have you looked into purchasing the accurate armor hotspur protected land rover? would look great with this piggie in a dio...
heres a link...
http://www.accurate-armour.com/ShowProduct.cfm?manufacturer=0&category=14&subcategory=173&product=2131

by the way nice woodgrain!

Rob, Thomo, thanks for your comments, glad your enjoying the build so far, thanks for posting!

Eric, thanks too for your comments, I love the Hotspur, I built it last year, infact I reviewed the kit for AMPS on your side of the pond a week or so after it was released, here's a pic of it

wow thats nice truck! howd you do the white flashes on the bulletresistant glass? i mean on the head lights.

Thanks Erik! ..Although I dont get the "white flashes" you are on about but I'll tell you how I made the armour anyway so it might help clear things up;
I just cut them from clear plastic card and gave them a few coats of lightly airbrushed Matt Varnish. (the round marks are just where they have been glued into place).


..heres a quick photo update of whats been happening





..I went with the yellow stencilling on the rear door after seeing a photo in Jochens book, All other material I have of the Flying Pigs in service make them appear very dull and lacking in color. This is most likely because they were repainted Olive Green quite frequently after use (in riots usually) and there wasnt any point in having any more markings on the vehicles to make the repainting more tedious I guess

Well guys I finished the Pig today after spending a few hours weathering her, and I'm happy with the finished model.

I managed to make the Flying wings open and close too which I was chuffed with.

It would be a shame to post the photos with poor light etc so I'm going to take some time out tommorow and set up my "Photo Studio" ..well at least my colored paper in the background and I'll take some photos using natural light in my kitchen

Here's a few teasers for those who have been following the build log, see you guys tommorow

This is excellent Roy!

I appreciate your post David, thanks a million!

..finished photos will be up shortly..

Once again Roy, you've outdone yourself. A hearty

Cheers Pat, I hope the end result is to your satisfaction!

..well guys here she is, the Humber Flying Pig as used by the British Army in Northern Ireland through the greater part of "The Troubles" ..until replaced by the Saxon Patrol APC on a one to one basis in the early 90's





































All comments good and bad welcome guys, I enjoyed the build immensly and would love to build another Pig from the period, in particular the Kremlin Pig, maybe sometime in the future.

Thanks to all who tuned in over the past few weeks and thanks to everyone who helped out with information including Pat Keenan and Clive Elliott over on the HMVF forum http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/index.php , both guys were a great help and without their imput this kit would of been completely different and full of errors, cheers lads

I'll be back with another model project representing "The Troubles" over the next few weeks

For anyone who missed this first time around here's a link to my first project the Saxon Patrol, this vehcile replaced the Pig in Service in Northern Ireland
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/152358&page=1&ord=1

Stunning build Roy. Nice how you managed to do the wings in either position.

Well done,
Sean

Great work Roy,

You are clearly the man to beat at the IPMS Ireland Nationals in Cork next month.

Looking forward to seeing the Pig in the flesh there.

Paddy

Thanks Paddy, your doing wonders for my ego but I'm expecting far more talented people down in the "rebel county", & I'm sure you'll throw something into the competition to keep the rest of us on our toes!

..I won't go down without a fight though

Cheers sean!!

Excellent model of very inetersting vehicle. Congartulations Roy!

Roy,

Great build! I have been quitely following this thread. I was unfamailar with the vehicle. Very cool.

Tony

Kuba, Tony; Thanks guys!

..my next project is going to be a later variant of the British Army, Land Rover VPK HV (109") or as it was more commonly known, the "Piglet".

This was a "natural" sight in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and the main form of transport for most British Army patrols in built up urban areas.

VPK - Vehicle Protection Kit
HV - High Velocity

The Piglet was a development of the armoured Land Rover series using the 109" chasis and was the last in a long line of add-on-armour Landy's before the APV during the late 80's and later again the purpose built Snatch Landrover which entered service in 1992.

I'll attach a link when I begin the build log over the coming week or so

in the mean time here's photos of similar "piglets"

The Brits used to park these round blind bends on country roads as chicanes for SR Nova drivers.

You're making me homesick with these "natural" sights

Thanks JP, I don't mind making you home-sick, as long as I'm not making you violently I'll
..your showing your age now mentioning the venerable SR Nova

There was a Short Wheel Base version too. Looked identical apart from... Well, being a lot shorter.

Your right murdo, photos are rare but I have one or two on my pc, I'll post a photo tonight when I dig it up

As promised a photo of the short wheel base version (Lightweight series with VPK) ..is this the Landy you were on about Murdo??

Yeah, that's one of them. Note the TUAAM on the wing.

I took that photo.

Thats really amazing Murdo ..its prob a bit late asking for permission to post that photo

..Can you share a little more info on the TUAAM, I believe it was a VHF device for shortening the antenna, but was it used alot in N.Ireland??
..most importantly do you think I should use one of these "boxes" with my Piglet build or would my piglet be too old?? (I read before it entered service in 1982?)

Hey Murdo... any of those blokes YOU????

TUAAM = Tuner Unit Automatic Antenna Matching. It was used to electrically match the 2 metre whip (the standard issue VHF vehicle whip in the British Army) to the output of the VHF radio. As the name suggests, it did it automatically across the VHF frequency range used on the Clansman family of radios (30 to 76 MHz). In basic terms there's a load of transistors and a couple of capacitors inside the box that do all the electrical magic.

The vehicle you're talking about was well before my time in NI so I couldn't help you with how common they were at the time, I'm afraid. I can't even remember whether the Snatches that were driving round when I was there had them or not now.

It looks like a standard Clansman TUAAM and base on the front wing of the short Rover you posted. I'm not sure when the Cougar system came into service in NI so Clansman could well have been in use before Cougar was procurred which would have meant that TUAAMs would have been required as well.