Hello guys,

Here's my new log. It was inspired by an old book I have and especially by one pic out of it :



A Land Rover from Christian Phalanx in 1975 by the early stages of the civil war in Lebanon, started between PLO(s) and Christian Phalanx(es)

I'll depict a little dio with maybe a building corner and 2 or 3 figs, in Beirut, with a Land and its Dshk as in the pic above

As a start base kit, I only had Tamiya's old (to say the least !) Rover ambulance... Doesn't matter...







Extensive surgery in progress...
Here's where I am as of today, after scratchbuilding, chipping, drilling...













Comments welcome.

Regards,

Richard

Good work. there are some good pics of Land rovers in Moustaffa Assads Civil War guntrucks book. IIRC they were all exLebanon police vehicles and were grey under whatever camo the militia put on them.

How easy was the conversion work on the body and how did you get that crazed effect on the windshield?

This really brings back memories, as I grew up in Beirut during the civil war.

The back of your Landrover really looks good. I wish I could do such a conversion But all I can do is pray that Italeri or Revell re-release that old Landy!

By the way, the Landy in the pic with the Dshk (We used to call it Doshka) is a PLO vehicle. It says "Fateh" on the door which in Arabic are the three initials of the PLO.. only backwards. In Arabic it's actually (Palestinian Liberation Movement).. I don't know if that makes sense

Anyway, nice project. I hope you post more pics as you progress.

Hisham

Hi,

Thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated




Pat, your comment brings great info : I did not know what color I was gonna be able to apply ! As per your statement, gloss dark grey looks a good option !

The conversion work was quite straightforward as I had pixies of the Land Rover series 2 and knew how to deal with plasticard.

Regarding the windshield, it took a quarter of hour to get that effect, really easy : I drilled 0.3 mm holes in the windshield (5 of em exactly, 4 in the right part and one in the left part) and then put a new blade on my X-Acto knife and scratched, scored irregular angled lines on the clear plastic. Really handy and very easy. I'll try and get more accurate photos of it to show it better.




Hey Hisham,

Hope these memories brought back aren't too hard to cope with, tho' I know they may... I am deeply and really sorry for that. My goal is only to have fun with plastic, not to bring awful & hurting memories. Please forgive me.

BTW, the conversion was not that difficult. You got to give a try to using plasticard, starting with simple projects and then you will get addicted to it, believe me

Thanks for the info as per the PLO depicted technical in the pic, this is also a good info of yours. I wanna have mine belonging to one of the Christian phalanxes, Kataeb for example and I will copy arabic words on the car. Any help regarding these sported slogans welcome.

Thanks again 4 all of your comments !

Cheers,

Richard

Here is a better picture of the windshield :





Richard

Hey, Richard.. there's no need for apologies. Although the war was sad.. to me those were some of the best days in my life. Made the best friends and learned a lot about people and life at a young age.

Anyway, I've written "The Lebanese Phalange" for you in Arabic. If you think of any particular slogans you want to write on the Landy, let me know what they are and I'll write them for you in Arabic so you can copy them. I'll also look for slogans in a couple of books I have on the civil war.



Looking forward to seeing this project progress!

Hisham

This is excelent ! Thank you Hisham ! Great !

Richard

That looks great, great little tip- thanks.

Some time ago Military Model Craft International were selling a set of decals for Lebanese Fireflys which included the insignia and slogan Hisham showed in his post.


Sheet two


According to their website they are still for sale

http://www.guidelinepublications.co.uk/products/6

Hi Richard,
Very cool model. I'm looking forward to seeing it painted.

Chris

richard looking forward to the finish great work

Hi,

Thanks for your nice comments guys ! Much appreciated !

Here's the little update of the week-end.

I changed the shape of the rear body after the wheels to have it little closer to the original.

Then I wanted my Land to be a little dented, which I represented with my Dremel and an X-Acto blade. The edges of scratches and bumps were then softened with extra thin cement.
Sorry for some of the pics as the flash went on these are very bright...





Then I got my car a driver



And a Dshk manner. The driver turned left on a building corner to take cover after the Land was shot by PLO commandos. This gave the Dshk a good angle of fire, you can see the guy shooting back at the PLO team.





Then I chose a wooden base and built a building with styrofoam. You can see another PLO fighter standing on the building, ready to carry-on and end with his AK47 what his fellas just started a few seconds before.











Taking shape !

Comments welcome.

Cheers

Richard

Hey, Richard.. it's shaping up into a nice little scene.

Just one comment.. I feel that the balcony (or ledge) the PLO fighter is standing on is just a little too low. If the Landy goes left, the guy manning the Dshk would hit his head on it.

Looking forward to see more progress.

Hisham

Hi Richard. Very nice conversion of the old ambulance. Im sure there´s plenty who want a cheap landrover, will be following your lead. Id agree with Hisham about the ledge being a bit too low.

The conversion is looking good so far. A small note though. The Land Rover in the pic is a post '68 Series IIA or Series III Rover with the headlights on the fenders. The Tamiya kit is a pre-'68 Series IIA Rover with the headlights on the recessed front grill. Either way, it is a great conversion. Keep up the good work.

Hi gents

Thank you for the kind words !

I agree with you Hisham and Franck. While looking at the pics I thought something was strange with the building without knowing exactly what. So with your comments I tried to heighten my building adding a 2cm thick plaster block at the bottom of it. And guess what ? That is MUCH better ! Plus it will be on a thin pavement.

This is how it looks now :



Gino, I agree the Land I used is not the one model on the pic. Some other pics show that this type was also used by the Christian Phalange (Kataeb)so it does not really matter.

Thanks for watching

Regards,

Richard

Looks much better now, Richard!

By the way, I was thinking of buying a couple of those Masterbox insurgents sets. What is your opinion of them.. detail and fit?

Hisham

Is there any way to introduce a little turn on the wheels to show the driver turning round the corner to give the model a bit of motion?

Looks a nice combination.

Nige

NIce looking scene Richard. Keep it going.

Hi !




Thanks Hisham !

As regards the MB insurgents the figures are quite good ! Though they're not resin ones, there are accurate details and clothes are depicted quite well. For example you can see the three Adidas stripes on the shoes of the guy I put in my scene. Worth it !




Hi Nige,

Thanks !

The wheels are only set with yellow tack for the pics and though it does not really show here, when they'll be glued, you will see that left turn trend much better.




Thanks James !

Regards,

Richard

Hi Gents,

My Land Rover project has gone a bit farther. Paint on the car is over.

I painted it dark blue with white doors sporting the handpainted Kataeb Phalanx insignas. Once all of this was dry, I added washes, drybrushes and Mig pigments.

The result is a dirty filthy Landy

Don't look for the steering wheel, it is in the driver figure's hands... Logical (almost !)

Here ya go :















Comments welcome

Richard

Hey, Richard.. it's been a while since your last post. Glad you didn't just put the project aside!

The Landrover is looking very good. I like the insignia and the Arabic writing. Did you make that with a printer, or did you had paint it?

Looking forward to seeing some more progress

Hisham

Good to see this again. Looking great.

Thanks !

Hisham, the Arabic writings were handpainted with a fine brush and white/black acrylic paint.
I followed the pic with writings you posted hereabove as a guideline and got to that result. Thank you for your help

Best regards,

Richard

In a word : OUTSTANDING !

This is great, the landy looks outstanding