Tamiya 1/48 Daimler Scout Car "Harry" (Dieppe)

After having tuned up the Churchills, I wanted to knock off another vehicle for the ongoing Dieppe project, in time for a potential game to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the raid. 

I found the perfect candidate in the form of this 1/48 Daimler Scout Car from Tamiya. According to "Dieppe Through the Lens", a total of seven Daimler S/C MkIIs went ashore in the raid, each towed by a Churchill tank. They were towed with a single steel cable connecting their right front bumper to a hitch on the rear of the tank. The idea was that the tank would tow the Scout Car across the chert beach and the pin connecting the cable would be pulled once the car crossed the seawall. Of course, like most plans at Dieppe, this didn't generally happen - only one Scout Car ("Hector") actually made it over the seawall.

 

I've painted "Harry" here, built pretty much stock out of the box, but with the special Dieppe bumpers added from plasticard. Again, "Through the Lens" came to the rescue with lots of detail shots of the wrecked Scout Cars on the beach.

Insignia was lettered by hand.

Crew is from the Tamiya box as well, and I left them both removeable as it's pretty much certain the Scout Car will be wrecked, no matter what happens in the game. They're just too lightly armoured.

Final shot is a portrait alongside "Bob", a Churchill MkIII. That's my mistake, of course, as Harry was towed in by "Bluebell", another Churchill MkIII. Harry's story on the day was fairly typical - the S/C was crewed by Cpl Butler and Tpr Graham, and bogged down under tow partway up the beach. For about an hour, Bluebell and Harry tried to negotiate the loose chert, but wheelspin only succeeded in digging Harry in deeper. Photos show it buried in the chert up past its axles.

Should be a fun addition to the commemorative game next month!