I got some more work done today.
I began by adding the large one piece rear side armour panels, which protect crew in the resr section of the vehicle.
In the photo you will see that I have also added the first section of a roll cage frame inside the rear compartment.
In the photo below you can see a close up shot from inside the rear compartment.
You can see the roll cage bar (green) behind an additional FG Armour sheet. (which I will build later).
If your wondering what the red pipes are I'll explain more about this later in the build but its part of a fire extinguisher system which was added to the VPK fleet in the early 80's to combat the use of petrol bombs and molotov cocktails igniting inside the rear compartment.
Lastly I designed the basis of the rear (tail) section of the crew compartment. This section will have to be cut later for the door and much more detail added but I needed to get the inital fit and shape correct first.
I gave the roof section a dry run fitting also to ensure everything was alligned and fit properly, here's a sneak preview..
This armoured landrover I am building was one of the last Piglets to see service as a support vehicle in Belfast, N.Ireland.
The rear door is of the later design and is one piece
The model piglet that I am building is a very late series HV-VPK (High Velocity Vehicle Protection Kit), a follow on to the older VPK design.
This later HV-VPK design is very similar the older VPK fitted Landrover but has some obvious difference..
Armoured Landrovers in Northern Ireland have a long history which can be traced right back from the modern Snatch to the mainstream VPK (Vehicle Protection Kit) designs of the 1970's.
In fact the first armoured landrover date back even before the 70's and were first used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in the late 60's with some of their series II Landrover fleet.
The RUC used the first VPK kits and the British Army used a similar design on their Landrovers soon after. (infact I've seen photos of ex RUC VPK's in British Army service as late as the latter parts of the 1980's.
The VPK design became a common standard for all British Military Landrovers before deployment to Ulster. This included Army and RAF Regiment Landy's. Later the UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment), a local part-time Army raised to assist the security forces, were also supplied with Landrover Series III 109 VPK's.
From the 1970's to the mid 1980's at the height of the troubles and sadly a time of the greatest toll on life, military and civilian, the VPK or Piglet as it was known to crews, was the most common form of transport used in the Province by the British Army during Patrols.
The RUC at this stage had the Landrover Hotspur, seen in this link;
http://www.warwheels.net/Model_LandRoverHotspuraaKinsella.htmlDuring the 1980's the Landrover VPK fleet were updated and modernised. A new Factory Fitted armoured kit was produced for all new Landrovers intended for service in N.Ireland. It was called the HV-VPK (High Velocity Vehicle Protection kit).
The most obvious difference between the VPK and HV-VPK were the windshield to begin with, this was now heavilly armoured and the crew doors, front and rear were one piece solid armour designs too.
Older VPK kits had armour added to crew doors but it was a second skin design, the rear door was usually a two piece design but there were many variants of this.
Another noticable difference was the breathing apparathus on the forward passanger side mud guard (wing) this is not visiable on older VPK's but is armoured and stands out on late HV-VPK's. A difference due to an engine upgrade & underskin improvements in the later models..
By the mid 1980's the British army were starting to replace the VPK fleet with the purpose built Glover Webb APV (another Landrover based armoured vehicle, this time whats known now as a Defender chasis).
http://www.warwheels.net/LandyAPVindex.htmlhttp://www.warwheels.net/LandyAPVpatterson.htmlSome earlier VPK kits appear to have been upgraded to the later HV-VPK design in later years. (but with a sharp eye you can visiually tell them apart)
Although the Piglet was starting to be phased out by the late 1980's, some VPK and HV-VPK Piglets continued on with their new stable mate the APV until the early 1990's, mostly in a support or reserve roll.
There is very little documentation or record of what happened in the the last few years of these Piglets serving into the 1990's.
But it does appear they did get a last interesting upgrade which included what appears to be the same Makrolon Armoured Protection on the roof as the Glover Webb APV.
Some vehicles were also upgraded to carry front underside protection systems (again for use against objects being rolled under the front of the vehicle).
These last upgraded Piglets are what I call Hybrid designs.
I've seen little evidence to support that these vehicles were deployed on the streets of N.Ireland but they may have been used as training Vehicles for the APV and even as late as the Snatch for new army units arriving to the Province. At best they could have been support vehicles or back up vehicles in case of Emergencies or shortages. Most evidence appears from a late MOD auction of heavilly weathered and worn Piglets during the late 1990's onward.
However the Piglet I am modelling does appear to be one I can confirm was deployed. It was used by the RMP and alhtough there is no photographic evidence available to me yet (only a recently discovered painting from the period), I have spoken to its owner who was more than helpful to share his history and knowledge of that particular Piglet since he purchased it from the MOD and restored it.
more to follow in the build..
