30 years ago, 4 Scorpions, 4 Scimitars and a Samson went to the Falklands from 3 and 4 Troop, 'B' Sqn, The Blues and Royals. They played an important role in the retaking of the islands as they were the only armour that made it to land. My plan is to build one of the Scorpions from 3 Troops, namely 23A.
I've spent some time trying to identify which particular vehicles they were, which has not been easy considering the paucity of photos from this time! Thankfully the Osprey Scorpion book by Chris Foss and Simon Dunstan has some cracking nuggets of information and a couple of very useful photos such as this one linked to Google Books.
The caption of that photo give the most perfect information, this is Two Three Alpha. here is a larger version of that photo that I found elsewhere
In addition I found another photo which also looks like it is 23A:
You can see from this photo that the front registration numbers have been painted over and the bridging plate also painted over. Now further along in the Osprey book is a drawing taken from the famous photo of a Scimitar concealed with camo nets and tarp:
What is really interesting about the drawling is it identifies the Scimitar as two three charlie and shows that it had the rear registration still visible along with the convoy stripes, plus the 'B' Squadron insignia in red on the turret and the movement information codes CHALK FAW RAW AUP stenciled on the turret. The Blues and Royals regimental insignia has also been painted over.
Interestingly I found another photo of 23C:
which shows the sort of layout at the rear, which matches what you can see on 23A in the previous picture.
So the only piece of information I'm missing is the registration number of the Scorpion 23A! I think I might have to fudge it by covering the rear with lots of dirt
I have on order the May 2007 edition of Military Modelcraft International which apparently has a build of 23A.
That iss the background and current research (which is still ongoing so if you know anything about this subject I would be really interested to hear from you!), so what about the model? Well, needless to say I'm using the AFV Club kit:
and here is the obligatory sprue shot.
The flash glare is obscuring the Eduard etch set, so I re-photographed it seperately:
There is lots of PE here, I doubt if I'll use all, but some is goign to be very useful. You can also see the Accurate Armour resin tracks, although I doubt if I'll be using all of them - I might just use enough to reduce the tension in the rubber tracks that come with the kit. I've actually got the Fruimodel metal tracks as well but they are reserved for later this year for the up-armoured Scimitar I'm planning
For the crew, I've got some AFV crew from Accurate Armour
I got the warrior set as they are wearing the old style "bone dome" helmets, plus some heads with berets to replace one of the AA figures. The Kinetic rope will also be included as it seems to be attached to the right side (ether that or its camo netting).
For the base I've been able to get hold of a stony steppe grass mat (from here) that looks like a very good representation of the sort of terrain in the Falklands, just a bit more marshy/boggy and with more mud and large rocks.
So let us begin...
I've spent some time trying to identify which particular vehicles they were, which has not been easy considering the paucity of photos from this time! Thankfully the Osprey Scorpion book by Chris Foss and Simon Dunstan has some cracking nuggets of information and a couple of very useful photos such as this one linked to Google Books.
The caption of that photo give the most perfect information, this is Two Three Alpha. here is a larger version of that photo that I found elsewhere
In addition I found another photo which also looks like it is 23A:
You can see from this photo that the front registration numbers have been painted over and the bridging plate also painted over. Now further along in the Osprey book is a drawing taken from the famous photo of a Scimitar concealed with camo nets and tarp:
What is really interesting about the drawling is it identifies the Scimitar as two three charlie and shows that it had the rear registration still visible along with the convoy stripes, plus the 'B' Squadron insignia in red on the turret and the movement information codes CHALK FAW RAW AUP stenciled on the turret. The Blues and Royals regimental insignia has also been painted over.
Interestingly I found another photo of 23C:
which shows the sort of layout at the rear, which matches what you can see on 23A in the previous picture.
So the only piece of information I'm missing is the registration number of the Scorpion 23A! I think I might have to fudge it by covering the rear with lots of dirt
I have on order the May 2007 edition of Military Modelcraft International which apparently has a build of 23A.That iss the background and current research (which is still ongoing so if you know anything about this subject I would be really interested to hear from you!), so what about the model? Well, needless to say I'm using the AFV Club kit:
and here is the obligatory sprue shot.
The flash glare is obscuring the Eduard etch set, so I re-photographed it seperately:
There is lots of PE here, I doubt if I'll use all, but some is goign to be very useful. You can also see the Accurate Armour resin tracks, although I doubt if I'll be using all of them - I might just use enough to reduce the tension in the rubber tracks that come with the kit. I've actually got the Fruimodel metal tracks as well but they are reserved for later this year for the up-armoured Scimitar I'm planning
For the crew, I've got some AFV crew from Accurate ArmourI got the warrior set as they are wearing the old style "bone dome" helmets, plus some heads with berets to replace one of the AA figures. The Kinetic rope will also be included as it seems to be attached to the right side (ether that or its camo netting).
For the base I've been able to get hold of a stony steppe grass mat (from here) that looks like a very good representation of the sort of terrain in the Falklands, just a bit more marshy/boggy and with more mud and large rocks.
So let us begin...
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