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Marmon-Herrington MkIV Armoured Car


Edwin Parks

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Hi Guys

 

I am new here and returning to modelling after rather too long.

 

My first project is a Marmon-Herrington MkIV Armoured Car as used by the Arab Legion. I have a nice photo of a couple of them but only in B&W. I wonder if anybody can point me to any colour pics.

 

I now have to discover how to post pictures????

 

Eddie

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Colour pics are highly unlikely. Don't trust colourised.

 

Vehicles supplied by the Commonwealth were most likely finished in the authorised scheme of the day.  If Mike Starmer is tuned into this he might well have some insight into Arab Legion colours.  By the time the M-H MkIV came along, Light Mud was probably the authorised base colour.  For armoured cars a darker disruptive colour was authorised.  Black was preferred but dark brown or dark green or even dark slate were permitted according to need and availability.

 

What scale and whose kit?

 

To post pictures you need to join an intermediary image hosting site.  I use Imgur, but there are others.  It's free, surprisingly - but full of adverts and clickbait.  You copy your picture file, or a picture URL from the web, to your image library on this site.  To post on Britmodeller you click the image to open it and select Direct Link.  That gives you a link you just paste into your post where you want it.  Resize by selecting with left click then Ctrl-right click to open a size window.  Once you've done it a couple of times it takes less time to do than reading these instructions.  Sometimes web images won't upload to Imgur, but if you copy to your desktop first that usually fixes it.  Uploading to some other forum sites requires a different choice of image link from Imgur.

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Thanks that's very helpful indeed. I'll fathom out how to do pictures in due course.

 

The kit, ordered but not seen, is Commander ordered from Iron Shipwrights in 1/35. This seems to be the only one on the market - unless someone knows different.  I am playing with a 25Pdr gun at present.

 

I have been collecting Arab Legion figures for sometime both models from various sources and some "toy soldiers" also from various makers. They're not easily to find. A French company called Star Lux make a series of the toy soldiers which being plastic with easily detached arms lend themselves to modification.

 

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1 hour ago, rio said:

Have a look at the tank museum site. They have one in the collection. 

That was tarted up and repainted a few years ago by miscreants on Community Service ..............  Colour absolutely not to be trusted.  But I think it may be in alleged Arab Legion markings.

 

AFAIK that is your only kit choice in 1/35.  It would be nice to see one in plastic: they were reasonably widely used.  Note for any kit manufacturers - something that was actually built in quantity and actually used in actual action by actual soldiers, not a paper project or experimental prototype in 4BO or 3-tone camo.  You know that will happen now you've bought the resin one........! 

 

One of its oddities is that it used the field mount version of the 2pdr, not the tank version.  Note the under-barrel recuperator.  With that and the open-top turret it could perhaps almost be considered as a wheeled tank destroyer.  Not that a 2pdr could destroy many tanks by 1943, but it could still punch neat holes in most light AFVs.

 

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They have both a MkIV and a MkVI mild steel prototype, the latter not currently on display.

 

On the left is the MkIV in her current location and condition after being Community Serviced.  On the right is the very different MkVI as she was before being taken off display.

9ac0sik.jpg  f74sxtF.jpg

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Well, except for the suspicious colour, that is what I really was after, an Arab Legion 7th Armoured Car Regiment MkIV. I had found exactly those markings on a sheet of 1/72 decals.

 

8649bc75-e3cf-4d21-b20e-5d5482a4728b.png

Edited by Edwin Parks
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I'm afraid that isn't an M-H MkIV.  Or indeed an M-H of any sort.

 

It is a Wagner Armoured Car, not more than 12 of which were built in 1939 on the order of Glubb Pasha by Wagner Mechanical in Jaffa on Ford or more likely Chevrolet chassis for the Arab Legion.  Armour was "sandwich" construction of armour plate over wood, as later used on improvised armoured vehicles by Israeli settlers' militias and the early forms of the IDF.  As these cars became outclassed and were replaced with more modern purpose-designed armoured cars they were later passed on to the Palestine Police Force (used by the Police Mobile Force?) and generally re-armed with Lewis guns in the turret. 

 

Here are a couple of period photos in early Arab Legion days, probably 1940-42.

m83VHbU.jpg

 

2ohoYvF.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

If I recall correctly, the immediate post-war colour for Middle East vehicles reverted to Light Stone No.61.  This remained until 1948 when the current colour, Light Stone No.361 replaced it.   They are NOT the same colour.  Thus vehicles refurbished for sales to Middle Eastern countries was Light Stone No.61.  This colour is decidedly yellow in appearance not as on the museum examples.

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Vallejo 'desert sand' is way too dark and brown,  Vallejo 70917 is much closer and then slightly dark.  I attempted to make a Vallejo mix but failed due to the very limited range in hand.  My local shop closed so I can no longer nip out and get one.  British desert 'sand' colours were very much lighter than is generally presumed.  Tamiya recommendations id far too dark too.

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