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Revell Land Rover Series III 1:24


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Oh, nice! I've been looking for the 1/24 Italeri version but this will do! It's coming out next week, apparently, says Revell. It also says "new tool" on Scalemates but whether that means it's a brand new kit... 

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From the looks of it this is a new kit, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, I've ordered one from my LHS, they seem to be getting it next week is what they say. I love this thing. 

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13 hours ago, JeroenS said:

From the looks of it this is a new kit, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, I've ordered one from my LHS, they seem to be getting it next week is what they say. I love this thing. 

When you get it could you let me know if it has an option for right hand drive - I won’t be able to get one until mid-November and it will save me pondering about it for a month!!

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It has left and right hand dashes, BUT... the engine compartment is laid out for left hand drive, which you can: ignore; leave the bonnet shut; or move some bits around plus a little scratch building to get an RH drive engine bay...

best,

M.

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12 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

It has left and right hand dashes, BUT... the engine compartment is laid out for left hand drive, which you can: ignore; leave the bonnet shut; or move some bits around plus a little scratch building to get an RH drive engine bay...

best,

M.

Brilliant, thanks for the confirmation,

 

I read the brief write-up in AMW when it appeared on my Readly app today. I was planning to add quite a bit of detail but didn’t really fancy converting the dash and engine tunnel. Can’t wait to get my hands on the kit, now... reckon my mojo may be on its way back!

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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

they have provided all the parts you need to do LHD and RHD engine bays as well as dashboard and interior, so that little concern is cleared up...

 

 

Agreed & great to see - wondering about that was partly why I was hunting for info on it, and discovered that the manual was already online (surprisingly early too).  Having looked through it again, I might even be tempted to pre-order one.  It's not as if I don't already have far too many unbuilt kits already...

 

There are a few oddities though - I've noticed that Revell Germany seems to have a strange habit of creating features on models which are totally incorrect, such as their recent Beetle kits have full inner arches under the wings when in reality, the only thing above the wheel is the outer wing itself. and they have done the same with additional front inner arches on the Land Rover, which seems unnecessary just for ease of assembly or part alignment reasons.  I hope it was purely that the reference vehicles used had aftermarket wheelarch liners which has lead to this, as it striked me as very odd to introduce such prototypically incorrect features, but it does strongly suggest to me that their kit designers look only at one vehicle for reference & then don't do much further research to confirm what features are factory correct & what is an owner modification.  These days with the internet, the data is very easy to find, especially as in many cases original factory parts books & workshop manuals are now online.  It's not just kits either - their 1:18 diecast Frogeye Sprite, MGA & Volvo Amazon all suffer from this too in various ways, but at least the plastic kits it can be remedied relatively easily during build.

 

Also, looking closely at the sprue layouts, I wonder if there are other variants planned - e.g. amongst other things, the way the six cylinder engine is on a separate one begs the question whether one possible future option might be an alternative engine, e.g. a 2 1/4 litre four cylinder version to be released at some point?

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10 hours ago, Paul H said:

It suggests that their kit designers look only at one vehicle for reference & then don't do much further research to confirm what features are factory correct & what is an owner modification. 

Agreed.. the roof rack/spare wheel stowage is to say the least extremely unusual versus bonnet, rear door or interior bulkhead location.

 

Variant wise, there are clearly a couple of parts blacked out on the tree diagrams already, so it would be interesting to compare them to the sprue shots. Of course, for my two alternative “prototypes” I’m going to need a diesel....

best,

M.

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5 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Agreed.. the roof rack/spare wheel stowage is to say the least extremely unusual versus bonnet, rear door or interior bulkhead location.

 

Variant wise, there are clearly a couple of parts blacked out on the tree diagrams already, so it would be interesting to compare them to the sprue shots. Of course, for my two alternative “prototypes” I’m going to need a diesel....

best,

M.

The spare position shouldn't be difficult to rectify.  I must admit that bonnet (or possibly rear door) mounting the spare will be my preference, however I'm not familiar with interior bulkhead mounted spare on enclosed passenger models such as this one - I'm far from an L-R expert but thought that location was only used for pickup or van variants (whether swb or lwb)?  Does that sound right to you?

 

Engine wise, I'm pretty sure that the old Rover V8 was Defender only, but that would be another great engine option for a future variant.  Useful for fitting to the Italeri or Aoshima Range Rovers or Aoshima MGBs too, but not holding my breath.  If I can be bothered, I'll make use of the 3D printers at work to make my own, as I wasn't terribly impressed with the resin one I bought a while back.

 

As for variants, I guess that an 88 would be a bit too much of a new tool rather than simply a variant of this one, and tbh I guess that starting with the old ESCI / Italeri kit might be a better basis for converting to that due to how the body is moulded.  I have several of those & the plan was that one will end up as an open 88 with a folded screen, one a Series IIA station wagon and the final one a Bell Aurens.   However it would be so much easier to convert the new Revell one to the Series II / IIA as all that will need doing is moving the headlights to the grille, and as it already has the rear doors scribed & separately moulded interior parts, it would also make a much easier conversion to a Bell Aurens too

 

Guess I'll be needing to buy several of the new Revell one then, and as it includes the correct bumpers, the military Italeri one can now be hacked into an 88 air portable like the demobbed one my father had in the mid '80s when I was a child.  The project list grows yet again!

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21 hours ago, Paul H said:

If anyone is interested, the instructions are now available on Revell's website, and will probably answer many queries about the kit:

 

https://stage.revell.de/fileadmin/import/images/bau/07047_%23BAU_LAND_ROVER.PDF

Thanks Paul - it does indeed answer a lot of questions. I would have preferred a petrol engine but beggars can’t be choosers!

 

I plan to get one at Telford next month and then I can figure out how to open the doors to display the interior and scratch a new mount to put the spare wheel on the back door.

Edited by brianthemodeller
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8 minutes ago, brianthemodeller said:

Thanks Paul - it does indeed answer a lot of questions. I would have preferred a petrol engine but beggars can’t be choosers!

 

Brian, it does have a petrol engine - the 2.6 litre six cylinder variant which like the 2 1/4 four cylinder, was originally from the Rover P4.  Just been doing some research (to make sure I remembered correctly!), and it appears that this was only fitted to the 109, rather than the 88, and further to my previous post, it turns out that the late Series III 109 could be ordered with the Rover V8.

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On 10/20/2019 at 7:07 PM, Paul H said:

 

Brian, it does have a petrol engine - the 2.6 litre six cylinder variant which like the 2 1/4 four cylinder, was originally from the Rover P4.  Just been doing some research (to make sure I remembered correctly!), and it appears that this was only fitted to the 109, rather than the 88, and further to my previous post, it turns out that the late Series III 109 could be ordered with the Rover V8.

Apologies - I misread the earlier posts and thought it came with a diesel. I would have preferred the 4 cylinder petrol but I am still chuffed we have a new mould Land Rover to play with!

 

My Dad has already asked if I could build a model of the Series IIa he owned with a 3.5l V8...

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'it turns out that the late Series III 109 could be ordered with the Rover V8.'

 

NZ Army definitely had petrol V8 engined Series III.  Easily identified as radiator was not inset as per normal Series III.  Now retired (except as ceremonial funeral gun tractors) they have their own Facebook page.  Some sick people love them in their old age (the vehicles not the owners).

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/553751274765953/

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  • 4 weeks later...

I ordered one earlier in the week (£22:50 including postage), and it arrived today!

 

I haven't unbagged it fully, but initial thoughts are mostly positive.  However what did jump out is that there are some areas underneath where the detail on the much older Italeri kit is vastly superior.  The front axle is a prime example - the Revell is very crude & toy-like, whereas Italeri's version is much more accurate to the actual steering swivel set up.  The gearbox and transfer case don't look great either, but I haven't investigated further yet.  However having a similar age 88" in pieces at work for reference does help though!

 

Regarding the blanked out parts in the instruction manual, these are another set of door mirrors, and a second spare wheel with its bolt-down bracket.  The extra spare wheel appears identical to the one used in the instructions, so I can only assume that it is for a version with twin spare wheels.  Anyone have thoughts on whether that might be a factory version of some kind, or perhaps just safari / off road rally one?

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Quote

NZ Army definitely had petrol V8 engined Series III.  Easily identified as radiator was not inset as per normal Series III.  Now retired (except as ceremonial funeral gun tractors) they have their own Facebook page.  Some sick people love them in their old age (the vehicles not the owners).

The NZ 109 V8's are around 34 Years old now which I guess is edlery by modern car standards.

 

The bonnet on the 109 V8 is very similar to the pre Puma defenders,the ANZAC V8s were generally 24 volt and featured locally made bush bars.Some vehicles were used in Kosovo under the UN flag on peace keeping duties.

It wold be great to see one of the cottage industries produce a Bonnet ,grill and engine conversion set.You'd have to delete the red and yellow leavers in the cab as the v8's were permanent four wheel drive.

 

I know of One ex NZ Forces 109 in the UK.

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