Revell Land Rover Series 3 109 inch

[Junkman]

The Series III Land Rover is the most common Series type, with over half a million units built from 1971 to 1985, and this figure only includes the ones built by Rover themselves.
They were made by numerous companies under licence or from CKD kits, most of them probably by Santana in Spain, all of which are LHD without exception.
They were immensely popular all over the World and a realistic RHD-LHD proportion estimate would be around 60-40.
It shouldn't be too difficult to backdate the model to a Series IIA, even a Series II, but backdating it to a Series I would be so involved that it borders scratchbuilding.

I'd be tempted to make mine into the Series II Maltese police one from the 1970 film 'Eyewitness'.

 

And then an LHD as used by the German mountain rescue.

Some of those were brought to areas in the Alps inaccessible for vehicles by disassembling, carrying the components up,
and reassembling them up there. When I was a young lad, I volunteered in one of those endeavours, having been an avid skier at the time.
There is thus hardly a Series III piece I haven't held in my hands.
Nowadays they simply helicopter them up, but where is the romance in that?

 

The kit will open so many possibilities, including shortening it to an 88"er, but making it into a Series I is way beyond the scope of my abilities.

 

 

[beeRS]

Thanks for sharing this one Geoff. Its been a while since I saw something that I REALLY want to put on my must-have list.

[Atmobil]

4 hours ago, Junkman said:

The Series III Land Rover is the most common Series type, with over half a million units built from 1971 to 1985, and this figure only includes the ones built by Rover themselves.
They were made by numerous companies under licence or from CKD kits, most of them probably by Santana in Spain, all of which are LHD without exception.
They were immensely popular all over the World and a realistic RHD-LHD proportion estimate would be around 60-40.
It shouldn't be too difficult to backdate the model to a Series IIA, even a Series II, but backdating it to a Series I would be so involved that it borders scratchbuilding.

I'd be tempted to make mine into the Series II Maltese police one from the 1970 film 'Eyewitness'.

 

And then an LHD as used by the German mountain rescue.

Some of those were brought to areas in the Alps inaccessible for vehicles by disassembling, carrying the components up,
and reassembling them up there. When I was a young lad, I volunteered in one of those endeavours, having been an avid skier at the time.
There is thus hardly a Series III piece I haven't held in my hands.
Nowadays they simply helicopter them up, but where is the romance in that?

 

The kit will open so many possibilities, including shortening it to an 88"er, but making it into a Series I is way beyond the scope of my abilities.

 

 

Sounds like a lot of work carrying all the bits up the mountain. Must have been a really cool group effort.
As I have already mentioned, I think it will be fun to compare this with the old Esci (now Italeri) series 2 two door. Italeri is reissuing that kit aswell soon so if only someone would find the tooling for the Monogram kit and get that out. Then we could have a great Land Rover mash up

[Atmobil]

At the risk of bombing the thread with stuff I will share this:

 

One can sit here all night and look at Land Rover videos on youtube

[Rob Hall]

Lots of opportunities to scratch build variations, or for resin casters...

I like the pickups, some seem to have a separate bed and some integrated w/ the cab.   Or how about the funky tracked one? 

[CabDriver]

...or give it an 18 inch or so drop ?

 

[Stef]

1 hour ago, CabDriver said:

...or give it an 18 inch or so drop ?

 

CONSIDER IT DONE:

> Must.

> Have.

> This kit.

[GeeBee]

12 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

Lots of opportunities to scratch build variations, or for resin casters...

I like the pickups, some seem to have a separate bed and some integrated w/ the cab.   Or how about the funky tracked one? 

 

That's the High capacity pick up fitted to the 109" chassis, it offered 25% extra load capacity than the standard pick up model.

[Luc Janssens]

The pics of this test shot are promising, cuz at the time of the announcement I feared a lot of simplification and design short cuts a la Panamera.

It looks like the bean counters were convinced by R&D crew that the current hobby market doesn't accept mediocre kits anymore and that short term profit is long term disaster.

Looking forward to its release, but not to the season.

 

Here also an interesting later model variation, which to me is smoking hot!

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Luc Janssens

[Junkman]

16 hours ago, Atmobil said:

Sounds like a lot of work carrying all the bits up the mountain. Must have been a really cool group effort.
As I have already mentioned, I think it will be fun to compare this with the old Esci (now Italeri) series 2 two door. Italeri is reissuing that kit aswell soon so if only someone would find the tooling for the Monogram kit and get that out. Then we could have a great Land Rover mash up

It was epic, especially the feeling of achievement when we hooned it around up there.

The ESCI is a Series III as well, or at least a very similar IIA.

 

It's a very simple curbside, but builds into an attractive model nonetheless.
But with the release of the Revell, it's had it IMO. What could you possibly do with it you can't do better with the Revell?

[Rob Hall]

26 minutes ago, Junkman said:

The ESCI is a Series III as well, or at least a very similar IIA. 

It's a very simple curbside, but builds into an attractive model nonetheless.
But with the release of the Revell, it's had it IMO. What could you possibly do with it you can't do better with the Revell?

With the ESCI/Italeri, you can build a LWB 2dr.  I don't have the ESCI, but like that appearance w/ the soft top.  The Italeri ones only seem to have the hard top w/ the funny side windows.     

Edited August 10, 2019 by Rob Hall

[Junkman]

It shouldn't be too challenging to build a 2dr from the Revell, the front doors are the same on both.
The ESCI/Italeri hardtop is a one piece part (+ glass, of course) you pop on in lieu of the soft top.
For example, to make a roofed pick up, you'll need the front portion of it, where it's sloped.
Looking at the Revell body, it shouldn't be too difficult to make that into a pick up version, too.
 

[Junkman]

2 hours ago, Luc Janssens said:

The pics of this test shot are promising, cuz at the time of the announcement I feared a lot of simplification and design short cuts a la Panamera.

It looks like the bean counters were convinced by R&D crew that the current hobby market doesn't accept mediocre kits anymore and that short term profit is long term disaster.

Looking forward to its release, but not to the season.

 

Here also an interesting later model variation, which to me is smoking hot!

 

The Hongwell would be a cheap and cheerful starting point.

[Tom Geiger]

15 minutes ago, Junkman said:

Looking at the Revell body, it shouldn't be too difficult to make that into a pick up version, too.
 

That would be a good follow up kit for Revell!   I'd love a pickup

[Junkman]

Incidentally I just received this Santana Series III from a Spanish partworks.

 

So I'm definitely trying to backdate the Revell.

[Mike999]

Thanks for posting this.  It's even better than I expected, with an engine AND the left/right hand drive options. Amazing!

The Land Rover with the soft top is the only ESCI kit that Italeri has never re-issued. Which makes me wonder if they lost the mold for the soft top or something.  

Now that I think about it, Italeri seems to be missing several ESCI roofs. A few years ago they re-issued the 1/24 Toyota BJ-44 as an "Armed Pickup," or "technical," with a .50 caliber machine gun.  It was originally issued by ESCI with either a soft top or hard top, like the Land Rover.  That kit body has the doors molded in place and the interior is seriously lacking. Not even a firewall, so it's open from the interior to the grille. No detail on the inner door panels, no pedals, etc.  A roof would at least hide some of that. Or you have to do what I did for an open vehicle, and scratch-build it all.  Except the door panels. I was building a "technical" and just cut the doors off. 

[Atmobil]

3 hours ago, Junkman said:

It was epic, especially the feeling of achievement when we hooned it around up there.

The ESCI is a Series III as well, or at least a very similar IIA.

 

It's a very simple curbside, but builds into an attractive model nonetheless.
But with the release of the Revell, it's had it IMO. What could you possibly do with it you can't do better with the Revell?

Yes, I started to build the Esci (Italeri release) back in 2007/08 but never finished the project. Today, the model is missing parts and has broken in several places:

I want to get my hands on both kits and compare them.

[Matt Bacon]

42 minutes ago, Junkman said:

It shouldn't be too challenging to build a 2dr from the Revell, the front doors are the same on both.
The ESCI/Italeri hardtop is a one piece part (+ glass, of course) you pop on in lieu of the soft top.
For example, to make a roofed pick up, you'll need the front portion of it, where it's sloped.
Looking at the Revell body, it shouldn't be too difficult to make that into a pick up version, too.
 

I was idly contemplating this, to make the cream 88" station wagon we had when I was a teenager. I think the cut n shut needs to be done in several sections:

1) The roof, where you need to bring the very back section to a position immediately behind the oval rooflights, so there's more or less the same solid area in front of and behind them

2) The upper side panels, where you need the rectangular rearmost window section moved forward to replace the rear doors.

3) The lower side panels, where you need to lose the rear doors and shorten the section behind the rear arch, with a steeper slope at the lower edge

4)The chassis, where you need to reduce the wheelbase to 88" instead of 109" wheelbase (22mm). Fortunately there are various brochures online showing "naked" SWB and LWB chassis and drivetrain, so it should be easy enough to figure out where it needs to come from...

Revel kit shouldn't be too expensive, though, so I'm happy to experiment on one!

best,

M.

[Matt T.]

Looks like a nice kit! I’m in for a couple. Hopefully a resin pickup conversion becomes available. 

[Matt Bacon]

I don't think I've ever seen one carrying the spare on the front slope of the roof, as that artwork suggests: bonnet occasionally, and back door regularly, but not on the roof (without an expedition rack, anyway). Especially since that picture seems to show the double skin "hot climate" roof, which our imported from Spain station wagon had. IIRC it was a very lightweight sheet of aluminium supported on fairly thin pillars... not something you'd want to bolt a wheel and tyre onto...

best,

M.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Matt Bacon

[DeTomaso]

Looks very promising.Seperate headlight parts so Series II could be next.

Picture courtesy of UK retailer Jadlams Facebook page.Including wonky tyre

[Luc Janssens]

 

 

 

 

2

On 8/9/2019 at 5:44 PM, Junkman said:

The Series III Land Rover is the most common Series type, with over half a million units built from 1971 to 1985, and this figure only includes the ones built by Rover themselves.
They were made by numerous companies under licence or from CKD kits, most of them probably by Santana in Spain, all of which are LHD without exception.
They were immensely popular all over the World and a realistic RHD-LHD proportion estimate would be around 60-40.
It shouldn't be too difficult to backdate the model to a Series IIA, even a Series II, but backdating it to a Series I would be so involved that it borders scratchbuilding.

I'd be tempted to make mine into the Series II Maltese police one from the 1970 film 'Eyewitness'.

 

 

something odd about this one, the indicators left and right are positioned differently

[GeeBee]

1 hour ago, DeTomaso said:

Looks very promising.Seperate headlight parts so Series II could be next.

Picture courtesy of UK retailer Jadlams Facebook page.Including wonky tyre

I no longer order from them, they seem to think a thin sheet of cardboard wrapped around the box and wrapped in black plastic is enough protection to send a model kit through the post.

[GeeBee]

3 hours ago, Matt Bacon said:

I don't think I've ever seen one carrying the spare on the front slope of the roof, as that artwork suggests: bonnet occasionally, and back door regularly, but not on the roof (without an expedition rack, anyway). Especially since that picture seems to show the double skin "hot climate" roof, which our imported from Spain station wagon had. IIRC it was a very lightweight sheet of aluminium supported on fairly thin pillars... not something you'd want to bolt a wheel and tyre onto...

best,

M.

This is the actual Land Rover used by Revell for the model

[Matt Bacon]

10 minutes ago, GeeBee said:

This is the actual Land Rover used by Revell for the modeL

I’ve seen that photo. But like I say, I’ve never seen one like that in the real world on (or off) the road in the UK in the last 40 years. Ever. It’s certainly not a “common” or “typical” arrangement. And Revell wouldn’t be the first model company to bring to market a kit of what turns out to be a unique or highly unusual prototype or a well-intentioned but inaccurate “restoration.” I’m not disputing that there’s a Land Rover that looks like that, just saying that when I build mine, the spare’s going to be in one of the places that every Landy I’ve ever seen has got it fitted...

beat,

M.