Thursday, June 22, 2017

Empress Miniatures Carden Loyd MMG carrier

The Carden Loyd carrier was a light tracked armoured vehicle developed in the 1930s

The Empress kit is very simple, comprising the hull in resin and the tracks and crew heads in white metal. There was very little flash, though there is mould marks around some of the rivets. The bodies of the crew and the interior are rather basic. It is also missing the distinctive tripod on the glacis (though the crew could fire the Vickers mounted on the vehicle, it also carried a tripod for more static defence).
As this vehicle is for use in Operation Sealion games, I decided that the abundance of ammunition which is a feature of British forces in that period would be represented by plenty of ammunition boxes. One of the Rubicon Allied large ammunition boxes was fitted to the glacis (a rack was added round the boxes using Slaters Microstrip).

The tripod from the Rubicon SDKFZ 250/253 was trimmed to fit on the glacis.

The model was assembled except for the crew heads. The main part was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black (as were the heads still on their sprue). The body was then sprayed with Citadel Caliban Green (Dark Angel Green for the older amongst you).
The centre two boxes from a Rubicon large ammunition set (left over from the removal of the outer boxes for the Churchill) also fitted into one of the stowage boxes over the right hand track.
A large roll was added over the back (which might get a bit hot as it is over the engine compartment),
 A Bolt Action British infantry Spade was added to the side of the hull. The stowage box on the left hand side was covered with green stuff to form another tarpaulin.
This is a tiny vehicle, dwarfed even by the diminutive FT tank.
It needs the bridging weight and unit marks to be added and final weathering.