The Diorama

You’ll recall that the inspiration for the diorama was the photo below.

So, I set about gathering figures to represent the inspection team as well as the soldiers under inspection. In a meta move, since the photo was the inspiration, I thought I should have a camera crew as well.  So, for figures I used:

• Airfix Civilians (vinylish plastic; this is an ancient, out-of-production set of figures designed for model railroads – but it had some businessmen that could stand in for Lord Beaverbrook and aides)
• Airfix British Infantry (the dreaded vinyl-plastic; I used one figure to man a Beaverette Mk III turret after suitable surgery)
• Bull Models BMF 12 UK Officers (resin)
• Bull Models BMF 01 1939/41 BEF/UK Soldiers (resin)
• Bull Models BMF 10 1939/41 BEF/UK Personalities Gort, Montgomery & another officer (resin, at this scale, they could be any officer)
• Bull Models Beaverette Mk I/II – comes with three figures (resin)
• Dan Taylor Modelworks AFPU (Army Film Photographic Unit)

All the figures were brush-painted with a variety of Vallejo Model Air acrylic paints. The resin flesh was painted with blended Model Master enamels but I stuck to simple Vallejo flesh color for the Airfix figures. It was sort of fun painting suits and overcoats for the civilians, not to mention the neckties as I didn’t really have to resort to references here.  And, I gave all the civilians different colored suits in a protest move over soldier uniforms. Needless to say, the resin figures are much more detailed in their casting than the Airfix civilians.

The diorama base was an inexpensive picture frame with mattboard for the concrete. I scribed expansion joints and filled with thick black acrylic.  The surface color was a mix of Floquil acrylics that were intended to look like weathered concrete. A few cracks were scribed out.

I added some green verge using Plaster of Paris, some tiny gravel from our garden, foam for shrubs, and a two color mix of static grass.  For grins, I added two Dart Castings rabbits munching on vegetation (these aren’t the greatest castings as it is hard to tell they are rabbits. Dart does do a great set of cows though for some future project).

And here we go (click on image to see in more detail):

Back row, left-to-right: FrontLine Wargaming, Sgt’s Mess, Gramodel (all Mk IIIs), Frontline Wargaming (Mk I)

Front row, left-to-right: Lead Sled, Extratech, Firing Line (all Mk IIIs), Bull (Mk I)

Now, there you have it.  Here’s the scene as Lord Beaverbrook comes to inspect his not-identical namesakes.

[Beaverbrook] “Which manufacturer got the contract for these vehicles?”

[Officer] ” Standard Motor Company, sir.”

[Beaverbrook] “Funny name for a company that can’t seem to produce identical copies of the same armoured car, I dare say.”

[Officer] ” Standard didn’t have the capacity for the initial production run so they sub-contracted it out to others, sir.”

[Beaverbrook] “Didn’t they send copies of the plans to the subcontractors?”

[Officer] As I understand it, some over-zealous chaps at Standard had responded to a call for scrap metal and collected up all the rulers, compasses, and drafting tools and sent them off to be melted down into munitions. So, when it came time to send copies of the plans to the subcontractors, they sort of ‘free-handed’ the drawings. Sir.”

[Beaverbrook] “Bloody hell.”

Kit Summary

This was a fun project – my shortest endeavor yet (only six months). I particularly enjoyed chasing down all of the kits from various cottage industry vendors or the aftermarket.  Not quite as simple as going to the Sprue Brothers website!

The only real (as in there are more than 10 parts to assemble) and available kits are:

• Bull Beaverette Mk I/II
• Firing Line Beaverette Mk III
• Extratech Beaverette Mk III

Thus, I’ll just do Pros/Cons for these three. You can refer to the individual blog pages for the other kits.

Bull Beaverette Mk I

Pros: Lots of detail; three great figures. Options to do a Mk I or Mk II. Well-molded. Accessories and stowage. Friendly vendor.

Cons: Some of the resin parts are tricky to remove (rods abutted to the pour block). No decals. No chassis detail.

Firing Line Beaverette Mk III

Pros: Lots of detail. High quality instructions. Theoretically possible to do an interior as the hull is folded PE rather than a resin block. You’ll feel good after wrestling the flat PE into place as a 3D model.

Cons: No chassis detail. No decals. Be prepared for soldering. Some of the PE parts are really small (grab handles).

Extratech Beaverette Mk III

Pros: Almost as much detail as the Firing Line.  Includes decals. Twin Vickers machine guns are a nice touch. Chassis detail.

Cons: The two-part PE cylinder turret assembly is very tricky and if you mess up, recovery is ugly. The PE Vickers machine guns are difficult to assemble.

Last words

I’d buy additional kits from any of the above three vendors again – knowing that they’ll challenge me more than an injection-molded styrene kit. The vendors are serious about their offerings. In fact, I have several Firing Line and Bull Models kits awaiting work.  I’m just waiting on the right inspiring photo.

That said, if you just want a Beaverette Mk III for a diorama and don’t have time to invest in constructing one of the above kits, consider the Gramodel Mk III.  If you are lucky enough to get one without mold sinkholes, it is super easy to assemble and has enough detail to be compatible with your other vehicles. Or, find a Lead Sled Mk III for an almost as rapid assembly with reasonable detail.

Scale versus Reality

Since I went to the trouble of building all of the Beaverette Mk I and Mk III kits, it would be interesting to see how they matched up to the actual vehicle specifications. Since some kits purported to be 1/76 and others 1/72 but no two are alike in dimensions, I’ll compare against both Wikipedia 1/72 and 1/76 reference points.

Now, some caveats:

1. I didn’t verify the Wikipedia actual measurements so we’ll assume they are correct.
2. It is hard to know, especially for the width measurement, as to where the measurement is made (at axles?, at driver’s position?)
3. Actual measurements are probably accurate to within .01 inches using my calipers

And the results:

And what can I conclude from the above?

• The Lead Sled and Gramodel Beaverette Mk IIIs are closest to Wikipedia in 1/76 scale. But the first kit is very hard to find and the second isn’t a ‘rich’ kit in terms of assembly.
• The Sgt’s Mess and Extratech kits are about the same for a 1/72 kit but there’s no comparison in terms of modeling fun between the two (Extratech taking the honors by far)
• Both Beaverette Mk I’s are excellent in terms of length but apparently too wide for 1/76. Again, it is hard to know what is supposed to be measured.

 

**Update 10 Jun 2015**

I had forgotten until today that I possessed the 1/76 plans for the Beaverette Mk III from Airfix Modeling Guide 27 Modelling RAF Vehicles.  Now the source of the plans appears to be John Church of Lymington, UK (prepared sometime before 1978) and I can’t verify them against the real vehicle specs but we’ll assume they are accurate.

So, how did the models compare to the plans?

• The Gramodel and Lead Sled are close (straddling the expected dimensions)
• The Firing Line is closer to 1/72; the ExtraTech is still too large
• The FrontLine Wargaming should really be declared 1/72, not OO scale on their web site