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Tamiya 1/35 British RAF light utility car "Tilly"


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This is my first Armour/military vehicle kit (usually do planes and Si-Fi). This will eventually be part of a Diorama with a Spitfire and the Masterbox RAF pilots set, thats why the door is open.

just to say, this is a bit of a mix of parts and I'm not the kind of modeller that's worried about 100% accuracy.

This is the Tamiya 1/35 British 10HP light utility car painted in an RAF scheme based on various images found on the internet. The kit does not come with RAF decals so these are a mixture from my spares box. I've also used the wheels from a spare Willys Jeep kit as most of the RAF cars seen to have a chunkier tyre to the ones supplied with the kit. this means the wheel rims are incorrect but I'm not worried about that.

this took just 4 days to complete, starting last Friday and finishing up on the Monday evening. I've had to wait all week to get some good photos so I can share it with you.

it's not perfect and as always the photos show up every little mistake, but I did love every second of this build and I'm really happy with the results. I'm already working on my next armour kit, the Tamiya LRDG Chevrolet truck, and have another 5 kits on order.
I hope you like (and approve of) the results...

tilly17_zpsqqwfudov.jpg

tilly18_zpsttpukxzo.jpg

tilly19_zpsnkit3tej.jpg

tilly22_zpsoew3vvca.jpg

tilly26_zpsfrmxd6lz.jpg

tilly27_zpsrkukgyv6.jpg

tilly28_zpsbcexudls.jpg

tilly29_zps9srfsd73.jpg

tilly32_zpsbzp0hvev.jpg

tilly33_zpsocdt4ia0.jpg

tilly34_zpsy4qp2ekv.jpg

tilly35_zpscgnt2afr.jpg

Edited by theanorak73
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thanks guys, once i started i just couldent put it down. but knowing me you will probably have a long wait for the rest of the diorama. i'm so easily distracted with other kits (supposed to be making two Delorean time machines !!)

i may be an armour convert !!!

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I didnt know Tamiya did a 1/35th scale, I have a very similar one in 1/48th.

I'm not sure that they every carried 'RAF' on the doors but I would gladly be proved wrong ??

Very neat work and that roundel on the rear tailgate must have been difficult to set.

well done and I look forward to seeing the other aspects of your diorama.

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thanks for the interest and comments guys. just a quick explanation of how i got to the model you see above...

I've had the Revell 1/32 spitfire MkII in my stash for a while now and decided to do a little Diorama using the masterbox RAF pilots set...

tref2_zpsgeoyf2lg.jpg

after searching for ideas under "Spitfire Diorama" i found this...

tref1_zpsmfbp40nm.jpg

so the idea was born that maybe the pilot has had to make a forced landing away from the airfield and someone has been sent out to pick him up.

i really struggled to find a simple British WW2 car in the right scale and eventually found this...

tref3_zpsktlrtxua.jpg

after searching for "RAF Tilly" you can find a lot of photos of modern restorations...

tref4_zpswb1rqy8a.jpg

and you can get a 1/48 kit with RAF markings so i based mine around this.
i didn't have the normal style RAF roundels in the right size so used the war time ones and the door is open to give the idea that the pilot has just jumped out the car.
i left the rear canvas off with the idea that the pilots would just jump inside and i also fitted the chunky tyres/rims as most RAF vehicles seem to have them for the grass airfields.
i really have no idea if its anywhere near accurate to anything used by the RAF in the war or at any time.

so things have worked backwards and i've done the car first, no idea when the rest will get done.

the kit is an absolute pleasure to build and comes with a canvas roof, wooden tail gate option and four army paint schemes. in fact i may even get another one and use a much more standard finish.

Edited by theanorak73
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thanks for the interest and comments guys. just a quick explanation of how i got to the model you see above...

I've had the Revell 1/32 spitfire MkII in my stash for a while now and decided to do a little Diorama using the masterbox RAF pilots set...

tref2_zpsgeoyf2lg.jpg

after searching for ideas under "Spitfire Diorama" i found this...

tref1_zpsmfbp40nm.jpg

so the idea was born that maybe the pilot has had to make a forced landing away from the airfield and someone has been sent out to pick him up.

i really struggled to find a simple British WW2 car in the right scale and eventually found this...

tref3_zpsktlrtxua.jpg

after searching for "RAF Tilly" you can find a lot of photos of modern restorations...

tref4_zpswb1rqy8a.jpg

and you can get a 1/48 kit with RAF markings so i based mine around this.

i didn't have the normal style RAF roundels in the right size so used the war time ones and the door is open to give the idea that the pilot has just jumped out the car.

i left the rear canvas off with the idea that the pilots would just jump inside and i also fitted the chunky tyres/rims as most RAF vehicles seem to have them for the grass airfields.

i really have no idea if its anywhere near accurate to anything used by the RAF in the war or at any time.

so things have worked backwards and i've done the car first, no idea when the rest will get done.

the kit is an absolute pleasure to build and comes with a canvas roof, wooden tail gate option and four army paint schemes. in fact i may even get another one and use a much more standard finish.

This is a really good build and does a fantastic job depicting a restored vehicle seen out on the show circuit.

Just a few notes,

In real life in WW2 the RAF never used the Austin Tilly as depicted in the Tamiya kit , they only used theTilly model produced by standard cars. Tillys were based on indevidual manufacturers pre war car designs, and there were a few different models.

Also in WW2 RAF vehicles were not painted blue they were camoflaged, and only went back to blue postwar.

A camoflaged RAF standard tilly can be seen in the post below.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986103-a-couple-of-raf-vehicles/

Selwyn

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I'm not sure that they ever carried 'RAF' on the doors but I would gladly be proved wrong ??

No they didn't , since the RAF didn't use Austins, they used Standard and Hillman "tillies" which whilst similar , differed in many details. I think many people have been misled by Tamiya , who appear to have based one of their kit options on a preserved Tilly in erroneous RAF marking.

However this being said , the model is great and a credit to the builder and as a model of an Austin in presevation would take some beating.

Andrew

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The problem is there are a number of post-war restorations similar to the photo which show Austin Tilly in RAF blue which is inaccurate on two fronts - a/ RAF didn't use Austin Tillys, and b/ after 1939 they didn't paint them blue - they were mostly green or green/black.

That said I made exactly the same mistake as you did a few years ago when I first built a Tamiya Tilly. This 1:35 kit is lovely and I really enjoyed building it back in the day, so I can't blame you for that error and you've made a good job with it.

Its a real pity that the mistakes have been made by Tamiya in the first place, confused by some dodgy restorations since the war. What is good is that AIrfix got it right in their RAF vehicles set last year and used a Standard Tilly. There is a 1:48 scale Standard Tilly available from Accurate Armour, I built it several years ago...

DSCF3776.JPG

Edited by Kallisti
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thanks for the good comments guys. some really strong builders have made great comments above and i really do appreciate it. :coolio:

yeah, i wasn't sure if it looked any thing like an actual RAF vehicle, maybe the fact that Tamiya provided four options and none of them was RAF should have set alarm bells ringing and whilst it really is nice to know the truth i have to admit im really not one to worry about historical accuracy. i tend to bend the truth a bit and actually like combining bits from different sources into one model. i know a lot of peoples toes would curl at this but then everyones different.

actually it's surprisingly hard to find an RAF vehicle in this scale, is this a hole in the market ??? !!!

got to say i do love the style of Armour modeling and im really happy with my first attempt. im hoping that i can carry that style over to the Spitfire when i finally get round to it, but for now im working on my second Armour kit and already have another five kits in the stash, and im sorry, but i can't guarantee they will be accurate either !!!! :thumbsup:

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As far as this scale for RAF vehicles goes, 1:35 doesn't fit in with any aircraft scale - okay so its close to 1:32 but there is a noticable difference, so you tend to get RAF vehicles int he popular scales of 1:48 and 1:72

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