Does Anyone Know Anything About Armadillos?

[Kingsman]

I mean the improvised armoured truck used for home defence, especially of airfields, after Dunkirk.

 

I know that the Mks 1 and 2 were essentially improvised on a number of different chassis including Fords and Bedfords.  The Mk3, as very expensively kitted by Accurate Armour, was the first fully standardised design on the Bedford OY chassis and mounted the 37mm COW gun at the rear.

 

I'm more interested in the earlier ones.  More specifically, I'm interested to know if I can use either of the ICM Fords, as the choice of suitable truck chassis is gossamer thin.  The only Ford Armadillos I've seen are on the snub-nosed 7V COE chassis (below, top right).  I know that the V3000-type truck was not built in the UK, but we did receive the Canadian-built version as a GS truck.  Probably too useful and too late to use as Armadillos.  However, a truck with the same oval grille and pretty much the same cab and wings as the G516 was made in the UK from 1938 in at least 2 wheelbases:  the E817T "barrel nose".  The 2 lower images below.

 

So, does anyone reckon I can use the G516 kit as the basis for an E817-based Armadillo?  Is it definitively wrong, or just can't be guaranteed to be right?

 

  

[Hardcastle]

Suggest ;looking at the old Observer's Directory book as they featured some there. I will also check my resource stash and revert if I get something else to share.

 

Tim

[Kingsman]

Yes I looked in the old Olyslager Observer book but that wasn't a lot of help.  If you believe it, these Ford trucks were not used by UK armed forces.  But that doesn't mean that some weren't impressed/requisitioned.  There's a picture of an Armadillo assembly line at the Wolverton railway works and almost every visible truck is different (below).  Some are obviously quite old (e.g. 2nd up right) and it's really hard to work it what they are.  At least one has a horizontal split opening driver's screen (3rd up right).  Some interesting camo on the one front right.  Almost 900 were built all told, but photos are precious few.

 

I must admit that I'm tempted to play the "can't definitively be proved to be wrong" card with the Ford.

 

[Hardcastle]

Indeed you seem to agree with what I suggested.

 

I checked numerous of my resources and could not find any Mk 1 or 2's. All images are of the Mk 3's. The other pic on Wikipedia (on the right of the screen) shows the 7V.

I think I also replied to your post on another forum.

 

Tim

[Kingsman]

Yes, I put this question on Missing Lynx too.  Trying to widen the net.

 

This is the other picture that commonly pops up.  MkIIs I think, supposedly at RAF Wyton.  There are 4 here.  The first is a Bedford that looks spookily like an Opel Blitz.  The back one is an unmistakably ugly Fordson 7V.  I think the 3rd one is a Bedford OL. 

 

But have I in fact answered my own question here?  Enlarging this picture, look at the grille of the 2nd truck just poking up above the front Bedford grille.  Is that the top of an oval Ford grille??  It certainly looks very much like it.  I haven't ever noticed this in smaller views.  Opinions, anyone??

 

[Hardcastle]

Indeed it seems to be - that is the other pic I was referring to!

 

Tim

[SleeperService]

I believe 'Armadillo' referred to the box that was carried on the truck bed being a standard design. It was intended to be fitted to any suitable vehicle. For larger trucks there was the 'Bison' a concrete pillbox accessed through a trapdoor in the floor. That was also a standard design for the flat beds of the day. In that case the length could be varied.

 

Given the Dark Times it would be most unlikely that a given vehicle wouldn't be put into service. With the Ford-looking grille in the photo I'd go for it. As can be seen there appears to be no standardisation.

 

These were covered in an Airfix magazine article IIRC and led to a discussion at college. One of the Instructors was an apprentice at Boulton and Paul Joinery who made up some of the body kits that were shipped to various assembly works. He was certain they were all the same size as him and another youth spent weeks cutting up the planking for the sides.

 

It will be a very different model. Looks like there was partial side armour for the driver too.

[Kingsman]

Yes the cab sides and front were "armoured".  Just enough to stop rifle-calibre ball ammo.  Surprisingly, no protection for the engine: a mobility kill would have been a cinch.  But then they were more like mobile pillboxes than true armored trucks like the Bedford OXA.  As the Wolverton photo confirms, the box was about the only standardised element on the Mks I and II.  The Mk III was fully standardised.

 

A fella on Missing Lynx has confirmed that the 2nd in line is definitely a barrel-nose Ford, exact model uncertain but almost certainly the UK equivalent of the G916T (G816T?). The ICM kit needs some mods to the cab side pressing detail and a vertically-split windscreen, and possibly a wheelbase change.  But it's otherwise good to go.

 

Colour schemes seem very variable, allowing for photographic vagaries.  Very low contrast on the front vehicle, more contrast on the next 2: last one looks plain.  Many different schemes in the factory photo.  Greens G4 over G3 would be the "official" colours at the time.

 

I'd guess I'd better go hunting for a cheap ICM kit and some bass wood strip.  Lewis guns I have.  In some ways its a pity the ballast layer is boxed-in fully.  But then I don't have to make a double skin ...........

 

Don't hold your breath on this one.  Need to get some other stuff out of the way and finally move house - if the Gods Of House Moving can be persuaded to smile my way.  Turn that frown upside down, guys ........  Definitely a 2019 project.