from Red Zebra, a small UK aftermarket producer).

Moving back along the hull an error became apparent. The rear doors are located far too close to the cab doors. Either the rear doors are too large or there is a fundamental error in the dimensions of the forward hull unit. A decision was taken to ignore the error and the door handles were added.
These are simple strips of plastic sanded to a more tapered profile. Next came the two engine exhaust vents which are square-section tubes that mount underneath the overhanging rear roof panel on the left of the vehicle. Also fitted at this stage was the external fire extinguisher hand pull and its associated guard. The overly thick rear mudguards were carved away and replaced with new panels made from 15 thou plastic. Again, mudflaps will be added but that comes later.

Finally, there are three radio aerials and a satcom 'cruciform' aerial to be added to the roof. HLBS helpfully provide indications of where these go, but the aerial mounts themselves are not provided. The three mounts were constructed from thin brass tube and plastic tube. Short sections of the plastic tube were slipped over the brass tube and superglued into place. Then the ends of the plastic tube were sanded to a taper. By cutting the brass tube slightly above and below the plastic part, you are left with a visible collar above it and a suitable 'pin' with which to attach it to the model (via a pre-drilled hole). The aerials themselves are very thin brass rod. (Albion Alloys provide a huge selection of brass rod and tube, including packages of different sizes that will fit inside one another - perfect for this type of task.).  The cruciform aerial was very much a item built by guesswork. It took a couple of attempts before a good, evenly dimensioned cross was formed. 

Hydraulic Steering
The core of this type of vehicle is the hydraulic steering and drive assembly that connects the two separate cab units together. The HLBS kit offers a two-part brass casting to represent this complex system. Inevitably, some of the technical detail has been sacrificed in the interests of keeping the assembly robust. It would be necessary to build a completely new assembly from scratch to accurately replicate the real drive system, so a decision was taken to improve the kit parts instead.

The kit offers a single umbilical hose to connect the two units where the real vehicle has multiple hoses. The brass hose was therefore sawn off the assembly. This clears the way for the addition of another hydraulic ram above the main shaft unit. At this point a decision was also taken to build a  ram similar to the brass examples. Although not entirely accurate, it would at least ensure consistency. Similarly, the rear part of the steering assembly needs an extra ram mounted above the main shaft.

The next step is to prepare the multiple umbilical cables that link the two cabins. Again, some simplification was made as it is unclear where each of the hoses connects. Several of the hoses are fed through a single, larger 'cable tidy' (like an oversized version of the type used for computers and IT equipment for example). It is wise not to install the cables until right at the end of the project, after most of the painting has been done, but there is no harm in taking the time to check lengths and working out how each cable will drape between the cabins.

The Rear Cabin
A number of changes were also made to the rear cabin. On the front slope, a rectangular area was carved out to receive various pipes and cables for the steering unit. In addition, a length of 20x40 thou strip needs to be added to create the ridge that runs up the joint between the two front plates.

Moving onto the roof, the forward stowage bin and ECM platform has a fundamental error in that it sits flat on the roof when it should be raised on legs above it. The moulded, corrugated hose that connects the unit to the main rear cabin makes this adjustment difficult unless an alternative material can be found. After searching through the spares box, a set of flexible rubber 'oxygen hoses' from MDC was discovered. The set offers two diameters of hose - 1.5mm and 2mm. In an ideal world, a 2.5mm (or even 3mm) hose would have been a better match, but the smaller hose would suffice. The kit hose was therefore carved off the main unit and replaced with a length of the flexible rubber hose.

The stowage bin is covered in a fabric weatherproof cover - wine bottle foil is a good material for this type of work as it is thin and flexible, whilst being robust enough to hold its shape once bent. A perforated heat guard was added to the front from scrap photo etch sheet.

The ECM platform that sits above the stowage bin has two ECM 'beer can' aerials fitted and the whole upper surface is covered with small square mounting plates for further aerials. Unfortunately, some of these are not very 'square' so in the end, the two moulded aerials and the small squares were all removed to leave a smooth surface. Before doing this however, the locations for the various aerials (x5) were marked with small holes drilled into the resin. The two new 'beer can' aerials were cut from plastic tube, whilst the other aerials were constructed in the same way as those on the front hull unit.

On the left side of the roof are two parallel bars which should be a towbar. A new one was fabricated from plastic rod of similar diameter (1.5mm), with towing eyes and shackle points carved from plastic strip. The long, single tube on the right side had the ends reamed out and a crossbar fitted at each end to better replicated the one on the real vehicle. It should also be noted at this point that all the lifting eyes on the roof were also replaced with thicker, more in-scale examples carved from plastic strip.

The kit-supplied rear stowage bin is simplified and the rear angle of the box is too shallow. The front is also incorrect. The box also sits on a metal frame that overhangs the rear of the vehicle. To sort this out a new box of similar overall dimensions was constructed from plastic card.

Moving round to the rear door, the window aperture is square, when it should be rectangular. To correct this, the lower section of the window frame was carved away and a new lower frame added from plastic strip. The related light bar just below the window (to illuminate the rear number plate and convoy marker) also needs to be removed and replaced with a new one just below the revised window.

HLBS supply all the required mudflaps as thin resin pieces but they look better if constructed from wine bottle foil. The largest items are those fitted to the rear of the front cab, with smaller mudflaps fitted elsewhere on the vehicle, all of which were attached using cyano glue.

Tracks
The HLBS kit provides the track units as four cast items - two each for the front and rear cab units. There is good detail when viewed from the outside but the inner faces are solid resin and lack any detail whatsoever. This is another of those areas where a compromise was accepted. Short of building the units from scratch, the level of detail was never going to be fully realistic and once painted and fixed into place, the existing track units would look pretty good.

Painting
Well, there's only one paint scheme and it's overall Desert Tan. That said, it's actually a really nice colour to weather and work with so there are compensations.

The first stage is to give the entire model a good undercoat. Halford's Grey primer, straight from the rattle can is ideal. Once it had dried, there were a few small blemishes that needed filling and re-sanding, before a second coat of primer was applied. The track units were then sprayed Flat Black. Although not their final colour,the black forms a very useful base for the lighter grey shades to be added later.

The main body and all the other sub-components received an initial coat of Tamiya XF-57 Buff. It's not a perfect match for British Army Desert Tan but by the time it's been glossed, weathered, washed and dry-brushed, it won't really matter. The paint was allowed to dry thoroughly before weathering commenced. The whole vehicle enjoyed a wash of thinned oil paints to bring out the detail. Varying mixes of Burnt Sienna and Lamp Black can be applied to different areas to vary the tonal values. Over this initial weathering layer went the gloss varnish in preparation for the decals.

Markings
No markings are supplied in the kit and whilst  it would be possible to source some from one of the Airfix 1/48 scale kits, most of them would be incorrect for the Warthog. There are also no aftermarket decal sets available as far as is known, so this left a choice of using incorrect markings or creating accurate markings from scratch.

Whilst it isn't something that everyone will have the time or patience to achieve, the latter choice offers the opportunity to create a truly unique model. Clear and white decal sheet suitable for use with inkjet printers is available from various online retailers (typically in the 50p per A4 sheet price range). Where the markings are a strong, plain colour, particularly black, the clear decal sheet is really good. However, where there are multiple colours used, the white decal sheet is better.

Some knowledge of a computer graphics package is helpful, but the software doesn't have to be expensive. In this case an old version Paint Shop Pro was used, but there are other very good programmes freely available for download off the Internet.

Photos of Warthogs were scoured so that suitable registration numbers could be copied. A quick question posted on a well known AFV modelling forum revealed that the correct font for UK registration plates (civil and military) is called 'Mandatory'. This is available as a free, downloadable True Type Font (TTF) via the Internet, so you can install it on your computer and use it whenever you want. 

A number of other markings are commonly seen on Warthogs, mostly warning stencils and temporary call signs. Copies of these were made too. In fact, markings for a whole series of different vehicles were created, including a set of 'T' markings seen on a small number of development or possibly unarmoured examples used for demonstrations and exercises in the UK. This latter option was chosen for the model since it would help to explain the lack of bar armour on the finished example. It also appealed as it would provide a visually different option to a typical vehicle in Afghanistan. Once the markings had been applied, some final weathering was added before a couple of thin coats of flat varnish finished off the process. The headlights fitted and the side and rear lights picked out (if you do it before this point, the flat varnish will kill the glossy finish of the lights). The last few tasks were to glue the track units the body units, wire up the hydraulics and glue the cupola in place over the front cab.

A simple scenic base helped to set off the completed model. A figure from one of the Airfix sets provides a sense of scale and context.

Overall this project provided a welcome change from the usual assembly of a plastic kit. Whilst resin kits are nothing new in the modelling world, modern vehicles in 1/48 scale are rare and modern British examples rarer still. The fact that this kit is aimed at wargamers shouldn't put people off. Whilst it's not entirely accurate, it remains a very good representation of a Warthog straight out of the box and offers a great opportunity to add even more detail if that takes your fancy.

A Rolls in the (Iraqi) Desert

Whilst I'm primarily a 1/48 scale modeller these days, there is always the temptation to investigate interesting subjects in other scales and 1/50 is close enough to my preferred scale to be largely compatible. In the past year I've picked up several 'wargames' models because they cover subjects I can't otherwise get in my scale. Quality varies widely as you might expect but there are a surprising number of good models around and some will happily sit alongside mainstream 'scale' models.

This Rolls Royce Armoured car from Empress Miniatures is one such example. I knew it was underscale by my normal standards, but I kept coming back to it on their website and looking again at the possibilities. Eventually, after several months of procrastination, I bit the bullet and ordered the kit.

Within a week, it had arrived on my doorstep. I had a couple of surprises when I inspected the kit. Firstly there were no instructions and secondly, the vast majority of the parts were white metal with only two pieces (the turret body and central hull unit) being in resin. After some initial panic, a more sober inspection of the parts left me more confident. The lack of instructions was offset by the logical break-down of the parts. A little bit of guesswork and some decent photos of real examples would resolve that. The greater concern was my lack of experience with white metal kits, but that was a challenge I was willing to address.

So, what do you get? That's something of a problem. The spoked wheels and location of the headlamps would imply that the model represents a 1914 Pattern Rolls Royce A/C, but two other features, the taller turret and the offset vision slots in the driver's visor, are indicative of a 1920 Pattern vehicle. However, the production history of the real vehicle is somewhat messy, so a hybrid might be possible. The last batch of 8-10 1914 Pattern vehicles were apparently manufactured with the taller turret and it possible perhaps, that they also had the offset vision slots. The RAF also ordered a number of 'cars' after WWI when the Army initially refused to supply them with vehicles (they later relented). These were referred to as 'Standard Type A' and had the taller turret (and possibly the offset visor) but may have been built on a spoked wheel chassis. Then of course we have a fairly widespread programme of transferring 1914 Pattern armoured bodies off older 'war weary' chassis onto newly built chassis with later features.

You could backdate the model to a 1914 Pattern by altering the vision slots and living with the taller turret. Or you could upgrade it to a 1920 Pattern vehicle by finding (or scratchbuilding) the necessary solid dished wheels characteristic of this variant. The third option is to leave the model as it stands and just enjoy building it into a representative example of the beast - after all, the level of variation in the real vehicles means it could be accurate as it stands for at least one vehicle.

Despite their fame, production figures for the Roll Royce Armoured Car are surprisingly small. It's been suggested that around 100-150 1914 Pattern vehicles were manufactured, perhaps 55 1920 Pattern and maybe 23 1924 Pattern vehicles, plus around 20 additional Standard Type A examples for the Royal Air Force. Thus we are looking at a production run of 250 vehicles or thereabouts. To compound the difficulties, Rolls Royce did not manufacture the armoured cars. All they did was provide the chassis. The armoured bodies were then built up by a number of specialist coachbuilding firms. This was common practice even for RR's civilian sales, where a buyer would purchase the chassis and then have a body built to their own specification.

Rolls Royce armoured cars survived in active service through until around 1942 in ever-decreasing numbers. The last serviceable RAF examples survived until around 1942. A proportion of these had their bodies transferred onto Fordson 4x2 truck chassis around 1940 but some true Rolls Royce Armoured Cars lingered until the very end in North Africa.

Assembly commenced with laying out all the parts and trying to identify them. This proved fairly easy (with a couple of exceptions). Next, each of the parts was gently cleaned up, especially the edges where the parts would mate together. The chassis provides a good starting point for the assembly process and I soon had the axles and engine block glued into place.

The recommended glue for strength is a two-part '5 minute' epoxy adhesive, a material I had little previous experience of. Cyanoacrylate glue will work too, but it lacks strength and the joints tend to be brittle. In several cases I tacked the parts together with cyano, and then flooded the joints with epoxy to provide strength. I suspect I got more epoxy on my fingers than on the model, but that is apparently part of the joy of learning!

Next, I dry-fitted the resin body and rear cargo tray and they both dropped neatly into place. Confidence increasing, I turned to the engine compartment walls and struck my first problem. The side panels were slightly too long compared to the bonnet panels and that meant the radiator didn't fit where it should.

The lack of instructions didn't help and photos of the primed model on the Empress Miniatures website only seemed to confirm the panel length was wrong. At this point I contacted them with a couple of queries and received a very helpful reply. It appears the side panels are indeed slightly too long and also that Empress hope to have some instructions available soon.

  

 Armed with the knowledge that the engine panels were too long (rather than there being an error on my part), I carefully filed them back to the correct length, working slowly and patiently (and checking their fit to the model regularly. I still didn't get the fit quite right but the problem is conveniently hidden by a spare wheel.

Turret

Consisting of just four parts including the Vickers MG, the turret is a combination of resin body and metal roof. A separate roof hatch is included too. For this project, some additional items were also incorporated. Many RAF vehicles had searchlights and an extra MG fitted on a pedestal mount at the rear of the turret roof, usually a Lewis Gun. The searchlight is a 1/35 scale resin item that was found in the spares box, fitted to a copper wire bracket. The additional gun is one of the excellent Lewis Guns from Gas Patch, fitted to a scratchbuilt brass rod pedestal. You could replace the Vickers MG with a Gas Patch item too if you wanted, but the kit item is well detailed for what little of it you see on the finished model. Also added were the rolled signal flags strapped the the sloping turret sides - Brass rod along with small scraps of masking tape provided the raw materials for these.

The Wheels

Already mentioned is the fact that spoked wheels are the most common option for a 1920 Pattern Rolls Royce, but Empress Miniatures took the view that creating them was worth the effort (although apparently it nearly defeated them!). The wheels are supplied in two halves, an 'inner' and an 'outer'. The inner halves are all identical, but there are two types on Outer. Most of the wheels use a spoked outer half, but the inside wheel of the pair on the rear axles are each provided with a half that has no spokes (to help with the assembly of the double rear wheels).

The solution Empress have come up with for the spokes impressed me. It allows the wheels to be cast in white metal whilst at the same time providing a genuine three-dimensional look to the finished wheels. Some filling and sanding was inevitably required along the join line but careful pre-sanding minimised this.

My kit was supplied with an an extra outer half (and one less inner half), leaving me with one mismatched wheel. I contacted Paul at Empress Miniatures by email, explained the problem and within four days, a new wheel unit had arrived on my doorstep - excellent service!

Rather than scrap the two spare 'outers', I cobbled them together to create a third spare wheel. Arguably, you need more because most cars seem to have carried two spares on each side officially (and often more, strapped to other parts of the body and even the turret roof).

When it comes to stowage, contemporary photos show a mix of heavily stowed vehicles and almost 'clean' examples. This is in part due to the way they operated. Much of their operational use was for local patrolling from a permanent base. In the case of the RAF Armoured Car Squadrons, this usually meant an airfield. Throughout much of the 1920s and 1930s, the RAF operated a 'combined arms' policy where armoured cars and aircraft were used to support each other on operations. It was only on longer patrols or when deploying to a new area that the vehicles carried more than the minimum levels of stowage. I decided to add a number of items, some from scratch and others from the spares box. The tow rope on the front suspension 'horns' is braided copper wire, whilst the drum, two and four gallon cans and rolled tarpaulin are Red Zebra and Black Dog items.

The figure is an item from The Fusilier. He is one of a three-figure set that includes two ground crew, both holding up parts of aircraft as trophies. The pilot/officer figure seemed an appropriate character to place alongside the Rolls. Throughout the Inter-war years, a high proportion of officers in the RAF armoured car companies were pilots serving a ground tour, whilst others were former pilots no longer medically fit to fly but still wanting an RAF career. This must have helped foster a close cameraderie and cooperation between the 'cars' and the aircraft squadrons and probably accounted for the high levels of success of this combined approach to their colonial policing role.

Colours and Markings

My plan was to represent an early 1920s RAF 'car' in Iraq. There were a number of reasons for this. In part it provided an interesting counterpoint to recent RAF activities in Iraq and in part because my father spent much of his National Service based at RAF Habbaniya, where some of the armoured car units had been based in the 1930s - tenuous I know, but it's what inspired me to complete the model.

The overall colour is a matter of some debate. Contemporary monochrome images show vehicles in both 'dark' and 'light' overall colours, suggesting that some vehicles were probably Deep Bronze Green (or similar) and that others were a desert sand (or similar) shade. I wanted the 'dark' option as I felt it provided an interesting counterpart to the sand coloured vehicles that people expect to see.

The model was given an initial coat of Halford's Grey Primer to provide a key for the paint and also to highlight any small imperfections in the construction stage and allow them to be corrected.

For the main colour I used Tamiya XF-53 JGSDF Dark Green, with a touch of XF-58 Olive Green added. I felt that the car would have a faded, dusty appearance so I didn't want to go any darker, especially as subsequent washes would darken the shade anyway. With the paint thoroughly dry, I started with the first of those washes, a mix of Burnt Sienna and Lamp Black oil paint thinned heavily with white spirit. This was applied over the whole model initially, before the detail was picked outmore carefully with a slightly darker version of the wash. Some subtle streaking was added down the vertical sides of the hull and turret (too subtle probably as it doesn't really show on the finished model). Next I turned to a bottle of XF-49 Khaki. Using a wide, flat-profile soft paintbrush, I gently started to dry-brush the model, slowly bringing out the raised detail as I worked across the model in stages.

At this point I decided on the final selection of markings to be used. RAF 'cars' were often named, but not all the time. As I wanted to create a generic example of the type, I went with a simple serial number. I also added a pair of RAF roundels to the body. Prior to applying the decals (all found in my decal collection from various sources), the relevant body panels on the model were gloss varnished with Johnson's Klear to help with decal adhesion. After the decals had been added, a couple of coats of Vallejo Matt Varnish were added to hide the glossy appearance of the panels.

Final thoughts

Correspondence with Empress Miniatures indicates that they hope to release other variants of the Rolls, and that the solid, 1920 Pattern wheels are also on the cards. Overall I really enjoyed this project. It challenged me to work with new materials and new adhesives and that added to the satisfaction of completing it successfully. It is a subject that isn't available as a mainstream kit in 1/48 scale and whilst this is strictly speaking a 1/50 scale model, it's close enough to sit comfortably amongst my growing collection of quarter-scale models.

References:

The Rolls Royce Armoured Car

David Fletcher

Osprey New Vanguard No. 189 (2012)

ISBN: 9781849085809

In Every Place - RAF Armoured Cars in the Middle East 1921-1953

Nigel Warwick

Forces and Corporate Publishing Ltd (2014)

ISBN: 9780957472525

Sources:

Empress Miniatures - www.empressminiatures.com

Red Zebra - www.redzebramodels.co.uk

The Fusilier - www.thefusilier.net

Gaspatch - www.gaspatchmodels.com