Hi guys,

I'm back with another build blog.
I hope it appeals to some of you out there so if you have any comments or feel like sharing your thoughts, please jump in at any time!

But first in keeping with the theme of my build blogs here below are some links to my other models associated with "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

I post these links as I believe the subject is quite appealing to some modellers but has been overlooked by most plastic manufacturers in favour of more "mainstream" subjects.

For anyone interested in this subject I suggest and recommend Accuarate Armour for a number of excellent and detailed kits.
There is little research available to source and very few precise places on the net that will assist you with these subjects so I hope they may help anyone who might be considering building their own vehicles from Operation Banner and the Security Forces during the conflict in N.Ireland.

British Army Saxon Patrol in Northern Ireland (1990's)
http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/152358&page=1

British Army Humber (Flying) Pig in Northern Ireland (1980's)
http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/152987&page=1

British Army Landrover VPK
A Rainy Day in Belfast. (Early Claribel Radar VPK late 1970's).
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/211724&page=1

Late VPK Piglet - N.Ireland - Op Banner 1990
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/212733&page=1#1787261

Last of the Piglets (HVVPK RMP 1992/4)
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/155903&page=1

SHORLAND MK.III APC (UDR 1970's and Early 80's)
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/214078&page=1

The Subject I'm going to cover this time is Classic HOTSPUR armoured Land Rover, used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), in N.Ireland.









All above photos copyrighted and courtesy of said WaterMarks.

The HOTSPUR Armoured Land Rover was developed and used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland and is based on the 109" chassis Series III Land Rover.

The first examples of the Hotspur were introduced into service with the RUC in 1976 in response to intensified attacks from disident Rebublicans and an alarming growth in organised public disorder and rioting directed towards the security forces.


Protective grills and field produced armour plates had been introduced to the early RUC Landrover fleet as far back as the late 1950’s. Throughout the 1960’s various armour production companies and defence agencies had been testing and fielding various armoured kits for Landrovers used in Northern Ireland in the ever growing unrest there.

The Hotspur was a direct result of lessons learned from the VPK (Vehicle Protection Kit) and Shorland SB301 Armoured Landrover Variants used during the 1960’s.

The name HOTSPUR comes from the brand of armour plate used and concealed within the design. The Hotspur was the mainstay patrol vehicle for the Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1976.
Throughout its career the vehicle had many additional upgrades. This particulor variant is from the mid 1980’s with the upgraded 3.5 V8 Rover engine (also currently used in the present TANGI Land Rover variant).

Among the standard protective equipment of early Hotspurs, this later series features visable improvements such as polycarbonate plastic panels fitted over the original bodywork (to take massive beatings during riots), plastic clear shields, the Louvred radiator grille, blue lamps on the roof above the driver and passanger doors and an expanded metal grills with rubber skirts to the lower body.

The purpose of these low hung mesh shields was to protect crew taking cover and an attempt to prevent projectiles being thrown underneath the vehicle, injuring personel in the lower leg and foot region.

Other more interesting items used by rioters included beer kegs being rolled underneath the vehicle with the intention of immobilising the vehicle.

The HOTSPUR started to be withdrawn from RUC service in 1991 and replaced by the Tangi series of armoured Land Rover.
It is very difficult to find a genuine Hotspur these days as you might be surprised to learn the later TANGI used almost all the body parts from the older Hotspurs and almost all were recycled onto a new 110 Chasis in the early 1990's.

However a pair Hotspurs were “tidied-up” and used by ITN News to cover the war in the former Yugoslavia during the mid 1990's too.

For this model I am going to use the Accurate Armour kit
RUC HOTSPUR Armoured Landrover Series III 109 - LR011



The kit is a beautiful complete resin kit, cast in grey and has additional Photo-Etch and Clear sections. Along with a detailed Instruction Bool;et and a very interesting and useful Decal sheet.












Numerous RUC Landrovers and even a purple looking ITN Landrover from the Formar Yugoslavian Conflict are kust a few options available to the builder!

This is a condensed build blog of a review I did some years ago for AMPS but I think its deserving of a mention here on armorama too

After I had cut away and cleaned all the parts I began construction with building the chassis and its components. The chassis is moulded with a lot of the detail of the underside done already for you. All you have to do is simply attach the exhaust system, shafts, axles and wheels.



I built the rear section next starting with the rear bed. I then added the armour panel walls.

During my research I had discovered that each rear viewing slot had a drainage tube/pipe running from the slat down behind the rear seat which led to the underside of the vehicle. This ensured the slats could be drained easily if they became clogged with any substance.

I couldn't resist adding this feature so got some plastic sprue and stretched it over a heated flame and manually bent the the tops slightly to replicate the piping.



When this was complete I decided to prime the chassis and airbrush all the compontents Matt Black.
When everything dried I added the gear lever & shifts to the main cab area. I spent quite a lot of time mixing differing Tamiya grey colors until I found what I felt was a good match for the overall grey colour for the Hotspur (otherwise known as Batle Ship Grey).

I then masked off the chassis and decided to give the cab a few coats of this grey mix too.

I then decided to spray the cab and all the other main body parts too with a few coats of grey, making things easier for me later when finishing the painting of the model.

When all this was done I painted and weathered the finer details and left them to dry.

Next I decided to dry fit the front section of the Landrover & attach the foot pedals. Everything fit nicely with no snags.



Following on, I next dry-fitted the engine.
The engine is a detailed masterpiece.
However I was not planning to display the model with the bonnet ope and the engine would remain unseen.
So I airbrushed the one piece engine entirely matt black.

The engine mount needed some attention but with little effort it sat comfortably in the engine bay.

Next I began next to add the partially built rear section to the main body and chassis.
I attached the front engine grill panel & followed that by adding the driver and passanger seats (Black).





After I added the Armoured Windsheild Frame and Glass.


After some sanding and dry fitting I attached the bonnet.
Although each Hotspur differed slightly from being uniquely built, my research photographs for the vehicle I intended to build had less bolts where the real polycarbonate plastic meets the normal steel body on the bonnet.
I decided to remove every second bolt mark to correct this.

I added PE seat belts left over from a previous ACCURATE ARMOUR kit to the rear bench seats before airbrushing them Matt Black.

A small fire-extinguisher is included, so I sprayed this Green before adding the detail.
With the Spare wheel recently painted I also glued the rear bench seats into place and let everything dry before adding the roof section.

I had some slight fit issues with the roof section and to correct this I used putty to fill the gaps but it was nothing to worry about.
I next added the ear-like blue strobe boxes above the driver and passenger areas on the roof.

I constructed the driver and passanger doors next, adding the glass sections and some PE which is used for supporting the clear plastic window shields.

Everything sat down comfortably. I also added the PE rubber protection strip where the engine hood (bonnet) meets the windscreen.

Next I built the Armoured grill which covers the windscreen.
This is constructed from small PE strips which needs to be carefully placed in a specific order inside an additional PE frame.
This was tricky and needed some patience as you need to have the armour frame folded exactly to ensure a comfortable fit.
I Airbrushed this sub-assembly when complete.



After this I added the side armor panels below the driver and passenger sections. I then attached the expanded armoured mesh side skirt panels to them.



Moving on I constructed the step into the rear compartment using the PE bits and then I attached the rear compartment doors. I left these in the open position so the inner compartment detail can be seen inside.



Next I decided to paint the wheels. Once everything had dried I glued them into place.

I adjuested the depth of the suspension to imitate the weight of the Armour and glued everythinbg into place.

I continued on with attaching the front registration plate using the PE set and I began assembly of the front bumper mesh guard and rubber strip. After assembling this I glued it into place attached to the front bumper.



Once everything had dried firmly I added the rubber strips below the extended mesh guards. I didn’t realise until close inspection that these rubber strips actually hang from the mesh guards as opposed to being an integral part of the mesh.. They are attached at 5 ponts on each side by small hooks. This change was easier than expected and looked great when completed.



I added the Plastic window shields to the driver and passenger windows. After adding the clear headlamps to the front of the vehicle I then added the smaller protective plastic shields to the front headlamp sections as well.

To finish the construction of the Hotspur I added the mirrors, attached the windscreen protection grill and added the pully bar which operates the grill from inside the vehicle.

I glued the clear lights into place and added PE protective cages to these lights. the Mud Guards where attached and I added the mesh bin over the roof strobe light.
Some adjustment was needed to the strobe light to ensure a clean fit.
Lastly I added the protective grills to the ear like blue strobes above the driver and passenger sections.

Unfortunately the carpet monster got these PE parts and I had to adapt some spare PE from my left over stash to replace them. Thankfully, they looked ok on the finished model.





















Painting and Decals

I painted the finished Hotspur my mix of Tamiya greys, I’d love to give you the exact mix formula but I lost count after continually adapting it until I was happy. The color is slightly lighter than battleship grey if that helps. Interestingly, later Tangi model Land Rovers where actually Battleship grey and seemingly slightly darker in appearance. I then gave the plastic glass shields a coat of matt varnish to highlight the plastic non shiney look of these sections.

I chose to build Hotspur Reg No. YOI 8813 as I had good reference material for this vehicle. Other options include EXI 396 and YOI 1486. Photos I had of EXI 396 showed the vehicle without the extended mesh barriers below the lower skirts. Although decals are provided to display the Hotspur with the Confidential Telephone Number on the side I decided not to add these for my Hotspur. The reference material I had for YOI 8813 does not show this feature in any photos I had of the real vehicle.

The Decals themselves were very neat with no flash whatsoever. Once placed on the surface of the model they sat comfortably and dried to a very satisfactory finish. I only added one coat of solvent for reassurance. As noted in the instructions there was a slight error in the decal by designing the rear Reg Plates with rectangulor plates instead of square. However, this is not really a big problem if you just cut the decals in half with a sharp craft knife and tidy up the remaing sections before applying them to the model.


ITN News Vehicle

Included in the decal sheet are decals for Hotspur reg No.YOI 1486. This was formally an RUC Land Rover but after retirement was later converted for ITN News crews covering the war in the former Yugoslavia. This is an interesting alternative to building the RUC vehicle.

There is no color guide in the kit to replicate the ITN vehicle, only a written reference to the vehicle in the instructions. According to a reference photo in David Dunnes book titled “Armoured and Heavy Vehicles Of The RUC 1922 – 2001” This vehicle was painted a Dark Maroon color over all. One ITN decal should be placed just below the centre frame of the windshield and slightly to the right. Another ITN decal should be placed just behind the driver and passenger doors where the side panels meet the roof section. The Union Jack flag is centered on the armoured side panels in-line with the driver and passanger side windows. The Union Jack in the photos show them to be attached using a frame of Thick Grey masking tape similar in size to the center horizontal red line in the union jack flag.

To build this version you will firstly need to find an alternative front grill, equivialent to the standard grill found in other AA kits but unfortunately not included in this kit. The roof above the Driver and passenger sections will have to be converted as this replicates that of the standard Landrover style with the three protruding bar frames running from the front roof down to the windshield. The engine hood (bonnet) also has the polycarbonate plastic removed showing the dip where the spare wheel should be placed on standard models. The front reg plate should be attached to the centre of the front bumper and there is the exclusion of the strobe lights, plastic glass shields, extended front mesh guards and side skirts on this variant.

A few years later this is how she looks in my collection.


















The Plate is by Julie and Paul at NAME-IT

I really enjoyed this build and HIGHLY recommend this kit to anyone interested in the subject.
Derek Henson at Accuarate Armour promises to release more Armoured Landrover themed models in the future including the TANGI used in N.Ireland, Fingers Crossed he does!!!

Fantastic to see this build log Roy- this will come in very handy when I get my hands on this kit. It seems like a pretty nice resin casting too- particularly the one piece engine. One thing I never got about these vehicles was the spare tyre in the rear- surely putting it on the roof or the front would have given more room in the cramped back?

Thanks for the build log. This is one of the kits in my build stash, so I've bookmarked this for future reference. Heck, just seeing yours might be enough to move it near the top of the stack.

A nice job as always sir ......
Terry

Putting it on the front would restrict vision and mess with the screen ,not to mention the issue of petrol bombs and burning rubber ,hence not on the roof .
Terry

So why do it with the Snatch then- having it front and centre the way it is- I get that it would provide some degree of protection for the vehicle to ram a barricade or clear some sort of obstacle but I can't think it would be very good if it was hit by a petrol bomb- then you have a flaming tyre ratcheted onto the front.
I'm just wondering aloud what the thinking was behind some of the modifications basically! Also- one other question (sorry for the slight hi-jack Roy!)- why was there never an attachment point for a GPMG on the roof of the Snatch- was it a weight thing or was it the nature of the hatch?

Snatch is army .... Ruc vehicle s have different tasking and given their role more likely to have issues, the ruc used at one point mount them on the roof. But during the 80s they had issues with burning tyres, especially during the Londonderry riots ,I kinda know as I was present during this time, the British army ,raf regiment had them mounted on the front slope of the roof at one stage and the British forces never really had an issue with this ....
A perm ,weapon mount on the roof could lead to the weapon being vulnerable , also the role was to support the police the GPMG was used but this was essentially a heavy weapon and ,slr,sa80 were less offensive..
Terry

Thanks for that info Barny !

Roy,
That's some great work there, mate.
I was thinking of getting this kit myself. Now that I've seen yours I'm definitely going to invest in one!
Thanks for sharing this great work!

Joe.

PS PM inbound mate.

Thanks for all the kind words guys, sorry for the late reply