Landships II

I think it would be possible to back-date a Whippet kit to its original prototype form. I'm not a modeller, merely an avid WWI Tank fan, but I think this would be possible.

Here is an excerpt from a book of mine, describing the changes one would need to do to make a 'First Whippet'.

"The Oldbury demonstration appears to have been the vehicles only "official" appearance with the revolving Austin turret as originally designed. The only record remaining of the Tritton Chaser in its original form is the drawing in the official programme which does not show the Lewis gun in situ.

Several changes had been made in the design, of which the most important was the elimination of the turret in favour of a fixed superstructure, the prototype being altered accordingly. The main reason for this was to simplify production. As originally built the Tritton Chaser had its turret on the left side of the rear super-structure with the driving position to its right with a "stepped" front face forming the drivers lookout. As modified, the left-hand superstructure was built up to match the height of the driving cab and a ball-mounted Hotchkiss machine-gun was fitted in each face of the superstructure thus giving what amounted to an all-round
field of fire as would have been obtained with the turret. In the prototype, the Hotchkiss guns and their mounts were not actually fitted though their positions were marked out. A further change in the prototype was the re-sitting of the external fuel tank from between the rear horns to between the front horns. As originally concieved the fuel tank was rear mounted to give a modicum of protection from small arms fire. Why it was moved does not appear to be recorded but it was almost certainly because its original position obscured access to the transmission units through the chassis backplate. Once moved forward it was neccesary to provide an armoured cover for the now prominently exposed fuel tank, though the prototype never had such a feature."

So, all one would have to do is modify a whippet kit so that the frame and running gear looked like it does in the pictures of the prototype, but then dice up the port side superstructure and rig up an Austin turret from a same-scale Austin model. It would be possible!! There are enough reference pictures and information to do it. I just thought that would be an interesting project for someone. In the third pic, the join in the superstructure isn't exactly obvious. If you resize the image, and make it a lot smaller, the seam becomes more apparent. Count up 6 rivets from the bottom of the crew compartment, and it is right above the 6th rivet.





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