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Dingo with a difference


aidy

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Hi all, I'm currently building a Tamiya 1/48 Dingo mk.II as used by the Federation Armoured Car Regiment in Malaya in 1952-1964. The Malayan Dingos had been handed down by the British Army (some via the Australians) to provide escort duties, roadblocks, reconnaissance and fire support and armoured protection against Communists in the Malayan jungle.

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The Dingos were modified by British army units in-country to offer better protection against ambush in the jungle.

I've used the Tamiya kit and made the armour extensions using plastic sheet. The dimensions are not really exact, but I think I've captured the look of the Dingo reasonably well. This was actually more of a exercise or proof of concept before I convert, and potentially ruin, the bigger (and COSTLIER) MiniArt kit.

The Tamiya kit is really well engineered, and goes together very nicely. The progress shown below is the result of a few hours' work over the last weekend.

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Hopefully, I'll get the interior painted and finished this coming weekend so I can button up the fighting compartment. Now I've got to look for a 1/48 bren gun to arm the little fella.

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Plasto, some sources cite them as being Brens but I have also read that they may also have been Vickers. Thanks for your suggestion, I'll try to look for some of those Gaspatch guns and see if I can use them.

Antoine, the Accurate Armour set is for the variant with the Ferret-like turret. This variant only has an opening on the roof for the gunner to stand out of. I had also been interested in the AA set, but at the current exchange rate I'll just have to pass.

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Antoine, the Accurate Armour set is for the variant with the Ferret-like turret. This variant only has an opening on the roof for the gunner to stand out of. I had also been interested in the AA set, but at the current exchange rate I'll just have to pass.

Thanks.

It's just a project at the time, and I didn't start to search for documentation, so all the links above will be usefull to me

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Hi Alpha Delta 210,

Unfortunately the restoration was just on the exterior. The crew compartment is left to rot under the sun.

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Kinda sad, really.

Anyway, made some progress on the build. The interior has been painted white, as per museum vehicle. I have also seen small, blurry period images that suggests the interior had been white in service as well. It may have been the whole crew compartment, it may have just been white behind the armour extension, I honestly don't know.

Peeking through the gunner's cupola, the interior seemed rather empty...

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...so I decided to add some detail to liven it up a little. I referred mainly to my Miniart Mk. III kit, just to busy up the area and not really being accurate. I added the driver's bulkhead with pedals and steering shaft, along with handbrake and gear shift (I think) columns. A small fire extinguisher was fashioned from sprue and added as well.

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The instruments for the driver was dressed up with decals from an old Reheat sheet.

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All done, I think it looks ok...

IMG_20160109_231012_zpshzquwctr.jpg

It's very clean now, though, but I'll weather it a little when I get some time later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since my last post, I have dirtied up the interior with a bit of burnt umber oils. This is my first attempt at armour interiors, so it's not very good actually but it wouldn't really matter because it will have a roof over it.

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I then closed up the crew compartment and finished most of the exterior. The gun mount is being scratched built slowly, and I have ordered a pair of Gaspatch's Vickers K to arm this Dingo after failing to find a reasonable 1/48 Bren. There is one available on Shapeways, but the shipping is too costly.

More pics to come soon...

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Very nice that.

I've driven a Ferret Scout Car, which had an 'angled' driver's seat so you can see to the rear better should you have to do a sudden reverse/retreat. And the Ferret had more reverse gears than forwards. So does the DIngo have more reverse gears than forward?

Badder.

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Thanks, Badder. So that's why the seat is angled. From what I can gather, the dingo had 5 forward and 5 reverse gears.

Would love to build a ferret too, some day. Hopefully we'll get a plastic kit of one someday soon.

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Loving this, aidy. I can confirm what Badder said about the angled driver's seat. The vehicle was designed as a scout car and the crew would never want to get into a firefight, so the angled seat allowed the driver to reverse out of trouble at high speed using the multiple reverse gears. My late father said that the Dingo was as fast in reverse as it was going forwards! I have driven a Dingo, but I don't remember how many years it had.

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Thanks, Badder. So that's why the seat is angled. From what I can gather, the dingo had 5 forward and 5 reverse gears.

Would love to build a ferret too, some day. Hopefully we'll get a plastic kit of one someday soon.

Actually it is the same gears forward and reverse however unlike other vehicles you also have a forward/lever so you can be going forward in any gear and pull the Fwd/Rev lever from forward to reverse. The fluid fly wheel, complains a bit, but you will slow down, stop and start going backwards. Naturally it's better to make the change in a lower gear and speed. The gear select is also rather different as it is pre-select. The centre foot pedal is a change pedal NOT a clutch. You change gear with a smart kick on the pedal then move the gear lever to the next gear up or down you expect to change to. When you wish to change and the engine PRM is right, kick the pedal again. In a Ferret the upside down steering wheel also takes a little bit of experience to get used to.

I've never seen a Ferret with an angled drivers seat. Unlike Dingo they were alway forward facing then again I've not seen every Ferret in the world so I could be wrong.

Edited by dcrfan
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Actually it is the same gears forward and reverse however unlike other vehicles you also have a forward/lever so you can be going forward in any gear and pull the Fwd/Rev lever from forward to reverse. The fluid fly wheel, complains a bit, but you will slow down, stop and start going backwards. Naturally it's better to make the change in a lower gear and speed. The gear select is also rather different as it is pre-select. The centre foot pedal is a change pedal NOT a clutch. You change gear with a smart kick on the pedal then move the gear lever to the next gear up or down you expect to change to. When you wish to change and the engine PRM is right, kick the pedal again. In a Ferret the upside down steering wheel also takes a little bit of experience to get used to.

I've never seen a Ferret with an angled drivers seat. Unlike Dingo they were alway forward facing then again I've not seen every Ferret in the world so I could be wrong.

When I was in the TA, I drove Fox armoured cars. Circa 1985... and they also had 5 forward and 5 reverse gears (plus emergency low gear) The gears were pre-selected with a stubby gearstick mounted to the right and level with the steering wheel (much like the gearstick found on buses) The pre-selected gears were then engaged by a 'kick pedal' as you say.

A lever over and behind the left shoulder was used to select reverse and could only be activated by the right hand reaching across the chest, i.e. NOT BY ACCIDENTAL KNOCKING!

I never tried changing into reverse while driving forwards. The reverse lever was very stiff and difficult to pull whilst driving forwards, but from what you say it may have been possible. In the Fox, it was most easily pulled after breaking to a halt, just after the front of the vehicle dipped and began to rock backwards. The reverse was true for selecting forwards. Er... you know what I mean!

Apologies if this is a bit off topic, but the Dingo, Ferret and Fox were all related (although the Fox had a turret and 30mm Rarden cannon.

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Watching with interest. Badder.

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Interesting read, Badder. About the Dingo, Ferret and Fox being related, a friend of mine once scratchbuilt a Ferret using the old Tamiya Dingo as a starting point. I think he ended up using only the wheels off the Tamiya kit.

Back to the build... I have got significant progress done since the last post. The crew compartment has been closed, and most of the exterior details have been completed... at least to the best of my abilities. I have noticed some of the mistakes I made on the conversion as well, such as the hinge on the driver's visor and the angle of the commander/gunner opening but having put some thought into it I decided to leave them as is because I may cause greater damage if I try to fix them.

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The driver's sliding hatch is supposed to run between two angle iron rails, like so...

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...but I can't find anything suitable and my attempts to make some failed repeatedly so I just used plastic strip to keep the build from stalling.

I've also started work on the gun mount, which I've based on a similar mount in a 1/35 Humber kit.

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I'll get the mounts done when my resin guns arrive. The museum example had the commanders seat attached, so I made one today since Tamiya left it put of their kit.

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I think I can safely paint the Dingo now. Tomorrow is a public holiday here, so I hope to get some work done.

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The centre foot pedal is a change pedal NOT a clutch. You change gear with a smart kick on the pedal then move the gear lever to the next gear up or down you expect to change to. When you wish to change and the engine PRM is right, kick the pedal again.

Doha :banghead::banghead: Off cause the change pedal is left hand pedal. The centre pedal is the brake.

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Actually it is the same gears forward and reverse however unlike other vehicles you also have a forward/lever so you can be going forward in any gear and pull the Fwd/Rev lever from forward to reverse. The fluid fly wheel, complains a bit, but you will slow down, stop and start going backwards. Naturally it's better to make the change in a lower gear and speed. The gear select is also rather different as it is pre-select. The centre foot pedal is a change pedal NOT a clutch. You change gear with a smart kick on the pedal then move the gear lever to the next gear up or down you expect to change to. When you wish to change and the engine PRM is right, kick the pedal again. In a Ferret the upside down steering wheel also takes a little bit of experience to get used to.

I've never seen a Ferret with an angled drivers seat. Unlike Dingo they were alway forward facing then again I've not seen every Ferret in the world so I could be wrong.

Sorry, you are right. I was mixing up the Daimler Scout Car with the Ferret! :banghead: It's the Scout Car that had the angled seat.

Badder.

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  • 6 months later...

Hi all,

My dad drove these in the TA many years ago too. He said they were as fast backwards as forwards and no crick in the neck whilst driving backwards because of the angled seat!

I'm building the old Matchbox 1/76 one along with a resin Ferret, and I've got a resin Fox on order...not to mention the Saracens and Saladins.

Steve

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