Revolutionary Guard Naval Battalion - Improvised Artillery Truck - TGAA

I completed one more Improvised Armoured Vehicle for The Great Antipodean Adventure games, a Crossley Artillery Truck. This will be the last of these for a while turning my attention to some VSF, WW II PTO and ACW projects that I have on the go and still need work...

Members of the Revolutionary Guard Naval Battalion inspect their new Mobile Artillery Vehicle at the Sydney Naval Dockyard Warehouses.

Notice the second vehicle in the background that was required to carry the six-man crew and ammunition as the Crossley was overloaded by the gun platform itself! The vehicles gunners discarded their whites for fatigue kit and donned black caps of the revolution!

Wednesday 18 May 1932, outraged by the deaths inflicted on protesters at the hands of the Police the previous day Sydney was engulfed in violence. Out of control and drunken mobs roamed the streets picking fights with Government forces, bystanders and each other! A large group moved on Government House reaching the building itself and lowering the Governor’s Standard and replacing it with a Union Banner!

Sailors aboard the destroyer HMAS Tattoo moored in Sydney Harbour who were sympathetic to the cause of the proletariat and following the news of the day closely were galvanised by the call of the ship’s lookout that a Union Banner now flew at Government House. Several gunners in the excitement of the moment and in the spirit of the Potemkin and Aurora trained the ships searchlight on the grounds of Government House and using the 2-pounder mounted amidships landed several rounds in the gardens!

Photo from navy.com.au site...

HMAS Tattoo

S Class H 26

1000 tonnes Crew 90

3 x 4” guns 1 x 2lb PomPom 1 x Maxim Gun 4 x Lewis Guns

Commander; Lieutenant Commander John Miller

Lieutenant Commander Miller and Lieutenant Harries commanding the HMAS Tattoo were awakened by the thunder of their ship's guns firing. Alarmed they rushed to the deck to see what was taking place! They were horrified when they were confronted by the actions of the ship’s ratings. These sailors were firing on their own countrymen! They quickly subdued the gunners involved with their trusty revolvers and with the help of other Officers arriving on the deck had the miscreants escorted to the brig. While they and the other officers were involved at the 2-ponder gun though around 70 other sailors, over two thirds of the ship’s crew embarked from the HMAS Tattoo on an adjacent cutter and headed to shore to join the revolutionary mobs...

In the days following the sailor’s desertion of the Tattoo the were not idle. Their numbers were boosted by other discontented naval personnel and their leaders contacted Union representatives. The sailors were soon armed and they also raided the decommissioned cruiser HMAS Brisbane and decamped with a 3-pounder gun and a supply of ammunition. The engineers amongst them quickly converted a Crossley truck into a mobile artillery platform using the 3-pounder at abandon warehouses in Sydney's Naval Dockyards. This awesome piece of kit made the so called Revolutionary Guard Naval Battalion (all 168 of them) the shock force of the Union led factions. This was despite the sailors having no training in the role of foot soldiers and their Crossley Artillery Truck being slow and mechanically unreliable! 

It would not long before the members of the Revolutionary Guard Naval Battalion and there Crossley Artillery Truck were to see action...

Building the Crossley Artillery Truck

Another Crossley from the Model of Yesteryear range was the basis for this conversion. The tray load was unclipped and two rear platforms were made from 1mm sheet styrene one with armoured sides up the other with them deployed. Then a single turret was built from the same 1mm plastic and bits and pieces from the spare parts box were used to create the mounting and the 3-pounder gun.

Just like most these conversions this update is ‘reversible’ and the vehicles can be put back to their original state!

The conversion parts assembled...

Turret test fitted...

All painted up (battleship grey of course!) and tested again...

Crewed up and ready for action!

I love building this sort of kit, you can just let your mind go wild and stretch the boundaries of reality! Hope you like this 'beast'!