Friday, 6 June 2014

Land Rover rebuilds - part 2



 Here are some of my completed Britains Land Rovers.  This lot are all Series III versions - the real sIII were produced from 1971-1985 so are spot on for the era we have in mind for Little Cold Wars (1979).
The pair above and below have been dismantled and repainted.  The cabs were in decent nick - they are often damaged - and even the windscreens survived the process!  I deliberately left the wheels in their original sand coloured plastic to emphasise the fact that these are toys.  And to annoy a few people.
The radiator grilles were a tricky issue - the originals were just stickers which didn't look great in the first place, were damaged and difficult to mask.  To recover the situation I found a photo of a sIII, cropped the grille, scaled it to the right size and printed a few copies on to 100gsm card.  Broken towbars were replaced with new creations of florists' wire.
 The British Army style number plates were created in MS Publisher - note the element of personalisation!
Models with broken cabs had them removed completely - 'stripped' versions like this were not uncommon.
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12 comments:

  1. Martin Rapier6 June 2014 at 11:00

    Lovely job Tim, I can't possibly hope to compete with this stuff. I am however available to pose for the cover photo for the rules in full 1970s era BAOR rig:)

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  2. Tim Gow6 June 2014 at 11:02

    Martin Rapier
    If you stand far enough back we can get the Landie in the same shot!

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  3. Russell Phillips6 June 2014 at 11:22

    Interesting point re "stripped" versions: The Light Weight Land Rover, when it first entered service, had to have all non-essential parts removed to get the weight low enough for it to be carried by helicopter.

    "Non-essential" parts included doors, tailgate, cab, windscreen, spare tyre, and all seats apart from the driver's. Later helicopters, of course, had better lifting capacity, so could carry the complete vehicle.

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  4. Tim Gow6 June 2014 at 11:31

    Russell Phillips
    Thanks for the info - but I'll not be cutting the bloody doors off!

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  5. Paul Foster6 June 2014 at 11:32

    A1 refirbs Tim.

    Great ideas about the grills and the rego's.

    The ones without the windscreen could be hidden with a scrim/hessian netting.

    We did this down here with our V8 SIII's for Recon units and the 106mm RCL set ups...Don't shoot a RCL with the windscreen up!

    Top notch post.

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  6. Tim Gow6 June 2014 at 11:54

    Paul Foster
    Hide missing stuff? You must be confusing me with a proper modeller! I imagine a stripped down V8 would be a bit lively. Sadly the older Britains 109in wheelbase sII models go for a lot of money. If ever I get hold of one it'll be getting a WOMBAT bolted to the rear deck...

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  7. Arthur6 June 2014 at 18:03

    Tim

    A 106mm backblast is quite useful for knocking down a corrugated iron shanty when your platoon leader and section leaders are busy playing poker inside it. It was just another boring day in Africa until that moment. Neither the survivors from the target truck (enemy) or the ex-shanty occupants were full of joy. Something to do with winning hands and missing cash.

    BTW, nice landies... pink wheels have a higher annoyance factor.

    Regards.

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  8. Tim Gow6 June 2014 at 22:29

    Arthur
    Do you think I need a special rule for that? I should think that either end of a big RCL could ruin one's day.

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  9. Pete.7 June 2014 at 00:03

    Very nice- I've a book on military Landrovers- if you want to borrow it?

    You could have endless fun working through all the variants.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  10. Archduke Piccolo7 June 2014 at 05:58

    Far out: these are really nice refurbs. I like your methods of extemporisation.

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  11. Tim Gow8 June 2014 at 22:16

    Pete
    I really should know better, but yes, I would like to see the book....

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tim Gow8 June 2014 at 22:19

    Archduke Piccolo
    Extemporise : to act without preparation or thought.
    Yep, that about sums it up.....

    ReplyDelete