And it has been ages since I last posted any new builds in Armorama: long story short, a major operation on my neck way back in 2013 kept me out of modelling action for a couple of years, after which life just got too busy to do much model building...
Anyway, about three years ago, I completed 'Cock O' The North', a Chevrolet 30 cwt 1533x2 Fitter's truck of Y2 (Yeomanry) Patrol of the Long Range Desert Group. It is based on this small, slightly 'orrible photo:



















I realized a while ago that I have gotten some of the equipment details wrong, especially on the L/H side: for instance, in the photo of the real vehicle, there seems to be a sledge hammer residing on the passenger's seat...something that I assumed was a small shovel is part of the strong shadow cast by what looks to be a long crowbar mounted vertically on the side of the body.

The spare radiator and storage brackets on the R/H side are from a photo of another fitter's truck that got lost during the transition from an old PC to a new one. I'm assuming that the radiator would normally have been padded and shrouded during a patrol.

well laden!

Great build, not sure you have a "built after a real photograph" category in NZ shows like we have in France at Saumur for instance, buy you'd definitely get a medal!

Cheers,

Christophe

that's an amazing job you've done based on a few low quality photographs. sorry to hear about the operation on your neck, I hope things are better now.

Boss truck
Dan

I have one in the stash I have been thinking about. Your build is a great invitation to get started.

Superb job. There can never be too many of these to look at.

Because it was a B&W photo, you may not know that the inside of those rolled sand mats on the fenders (wings) served as signals as well, and were red and white striped. It show a little bit on the ends.

I appreciate your comments. And yes, I know that many - but not necessarily all - of the sand mats doubled as signalling/air recognition panels: if you look closely, you'll see that my sand mats have the red/white stripes, although that isn't very obvious on the photos. As it is, I'm investigating ways to improve the look of my sandmats, because the real ones usually had wood batons incorporated between the layers of canvas, that helped strengthen the mats and provide extra grip for the tyres: those batons meant that the sandmats had a more 'corrugated' appearance than mine.
The following are some examples of why the sand mats, steel sand channels, shovels and muscle power were needed: also note the narrow, lightweight steel strip carriers for the sand mats on the front mudguards.

The crew of a Chevy of R1 Patrol gets some useful advice on how to dig it out of a sand-drift from the crew of another truck:



A lightly loaded Chevy, possibly from R2 Patrol, shows how to get stuck:



Another view of that lightly loaded Chevy 1533x2 of R2 Patrol that got into a spot of bother:




A Chevy of R1 Patrol is being helped over relatively firm going:

Even enlarging the screen as large as I can and wearing my trusted Optivisor I can't see it. But I certainly believe you - the issue is my eyes. What I can see is that those are the best looking sands mats I've seen to date. They actually look like wooden slats sewn between two layers of burlap. Those must have been fun to make.

yor build is great, and the pics are awsome