Now that's a cool idea

I have now received some preproductionsprues of the chassie, wheels and engine. the details look very nice, actually its more detailed than I thought it was going to be. The bodywork and turret will hopefully soon follow. Erik Sweden

I've ordered three - dream come true. For an accurate WWI era Rolls (T.E. Lawrence, etc.)though you've got to back date the kit to the 1914 Pattern. I scratch built a 1914 Pattern in 1/32 many, many years ago. I used the plastic cast spoked wheels from a 1/32 Rolls Royce Phantom Mk.1, a kit long out of production by Matchbox. To convert Rodens 1920 to the earlier 1914 isn't all that much work. A significant change between the two patterns was not obvious, that is the chassis. The '20 used the 1920 Silver Ghost chassis. Since you really can't see this I'd leave this alone. The most noticible differences on the 1920 is the rounded more aerodynamic front fenders, the addition of a spot light on the turret, a different (wider) turret hatch, and of course the solid wheels and wide tires as aposed to the spoked wheels and narrow tires on the 1914. Again use of the old Matchbox Rolls wheels is possible. Unless you are a real scale queen the small difference in size between 1/35 and 1/32 won't even be noticible, unless you point it out. The tires can't be used because of the tread pattern: the standard civilian tire tread is used, for the 1914 Pattern you need a horizontal pattern (across the tire ends). For cast spoked wheels (and chromed, which you'll have to remove) they are very well done. The spoked wheels must be thinned from the inside by gently sanding on a flat surface. Again I suggest making your own tires, laminate rings of plastic to the correct tire width and sand/carve to shape, then cut/file in the tread pattern, insert your spokes and you've got it made. A short cut is to take your first finished tire and use as a master to cast the remaining seven (7) tires. You can also cast the spokes in halves to save from having to sand sixteen halves (!). Another option is the use of Pyro (also sold under the Life-Like brand) 1/32 Benley Blower wheels and tires. They are actually a little smaller in diameter than the Rolls tires so closer to 1/35. There's an article in the September 1989 issue of Fine Scale Modeler on a scratch built 1/20 1920 Pattern that uses the Airfix 1/24 Bentley tires. The Pyro 1/32 Bentley tires and wheels are plastic and cast in halves and somewhat thinner in wall so do well as the narrower Rolls, all you have to do is cut/file the horizontal lines of the 1914 Pattern tire tread into the tires at regular intervals. One final option for tires and wheels is to use those from the Pyro 1908 Lanchester or Airfix 1907 Lanchester Lauderette. All models mentioned are long out of production but can be had on eBay or through online rare and collectible kit sellers. The price shouldn't break your bank account either. You can also use the rest of the Lanchester kit and make another fine WWI era armored car similar to the Rolls. For the 1914 fenders all you have to do is leave the fenders off as Roden has cast them separately. Build 1914 fenders from plastic card, heat shape around a dowel to get the bend right and use photos (or detail pix from the Resicast kit) to build a frame work to support the fenders from the chassis. You can use plastic strip or brass frets from used PE sets (stronger). The turret can be altered by sanding the 1920 Pattern hatch details from the center section and scratch building a new 1914 Pattern hatch (once again use references and check the pix on the Resicast model). Just eliminate the spot light and sand off or fill any attachment points on the turret roof. Hoping someone will put out a nice PE & resin set of spoked wheels and tires but thought I put out some options if that doesn't happen or the cost is prohibitive (which it probably will be - my guess $30 - $40+ for a set of eight tires and wheels). It is possible to make your own spoked wheels, but that's not for the tender hearted. I hope these tips from my 45 year infatuation with this beauty help anyone willing to put in a bit of elbow grease.

Thanks for the info and tips John. Got my email from LuckyModel today, my kits are on the way. I also scratch built one at least 30 years ago, using the Pryo RR kit, and few few photos. Didn't turn out half bad, but certainly not up to Resicast or Scale-Link kits standards.

Hi All! Ive received the rest of the parts now and actually thrown it together ootb, just to be able to see what it looks like, you can see it over at ML LINK Just one note, there is one more thing at least that needs to be done to make a 1914 pattern RR, a new turret. The earlier turret was much lower, this can be seen on the sides especially. Erik Sweden

Hi Eric, looks pretty good, glad to hear it has a basic interior, another one for the list. Al

I'm working on a review sample from Roden at the moment so the review will up on Armorama shortly

Look forward to that Pat. Al

Sorry for the delay in replying, Erik. You've a good eye, the '20 pattern turret is one inch (25mm) taller, rarely even mentioned in specs. When I scratch built my '14 I noticed the difference too, wouldn't think an inch would be that noticible. It drove me crazy, I only had a limited amount of info at the time and photos of '14's and '20's were my main source, and a Bellona Print 1/76 scale 4-view. At the time I believed that the difference was just a trick of the eye viewing the photos, I found out the truth after much more research (from a book or two I obtained in the UK). I'm not sure where that inch is, it looks like it may be on the sides, front and back armor but it may be the turret hatch plate of the '20. I'm at a loss because all my references are packed away somewhere so until I dig them out (soon I promise) I can't say for sure. Still an inch in 1/35 is not too bad, I've built models with errors of over 5 scale inches - that's really noticible. Careful sanding will take care of such a tiny difference. I'd assemble the turret, leaving off the turret ring, and sand the whole evenly on a sanding board until the proper height is acheived. Now here's the real kicker, the '20 was actually shorter overall than the '14! Again not a spectacular difference. Another historical application of the '14 was in patroling the Afghan in the 1920's. I read in an old Military Illustrated magazine that 1914 patterns served on for at least another seven years after WWI. The only change to the vehicles was to substitute solid rubber tires for the standard inflatable kind. The article mentioned that company histories indicate that the solid tires provided a bone-jolting ride and so were not liked by crews. Even after the official order for replacement due to the '14 being considered obsolete the tough ol' gal soldiered on well into the '30's in some Colonial outposts. In all I've read about the Rolls-Royce A.C. everyone who served in one loved them, prefered them to any other vehicle due to their reliability, toughness, protection (pretty good armor for the time), ease of maintenance and firepower. Their presence alone was usually enough to disuade an opponent.