Benbros TV Series & Mighty Midgets
No.12 Scout Car
No.12 Scout Car was the first of four Army vehicles in the Benbros TV Series, the others being No.13 Austin Champ, No.14 Tank, and No.23 Field Gun. These were the only models of actual military vehicles which Benbros added to the range, the later army additions being repainted versions of earlier non-military models.
Sometimes the casting standard of Benbros small scale models was indifferent but with the Scout Car it was impressively accurate with the two halves being rivetted together very cleanly. The total length was 62mm. The result was a neat model of the real vehicle, believed to be the Daimler Dingo.
On the underside 'Benbros' and 'Made in England' were included and on the early models there was a neat hole in the right-hand seat for the separate driver. The wheels were large metal on round-head and crimped axles and as it was a military vehicle, the entire model including the driver was painted one colour which was a glossy olive-green for the first TV Series issue.
When the Mighty Midget boxes were introduced, Benbros changed the colour to a matt Army-green. The separate driver continued and was painted the same colour as the entire model.
Later, Benbros introduced a bright green colour to many of the military models and the Scout Car was one of them. This also had a separate driver which was painted the same colour.
The final variation saw a minor re-casting which eliminated the separate driver and included a cast-in version sitting in the driver's seat. The colour returned to dark-green and as before, the entire model was painted including the wheels and driver.
The olive-green variation 1 was sold in a TV Series box with a large number (TV3). It was also probably sold in the first of the Mighty Midget boxes but all later models had MM boxes.
Finding the Scout Car is not too hard but the late model with cast-in driver is quite scarce and the bright-green model is very rare.
Variation 1 : Olive-green, separate driver, TV3 box
Benbros No.12 Scout Car
Variations
(1) Glossy OLIVE-GREEN, separate driver, TV3/MM box
(2) Matt DARK-GREEN, separate driver, MM box
(3) Bright GREEN, separate driver, MM box
(4) Matt or glossy DARK-GREEN, cast-in driver, MM box
Variation 2 : Matt dark-green including driver
Variation 3: Bright green including driver
Variation 4 : Matt dark-green, cast-in driver, MM box
Front view : separate driver & cast-in driver
Rear view : olive-green & matt dark-green
Contrasting bases, with & without driver hole