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Beaverette Mk.3 armoured car (scratchbuilt)

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Beaverette Mk.3 armoured car (scratchbuilt)
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 1:19 PM
This is the other scratchbuilding project I'm working on, and it's VERY different to a 1/24 Bradley in terms of
size and complexity! It's a 1/35 Beaverette Mk. III British armoured car. These vehicles were built in the early
40s (1940/41 I think) for home defence, mainly airfield defence (it is named after Lord Beaverbrook, the WW2
minister for aircraft production), and were based on a Standard 14 car chassis (with the same engine, so they weren't very fast, carrying 2 and a half tons of armour). It really is -tiny-, only about the size of a Mini car (I should have put a figure next to it to give an idea of size), and is probably the third-smallest British AFV after the Daimler Dingo and
Vickers-Carden-Lloyd tankette. There are a number in museums, one is at Duxford which I will be visiting on Sunday, I'll
try to remember to take some pictures of it.

The model was based on the Airfix book "Modelling Armoured Cars" which has a lot of scratchbuilding plans (in 1/76 scale,
I scaled it up with a calculator). It's entirely scratchbuilt from Plasticard except for the wheels and the Vickers MG (left over from a WW1 aircraft kit). As far as I know, there are no commercial kits available for this vehicle.
I also chose it as a scratchbuilding subject as it's a relatively easy shape (apart from the turret) and because I just
like it - it's such a clunky, improbable, makeshift design, about as far removed from the usual Tigers and Shermans as you can get :) I plan to do more scratchbuild projects like this in the future, providing I can get some more 1/35 wheels!

Here's the model, complete apart from weathering:



  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Newport News VA
Posted by Buddho on Friday, July 2, 2004 1:27 PM
That is way too cool, Drawde!

I've never seen one of these...very unique...and well done.

Regards, Dan

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 1:57 PM
That's pretty wild, Like an mobile armoured doghouse.
Great build though, thanks for the pics.
  • Member since
    January 2003
Posted by shermanfreak on Friday, July 2, 2004 3:57 PM
Very nicely done Drawde !!!!

Nice to see something a little different.

Thanks for sharing !!!!
Happy Modelling and God Bless Robert
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 9:19 PM
Great work Drawde! You certainly have some interesting projects. I love armoured cars, so it is great to see such a unique build!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 2, 2004 10:48 PM
It looks like an ingenious British deathtrap, but you are doing a fantastic job on it.

Do you have a source fon information for some of these scratch building projects?

GBig Smile [:D]

P.S. The headlight is beautiful work by itself.
Thumbs Up [tup]
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: bc,canada
Posted by gdarwin on Saturday, July 3, 2004 1:19 AM
Big Smile [:D] that is a cool peice of armour what size shell did it use?

gdarwin[roy]
airborne death from above http://photobucket.com/albums/a350/roygd/
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Dahlonega, Georgia
Posted by lizardqing on Saturday, July 3, 2004 1:50 AM
Very cool. Even it does look like something I would not have wanted to been assigned to.
  • Member since
    September 2011
Posted by fightnjoe on Saturday, July 3, 2004 3:48 AM
very impressive. thanks for sharing your work.

joe

Veterans,

Thank You For Your Sacrifices,

Never To Be Forgotten

Where you can find me:

Workbench on FaceBook  Google Plus  YouTube

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 3, 2004 6:50 AM
Great work Drawde and an interesting subject to boot.
  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: South Australia
Posted by South Aussie on Saturday, July 3, 2004 7:34 AM
What a unique subject Drawde, nice to see something different.

Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.
Wayne I enjoy getting older, especially when I consider the alternative.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 4, 2004 10:47 PM
Gotta love anything that is scratchbuilt. Interesting topic, and unusual. Thanks for sharing.
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Philippines
Posted by Dwight Ta-ala on Monday, July 5, 2004 2:22 AM
Wow, great job on the scratchbuilding.

  • Member since
    June 2003
Posted by M1abramsRules on Monday, July 5, 2004 1:59 PM
great job!!!!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 11:47 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by ausf

That's pretty wild, Like an mobile armoured doghouse.
Great build though, thanks for the pics.

LOL & ditto 2 the above... just don't get the doggy mad !
very nice 2 see such an unusual subject,
keep those scratchbuilding projects coming &
thanx 4 sharing this one w/ us !

frostySmile [:)]
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Tochigi, Japan
Posted by J-Hulk on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 11:57 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by ausf

That's pretty wild, Like an mobile armoured doghouse.



That's precisely what I was going to say!

Good work on the scratchbuild.
~Brian
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posted by zokissima on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 12:07 PM
Very impressive scratchbuild. Definitely something different Smile [:)]
  • Member since
    December 2009
  • From: West Grove, PA
Posted by wildwilliam on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 12:07 PM
gdarwin,
no one else answered, so i will take a stab,
that looks like a shroud for a machinegun barrel,
so maybe it is .303 ?

this page has a picture claiming to be the Beaverette, but there is no turret!
http://uk.geocities.com/invasion1940/army_gallery.html

this shows it as a Bren or Vickers "K"
http://www.djparkins.clara.net/fline/fl76v_beaverette.htm
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 2:58 PM
Here's a couple of photos of the real thing, at the Duxford air museum:



There are a couple of minor inaccuracies and omissions in my model which I discovered
from looking at the real vehicle, for example my model does not have the welding seams
on the hull side, the window shield supports are the wrong shape (the real vehicle has
a ratchet system, my model just has plain rods), and the two small circular objects either
side of the radiator are actually small lights, not rivet heads as I had thought from my reference drawings.
They are a flattened spherical shape and have an electric cable attached. The main headlight
also has a cable, as you can see from the pics.
Still, I think my model is fairly good, many commercial models have at least as many "problems" :)
Another interesting small detail is that the vehicle actually has the "Standard" manufacturer's badge
above the radiator grille! I might try to paint this on.
Regarding armament, the one in the museum has a Bren gun, whilst my model has a Vickers gun (originally
from a WW1 aircraft kit). Both of these MG types were used, probably depending on what was available at
the time. Some Beaverettes carried a Boyes anti-tank rifle instead.

BTW if this version (Mk.III) looks flimsy, the earlier ones were even worse - the Mk.II was open-topped and
the Mk.I even had an open back, protected only by wooden planks(!). But the Mk.III was the most common type.

Not sure how many of these vehicles are still in existence.. there is one at the Cobbaton military vehicle
museum in Devon (which was my inspiration for building this model) and there is probably one at Bovingdon,
but I don't know of any others.
  • Member since
    December 2009
  • From: West Grove, PA
Posted by wildwilliam on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 7:12 AM
Drawde,
thanks for the follow up and for the 1:1 pics!
lots of good info there.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 10:44 AM
Nice build on an unusual subject.
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 10, 2004 1:56 AM
Wow I have never seen anything like it. Never heard of those.
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: New York
Posted by kealii21 on Saturday, July 10, 2004 5:33 AM
Drawde, did any of them ever see any combat?
Never trust a naked bus driver
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 10, 2004 6:07 AM
They were only used for home defence, so they never saw combat against enemy
ground troops (thankfully for their crew..) but many were used for airfield defence
and so acted as mobile anti-air MGs during air raids.
A group of cars based at Torquay airfield claimed to shoot down 6 (!) enemy aircraft
during an attack in May, 1943 - somehow I think they were over-claiming, but still impressive
that they managed to shoot anything down at all!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 15, 2004 1:28 PM
Hi Drawde, I`m from Poland, at the moment I`m building Beavarette III too, becouse Polish troops in England were using them.
I was searching for any photos or drawings, and find this topic Cool [8D]
I`m going to make papermodel of it.
First 3D model:







Then I have to paint it in 2D graphic program.
Print it, cut out and glue it all together Big Smile [:D]

I wonder if You have any photos or drawings to share with me Question [?]
I have no idea how it looks inside and from the bottom.

Sorry, my english no good Wink [;)]
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