British Light Utility Car 10HP Tilly 1:35 English

Armor

Six of one: building six versions of the Tamiya British Light Utility Car 10HP 'Tilly' – #35308 - 1/35 scale

by Patricio Delfosse © Modeler Site

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The Austin Tilly was a typical British wartime improvisation: the conversion of a standard saloon car into a Light Utility Pick-Up Truck. Austin were not the only manufacturer of Light Utility vehicles for the British Army: Hillman, Morris and Standard all produced militarized pick-ups from versions of their own cars. Soldiers called them affectionately by the nickname “Tilly.” The Tilly served throughout the war in many theatres of operation, and even soldiered on afterwards well into the 50s, though sadly few have survived.

Precisely, the presence of this vehicle in many theatres of all the war gives the chance to modelers to represent it in lots of schemes and configurations. The aim of this article is to show you six models built and painted by six different model builders where you’ll be able to appreciate the many many options the kit has.

The kit quality is typical Tamiya. Excellent fit of parts, good molding quality and straightforward assembly. Good to mention that SKP also offer a Tilly in molded injection though the quality is too far form the Tamiya’s. Accurate Armour used to have in their catalogue a similar vehicle, obviously in resin.

For those who want to detail up the Tilly, there is set from SKP, which includes the Austin 10 Engine molded in resin with a sheet of PE (SKP086), while Hussar produce resin wheels (Hussar 35098) with an aggressive tire pattern different from the Tamiya’s; highly recommendable.

Building

As we expect from Tamiya, no major problems were encountered during the assembly. Just you have to take into account the different versions proposed by the manufacturer since we will have to place accessories such as the headlights, etc or not, depending on the decoration you choose. This has been clearly explained in the instructions, anyway it’s better to check this before beginning.

The front suspension is somewhat fragile, it’s advisable to install the wheels at the end of the assembly to minimize risks.

Although instructions show several options, it’s not easy to customize a kit with some different version. Internet provide lots of samples of vehicles which will allow us to give free rein to our imagination. Something to have in mind is that the kit should not be assembled prior to painting.

It’s better and necessary to build the subassemblies first, to make painting easier.