# 1/35 Tamiya Austin 10 "Tilly"



## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Research can be key when you're doing a specific vehicle. I'm currently doing a model of the Austin Tilly the Queen of England trained on in WWII. In February of 1945, Princess Elizabeth, the heir to King George VI, joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a vehicle mechanic and ambulance driver. In March of that year, while Second Subaltern (equivalent to Second Lieutenant) HRH Princess Elizabeth was training at the Mechanical Transport Training Section, Camberley, Surrey, the King and Queen and Princess Margaret came to visit. A series of pictures were taken of the future monarch being inspected by the Royal Family. They belonged to Peggy Hinchcliffe, who was training alongside Princess Elizabeth when the Royal Family made their visit. The images clearly show the Princess in work coveralls with a uniform cap and a single rank pip on her shoulders demonstrating her training. They also show a wealth of details of the specific vehicle. It was an Austin 10HP Light Utility Car, known fondly as the "Tilly" (short for utility) to those in uniform. Tamiya brought out a beautiful model of this vehicle in 2010, and it actually includes markings for the specific Tilly the Princess is shown with, though nowhere in the kit does it make reference to this fact. This gave me a lot of information for duplicating the iconic image of the Princess leaning against the grille of the Tilly. As shown, the vehicle had both drivers' and passenger's windows rolled down. 

Specific to that particular truck are the following items: 
Driver's side (right-hand) headlight is missing, though the mounting is there.
Passenger's side (left-hand) headlight has been replaced with a Universal Carrier blackout headlight.
Driver's side fender mounts a mirror from a Universal Carrier.
Passenger's side fender has a post for an absent mirror.
Vehicle has the optional hubcaps, seen in an image of Elizabeth demonstrating changing a tire.
Canvas tilt has a prominent flap on the forward top, visible in the pics but indistinct on the model.
Grille has a khaki canvas cover in the stowed position with a piece of 1/2" rope wrapped around the missing headlight's mounting post.
The images show the windscreen surround being the dark green body colour rather than the black called for in the instructions.

I had to decide on some of the kit's options for details not visible in the photos:
I used the metal tailgate rather than the wooden one, as this is a very late-War image.
I placed the rear seats in the stowed position.
I'm painting the mechanical turn signal the optional scheme of white with a prominent red tip, as the vehicle is used in and around the London area.
I'm painting the vehicle Dark Green XF-61 with no camouflage, the canvas tilt and grille cover Khaki Drab XF-51, drybrushed Khaki XF-49, with burnt sienna seats to depict red-brown leather as directed in the insructions.
I'm adding the black/wite checkerboard and the black square decals to the tailgate.

For the figure, I took a Riich figure of Pamela Churchill (the PM's daughter-in-law and aide) and repositioned it to match the pose in the historical picture. The breast pockets were removed from her battledress tunic and the open shirt-collar removed to be replaced by some Aves Apoxie Sculpt to depict the buttoned shirt collar and service necktie. Likewise the bloused trousers were trimmed down and untucked coverall legs built up with Aves. Finally, I trimmed off the top of the figures head and added a Dragon US cap with the top trimmed and a pad of Aves on the top to depict the women's service cap. Pamela's hair was slightly longer than the Princess's, but it was the same style so I left it as is. The coveralls are painted khaki with sky used for the uniform shirt collar and khaki drab for the tie and cap. The insignia on the cap is a dark brown dot to depict patinaed bronze and the single pips on the shoulders are tiny white dots of white. These were not worn on shoulder straps but affixed directly to the coverall shoulders. Finally, the boots/shoes are burnt sienna.

The base is an award plaque covered in white 100-C sandpaper, with a ground sheet of cloth medical tape with plastic electrical tape edges. A small Italeri vehicle jack and a tool box from the Universal Carrier complete the scene from Mrs. Hinchcliffe's photo.

I'm in the process of putting the finishing touches on the model for our "Anything British" competition a the IPMS Ottawa meeting nest Wednesday. I'll post a series of images, but for now, the original and the kit boxes and decals.


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

Looking forward to the completed photos.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Just finishing the detail painting. I'll have photos late next week. This has been a very satisfying project. The Tamiya Tilly is an excellent kit and I really enjoyed building it. I'm also building a second one, this one as a Salvation Army canteen truck as seen in the London Blitz and will be donating it to the Salvation Army here in Ottawa.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Pix of the Tilly with Princess Elizabeth. 


















Image credits: Dr. John Clearwater, IPMS Ottawa.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Brilliant!


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

Turned out nice!!!!


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

Nicely done.


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

A wonderful hit of history I have never heard of before- it is amazing they produced a kit in honor of that event!
Great build!


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Thanks for the kind comments, guys. I'm very happy with the way it came out. I like the fact that Tamiya included the decals, but I'm surprised that they didn't mention it in the instructions. Still, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth. At the monthly meeting and club contest, it took a 2nd place ribbon, and I'm hoping it'll do well at CapCon on the 30th.


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