Rolls Royce Armoured car by Meng

[Faraway]

Its been nearly a month since my last build, Airfix Tiger Moth. I got a bit sidetracked by my latest PS4 game. But looking at my stash I saw this and thought it would make a nice change. Been fun so far, good crisp detail and not overly complicated build, although it has more flash on some of the parts, than I would have expected from Meng. I'm not going to 'weather' it, but am thinking of displaying it in a museum setting, we'll see.

Anyway, on with the build.

[Kingsman]

Just a reminder that you can't make either a vanilla 1914 or 1920 Pattern car from this kit, regardless of what Meng say. 

 

For a 1914 Pattern you'd need a new low-side turret to go with the wire wheels.  IIRC, Wee Friends do one.

 

For a 1920 Pattern car you need solid disc wheels to go with the kit tall-sided turret.  Djiti's and Squadron both do these: Djiti's are easier to find.

 

OOB with wire wheels and tall-sided turret the kit makes a 1918 Pattern, of which only 3 or 6 were built depending on which sources you believe.

 

OOB with sand tyres is fine for a Hussars or RAF car in the Western Desert in WW2.  Without the Boys rifle mounting and Scarff ring it will make an RAF car in Palestine between the wars.  Sand tyres were not universal in Palestine and some cars had sand rear with road disc front.  The Boys and Scarff mounts were not universal in the desert either.

[Faraway]

@Das Abteilung as always, your input and information is welcome. How do you know all this ? I’m not exactly going for historical accuracy, just enjoying the build. I’m doing it really to get my ‘eyes in’. After the Tiger Moth and a months break. I’ve done a few Meng models and this one is ok, but more flash on some parts than I’ve come to expect from Meng, especially after building the Warrior, that almost didn’t need glue. Perhaps this is an old mould.

Jon

[Kingsman]

All of the kit's failings have been discussed previously on this forum and others.  I merely re-hashed the work of others and so can take no credit!  As is too often the case with manufacturers, Meng failed to do sufficiently diligent research. 

 

The later War Slug kit also has flaws, largely by blindly copying the Bovington vehicle without realising that it has been modified somewhere along the line.  Lack of diligence again.  Or even of reading David Fletcher's book..........  It has differently-shaped 1924 pattern front wings and running boards, a common modification - but not a vanilla 1920 pattern car OOB any more than the Meng one is.  And harder to correct than swapping the Meng wheels.

 

I also have one of these kits to do myself, although I'm planning an RAF car in N Africa with some additional weaponry.

[Faraway]

A little bit more done.

I have to say, this build is becoming a bit of a chore, the instructions are not very clear at times, there is a lot of flash on some parts and part to part fit is not so good at times. I've built a few Meng kits and this is not the best. My previous Meng build was the Warrior, a far superior kit to this one.

[edjbartos]

Really nice work, looks great, looking forward to seeing this painted...

 

Ed

[APA]

Interesting what you say about the quality of the kit. I've done a Meng and found it excellent. Also got a few in the stash including this one. Will watch with interest. 

 

A

[Faraway]

37 minutes ago, APA said:

Interesting what you say about the quality of the kit. I've done a Meng and found it excellent. Also got a few in the stash including this one. Will watch with interest. 

 

A

This is my seventh Meng kit and as I said the instructions were a bit odd, they showed parts fitted but not when or how to fit them. The problem seemed to be that there are variations within the kit, and they were mixed in the instructions. Not a major problem, I’ve had worse experiences with some other kit instructions. I don’t recall this problem on the other Meng kits. The absolute best Meng so far was the Warrior, parts fitted so well that after dry fitting some parts, it was hard to get them apart again. Not much more to do now, just varnish and decal.

[stevehnz]

I'm liking the look of this. After seeing the thread I made an impulse purchase of one from ebay at a decentish price so will be looking to emulate this one of these days. My 1/72 Roden might be moved on or might end up being displayed with some early desert war British Armour in Caunter schemes.

Steve. 

[Faraway]

All done. I'll post some pictures in 'READY FOR INSPECTION'

Jon

Edited December 22, 2020 by Faraway

[Andy Moore]

As you mentioned above, this isn't exactly Meng's finest hour but, despite the shortcomings with the kit, you've turned out a fantastic looking model.

 

Andy

[Kingsman]

On 12/21/2020 at 11:00 AM, Faraway said:

I have to say, this build is becoming a bit of a chore

These are not my favourite words about a kit I have yet to build............

[Faraway]

9 hours ago, Das Abteilung said:

These are not my favourite words about a kit I have yet to build............

Panic not. It’s not a bad kit, but it does have issues. It became a chore because I was looking forward to finishing it, normally I don’t. Still, I think the next one I’ve got lined up is even worse, I don’t know why I do it.

Happy Christmas.

Jon