Stalwart Mk2(DC) & Mk3

[JayBee]

In the late 1980's The British MOD decided that all their vehicles should be diesel powered.

Alvis, builder of many military vehicles, did not want to lose any of that lucrative market, and the Stalwart general purpose "go anywhere" vehicle was the first one that they turned their attention to.

The first idea that they came up with was an "In field" conversion kit that would allow users to convert their Stalwarts from petrol to diesel. This proved popular and vehicles so modified became known as Mk2(DC) i.e. Diesel Conversion.

The next step was to introduce this conversion into a mainstream production variant. However in doing this Alvis re-designed one aspect of the Stalwart, the Differential gearing of the final drive train. The original design had just a single differential in the centre of the vehicle controlling all wheels, this did not work very well. The new system had individual differentials for each wheel.

The new Mk3's were offered in either petrol or diesel version to the customer, and proved very popular. With many examples still serving around the world in 2017.

The example shown here was operated by the RAF Regiment at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan.

















The kit is the S&M Models offering in 1/76 scale. This kit is best described as very definitely a "Curates Egg" i.e. excellent in parts!
It has well moulded detail, the parts , in the main, fit well. It designed so that several versions can be built with only minimal changes in the sprues.
On the down side I have to say that not all the parts fit well, with some work required to overcome that.
The fact that the model is designed to be built as either the Mk1 or the Mk2 does cause a few slight problems.
The biggest problem I find is that the instruction sheet does not give you any help in some of the more tricky areas of construction.

The very best bit of this kit is that it is a styrene kit of a STOLLY in small scale, something that I personally have wanted for so many years. 

[Martin H]

Looks good to me.
Trying to work out what the Rock apes would want with an amphibian truck in the sand pit 

[Old Wombat]

Nice job!

I'd like a couple of variants in 1/35, personally.

[Gondor]

So what is the difference between the versions visually?

Gondor

[JayBee]

Looks good to me.
Trying to work out what the Rock apes would want with an amphibian truck in the sand pit 

Quick Reaction Vehicle, which the RAF did use some for in the RW, and a general load lugger.

[JayBee]

So what is the difference between the versions visually?

Gondor

There were no differentiating factors visually. Possibly the vehicle registrations might give a clue which would make this one a Mk2(DC). 

[PR19_Kit]

One visual clue between the Mk 1 and the Mk 2 were the cab windows.

Jim's model shows the later Mk 2 type with sloping lower edges to the corner windows on the sides and front. The Mk 1s and the prototypes had horizontal lower edges to those windows and that didn't give enough vision to the centrally located driver, thus the change.

[JayBee]

One other difference was the wiper for the central window.
In the Mk1 when the blade was stationary it should park to the lefthand side of the vehicle, just as the kit instructions tell you. However for the Mk2 it should park to the right hand side. Fortunately the PE wiper blade/arm makes it possible to just flip it over and get it right. However do make sure you check where the pivot point is as the instructions do not give any definite positioning for this part.

[PR19_Kit]

Does the kit come with two cabs Jim? So you could build either Mark I mean.

[JayBee]

No. The kit has been issued in different versions.
The difference is that the kits have different clear parts, these being the cab sides and front.

Jim

[PR19_Kit]

OK, thanks. I'd quite to build a model of the pre-production Mk 1 I worked on.

Thank goodness the model's too small to think about putting strain gauges on the drive shafts as we did with the real one, they're only 1/2" full size. 

[NARSES2]

Looks really good Jim 

Trying to work out what the Rock apes would want with an amphibian truck in the sand pit 

Being RAF it's probably to get the cocktail cabinet across the Olympic sized swimming pool on base 

[Weaver]

That looks great - nice one!

IIRC Stollys were used in Oman, which is not notably wetter than Kuwait. Remember it's an all-terrain vehicle as well as an amphibious one..

[zenrat]

Lovely.  I want one.
My ideal world is populated with Stalwarts and Rotodynes.

[Weaver]

Lovely.  I want one.
My ideal world is populated with Stalwarts and Rotodynes.

Guy across the road from me who used to have an interest in military vehicles had one for a while. I think he got rid of it pretty quickly when he found out the running costs/hassles.