Search the Community

Morris CS9 British Light Armoured Car ‘Battle of France’ (MV132) 1:72 Planet Models by Special Hobby In the years before WWII, British military spending was dangerously low on the agenda of the government, who were hoping that another expensive war could be avoided, before the realisation dawned that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis weren’t going to be stopped by appeasement, but could only be routed by military action. During the mid-30s, a light armoured car was designed by Morris Motors’ commercial arm, based upon their C9 truck, but with the chassis instead covered by an armoured hull, and an open turret that accommodated two crew members that could either operate a single Vickers Machine gun, or a Boys Anti-Tank Rifle and a Bren gun. That may seem like a light armament by WWII standards, but pre-war, tanks were lightly armed and armoured to a level that the Boys rifle could penetrate. Whilst combat with other armoured vehicles wasn’t high on their to-do list, they had to be able to defend against the likelihood, as scouting and reconnaissance could result in an unexpected encounter with armour by its very nature. After two years of development, the type went into service with the British Army in small numbers, serving in the Battle of France once war broke out, where all of them were either destroyed or abandoned, and if time permitted, scuttled so that they were of no use to the enemy. They also served in the North African campaign, where they were found to be good over sand and soft ground once fitted with appropriate tyres. They were quickly outpaced in terms of armour and armament, so were withdrawn during the African campaign, with only around a hundred built. Their poor design and lack of success was typical of pre-war British armour, which was generally short-sighted and penny-pinching to the sometimes fatal detriment of the British soldiers that were using them. This is a state that wasn’t entirely resolved until the last year of WWII in terms of indigenous production, wartime fighting forces relying heavily on Lend/Lease equipment from the US. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling in resin of this little armoured car, and it is well-detailed to say the least. The kit arrives in a small cardboard box with a captive lid, and inside are a Ziploc bag full of grey resin parts, a smaller bag with orange 3D printed parts, and an even smaller bag that contains the decals and a Photo-Etch (PE) fret. The instruction sheet is folded over the parts to reduce movement during transport, and this is printed in colour, with painting and decaling instructions to the rear. Detail is excellent, with a high part count of thirty-four resin, twelve 3D printed, and thirteen PE parts in the box. Construction begins with the floor pan, which has four seats, two stowage boxes, radio equipment, gear lever and hand-brake added, the latter in PE. The dash is mounted on the bulkhead, which has the foot pedals moulded into it, and receives the steering wheel with integrated column slipped into place under the dash. The hull is moulded almost structurally complete, just adding the radiator and two 3D printed leaf-springs to the front, a pair of Lee Enfield rifles and a Lewis machine gun strapped to the insides over the rear axle. A resin bumper is fitted below the grille, and at the rear, six ammo boxes in racks of three are mounted on the rear deck, with a hatch inserted between them, and a PE number plate on the bottom right valance. A PE footstep is joined to the rear opposite the number plate, and the interior is mated under the hull, flipping the model onto its back to mount both axles and wheels, drive-shaft between the rear axle and the underside of the engine that is moulded into the floor, and adding a piece of wire from your own stock to replicate the steering linkage behind the front axle, and another 3D actuator part mounted in front of the left wheel. A PE number plate is fixed to the front along with width indicator stalks, rear-view mirrors, and a placard for unit markings. Two headlights are fixed next to the 3D printed front arches, and on the top deck a curved bullet-splash guard is bent from a flat piece of PE around the turret opening. The open-topped turret is placed over the circular cut-out, fitting three ammo boxes on ledges around the sides, then mounting the 3D printed Boys rifle in the front offset slot, a Bren gun on the rear side, and a small 3D printed part inserted through the central slot at the front, adding a PE flap at the front in the open position. Markings There are two decal options provided on the sheet, although as usual with AFVs, the number of decals is fairly small. From the box you can build one of the following: 12th Royal Lancers Regiment, A ‘Arravale’ Sqn., Avesnes, France, Autumn, 1939 12th Royal Lancers Regiment, C ‘Cores’ Sqn., France, Autumn, 1939 The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion This is the only kit of the type, which wasn’t used in large numbers or for very long due to its failures, so it’s a boon that it’s a well-detailed kit that should be relatively simple to build once the parts are removed from their casting blocks. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Have the Revell 1/32 Mk .IIa in the stash for a while and am now inspired to build Tom Hardy's Spitfire from the movie Dunkirk. From what I can see the serial number is R9612. Having done a bit of digging around on t'aircraft with 'LC' belonged to the Station Flight at RAF Feltwell, and looking at Feltwells history this did not include Spitifes ! So to the questions: 1. Is the Spit in the film a Mk.I or Mk.II ? 2. Would adding the Barracuda Studios backdate for a Mk.I be needed ? 3. The LC looks grey to my eye not sky, but what size ? 36" ? 4. What size for the serial number R9612 ? Anything else you can think of to make it look like the one in the movie even though it may not be historically accurate. Many thanks Paul