Austin Tilly.

[Bullbasket]

 

A bit of a change for me as this doesn't have tracks or a big stick out in front that goes BANG! I've been toying with the idea of getting one of these for some time now, so while I was at Telford this year, I decided to buy one. It's an excellent kit with some very delicate parts. Built straight from the box, it makes up into a nice little model, but I don't do OOTB, so the knives, razor saws, files and drill bits were got out.

One thing that does let it down a bit are the wheels, or to be more accurate, the tyres. The tread pattern is very poor, so I have ordered a new set from Hussar.

There are many detailing sets available for the Tilly, some to me, a waste of money as it's fairly easy to scratch build some of those parts. Archer decals do a set of decals for the dash board, but Tamiya already include these in the kit. So why pay twice? But one part that none of them do are the three vents on each side of the bonnet. Tamiya mould them as solid items and it looks to be difficult to hollow them out without doing some damage to the rest of the bonnet, so they may end up just being painted black.

Right, so it's straight into it without the preamble of photos of sprues (basically because I forgot to take any before I started removing parts).

I made a start on the chassis. The front and rear bumpers mountings are quite delicate.

 

The engine is a little gem, needing only a few extra bits and pieces such as piping and wiring.

 

This kit lends itself well to being built in sections. This is the cargo section. I've removed the tie down hooks from the side with a chisel blade.

 

The part that received the largest amount of work was the tilt. First job was to cut out the forward part and clean it up. Then I added three frame hoops which I bent to shape using brass rod, making sure that they were trimmed to the correct length so that the tilt would sit correctly on top of the cargo section.

I shaved off the moulded on tie downs and drilled five holes ready to add some string later on in the build.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

 

[FrancisGL]

Nice little one!, very nice engine, when when it is finished, will it look? 

Cheers John 

[Mancunian airman]

This is already starting to look a little different . . . . .

 

I shall watch with a keen eye for the detail !

[dnl42]

This will be interesting... 

[Bullbasket]

 

3 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Nice little one!, very nice engine, when when it is finished, will it look? 

Cheers John 

 

1 hour ago, Mancunian airman said:

This is already starting to look a little different . . . . .

 

I shall watch with a keen eye for the detail !

 

57 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

This will be interesting... 

Thanks for the interest, and glad to have you all watching.

 

John.

[Gorby]

I'll be following this one John. I finally managed to pick up the 1/48 version of this (also at Telford) for a reasonable price. Knowing the 'above and beyond' you usually take your builds to, I'll be keen to see how to improve my own.

 

Good start so far. 

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, Gorby said:

I'll be following this one John. I finally managed to pick up the 1/48 version of this (also at Telford) for a reasonable price. Knowing the 'above and beyond' you usually take your builds to, I'll be keen to see how to improve my own.

 

Good start so far. 

Thanks Gorby. I've never seen the 1/48th version, but I should imagine that it is small.

 

John.

[Gorby]

5 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

Thanks Gorby. I've never seen the 1/48th version, but I should imagine that it is small.

 

John.

Just measured it. Without bumpers 80mm long x 32mm wide. The 1/48 one doesn't have any engine detail unfortunately.

[Bullbasket]

It looks as though I am going to be sticking with the kit's wheels after all. I could only find one retailer on line (in Germany) who had them in stock. 15.95 Euros for the set. Okay, I can live with that, but what I'm not prepared to do is fork out 16.95 Euros P&P. Rip off or what?

Okay, back to the build. I cut a square of pewter foil and rolled it and shaped it and then super glued it into the open space in the roof of the tilt.

 

At the back I cut a piece to cover the whole of the rear and then cut out the centre section, which was then rolled up. The U shaped outer piece was glued to the back of the tilt and the rolled piece was fixed to the top of the opening.

 

On each side there are two moulded on flaps covering the windows. I sanded these off and made up four new ones from foil and scored some stitching into the top edges.

 

Before I glued them in place, I thought that I would open up one of the windows and roll the flap up. So I drilled holes all the way round the opening and then cut it out with a sharp blade. I squared it off with a flat file and then scraped the edges down to a more acceptable thickness. The clear piece will be cellophane, the sort that is used to make the window in a Pukka Pie box. A dry run showed that it worked fine.

I will glue some squares of paper on the inside of the tilt to represent the other three windows after the painting process.

Finally, the flaps were glued in place including the half open one. I just need to add the straps.

 

John.

 

 

[badger]

Do SKP do a replacement set of wheels as they do many 1/35 wheel sets?

[Bullbasket]

1 hour ago, badger said:

Do SKP do a replacement set of wheels as they do many 1/35 wheel sets?

Badger, you're a diamond! I should have realised that they would do a set, seeing as how they do a Tilly of their own. I've just been on their site and in less time than it took for my mug of tea to get cold, I've ordered and paid for a set of wheel for the Tilly. And the cost; 6.40 for a set of five, plus 3.75 P&P. A bit different to the 33 Euros that the other lot wanted. I might even have them before Christmas.

Once again, many thanks Badger.

 

John.

[badger]

Absolutely no problem - glad I could help.

 

Just had recollections that I'd once seen a set / read a review of theirs.

 

Just a little difference in price!

 

All the best

 

Ben

[Ripaman]

Hi John,

Its been awhile since I last posted a long 5 1/2 months great start on the Austin, will look forward to your updates

 

Regards

Richard

[BIG X]

19 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

 

 

WOW John - your tilt alone has more parts and custom detail than a Panzer I have just started chopping up this morning - AMAZING WORK!!!

 

Steve

[Mancunian airman]

Great attention to detail I must say.

 

Got to admit that I have never heard of SKP and looking at their site, its all in Polish.

 

Just to show the scale of this kit compared to the 48th and the 72nd

 

Looking forward to seeing more 

 

Ian

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, Ripaman said:

Its been awhile since I last posted a long 5 1/2 months great start on the Austin, will look forward to your updates

'Morning Richard. Glad to see you back again. Looking at your post on the Churchill thread, I can see what kept you away. Hope the move all went smoothly for you.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

4 hours ago, BIG X said:

WOW John - your tilt alone has more parts and custom detail than a Panzer I have just started chopping up this morning - AMAZING WORK!!!

 

Steve

Thanks Steve. I did some more work on it last night, so the tilt has got even more parts to it now.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

31 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said:

Great attention to detail I must say.

 

Got to admit that I have never heard of SKP and looking at their site, its all in Polish.

 

Just to show the scale of this kit compared to the 48th and the 72nd

 

Looking forward to seeing more 

 

Ian

Thanks Ian. Nice trio of Tilly's by the way.

If you look on SKP's site on the home page in the top right hand corner, there is a Union Jack. Click on that and the whole site is in English.

 

John.

[ijs302]

i must follow this looking good so far , i have this kit on the shelf of doom i think this could get me to finish it 

                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                      will follow with interest ian

[Bullbasket]

14 hours ago, ijs302 said:

i must follow this looking good so far , i have this kit on the shelf of doom i think this could get me to finish it 

                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                      will follow with interest ian

Thanks a lot Ian. It's a great kit, and I think I will be doing some more of these.

 

John.

[Bullbasket]

I've added all of the straps to various parts of the tilt, and I've also threaded the tie down rope through the pre drilled holes along the bottom edge of the tilt. For this I used string that I bought aeons ago from a shop in South London that specialised in model ships. It's ideal for rigging, but like all of these strings, it's hairy, so to get around that, I dipped thumb and fore finger in white PVA glue and pulled the sting through it, then put it aside to dry. Works Okay.

Next, I carefully eased the tilt onto the cargo bay, making sure that the string didn't get tucked up inside, then I looped the string over each on of the etched brass hooks and pulled it taut, being careful not to pull the hooks off. I left plenty of spare at each end as I need to add cleats to the front and back of the cargo bay, and then tie off.

Incidentally, the tie down hooks were made from scrap etched brass. I cut them from a thin strip into 5mm lengths, and then bent them over using a pointed pair of tweezers, before super gluing them in place. Once I was happy with the way it went together, I carefully took it apart again as it would be easier to paint separately. At the front of the cargo bay on each side there are two brackets, the purpose of which I have no idea. They are moulded solid. I left the two upper ones as they are as they include the lower portion of the forward tilt hoop, but I sliced the two lower ones off and made replacement ones from strips of scrap etched brass, bent to shape.

 

 

There was one more job to do with the pewter foil before getting on with the rest of the build. A lot of Tillys had padded insulation around the radiator grill to retain engine temperature in the winter. I cut a piece of foil the same size as the radiator and cut out the top section, then glued this in place. I cut another piece, the same size as the bottom part and scored a diamond pattern into it with a blunt scribing tool to represent the quilted effect, then glued this in place. A final piece was cut to represent the rolled up section. Once it was rolled and bent into shape and two straps attached, it was glued to the top of the radiator.

 

The bonnet includes a separate piece which fixes to the very front. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be an emblem or a handle to lift the bonnet. Surprisingly though, one thing that Tamiya have missed off is the small triangular badge in front of it. It's easy to replicate though. I just cut a small piece of foil and glued it in place. Once paint goes over it, it should look okay. At least now it's there.

 

My intention was to depict the model with the front wheels turned slightly, so I sliced the ends off of the front axle and reattached them at an angle, before gluing the steering control arm. The resulting joint is a bit on the weak side so a liberal amount of super glue will be slapped around it, and the wheels will make it stronger.

 

The last job in this session was to install the headlights. The version that I chose to do is the Highland Division one and according to the instructions, only had one headlight, but I preferred two, so two it is. I drilled holes in the base of each one and inserted 15amp fuse wire for the wiring before gluing them in place.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

John.

[FrancisGL]

That scratch with the metal, it's really beautiful!
I have thought to use tin too, but I could not find anything to buy it...

Cheers John 

[Bullbasket]

Thanks for the comments Francis. If you google Pewter Foil, you'll get several hits.

 

John.

[Soeren]

All this pewter work is exceptionaly nice. What product is that?

[Hewy]

Now that pewter work is absolute quality, very impressed