Shorland Armoured Car

wasdale32

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Hi

While rummaging through some old copies of MM I came across this...

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So I thought "why not?"

The article uses two Tamiya kits - the "Pink Panther" and the "Land Rover Ambulance" but I'm using the more recent Italeri Land Rover 109 as my donor kit...

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Regards

Mark
 

wasdale32

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Started by cutting the templates - first question - "inside the lines or outside?"....

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and then attacked the plastic sheet ….

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No template for the roof & one of the "B" templates is actually the "E" template...

Then the kit arrived - there are going to be a few left-over bits including the entire interior

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SimonT

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Excellent Mark :thumb2:

I made one based on the old Heller/Humbrol 1/43 Landy that was in dayglo green plastic - should have some reference pictures (actual photos - way before digital). If you need them I can try and dig them out
 

wasdale32

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I've got another MM article somewhere with more "in-service" photos - I need to dig it out.

My first problem was that the Italeri kit may be slightly narrow compared to Tamiya - The first attempt to build up the body shell was about 3mm too wide - even cutting "inside the lines" it still comes up too wide so I had to recut some parts.

As this is very much an "old school" build there's going to be a lot of trial and error fitting.

Mark
 

JR

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Mark I will tag along please, love these conversions
 

Jakko

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Started by cutting the templates
Part of me doesn’t want to know if you cut up the magazine for those …

My first problem was that the Italeri kit may be slightly narrow compared to Tamiya
You have me wondering now … so I went and measured a Tamiya Land Rover ambulance and an Italeri SAS Land Rover I have. Both are 46.5 mm wide across the front wings.
 

Steve Jones

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Definitely in for this one. One of my wishes further down the road so will be watching with great interest. Good luck Mark
 

wasdale32

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Jakko

I photocopied the plans and checked the measurements to make sure there wasn't a scaling error. I built the Tamiya pink panther a while back and had a spare front panel (radiator grill & the front of the wings - I just compared with the Italeri panel and there is approx. 1mm difference with the Tamiya one being wider- I suspect the Italeri Pink Panther is an earlier tooling than the 109 model - the headlamps being mounted in the grille rather than the wings (same as Tamiya) - so I wonder if they actually just measured the Tamiya one.

Anyway the original was basically a welded box so for my purposes as long as the shape looks OK I'll be happy.

I've got the basic box attached to the chassis but it needs a bit of adjustment and I've made a start on the turret ( it seems a bit lower in profile than the plans - when I match the templates to the full plans there is a slight discrepancy but it looks OK )


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mainly scratchbuilt - the 30-cal is from the spares box and the searchlight is the business end of a panzerfaust cut in half

MArk
 

Jakko

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I photocopied the plans
Colour photocopier, then? :smiling3: Because they were blue, I was a little bit worried you had cut up a 40-year-old magazine, which I would think a waste.

I've made a start on the turret ( it seems a bit lower in profile than the plans - when I match the templates to the full plans there is a slight discrepancy but it looks OK )
The turret is the same as on Ferret armoured cars and Saracen APCs, to the best of my knowledge, so you could use a spare one from a kit if you (or someone else) have one. The one you built looks a bit low in the photos, but it’s hard to say from the angle if it really is, or if it just seems that way.
 

wasdale32

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I did colour copies as the grey scale ones didn’t have enough contrast.

I don’t have a ferret etc hence the scratch job I am going to add a thicker base panel which should bring it up to the right height .
 

Jakko

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If you have a scanner (or an “all-in-one” printer) for your computer, you can scan drawings like this and tinker with the colours, for example invert them so the white lines become black, and then adjust the levels so the lines become even more black and blue parts (almost) white. Here’s a very quick illustration of what I mean using one of your photos:

IMG_2022.JPG

This was done in software that comes with every Mac (the Preview app, to be precise); Paint, that comes with Windows, can do similar things, so it’s not like you need something expensive like Photoshop :smiling3:

As for the turret, I just measured the one on my 1/35 scale Ferret, and it’s about 9 mm from floor to roof.
 

wasdale32

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Thanks Jakko

My turret is coming up about 8mm so a 40 thou (1mm) extra floor panel would be about right and should merge in OK

Mark
 
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Great stuff Mark and nice to see the old MM article. I once remember an article by Norman Abby where he scratch built an Humber (?) armoured car - he turned the wheels from broomstick handles. Those were the days!
 

Jakko

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That certainly looks like a Shorland. With all the flat plates it should make a good model for someone new to scratchbuilding (no idea if you are, though).
 

wasdale32

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Most of my MM collection dates back to my first childhood (well teenage years) and now my wife thinks I'm entering my second …

I did a fair bit of conversion/scratch in the past mainly for wargaming models when the market didn't have anything but not for many years -

this was just a fill-in exercise between sessions assembling these … separate links I can handle but individual track pads (2 per link) is going a bit far !


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Anyway sprayed a quick coat of primer to get a better impression ...

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A bit of tidying up required but its vaguely the right shape
 

Jakko

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I did a fair bit of conversion/scratch in the past mainly for wargaming models when the market didn't have anything but not for many years -
You may be a bit rusty but it doesn’t look like you forgot the skills :smiling3:

separate links I can handle but individual track pads (2 per link) is going a bit far !
I know what you mean … The fewer parts per link, the better.
 

wasdale32

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Calling this done for now. I may need to build a base for it - maybe Belfast 1969?

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Light/white balance went a bit funny on this one
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