It's been a while since I've posted here; a few months ago I wrapped my paws around the Tamiya reissue of the LRDG Chevrolet with the 20mm Breda. This is my work-in-progress


Scratch-built toolbox (fwd running board), rebuilt cargo bay. So far I have found four different variations on the configuration of the forward cargo bays on these Breda gun trucks - this is probably typical of G (Guards) Patrols and, possibly Y Patrols.
Scratch built wheel mount, condensor pipe, cargo tie-down hooks. In the background is my Lee-Enfield Mk III EY rifle, the version of the SMLE with grenade discharger and reinforced by tightly bound brass wire.


Breda mount. Photos show that the cargo bed appeared to be reinforced with light steel plating under the Breda; steel tie rods secured the gun mount over the legs, through the floor and bolted to the chassis.



L/H side. Scratch built gunpost, wheel chock and securing brace. Modified cargo bay with internal reinforcement for external wheel mount.



View of rear chassis with extra tie rods used to brace cargo bay on Breda trucks.



Close-up of added detail - this is the correct configuration of the exhaust on all LRDG Chevys. (Yup, still some seams on the tyres...*sigh*)

More later

JW.

Hi Jeff,

Nice work so far, this is an interesting configuration. Thanks for the detailed look, I'd like to try one of these one day.

Look forward to seeing the progress.

Cheers

Al

Hi Alan, good to hear from ya! This is an enjoyable project - the basic kits (LRDG and Italeri Breda) are accurate but still require some improvements; working out how the Breda was mounted onto the bed of the Godfredson 'Ammunition Body, Steel, 4B1', and modifying the "greedy boards" and front locker has taken up the bulk of my time on the conversion. Fortunately I have accessed plenty of good photos, such as...


This one, which shows how the Breda was secured to the bed and also shows that the area around the mounting appears to have been reinforced with light plating. Lots of weathering on the internal bodywork, BTW.
This is T10 of T1 Patrol; T1 and T2 Patrols were mostly manned by New Zealanders. T1 Patrol extended the "greedy boards" past the bodywork, thus creating a small amount of extra space for stowage. It also shows the spare wheel mounted on the front running board, which is similar on a number of Breda gun trucks, regardless of the Patrol the Chevrolet was being used by .

Cheers

Jeff W.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the pics and the info. I have two of the old Tamiya kits I got a couple of years ago, just haven't gotten to them yet, but I did pick up the horse drawn Breda when it came out with a view to building one some time so all information is most welcome.

Cheers

Al

Looks great! Makes me want to get one of those... So many ideas, so little time...

How does the Tamiya kit compare to modern kits?

Cheerio!

nice work there love the ref pic too. very interesting

Stefan,

in one word: simplier. This is practically an at least 30 year old kit and unfortunately Tamiya didn't made any modification on it when issued with the Breda. But it's a nice one, easy to build (though have to make the modification at least on the cargo bay if you want to make a tail car) and you do not have much alternatives for this vehicle.

Thank you Jeff for the superb shots on your build, those made the details much clearer than those old photographs. I have one of this combo kit too, I wanted to build this version since I first read about LRDG.

It is a little frustrating building a Breda gun truck because there are not many photos showing the actual WD No.s and other markings. The LRDG used 200 of the 1533X2 30 cwt Chevrolets; at a guess roughly one in six of these - 33 - were coverted to gun trucks, which limits the options. As a rule there was one gun truck allocated to each half-Patrol; eg: T1 Patrol, S (for Rhodesian)2 Patrol etc. According to NV 32 in March 1942, just as the Chevys were being introduced, the half-Patrol organisation was
1st H-P
(1) Commanding Officer's vehicle (all except the Breda had three crew members - truck commander, driver, gunner - all LRDG members were trained to be competent gunners)
(2)W/T and Navigator's vehicle (Tamiya kitset) - the second crew member was the navigator - W/T operator.
(3)Patrol Sergeant's vehicle
(4)Medical Orderly's vehicle
(5)Fitter/Engineer's vehicle (had extra tools and spare parts for repairing vehicles while on a mission. T6 L4618864 "TE ANAU II" was the most notable.)
(6)Breda Gun Truck (four crew members - driver, two gunners and a loader)

2nd H-P was the same except that there were five trucks; apparently the medical orderly and the fitter used the same truck.

By September 1942 there were two Jeeps and four Chevrolets to each half-Patrol - the C/O and Patrol Sergeant's vehicles were now Jeeps, while the rest of the unit was as per the March 1st H-P allocation

The WD (War Department) No.s of the vehicles were in the series L46188xx - L46189xx (Tamiya use the totally wrong L4618345 as one of their options). I have only found two Breda trucks which can be identified T10 L4618950 (? possibly 60) of T1 Patrol and S6 L4618819 of S1 Patrol

The best sources of information I have used are three books by NZ author Brendan O'Carroll;
The Kiwi Scorpions
Barce Raid
plus Bearded Brigands; the edited diaries of Trooper Frank Jopling, which was edited, not written, by Brendan.

New Vanguard 32 is also very useful. Other sources I have used
Long Range Desert Group
LRDG Preservation Society
Afrika Korps page on LRDG

Apologies for the lengthy posting; I intend writing and posting one or two articles on the LRDG, when I have some spare time.

Cheers
Jeff W.

Jeff, it's not often I post on here, but I have to say your model is excellent. What did you use for the material on the front seat? Those Tamiya vinyl tyres are pigs, aren't there any a/m resin ones you could invest in?

Also thanks for the very interesting information in your last post. I look forward to reading any articles you write on the LRDG in the future.

Regards

Ken

great work so far. nice detailing. looks very realistic.

Gidday Ken; the material on the front seat is from an old, very worn blanket - from photos the LRDG appeared to prefer hessian or similar to the - I presume - leather. Yup, those vinyl tires are pigs to work with and they have a bad habit of disintergrating.

* I have found that the seamlines can be removed by the constant application of 320 grade wet and dry (wet) and elbow grease - the tyres were worked hard on the real vehicles so it doesn't matter if they look fairly scuffed up on the model; it takes time but is easier than trying to trim the seams with a very sharp blade.

*When I built my last LRDG Chevy (a few years ago now) I used only acrylic paint and washes on the wheels; all contact areas around the rims were given at least four coats of acrylic paint, and I also covered the inner rims of the vinyl tyres with acrylic. Acrylics and chalk pastels were used for painting and weathering the tyres . Result? No splitting, not even a tiny crack My feeling is that there is a chemical reaction between the type of vinyl Tamiya use and enamel (or oil) paints and/or the kitset polystyrene. I have a feeling that Tamiya acrylics may also react with the vinyl.

*Thanks to the generosity of another Armorama member I do have a set of resin wheels. Stupidly I packed them away in a deep, dark hidden place - I only found them again a couple days ago. |: (

Never mind, I'll keep them for my next Chevy ...

Cheers

Jeff W

Very nice job..............................Monty

Hi,

A really great job ! I love it ! But you should replace those ugly PSP plates.

Congrats !