Technicals and Guntrucks

[Old Wombat]

What a project for Tamiya's Deuce and a Half.

French; 1950's; Indochina, Algeria or Chad.

[Mossie]

I've just been eyeing my JB Models/Airfix Land Rover FC 1 Tonner.  Although Land Rovers have been factory produced to do every task ever conceived for a motor vehicle & converted to do even more, the Forward Control has been relatively neglected.  The early versions based on the Series II were underpowered, so the 101 was produced.  This was pretty austere so a civvy version wasn't offered & it only went into service with the British & Australian Armies, with only a handful going to Oz.  Still, quite a few have been snapped up when they were retired by civvy operators due to their ruggedness.



The FC could be stripped down to it's bare frame with basic tools.  So it seems to me it have been used as a gun truck very easily.  The way the rear panels on the JB kit are produced you could do this with a bit of minor conversion work.  So what to mount on it?



(You watch, someone will post a pic of a gunned up FC now!)

[kitnut617]

My Uncle had one of those for years Simon, he's only recently let it go as he can't get in and out of it now (he's in his 80's).  He converted it to run with a Buick V8 aluminum block engine in it and he used it mostly to tow his collection of antique Catapillar tracked tractors to shows around the UK.

[Mossie]

Cool!

[kitnut617]

(You watch, someone will post a pic of a gunned up FC now!)

The one my Uncle had, has a three-point bolt down arrangement in the bed just behind the cab.  My Uncle told me it was for a gun tripod --

[raafif]

Note that those GMCs mounting arcraft turrets are the short single-axel chassis - many used by the US Navy and the Navy mounted those aircraft turrets on LCMs using 'em in combat too.

Several years ago I thought of doing something WW1-Guntruck on the Airfix 1/32nd "old bill bus" & Dennis fire-engine chassis (plenty of real-world examples) -- putting the bus & fire bodies on horse-drawn farm wagons from the toy-store so's not to waste 'em -- never got around to it tho.

[Mossie]

(You watch, someone will post a pic of a gunned up FC now!)

The one my Uncle had, has a three-point bolt down arrangement in the bed just behind the cab.  My Uncle told me it was for a gun tripod --

Interesting.  I've just found a snippet in the JB instructions that mentions the FC could be armed with a mortar or Milan.

[Weaver]

The FC could be stripped down to it's bare frame with basic tools.  So it seems to me it have been used as a gun truck very easily.  The way the rear panels on the JB kit are produced you could do this with a bit of minor conversion work.  So what to mount on it?

WOMBAT! 

Or, in a parallel universe, a Burney-style RCL, with multiple venturis. I have it in mind to make such a thing on an FC Trackrover one day, using Modelscene railway traffic cones as the venturis! (The traffic cones come in alternate red and white sections, so the set effectively provides you with a selection of generic tiny cones in varying sizes.) Feel free to nick the idea: I may never get around to it.

[Mossie]

Wombat sounds good, BW Models do one, (also a MOBAT), might pick it up.  I was searching for stuff in my stash which is remarkably little unfortunately, a few .50's & GMPG's although I think I have Minigun somewhere.....

[pyro-manic]

I thought about a Landy FC for my upcoming Road Gang project, but AFAIK there isn't one in 1:35 (or if there is, it will be resin and horrifically expensive) and scratching one would be a lot of work. Nifty looking thing though -there was a black and green camo-ed one parked outside my flat a couple of weeks ago. Lots of space on the back for a big mounting - maybe a Maxson-type multiple machine-gun turret (twin DShKs? ), or a RR/missile launcher as posted above. Add a Gimpy or Minimi for the guy riding shotgun as well.

[Weaver]

At Crewe I picked up a a white metal Russian Quad Maxim and an AGS-17 grenade launcher. The former would have made a nice gun truck item, but I think it's destined for a Spanish Civil War Ford Trimotor instead....

You could always invent a Whiff weapon, after all, how detailed is a 1/76th HMG anyway? Bit of Evergreen, bit of copper wire....

[Mossie]

WOMBAT! 

I've just found an artist's impression from the sales brochure of a Wombat being loaded onto an FC.  Although it's obviously for transport, I'd guess there's no reason why you couldn't mount it on the deck or chock the wheels?

Third pic down on the last column:, there's several useful images including one of it full stripped down:http://www.lrfaq.org/FC/FAQ.FC.101_sales_brochure.html

[Weaver]

Well they used to fire them off the back of 109s so I don't see why not fire them from an FC.

[Old Wombat]

I'm not sure I like the idea of being mounted on a truck, thank you!

OK, I can be annoying but, really, that bad?

[rickshaw]

I've just found an artist's impression from the sales brochure of a Wombat being loaded onto an FC.  Although it's obviously for transport, I'd guess there's no reason why you couldn't mount it on the deck or chock the wheels?

Third pic down on the last column:, there's several useful images including one of it full stripped down:http://www.lrfaq.org/FC/FAQ.FC.101_sales_brochure.html

Nice sales brochure.   I've often wondered why artwork is preferred over photos?   Yes, you could fire it from the back but I wonder if it would replicate the experience we had downunder when they tried to fire the 106mm RCL from the back of a standard long wheel base Landrover?  Apparently it sucked all the rivets out of the back! 

Might explain why the short wheelbase, long wheelbase RCL carrier they ended up using is welded in that area?