Wednesday, July 10

Preview: MiniArt's 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern British Service Dunsterforce. Interior Kit

We preview MiniArt Models 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern Dunsterforce -an interior kit with the colours, plastic, kit features, & the real vehicles that were chosen for the kit in our story...


Preview: MiniArt's 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern British Service Dunsterforce. Interior Kit

Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern British Service Dunsterforce. Interior Kit
Full Interior Kit
From MiniArt
Kit No #39023
1/35th scale
Four matking choices in the box.
The Subject: Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern British Service Dunsterforce.
Dunsterforce was an Allied military force, established in December 1917 and named after its commander, Major-General Lionel Dunsterville. The force comprised fewer than 350 Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian officers and NCOs, who were drawn from the Western and Mesopotamian fronts. The force was intended to organise local units in northern Iran (Persia) and South Caucasus, to replace the Tsarist army that had fought the Ottoman armies in Armenia. The Russians had also occupied northern Iran in co-operation with the British occupation of southern Iran, to create a cordon to prevent German and Ottoman agents from reaching Central Asia, Afghanistan and India.
The Austin Motor Company of Longbridge, England, made three different types of armoured car in The Great War; the Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3. The Series 3 armoured cars were improved in response to feedback from Russia, and a 1918 version was made. Series 1, 2, and the first version of the Series 3 went to Russia and were not used by the British Army.  The improved Series 3 (often called the 1918 Pattern) was not shipped due to Russia (70 were on order) due to the October Revolution. 
The completed cars were absorbed by the British government. Instead, those 40 vehicles, already built, were taken from Cardiff docks, where they were ready to be despatched, and used by Dunsterforce in the Middle East, and the 17th Battalion of the Tank Corps in France and Ireland. Dunsterforce got 24 cars, and the 17th took the remaining 16.
At least 20 cars were sent to the Caspian Sea in February 1918 with a British unit known as Dunsterforce, to protect oil wells at Baku against the Turks. They were operating there until November 1918, in a cooperation with the white Russians, and, at least on one occasion, with the bolsheviks (!). Only about 8 cars were actually used, partly due to mechanical problems.

The kit from MiniArt
This new 35th scale Austin Armoured Car 1918 Pattern British Service Dunsterforce. Interior Kit from MiniArt follows in the steps of their earlier releaes, with all new schems of the expeditionary force that saw action in the near east.

CAD images of the kit are with us to show the detail inside & out. We see two options of the armoured car below...
The hatches opened and closed with details inside
The full interior of this kit is included. You can show it inside and out, with troops in or outside the opened doors and hatches, with people working on the internal parts - just an idea :-) (of course yjis is a look inside the car - you would not want to leave it naked like this...
Being a full interior kit this model provides a comprehensive representation of the vehicle’s interior mechanics and layout. The kit's detils include the unique features and modifications of the 1918 pattern, specific to the British Dunsterforce.

Twin browning .303 water gcooled machine guns are included for the two turrets of the Dunsterforce vehicles.
The pats of the kit:
The makeup of this kit is very much like it's siser kits already in MiniArt's range. We have a layout of the sprues:
Clear Plastic Parts Included
Photo-etch Parts Are Included
Four Marking Options are included


This set will be available next month for modellers. You can see more about all of MiniArt's kits on their website...