Modeling projects sometimes have long gestation periods, but Tom Faiths Bedford QL gun portee may hold a record. He first encountered the old Peerless kit in a modeling magazine review in the late 1970s. Although the reviewer said the kit was difficult to build, Tom was fascinated by the high profile of the truck and the detailing opportunities offered by the large, open bed. He acquired one of the kits and left it on a shelf - for 20 years. The 1/35 scale Peerless kit was one of the few plastic models of any Bedford truck. Manufactured by Vauxhall Motors (a division of General Motors since the 1920s), the full-size vehicles were hardly glamorous, but they served in a variety of workhorse roles for the British army from World War II until the 1980s. The "gun portee" (carrier) variant of the WWII-era QL truck was a stopgap antitank gun transporter used in North Africa. By the late-1990s, Toms modeling skills had advanced, and he was ready to tackle the Bedford. In the end, he used the kit mostly as a set of templates; the only original Peerless parts in the finished model are the frame and the wheels! Tom replaced everything else with scratchbuilt parts made from brass and styrene stock.
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