Earlier this year I appealed for help seeking reference and plans for one of these vehicles. As usual members of this forum and particularly the Irish modelling community, came foreward with kind help. I hope to post the resulting build as it goes forward.
Firstly a little background. At the start of the Anglo-Irish War in 1920 the British Army purchased several hundred Lancia Lorries, which they had also used in the Italian Campaign, and had them converted to wheeled APC's by having the Inchicore railway workshops just outside Dublin, add an armoured box body.These were issued to BA units and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).
At the end of the war these were issued to the newly formed Royal Ulster Constabulary(RUC) and begged, bought or simply stolen by the new Irish ( Free State) National Army to use at the start of the Irish Civil War. They remained in service the the Irish Army till the 1930's and with the RUC till 1967.
In my researches I came across as many as 6-8 different minor mods between vehicles so I followed the traditional and sound modelling practice of finding a photo of a particular vehicle and building that.
So and luckily for me, the most photographed and most interesting
is the star of Walter Doughty's series of Dublin war pictures, 01-9213 taken at the corner of Henry St and O'Connell St in central Dublin,
sheltering the crew of an 18 pounder field piece shooting across at anti-Treaty insurgents in the Dublin Tram Company's offices



You can just see written on the front and side plates
"we have no time for Trucers" and " For goodness sake, aim straight"
The vehicle is quite basic and I hope it wil prove a fast build.
I apologise for more writing than pictures but I will get there.

regards

Looking forward to this one. Subscribed

Firstly I need to build the radiator and as the wheels were coming from the Roden Rolls Royce A/C kit the radiator can come too.

I added depth with plasticard,a tube for the strating handle and a radiator cap from the Italerai jerry can set,cut down,
The chassis members are plasticard, the suspension is from the spares box and the unfortunate RR



regards

Once again, you've picked an excellent subject. I'm definitely going to keep my eye on this build....

Building up the chassis was straight forward. The RR wheels were not my first choice.I had originally arranged to buy wheels from a German company that makes a resin kit of the 1/35th Lancia A/C built on the same chassis but that sadly fell through.
The RR wheels are the same size I merely smoothed off the wheel disks and added more Grandt Line nuts.



The truck bed is a sandwich of 20thou plasticard and very thin wood planking. This is from Billings boats of Denmark who make model boat planking in many sizes and woods. I also used the wood planking to skin the Evergreen used to make the seat.



Next I hope the internal fillings and the armoured box body, rivets and all.
Thank you Jeremy and Patrick.
regards

Very good work Paddy. I like the mix of materials. Do you know are there any of the original vehicles still around on display anywhere?

I agree, this is coming along nicely and is very interesting. I am very interested in watching your scratchbuilding techniques as you progress with your build.

No distractions today just some internal fittings done in the peace and quiet.

The fuel tank is just plastic cable conduit pipe cut down with Evergreen end pieces and frame, a strip seam and another Italerai jerry can cap for the filler tube. The benches are again Evergreen L section and Billings wood strip. The two planks to the left are also ships wood strip edged with plastic strip. All of these vehicles carried these stout planks edged with angle-iron.A favourite tactic was to dig a hole or culvert out to stop the patrols at selected ambush sites.I am told that they made exiting the rear door in a hurry
very hazardous indeed!
These vehicles often carried, besides the crews personal small-arms 2 or even 3 Lewis guns. I wonder if it's possible to claim the Irish invented the Gun-truck ! I was lucky to get hold of an early release of the Resicast Lewis and as reported here it's a fine piece of work.



Whilst buying my side and headlamps for this truck from Scale-Link I also picked up a couple of sets of the P/E they sell with their own Lewis kit. I then added a folded tri-pod, ring and rear sights.
I was also able to start cutting the panels of armour plate out and prepare for rivetting.
regards

Jeremy, again thank you.
Pat as far as I can discover there are only three left in the world.
An original RUC machine was restored by the PSNI workshops at Carrickferrgus and is now on display at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

Another was sold at auction several years ago and is believed to the the one in the Miltary Museum outside Rome. some have questioned the markings.

The third is spoken of in MilVeh restoration circles as fully restored but kept locked in a heated barn, somewhere in Ireland, by its reclusive owner!
( these pictures were kindly given by an Irish member of this community)
regards

Great subject and great scratch building. Lots to learn here. Con't believe these things were still in use in 1967!!

Cheers!
Stefan

Paddy once again your scratchbuilding has me in awe!! Great build thread here, I was late joining with a few distractions at home but you have my full attention now!

Keep up the good work my friend!!

I marked the 8 sections of armour plate out in one long strip on a new sheet of 20thou plasticard. This ensures all the pieces have the same height and the edges line up accurately. I built a crude jig using my hole punch and some plastic strip to get the loopholes in the correct position and punched them out. It took three attempts to get it right but its important for the correct look.
Once this is done the sections are numbered and cut out, then the rivets are applied.
Using a scriber I engraved a continious line 2mm along the inside edge of each panel, then using dividers I pushed the points into the plastic along the scribed lines creating a small dome on the outside. Then using a schools compass (these have wider points for safety) I went over the same ground and this gave larger domed i.e. rivetted shapes on the outsideof the panel.


Sorry about the picture quality. I repeated this on thin strips of 5 thou Plasticard and glued them over the holes runs, when matched correctly this gives the appearence of domed rivets on both sides of the plate. Where the plates touched I glued sections of 5 thou strip vertically to complete the impression of boiler/armourplate rivetted together using T section iron strips.






Thats it so far, I intend to leave it unpainted till the Crossley 25/35 hp Tender which usually accompanied these vehicles is finished and if anybody has any opinions about the colours then I would be hapy to hear them.
The Crossley is being built for the Soft-Skins Campaign which has just started. When both are finished I hope to build a base and will post pictures of both here.
Stefan and Roy, as ever thank you both.
regards
Paddy

Thanks for the information on the Lancia. A very distant relative of mine, Robert "Bobbie" Bonfield, and his school classmate, C.S. "Todd" Andrews, were garrisoned in the Dublin United Tramway Company on Upper O'Connell Street (then Sackville Street) in 1922 when the Irish Civil War broke out. The artillery in the photographs are shelling them!

Fantastic work. The sight of so much white styrene has made me start drooling

Fantastic itchy scratchy !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the subject matter too !!!!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing it with some colour added to it soon !!!!!!!!!

Nice one

Nige

Im my old age I had quite forgotten to finish this off.....so



I did in fact finish the Crossley to go along side.



Nige,Cliff, Michael thank you for your kind words. I am still working on the 18 pounder but I will get there.
regards

great job. I love the retro look of these cars. unfortunate that the manufacturers of kits are not interested in these original subjects. congratulations
steph

Its fantastic to see those two vehicles side by side and so nicely built and finished- stellar work.

Ha ha ha ha ,,,,,,,,, that was quick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the setting too !!!!!!! Can see it all coming together !!!!!!

I forgot to ask what scale this is in !!!!! 1/35 ?????

Nige

Karl,Steph thank you.

Nige it's 1/35th and I am a keen and admiring follower of your large scale

DROPS truck build.

regards