Daimler Armoured Car: An 'Inns of Court' recce vehicle

This Hasegawa kit was no trouble at all to build which was just as well becasue I knocked it up in just over a week. I had an old Humber with a curious paint job in my collection and decided for my upcoming game I had better get a reconnaissance unit together which I had long desired to have. I had bought a pair of Daimler's years ago for this very reason.

The driver is an AB command figure of some type I had bought years back for my desert theatre. The only other non-kit additions were the four bags/sack and tarpaulins I sculpted with Green-stuff and fixed about the mud-guards.

I used the bridging decals and vehicle numbers from the kit but hand painted the unit and divisional signs. This is my representation of an armour car from the 'Inns of Court' (The Devil's Own) regiment which served the reconnaissance role for the 11th armoured division in Western Europe 1944-45. The markings are deliberately misplaced on the rear contrary to regulations and uniformity. Here's hoping it's debut on the table-top doesn't end in ignominy.

This is a terrific little kit. The only issue I have with it is that the turret lacks aerial receivers which should be located to the rear on either side. I had to craft my own with styrene, suitably drilled to receive synthetic bristle aerials, fixed with Superglue. Interestingly from the box art, these fixtures are depicted - but don't be fooled. The same art also depicts markings in odd locations. You can clearly see my unit and divisional markings are hand painted.

I didn't bother with too much weathering or any paint chipping this time. I'm not at all sure it's necessary for wargaming in this scale even if it looks fancy under a macro zoom lens writ large on this Blog. If, like me you have a big computer screen you can see these models at a level of detail I can't make out even with my glasses on under normal conditions. I have another Daimler kit but didn't have the time to do both for the next game. At the time of posting, I'm building it now.