I ran across this old Tamiya Mokei kit called the Scorpion. The kit is 1/35 scale, motorized, and a fairly simple affair. The vehicle has a familiar look to it, but I was not able to locate any information on it in the Hunnicutt armored car book.

The vast majority of information is in Japanese, but the decals clearly state MOWAG, the Swiss armored vehicle manufacturer. The kit decals vary slightly from the box art with the scorpion logo in a yellow shield with MOWAG at the top of the insignia.

Other decals include a pair of white stenciled SCORPION names, a pair of white manufacturer name SCHWEIZ MOWAG, and a pair of white stenciled vehicle number 84.

Information I can gleen off of the box side is 1959, 5200mm, 2200mm, 8.7t, 175, and 90mm. The artist's signature has a date that looks like 196? something (either 1963, 65 or 68--can't quite tell). The box art looks like a vehicle in action in the Swiss Alps with a trio of German-looking (the Swiss used similar helmets) soldiers manning a water cooled machine gun.

Here are some photos that may aid you in assisting me:

It looks like a Saladin??

Saladin has 6 wheels and is very boxy in appearance. This is a predecessor to the LAV series and Stryker and made by the same company.

an early version or relative of the V-150. very common in the south east asia.

Looks like a British Stag armored car to me

It is a V-150 alright

No idea about the car... but those look like German soldier behind the rocks, but manning something like a Vickers gun...

THis exact vehicle doesn't appear in any of my books, however there is a 4x4 APC with interchangeable turrets housing weapons from 20mm upwards; designated an 'Internal Security Vehicle', made in 1958. The illustration (the books too big for my scanner unfortunately) doesn't show the extended housing over the drivers area and the sides are the same all along without the change in profile in the box art..
Sorry I can't help more.

It's definitely not a Cadillac Gage V-series Commando. This vehicle is made by the Swiss MOWAG company. Trying to google mowag and scorpion keep getting me the British tracked Scorpion AFV.

I think its the MOWAG 4 wheel chassis which there were also 6 and 8 wheel versions. (6 wheel became the Canadian avgp series and the 8 wheel the lav25). I will try and dig out a a photo to prove this when I get home.

*nope I was wrong the hull front profile doesnt match the one I was thinking of*

Rob I did some googling and this may be it. Its from MOWAG

Archives

It might have been called the Kommandowagen

I hope this helps. Are you going to build it or is this for the collection?

Page 3 this looks just like it.

Scott, that looks like it all right. Good find.

Robin,
Looking through an old 1977 copy of Janes pocket book, The hull is a close match to the Mowag MR 8-01 APC. The pic in the book is a left hand side view with a 20mm turreted gun.
I'll copy the description from the book for you.
The MR 8-01series were developed by Mowag in the 1950's and a small batch were subsequently built in Switzerland for the German Border Police. A large number were also built in Germany by Bussing and Henschel.
A whole range of variants were developed by Mowag but few of these even reached the prototype stage. The Germans used 2 basic models, the SW1 APC and the SW2, the latter has a turret mounted 20mm cannon.

The weights and dimensions supplied by you are pretty close to Janes, and the larger gun on the model could have been one of the cancelled variants.
It looks from the boxart pic that the infantry are firing over the vehicle at a target. id the post WW2 German Border POlice wear this type of helmet?
hope this helps
Tom

EDIT: Look on Google, just type in Mowag mr 8-01. There's a pic of a Mowag 8-90 that looks just like Tiger 101's

I have no idea what it is, but it says on the box in Japanese "Swiss Army Armored Assualt Car."

According to "The Complete Works of Tamiya 1946-2000," the Scorpion, kit #4 of the 1/35 Tank and Armored Car Series, was released in September 1963 (oddly enough, so was I!) and sold for 150 yen (about $1.40 USD).

Hope that helps!

Thanks, every little bit helps. I'll probably eBay it since it is more of a collectable than a serious detailed model. It does look extremely cool though.

I've got a book titled "Tanks" by Chris Chant that came out in 2004 and on page 180 it shows a MOWAG 'Roland' APC. 4 wheels, 4x4.It says the first production vehicles were completed in 1964 and was used mainly for internal security. It also says that Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ghana, Greece, Iraq, Liberia, Mexico, Peru, and Sierra Leone and purchased them.

The picture looks just like the one on the box, except it doesn't have the large gun. The book says they usually mounted a 12.7mm or 7.62 machine gun.

Maybe this helps.

Here's a pic I found:

http://www.geocities.com/rplican/roland.htm

I like thos vintage kits!
But they always bring one big problem:
Should I build it or should I keep it intact??

The life of a modeller is so hard sometimes...