The book about Operation Banner has said that the Irish themselves got tried of the Ulster war by the 1990’s and violence decreased. I was thinking of depicting the unarmored Hobby Boss Land Rover Defender in Northern Ireland, if such were used. The kit itself shows Gulf War markings only though.
In what role … the wolf would have to be back dated to represent a 110 . The threat remained and armoured vehicles vehicles stayed in use …
British army Land Rovers used in NI were never heavily armoured. The “Snatch” version of the 110 introduced in1992 had composite armour but offered little protection to crews. Police Land Rovers on the other hand became more heavily armoured over the years, and the “Tangi” version currently in use is a very well protected vehicle. The most obvious concession made by the army to decreasing levels of violence in the 1990 was that troops stopped wearing helmets when on patrol.
I still remember them wearing helmets well into the 90s. In fact, when I was a child, on one nice summers day in a local park where families were having picnics on the grass and playing about a patrol walked through in full kit, helmets and all. Seeing a patrol like this was common at the time. They had a Gazelle overhead too, though it was rare the day at least one was not hovering over Belfast. Personally, I don’t remember seeing troops without helmets until some time after the Good Friday Agreement in 1997. Even then I believe it was role and situation dependent- for example- during the ‘Holy Cross Primary School incident’ (2001-2) soldiers were seen both wearing helmets (along with riot gear) while those not on riot duty were wearing Berets.
I should also mention that I think most of the old ‘Tangi’ fleet has been retired in PSNI service. There may be a few still about but they were replaced around 2012 by the ‘Pangolin’ and ‘Penman’ variants.
Stopped wearing helmets except when on riot duty early 80s helmets were then re introduced when the new helmets were issued but that was an army wide policy and not just NI.
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You are correct of course. I meant to say “decreasing levels of violence in the 1990s” meaning by late 90s helmets were not supposed be worn for normal patrolling. Also true that Tangi has been replaced by Pangolin and Penman (although to my eye they don’t look much different).
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all the territorial army units, had normal military kit to deploy with on exercise and Gulf deployments, prior to the peace process, it would have been 109 land rovers as 110 came much later,
Can you tell me where the figures came from.
Oh now that is cool looking! How was the kit in terms of detail and fit? Great looking job on the livery- nice to see the rust on some parts too!