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Modeller Build Logs
SAS Land Rover 110 DPV |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Sep 26, 2007 | | Updated: | Feb 9, 2008 |
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When Paul asked if any one was interested in writing a blog, I offered but my requirement was no more Shermans! Instead I proposed this project because I thought it would be an interesting subject and I haven’t seen a blog of a wheeled vehicle for some time.
The Land Rover 110 DPV is the most current version of the famous SAS Land Rovers that include the more well known ‘Pink Panther’. This version is based on the Defender 110 commercial Land Rover. It is still in service with the SAS seeing action in both Afghanistan and Iraq along with other not named place around the world.
The build will use the following kits:
Accurate Armour LR009 SAS Land Rover 110 DPV
Accurate Armour FS11 SAS 110 DPV Crew Set #1
For reference, I’ve found a few photos on the internet and in some publications but the main source is this new book:
Military Land Rover, Development and in Service, Pat Ware, ISBN 0711031894, from Ian Allan Publishing
This is a new book that covers all of the Land Rovers in military service and is quite detailed and well written. A must for all Land Rover enthusiasts.
In addition, I spent some time in a commercial version of the Defender 110 this summer and took a lot of notes on some of the details. It may not seem it, but it’s a pretty large vehicle, bigger than most SUVs but a bit smaller than a HUMVEE. |
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| The Engine, Drive Train , and Exhaust | Oct 15, 2007 |
This step involves adding the engine, drive train and exhaust. But first I added some of the front chassis details as shown in the directions. This includes the smoke dischargers and the front strike plate which promptly covered most of the link arms I’d worked so hard to assemble in the last chapter.
I installed the drive train first and discovered that the front linkage was too short and thus I had to add a small (1.5mm) plug to get it to mate up.
Next was the exhaust system but after a bunch of dry fitting I decided to depart from the instructions. The instructions would have you install the exhaust system and then the engine. But the front piece of the exhaust (a ‘Y’ shaped part) must mate to the exhaust outlets on the engine and there’s no mounting pins to ensure the correct position on the chassis. So instead I loosely located the ‘Y’ exhaust part, but did not glue it. I then glued the engine in place and then glued the exhaust to the engine and made sure it mated to the engine outlets.
After that I was going to mate the long exhaust pipe section with the muffler and a convoluted pipe shape. But first I had to fill the large air bubbles that were on the muffler and pipe (seen as white dots in the photo). It takes a bit of wiggling to figure out how to thread the exhaust around the rear axle. Once in place I was able to then glue it to the frame. But this part didn’t even come close to mating with the ‘Y’ part I’d just installed. I had to get out the hair dryer to heat up the end of the ‘Y’ exhaust so I could bend it so it would align with the rest of the exhaust system. And that’s when I found out that there was a 3mm gap between the parts. So out came the styrene rod (the white piece in the photo) to bridge the gap.
One last point. The instructions would have you mount the radiator at this time. But I believe doing so would be a huge mistake. The radiator mates to the front wheel fenders. There’s no clear place to mount the radiator on the chassis and you could easily position it 1 -2 mm back and forth on the chassis. Thus, if you guess wrong, the fenders might not mate smoothly to it and the whole front end will look wrong. Instead I decided to simply leave it off for now. I will mate it to the fenders and then mate the entire assembly to the chassis so I can get it all aligned properly.
Yeesh, another tough step made even harder by bad sequencing in the instructions. |
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