Dan Taylor Modelworks

Corps

Reconnaissance Units

NW Europe 1944

After having made my British armoured cars, I had to find a dedicated decal set for the Normandy campaign, while my vehicles waited unpainted. Recently Dan Taylor released what I needed and kindly he sent me a sample to review. As explained in the instructions, it is dedicated to the four British Armoured Car Regiments which served in Normandy. It has colour profiles and a useful scheme for the TO&E of the Armoured Car Regiments, anyway based on a interesting article found on www.warwheels.net. For the Normandy campaign, it perfectly fits only for the 2nd Household Cavalry Regt and the Inns of Court because the 11th Hussars and the 1st Royal Dragoons (indicated in the instruction as King’s Dragoon Guards, which was another unit) had the M3 halftrack 75mm GMC instead of the AEC Mk III. Other, very useful, information can be found on www.daimler-fighting-vehicles.co.uk. As stated in the instructions, the photographic sources about the British Armoured Car Regiments in Normandy seems to be unfortunately poor and effectively I found very few photos about them.

The set gives us eight badges for each Corps. Considering the images I’ve seen, these badges were definitely used in Normandy by the Inns of Court (1st Corps), but sadly I don’t have any useful photos about the other Regiments during this period, but photos taken during Market Garden of the 2nd Household Cavalry vehicles clearly show the use of 8th Corps badge.
Pictures taken in 1945 show the 1st Royal Dragoons' vehicles sporting the 12th Corps badge and the regimental badge (an eagle). It was also a common practice that, when the other three Armoured Car Regiments were attached to the Armoured Divisions, after some time their badges replaced the Corps ones: 7th AD for the 11th Hussars and the Guards AD for the 2nd Household Cavalry. Unfortunately I’ve got not photos of Inns of Court vehicles with the 11th AD badge.

The eighteen AoS badges have the number “44” smartly printed separately from the background colours. Concerning these colours, I’ve seen different shades of blue in other sets with the AoS number “41” of the Recce Regiments or the number “45” of the Armoured Recce Regiments. Sometimes brighter, sometimes lighter or sometime darker. Honestly I don’t know which colour is the most correct, so the shade suggested here could be right as well as the others. Anyway if someone prefers a different shade of blue this is easily replaceable with a piece of decal cut out from other markings (I’ll use the colour suggested by the set). When the Armoured Car Regiments were attached to the Armoured Divisions, the AoS numbers didn’t have the white bar above them.

For each squadron you get three tactical signs (which could be a little few, being sufficient for only four vehicles). They don’t have the troop number, but this is not a problem because these could be taken from the bonus WD numbers. The colour is correctly white. In some photos of the Inns of Court the tactical signs is darker (don’t ask me which colour it was). On the Daimler AC and SC of the 11th Hussars carrying the later 7th AD badge, there was what looks to be a unique markings variant: a plain dark tactical sign (a triangle or a square or a circle or a half circle) on a light rectangular background. Unfortunately, again I’ve no idea about their colours.
The instructions suggest some kits in 1/76 scale and 1/72 scale. However, let me point that the 1/72 Hasegawa Daimler AC depicts a later Mk II, not an Mk I (for the conversion see here
and the S-Model Daimler SC depict an Mk I which, as far as I know, was not deployed in Normandy (but I can confirm it can be converted in an Mk II with some working, having done it myself).

The instructions propose nine vehicles and four bonus WD number, on which I'll comment next :

Daimler AC

Note : The drawings depict the Mk II which, as far as I’ve found, was produced by September 1944, too late for Normandy.

F207825, 2nd Household Cavalry “BEAUFORT”

Being an Mk I, it is correctly depicted.

F208565, Inns of Court

I didn’t find the photo, but in the MAFVA list this particular WD number is in a Mk II batch.
If correctly depicted it should be photographed in a later campaign or alternatively, it could be a misinterpreted Mk I WD number.
Other Inns of Court Daimler AC in Normandy had similar markings, showing the 1st Corps badge on the left mudguard. Furthermore they often had crudely painted white stars.

No WD number, 11th Hussars and no WD number, King’s Dragoon

I didn’t find their photos, but both look OK.

Bonus WD numbers:

F117532 and F208104, both correct for a Mk I

Daimler SC

No WD number, Inns of Court and no WD number, 11th Hussars, I didn’t find their photos but this one looks OK.

F225434 2nd Household Cavalry “HERCULES”, LtCol H.A. Smith.

In the photo I’ve seen, the WD number is F225546. The AoS is in the inner side of the mudguard above a circle which I think is the bridge class just outlined and the right mudguard is hidden by the some people. The gun doesn’t have the external mantlet. As far as I’ve seen, the suggested WD number F225434 was a Manitoba Regiment Staghound. The numbers to correct this WD can be taken from another serial in this set.

F214287 Inns of Court

I didn’t find its photo. The WD number is listed for a T18 Boarhound AC (F214282-F214437) on the MAFVA site, a vehicle which, as far as I know, never saw any front line use.
I suppose the WD number could have been misinterpreted in the photo used as source (the original should be in the F214038-F214281 batch). Besides this, it looks likely.

Bonus WD number:

F214038, correct for a Staghound AC.

Z4955338, Inns of Court.

In the photo I’ve seen, it is still without any markings except for the WD number wearing a broad band camouflage scheme. The other markings depicted correspond to a quite well known photo (IWM B8148), printed also on the instruction, where the vehicle is in overall SCC2 or SCC15, the C squadron circle only being outlined.

Bonus WD number:

Z4955321, correct for a M3A1 White SC.

Conclusions

Although I found some points in the instructions which need some adjustment, they can be easily corrected.

I like this set but I think it needs just some more tactical signs and some Royal Dragoons eagle badge. Actually available 1/72 kits generally don’t have specific Normandy markings and whatever kit you wish to depict in NWE (Hasegawa Daimler AC, RPM Staghound AC, Italeri M3 SC…) it will need this set. To complete the 1/72 troops, the M3 75mm Halftrack is available in the Italeri catalogue. An interesting vehicle to depict with this set would be the turret less Daimler AC Mk I, used by the Inns of Court which, at this moment, can only be obtained in 1/72 through conversion.

I’ve found this set very useful because it can also be used for other vehicles under the Corps control or for later NWE campaigns, such as Market Garden. Replacing the Corps badge and cutting off the white band makes them correct for the last months of war. However, the 1st Royal Dragoons badges, being not attached to a division, should remain unchanged until the end of war.
Highly recommended.

Thanks to Dan Taylor for the sample provided

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Article Last Updated: 01 April 2017