The Colonel's Armoured Staff Car - The Great Antipodean Adventure

May 31st 1932 the New Guards freshly appointed Colonel Barty Philpot took possession of his newly armoured staff car. A few days earlier he had his 'man' deliver his personnel transport, a magnificent Hispano-Suiza J12 to the Randwick Tramways Workshops to be armoured for use as his personal transport through the strife ravaged streets of Sydney! An all welded armoured box was custom built and could be lowered onto the existing J12 body and lifted off when required. The armour was deemed bullet proof and was painted in a rich green to match the coachwork. The design of the fighting compartment included port hole windows with armoured shutters for viewing, a single large armoured door, it retained access to the boot space and a Vickers MG was fitted to the roof with an armoured shield. Even with all the extra weight the J12's 250HP V12 engine could still deliver a top speed over and above that of any other vehicle that it could be expect to encounter.

A proud Colonel Philpot with his New Guard Batman view his new Armoured staff car outside of his Bellevue Hill property...

For a few bucks each the Matchbox Models of Yesteryear are a good source of 1/56ish vehicles! Here's Colonel Philpot with his Hispano-Suiza J2...

Here's the armoured box made from 0.5mm and 1.0mm sheet styrene, washers, wire, toothbrush head coloured ring and a Vickers from my spare parts box (can't remember the maker)...

The armoured box test fitted...

Paint applied...

..and placed on the car.

I picked up several Models of Yesteryear vehicles in couple of deals recently and adding them to what I have now have more than enough motor transport for the Great Antipodean Adventure....interestingly the most recent deal had three cars and a Medium Mark C Hornet tank, might need to try and fit that in somehow! Below are the latest purchases...