S-Model

Daimler Dingo Mk.Ia Scout Car

Preliminary note:

For a construction review by Al Magnus, see here.

A technical description can be found here.

For my kit I based myself on pictures found on the Beutepanzer website and added the Dan Taylor interior set.

Picture from Beutepanzer website, for illustration purposes only.

The kit

The kit represents a Dingo Mk Ia, which mainly differs from the Mk Ib and the Mk II in the radiator area, as shown in the instructions of the Dan Taylor set.
It differs from the Mk I that I wanted to build in the roof mechanism.

• A picture of a radiator of a Mk I can be found on page 5 of the technical description mentioned earlier.
• A picture of radiator of a Mk II can be found here.
  

Construction

The S-Model kit has been wel described by Al. Worthy of note is that in my kit the plastic parts were prone to cracking, for instance in the radiator area and at the walls of the fighting compartment.

The Dan Taylor parts had quite a few air bubbles that needed filling in, for which I used stretched sprue of varying thickness.

I admit having been very sloppy with my planning. For instance, I started filling in the box on the front fender, before I decided to go for the vehicle shown above, which lacks this item.
As there are two kits in the box, this is not all lost as I can use it when building the other kit.

Having removed the front fenders, I started scratch-building the Vorpanzer (spaced armor on the nose) seen in the pictures.

Only after having painted and weathered the kit did I add the wheels, when my sloppy planning came to bite me: the wheels touched the fenders. Changing the angles required some substantial work, which in the end made me strip all the paint and start over.

Having finished the kit a second time, I discovered that this vehicle didn't have the tubular support for the sliding roof, which is apparently a feature of a Dingo Mk.Ia.
Off went my scratchbuilt support and, with that, the paint, once more.

Some other remarks:

• Take note that the steering wheel is angled
• When placing the visors in the Dan Taylor set, the plastic around the visors should be thinned down to scale.
• I have no idea if the triangular protrusions on the rear fenders (that, I assume, represents lights) are correct for this vehicle. Anyway, S-Model only gives you a very basic structure.
• Having added rivets from Archer Fine Transfers to the Vorpanzer, I should probably also have added them to the front fenders (or at least one of them).
  
  

Decals

The decals came from the spares box. I can't remember where each one came from, but the Balkenkreuze came from one of my ICM Sd.Kfz.222 kits (which is a great source of spare decals) and the licence plates were from JK Resin, which contains individual numbers, allowing me to copy the real licence plate.

Diorama

The vehicle ended up in a diorama, where I used the DioHistory barn, figures from Scale75 and a dog from Stenfalk.
The signpost is an old Esci/Italeri item.

Conclusion

Due to my own bad planning (and the cracking of the plastic parts), this little kit gave me quite a headache, but, in the end, the result was quite satisfying.
The Dan Taylor interior set is almost a must for this kit, as otherwise the only way the kit can convincingly be built, is all buttoned-up.

Conversion to Mk.II

Below are some pictures of Danilo Carli's scratchbuilt conversion of this kit to a Mk.II.

References

Review sample purchased by the author.

S-Model kits can be purchased from

Article Last Updated:
30 December 2021
02 April 2022