LRDG Model Kits

The Project - Overview of available model kits

Project Main / Available Model Kits / The Landscape / Vehicles and Figures / List of models used / General considerations / Other Models

Plastic model kits / Resin Kits / Wargaming miniatures

Plastic model kits
At the time of writing, both these kits are out of production. While the Tamiya kit is still in stock at various retailers (and frequently appears on eBay), the Matchbox kit is almost impossible to find in Europe. At the moment, squadron (and possibly several others) in the US still has some of these kits in stock.

1/35 Tamiya LRDG Truck

I have just recently picked up this kit and yet have to start assembling it. From what I have seen, it's in the usual Tamiya quality, meaning excellent parts fit, no excess plastic, superbly detailed, and the translation of the instruction sheet is absolutely hilarious (the German version is even better than the English one). I have some very minor gripes with this model (there is almost no cargo included, so you'll need a good amount of crates to depict a realistically packed LRDG truck, and one of the sticker sets seems to be wrong - "Te Anau II" to my knowledge was truck T6, not T9), but overall it's a great kit.

1/76 Matchbox LRDG

Although Matchbox kits are not generally known for their exceptional quality, the LRDG set (containing a Chevy 30cwt and a Willy's Jeep) is actually quite good. The models are nicely detailed, there are lots of small accessories, and there's actually very little excess plastic on the parts. Some of the smaller parts do look pretty clumsy, though - the sun compass, for example, is one unrecognizable lump of plastic and is best replaced with some brass parts. However, with some amount of reworking and modifying, this is a fun kit to assemble.

Resin Kits
These are some very fine Resin models of LRDG vehicles. Pictures coming soon.

1/72 FSF Ford F60

This woderfully detailed model by German manufacturer FSF is one of the very few models of a Heavy Section truck I could find so far. It consists of over 60 Parts, everything from the cab interior to the drive trains is modelled with a very high attention to detail. A highly recommended kit of a beautiful vehicle.

1/76 Trux Mack NR4

My ongoing search for models of Heavy Section trucks has uncovered another gem - Trux's nicely detailed Resin model of the Mack NR4 is not cheap, but is definitely worth its price. Trux also has various beautiful models of Ford and Bedford trucks.

1/76 Trux Ford C11ADF

There are actually two variants of this kit available - none of the variants depict a vehicle used by LRDG, but both have some relevance to the topic: One variant depicts the open tourer used by General Alexander during his time as CIC Middle East (complete with a figure of a visiting Winston Churchill on the back seat), the other one (a station wagon) is the exact vehicle that was used as a command vehicle by David Stirling (the infamous 'Blitz Wagon'). The only modification necessary to depict Stirling's Ford is removing the roof.

1/72 Wespe Models Ford 01

I was pretty excited when I recently stumbled across an image of a Ford 01 with LRDG equipment on the website of Romanian manufacturer Wespe Models - the quality of Wespe model kits is generally outstanding, and it would be nice to be able to add this early pilot car to my LRDG collection. I have yet to see it up close, but it sure looks sweet on their photo.

1/72 Mars Bofors 37mm

Yet another recent discovery that filled me with delight - Polish manufacturer Mars has a 1/72 model of the 37mm Bofors (which was often mounted on WB Chevys or Ford F30s in the early days of LRDG). The kit is very nicely detailed - I almost felt bad about my decision to mount it on a truck instead of assembling the wheel and trolley assembly.

Wargaming miniatures
If you're used to building high quality plastic model kits, the first impression of a 20mm gaming miniature will probably disappoint you - these models aren't designed to look good but to be moved around on the table and live through it. However, with some filing and reworking, some of them make great additions to diorama scenes. (A note on scaling: wargaming models are usually scaled by figure size. Thus, a 20mm model is roughly 1/76 scale, a 25mm one roughly 1/64 scale, etc).

20mm Skytrex/Hinchliffe LRDG Ford F30 - White Metal Kit
20mm Skytrex/Hinchliffe LRDG Jeep - White Metal Kit
20mm Skytrex/Hinchliffe Lancia 3RO (as used by Heavy Section) - White Metal Kit

I have not seen the Skytrex models myself so far, so I cannot comment on their quality - although they look rather nice on the pictures on their website . Skytrex also has 20mm models of the Fiat TL37 and the Sahariana AS42 - two very interesting vehicles that were used by Italy's Compagnia Autosahara, the only Axis unit that was remotely similar to LRDG.

20mm Britannia LRDG Jeep - Resin kit
20mm Britannia Chevy 30cwt - Resin Kit
20mm Britannia Chevy 30cwt w/.50cal & Boyse A/T rifle - Resin kit
20mm Britannia Ford F30 - Resin Kit
20mm Britannia Lancia 3RO (as used by Heavy Section) - Resin Kit

The Britannia kits are extremely fine, highly detailed resin casts with lots of small accessories already on the trucks. Assembly is quick and painless (only the wheels and figures have to be glued on). Unfortunately, the white metal casts accompanying the vehicles are pretty mediocre: the wheels are rather bland looking, generic designs and are way too large for the Chevy; the figures are acceptable, but have a somewhat cartoonish appearance since they are all pretty short and fat. With a new set of wheels (the Matchbox Chevy wheels fit perfectly, it always pays to have an extra kit for spare parts) and a decent paint job, however, these models are real gems.

(A picture of finished models can be found here on Britannia's website).

20mm Raventhorpe Chevy 15cwt - white metal kit

The Raventhorpe Chevy is quite ok to use as a base for conversions. The casting is quite good, although parts require some filing work to fit, and the whole model is a bit short on details (the dashboard being virtually non-existant, for example). On the plus side, both the wheels and the canvas top are excellent castings. Note that this model does not portray a vehicle used by LRDG, it is actually the pre-war model that was widely used by British troops on the continent. There are, however, two possible conversions to LRDG vehicles:

Conversion 1: Chevy WB - Saw off front bumper, fill in vertical openings in grill with putty and carefully file horizontal openings to the grill to make it look like this.

Conversion 2: Chevy 1311x3 - Saw off front bumper, carefully remove headlights (they are needed later on) and file away the complete grill section. Create a new grill (either from scratch, or using a Matchbox 30cwt grill), place headlights on fenders. This conversion requires a bit more effort, and the resulting model will be a bit too large for a 1/76th scale diorama. However, the vehicle still has the shorter wheelbase of the 15cwt Chevy, and if placed some distance apart from 1/76 30cwt's, the size difference will not be too obvious. Until a good 1/76 model of the 1311 is available, it's the best method I can think of to get one of these vehicles.

20mm Raventhorpe Breda 20mm A/A gun - white metal kit

This is a very fine cast of the Italian Anti-Aircraft gun. The barrel was slightly bent in my model, but this can easily be fixed since the material is pretty soft. It can be mounted on the back of the Matchbox Chevy model, a mounting can easily be constructed using some stuff from the leftovers box (I assume every modeller has one:)