Lads !!!
Let's see this little girl with a funny name, product of the desperate days of the dawn of World War II, when Britain was in the imminence of a Nazi invasion: Beaverette Mk III!!!
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| Beaverettes Mk III in maneuvers |
History:
The Standard Car 4x2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British armoured car produced during World War II.
The first version of the vehicle was built in 1940 by
Standard Motor Company at the instigation of
Lord Beaverbrook, then
Minister of Aircraft Production (hence the name
Beaverette).
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| Lord Beaverbrook |
It was based on commercial car chassis, on which a simple riveted armoured hull was mounted. The 11mm of steel was backed by 3 inch thick oak planks. The hull was open at the top and at the rear. The armament consisted of
Bren light machine gun which could be fired through a slot in the glacis armour (Beaverette Mk I).
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| Beaverettes Mk II with Bren MG |
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| Beaverettes Mk II in training...Gents, start your engines !!! |
Subsequent versions received all-around protection and a machine gun turret - an enclosed one with
Bren MG...
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| Beaverette Mk III with enclosed turret... |
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| Bren machine gun |
...or an open-topped one with twin
Vickers K Mk I machine guns.
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| Beaverette Mk III with open turret and two Vicvkers K .303 MG |
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| Vickers K - Mk I - .303 MG |
Some vehicles also carried
Boys anti-tank rifles.
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| Anti-Tank, Rifle .55in, Boys |
Some had
No. 11 or
No. 19 radio set. The production was stopped in 1942. About 2,800 units were delivered.
The Beaverette was used by the British Army and Royal Air Force for home defence service and training. The vehicle is said to have suffered from excessive weight and to be hard to handle.
Variants:
A similar vehicle, known as Beaverette (NZ), was produced in
New Zealand Railways workshops, Hutt Valley. The car used a Ford 3/4 or 1-ton truck chassis and plate salvaged from the ships Port Bowen and Mokoia for armour. They had a crew of 4 and 208 units were built.
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LP2 New Zealand Beaverette
This particular one is the prototype with plate over the top, and additional
armour at the front (both removed later on, and the
standard Beaverette slat type grille added. font: Rob Mooar, in Missing-Lynx |
After the WWII, many Beaverettes continued to be used in several functions, like policing in risky areas:
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| Beavarette Mk IV turretless in the conflicts of Ireland |
...and other different duties;
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| A gutted Beaverette without armour used as tractor for gliders, in post-war. |
Survivors:
A Mark III Beaverette is displayed at the
Imperial War Museum Duxford.
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| Beaverette Mk III (Bren) in the Imperial War Museum - Duxford |
Another Mark III is in the
Cobbaton Combat Collection, a private collection of military vehicles in Umberleigh, Devon in the United Kingdom.
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Beaverette Mk III with a Lewis (?) MG in the turret
Cobbaton Combat Collection |
A Mark IV Beaverette is displayed at the
Museum Bevrijdende Vleugels in the Netherlands.
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| Beaverette Mk IV - Museum Bevrijdende Vleugels - Netherlands |
font: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Beaverette
Specs:
| Standard Car 4x2 Beaverette |
|---|
| Type | Light armoured car |
|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
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| Production history |
|---|
| Manufacturer | Standard Motor Company |
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| Specifications |
|---|
| Weight | Mk III: 2.6 tonnes |
|---|
| Length | Mk III: 3.10 m |
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| Width | Mk III: 1.73 m |
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| Height | Mk III: 2.16 m |
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| Crew | 3 |
|---|
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| Armour | Mk III: up to 9 mm
Mk IV: up to 12 mm |
|---|
Main armament | 0.303 (7.7 mm) Bren MG
or twin Vickers K MG |
|---|
| Engine | Standard 4-cylinder
petrol engine
46 hp (34 kW) |
|---|
| Power/weight | 17-23 hp/tonne |
|---|
| Suspension | 4x2 wheel, leaf spring |
|---|
Operational range | Mk III: 300 km |
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| Speed | Mk III: 38 km/h |
|---|
The kit:
I used the
IMA Beavarette Mk III model kit in resin (IMA 00935). The kit comes packaged in an interesting rigid plastic box, nicely packed in styrofoam and bubbles-plastic.
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| The IMA kit : the rigid box and instructions sheet (very spartan...) |
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The resin kit: parts very well casting (no bubbles)
metal wire and two turrets
(you choice the Bren or Vickers)
No decals or guns in the kit. |
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| The casting is superb... |
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| Amazing casting... |
I started by the wheels, strengthening the small shafts with dental acrylic, to prevent fractures...
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| Prevention is better than repair!!! |
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| The front suspension. The alignment is crucial in this step... |
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| So cute !!! |
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| Eyes right !!! |
Inspecting the kit, I found that the joints of the plates are recessed in the kit, but they are weld beads, in the original model. See the arrow, below:
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| Hull in dry-run: notice the recessed panel lines. Wrong !!! |
The real thing:
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| weld beads |
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| asymmetry typically English, by Jove!! |
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| Again, the wrong weld joints... |
Another mistake: the flat plane in the vehicle floor:
The correct is above: a box for the rear axle (red arrow). I'll have to do in scratch these and other details, such as the protector of the drive shaft and gearbox (green arrow), a fuel tank (blue arrow) and the turret structure (yellow arrow):
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| Beaverete Mk III - internal view - real vehicle. |
Scratch time: the rear axle box:
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| Rear boxe done... |
The front firewall is complete, closing the below area of the front hull:
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| Firewall done... |
Gear box and the drive shaft tunnel:
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| Instruments panel |
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| The base of the rotatory device of the turret (red arrow) |
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| Fuel tank, instruments panel and the stering wheel in position... |
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| Driver's position |
As the kit don't provides the gun, I'll use the Bren MG from Italeri:
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| Italeri's accessories... |
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| The seat of the gunner's turret. Notice the coils... |
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| The parking-brake |
And the girl ready for paint. Notice the weld beams make with sprue and eletronic welder. I think it's amazing an armoured car does not present a spare wheel.
I imagined a field adaptation to solve this flaw: a piece of metal and a welding apparatus to solve this fault ....
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| Ready for paint... Notice the spare wheel... |
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| Internal view |
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| The hull... |
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| The spare wheel rack... |
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| ...and the wheel in position. Notice the lock lever of the door, modified... |
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| New profile, with spare wheel. |
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| Turret for the Bren gun |
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| Side view of the turret |
Dry run: next step: paint and marks...
