Bedford MK GS & Ptarmigan Radio Relay - Airfix 1:76

[C&WR]

Following my Hard-Top LR LWB RRB build I was delighted to find that Airfix used to have a model of the Bedford MK. I was even more delighted to find that Transport Models in Preston had some in stock. Quick vote of thanks here to this vendor as they are very well priced, very quick to get orders out and the packaging was some of the best I have seen - no connection, just a very satisfied customer.

The plan is to build one GS truck for practice, and then build a Ptarmigan Radio Relay version. My first Command in the TA Royal Signals was an Extended Loop Group (an Access Node, where Staff users could get use of the system) and I thought it would be fun to model.

ELG 852 consisted of a GS Bedford, one with a box body, a Radio Relay Detachment, a Land Rover recce vehicle, assorted trailers and a 16/24 generator. The generator, one trailer and the bulk of the RR will need to be scratchbuilt or kit bashed.

On with the pictures. After giving most of the sprues a coat of Tamiya NATO Black I started work on a bit of detailing as while the kit undoubtedly says "Bedford" there are some bits missing. I was rather pleased to use a Christmas present from my sister to hold the cab while I drilled holes for the wing mirror brackets

The wire I have is over scale, but at least they will be sturdy! I also used microstrip to make the headlight guards:

Following some advice during my LR build I invested in some Maskol. It's great stuff:

The cab after a coat of paint:

Sadly at this stage I ran out of paint, so I had to peel off the Maskol & hold fire until some more can be delivered. I have a little package on the way from Squires Tools so am having to be patient for now!

Edited February 14, 2014 by C&WR

[Vally G]

This looks like it will be interesting.

Kind regards,

Adam

[C&WR]

Thanks, Adam. You may need a big bag of popcorn, I'm waiting for supplies to get on!

[badger]

Hi,

Dont know if this is of interest but friendship models (in their wee friends range) have just released some metal upgrade wheels for the mk.

Usually on ebay (thats where I found them). Ive got many of their sets and the quality is very good.

Kingfisher models do the old csmc detail set for the mk with an etch grille etc and again this is very good, although a bit hard to get hold of.

Keep up the the good work.

Ben

[C&WR]

Thanks for the tip and comment, Ben. I had heard about the Kingfisher conversions, but not the Friendship stuff and will keep an eye out!

[badger]

Hi,

There's a set of the wheels on ebay at the moment.

Cant post the link as I'm on my phone but if you type "bedford mk wheels" you should find it.

Glad to help.

Ben

[C&WR]

Thanks, Ben. For this build I may stick with the kit ones, but I've filed away the details.

Delighted to say I had my delivery from Squires tools. A bit of trimming last night of a bit of 1:76 tread plate, the loan of a punch the right size to fit round the hatch today, and a couple of free minutes around the romantic dinner with Sunray & I ended up with this:

I have a couple of bits to do to detail the cab interior then it's on with the second coat of paint, some Tamiya NATO Black having come in my parcel too...

[C&WR]

Not only did I manage to get to see London Irish beat Wasps today (even though we spent a large portion of the game playing 14 vs 15) I also managed to do some more on the Bedford:

Hard to see that I've put in a handbrake and a more realistic gear lever!

I was rather pleased with the fire extinguisher under the passenger seat. Curse having to get the paint off the nearside window!

[C&WR]

Just a tiny bit of progress, been busy. Cab now fixed to chassis (which seems to be skew, will be interesting to see when the wheels go on) and the wing mirrors fitted.

I made these from some black plastic from a sandwich tray. As an experiment instead of painting them I used some tiny pieces of silver tape Sunray uses for wrapping presents:

It will be interesting to see if these stay on!

[C&WR]

Not having a good time with modelling at the moment, partly because of a severe lack of time. I decided to do a bit of a tidy of the modelling stuff last night and to finish off a couple of railway-related bits & pieces which only needed a couple of bits stuck on & a lick of paint.

Disaster! Not only had one of the railway models broken while put in a safe place when we had a party at the weekend, several bits & bobs had gone missing, including the exhaust pipe for the Bedford. I'm sure I put this away carefully to dry after repainting and it's especially annoying that this went as it's the fact I have been held up getting the suspension on while this wasn't ready that makes its loss the more annoying...

[Vally G]

You have my condolences. Hope this project will still continue.

Kind regards,

Adam

[C&WR]

Thanks, Adam. I tore the modelling shelves apart again last night to see if i could find it. I'll have one last search of the sitting room floor tomorrow morning (I don't see the house in daylight) before deciding how to go on.

I have two more of the kits so I could (even though this goes against what I would normally do) liberate one from another box. I could also bodge together something out of microstrip and rod using one of the existing pieces - this might be fairly straightforward and give a more delicate part anyway.

To be honest I wouldn't have made that much progress anyway as I've been really busy with other stuff since the post on the 15th February. Hoping to get some real work done this weekend on this and a railway card model I'm scratchbuilding...

[C&WR]

After the travails with the Red Arrow & losing the exhaust for this kit I do have a tiny bit of progress and some pictures. First the replacement exhaust:

This is a bit of lollipop stick with a bit of 1mm Evergreen rod through the middle. If anything I reckon it's slightly more delicate and true to scale than the kit one!

Here are the chassis & rear parts put together. Funny cast of colour, I'm not used to this photographing in daylight business:

[bzn20]

I was on a contract near Aylesbury building or rather fitting out Ptarmigan cabins, March 85. They wanted Aircraft fitters, Airframes and Aircraft electricians. Got a higher hourly rate than for aircraft work with no responsibility. Half of ours were for SAS. They were just called "Battle field communications cabins" on the job card and contract paperwork.

The Handbrake. All the air braked MK's and TK's, I've driven, the Handbrake is between the driver's seat and cab sidewall rear of the door. and a light blue in colour. or was yours not with air brakes, some TK's weren't

Really looking forward to seeing your Ptarmigan.

[C&WR]

Thanks, bzn20. I did have a reference picture of the handbrake position, but it wasn't blue! My picture doesn't do it justice, but there is a cut down pin in the position you suggest.

The Ptarmigan is going to be a little while yet, although I may have a go at some of the baskets which held the heads, the generator racks, coffins & so on at the weekend. I am waiting for a delivery of plasticard for the cabin bit at the moment, I live in a model shop desert at the moment (especially since the closure of ModelZone) so am reliant on mail order!

SAS Ptarmigan vehicles? Interesting!

Here's work done last night. Still needs touching in|:

[bzn20]

We built ten SAS cabins and few "normal" cabs. I'm not sure about other types but ours had NATO standard aircraft 6 pin sockets, which made me think at the time that they were ripe for opps being carried inside a Hercules/ aircraft, or did yours have these sockets? I was at Duxford about 4 years ago and in one of the hangars was a Ptarmigan Cab. It was the 1st I'd seen since 1985! It was a Marshall's of Cambridge contract that part of that got subbed to Aeroquip at Thame, Nr Aylesbury. The same company that made "Hose-Lok" garden hoses and accessories ! So you can imagine their workforce wasn't exactly the type to do the work, which is where we came in. One of the inspectors was ex Handley Page (Radlett) another was ex De Havilland, (Hatfield)

Our section (RAF) had three TK's all the time with either "reserve" TK or MK's. There didn't seem to be a standard between any of them. Our Tk's were... 4 gear petrol, 4 gear diesel and 5 gear diesel there were two types of 5 gear box, 1 and 3 towards the front of the "h" and the other way 'round. Also reverse gear was either left and fwd or right and fwd or back, I forget. Blinking confusing sometimes as you could be in any one of them all the time. I did my HGV 3 in a TK at Saint Athan. We had diesel's without air brakes and with. The interiors had light green exposed metal dash top, frames etc. all had black seats. I've driven loads of civvie TK's and some of the gear boxes were different again, tippers, pantecnicons Cant spell removal vans! I was moon lighting while in the RAF!.

I saw the above comments on heads and coffins, I haven't a clue what they are, if they were added after our build or your unit's jargon. I remember the conduit/trunking, square section light blue Alu was a pain to read on the drawings and fit. I was there beginning of March to end of April 1985 having finished the 15 Cabins.

Edited March 5, 2014 by bzn20

[Dads203]

You might be getting a bit confused, As well as the Radio relay truck the Royal Signals used a SAS MC which stands for Secondary Access Switch Message Centre,

Basically its a Telephone Exchange on wheels for the Ptarmigan system. The SAS wouldn't use the green Army kit unless it was roll specific and they required green Army support.

A Ptarmigan Node takes a lot of blokes to set up and run and 264 Signal Squadron (SAS) who support the regiment are not big enough to resource a full node and provide manpower to there designated SF roll. If Ptarmigan was required for an OP then they would ask a full Signal Regiment to deploy and support them.

The SAS MC was basically the same truck and modified box body as the Radio Relay

Regards

Dan

[bzn20]

We might be getting confused (part 2) The cabs we were building,( I wouldn't get confused) were "Battle Field Communications Cabins" They look like Ptarmigan. It was secret ( the equip. level) so forget me saying anything about what was there. They might have been part of Ptarmigan or not. They looked the same on the outside. Its whats inside that makes the difference. The kit. As for how many blokes it takes, that's to be sorted out, and not, we can't do it (Mr Mainwaring) To sum up, I was on a contract for 10 Battlefield Communications Cabins for the SAS plus 5 other's. I don't know if it was Ptarmigan. Its only a name. The SAS high command could have seen these cabs and wanted them, then its not SAS Ptarmigan because the kit is not the same. Its not black and white at this level.

[Dads203]

We might be getting confused (part 2) The cabs we were building,( I wouldn't get confused) were "Battle Field Communications Cabins" They look like Ptarmigan. It was secret ( the equip. level) so forget me saying anything about what was there. They might have been part of Ptarmigan or not. They looked the same on the outside. Its whats inside that makes the difference. The kit. As for how many blokes it takes, that's to be sorted out, and not, we can't do it (Mr Mainwaring) To sum up, I was on a contract for 10 Battlefield Communications Cabins for the SAS plus 5 other's. I don't know if it was Ptarmigan. Its only a name. The SAS high command could have seen these cabs and wanted them, then its not SAS Ptarmigan because the kit is not the same. Its not black and white at this level.

All the Ptarmigan wagons were classified Secret, the SASMC box body was indeed a bit of Crypto and was required to be locked into a secure garage whilst on camp. The Radio Relay wagons from memory also had crypto hard wired like the SASMC, you had to be Positively Vetted to top secret to go in the back on these wagons. We also had Armored versions of these based on the 432 series :-)

Nice to see a rare unusual bit of kit being modeled.

Cheers

Dan

[bzn20]

I can only repeat the previous post with an extra bit. Did they all have a NATO standard 6 pin aircraft power socket? We fitted the cabs out, end of. Actually, I didn't need to know anything except, it had been completed to spec. Its the Mushroom thing!

I know nothing about the way SAS deployed them. I'm an Aircraft Technician Airframe (fitter) A/T/A by trade. Just fitted the kit and kit support, If the cabs didn't perform as expected they would have been binned or transferred to the pongo's.

Edited March 5, 2014 by bzn20

[C&WR]

Interesting stuff, thanks both! I'd forgotten about the SAS/MC as I didn't spend that much time on the Access Nodes being mainly in command of the Radio Troop which used HF and VHF Comms to engineer in the links for the Trunk system. I was seen as a bit of an oddity as an Officer who understrood and could work wiggly amps and steam radio!

I saw the above comments on heads and coffins, I haven't a clue what they are, if they were added after our build or your unit's jargon. I remember the conduit/trunking, square section light blue Alu was a pain to read on the drawings and fit. I was there beginning of March to end of April 1985 having finished the 15 Cabins.

The heads were the bits that went on top of the masts to broadcast the signal. I'm sure Ptarmigan was directional point-to-point radio & there were all sorts of different ones which worked with the different bands. IIRC the coffins were here the SCAM 12s (12m Self Contained Army Masts) lived athwart the load bed and there was then another SCAM 12 on the back of the cabin. The Relay could use the mast on the cabin or remote out onto other masts.

Edit to add:

I commanded ELG 852 (or possibly 853) on attachment to its parent Regiment, am sure at one time had command of SAN 657, before taking over the Radio Troop. My last exercise before moving to NCRS (fabulous Soldiers, boring kit) I spent mainly in the HQ Squadron as a watchkeeper for what I remember as ESC Admin. Forgive me if I get this wrong, it was more than 15 years ago!

Edited March 6, 2014 by C&WR

[C&WR]

To weather or not to weather:

I have since touched in the filler cap and really should have sanded down the seam on the bumper. I have also had a pop at dry-brushing the ropes on the canopy, not a great success & required a respray of the load bed sides:

Guess that's why there's a touch of overspray on the offside rear wheel. I also need to respray the box on the side, it doesn't look good. Finally the wheel hubs, which look great with the naked eye are a mess here!

Anyway, this lot is waiting:

Time to teach Sunray Minor how to cook Vindaloo...

[bzn20]

Don't tell me this meal prep. is a new WIP! In answer to your question... Weather the Bedford. I'd also spray a clear mat lacquer over the tyres unless the lighting makes it look too glossy. I wouldn't worry too much about the ropes. I've seen them sprayed with the wagon! Enjoy the curry, my mouth is watering. I wasn't bothered about eating 'till I saw this!

Edited March 8, 2014 by bzn20

[Mr Grumpylee]

Bedford looks cool!

As for tea, we've just destroyed a Chinese, the missus does a blinding chicken chow mein!

[C&WR]

Here we go, life, some railway modelling and a P-51D (see other thread) have been interfering with finishing this off. I'm just about done:

The tyres do look a bit too shiny & I can't figure out why. I've had this a couple of times with the Tamiya NATO black when it dries a bit glossy.

I was going to call this done until I saw the smears round the nearside light clusters & the back edge of the canopy in photos taken in good light:

Still debating doing the canopy ropes and also some weathering. A bit od mud would make it look a bit more like the Landrover it's supposed to go with: