Police ARV (Armed Response Vehicle)

[Tim_w]

Hello Everyone,

Its been a while since I last posted on the forum but various commitments outside the world of Playmobil have distracted me over the last few months. I have also been suffering from creative block, which usually happens through the summer months. Anyway with winter around the corner and a very large DS order that was kindly sorted out for me by Gordon my interest has returned. I decided to put the rescue theme to one side temporarily and concentrate on my seriously neglected Police force. The first thing on the top of my list was the subject of Armed Response. Unfortunately due to the small police force crime has started to rise in our Playmobil city and armed incidents have increased.
If gun's or the use of gun's by trained individuals for use in the fight against crime (of any nature) offends you please do not read any further.

Armed Response In General:

The Police in the UK do not routinely carry fire arms and as a result rely on ARV's or Armed Response Vehicles with highly trained firearms officers. These officers respond to any firearms incident and if necessary deploy their gun's, only firing them on extremely rare occasions. The armed response vehicle is usually a large saloon or estate. It is usually heavily modified with bullet proof panels and glass. One of the main features is a gun safe, either between the seat's, in the back passenger compartment or in the boot. The safe is very heavy and contains the guns and ammunition, the weight of the safe and bullet proofing usually makes the back of the car sit low to the ground. As well as guns the vehicle carries a lot of other equipment, including: fire extinguisher, ballistic blanket, first aid kit's, torches, forced entry equipment and radio's.
All fire arms officers are bound by law to only fire their weapons in dire circumstances and after severe warning's. When someone has been either shot and wounded or killed the officer is taken off duty and a criminal investigation is started as routine. Some leeway is given due to the unique circumstances firearms officers are faced with and most occasions no criminal action is taken. Once the investigation has come to an end the officer is returned to their previous duties.


Playmo City's Pretend Take On Gun Crime:

Luckily for the citizens of Playmo City the criminal justice system is more forgiving and if a firearms officer has a justified reason to shoot an armed criminal, no criminal investigation is filed. Instead our police force will remove the officer from firearms duty temporarily and carry out a routine investigation into the incident. The focus of the investigation will be to find out if anything went wrong and to improve response to future incidents. As soon as the investigation is over the officer is returned to normal firearms duties.

The Playmobil Armed Response Vehicle:

This is the only Police car I have in the black and white colour scheme and seeing as it is quite special and different to the rest I decided to use it as my ARV. The first thing I did was change the lights for the new style high intensity LED's, a trait that will continue on future ARV's. Then I added some blue sticker's on the front bumper to represent 'repeaters'. In real life these are small blue flashing lights that add to the overall visibility of the vehicle. Side repeaters are especially usefull when it is crossing junctions, as it makes the front of the car easier to see. I like these stickers, because in a way it reminds me of how Playmobil used to do things. A lot of the lights on old sets used to be stickers. I have added a safe between the seats for the hand gun's but the main safe will be in the boot. This is something the technicians are working on at the moment. The safe in the boot is going to be where the bigger guns and ammunition are kept. The car in itself hasn't really been customised, but the guns have and I guess this is the main reason for the thread.


A picture of the ARV clearly showing the front and side repeaters. I would really like to get some flashing lights but my electronics skill's are practically none existent. That aside this vehicle is very difficult to get apart !


A nice shot of the new flashing light unit. These are a lot brighter than the old versions and flash on and off for a lot longer. The yellow circle on the side of the roof is for specialist identification purposes.


The range of equipment carried is clearly evident in this picture. The white case on the back seat is a small gun case for the hand gun's. Each officer has a pair of hand cuff's, batton, personal radio and a torch (large and small). There is also forced entry equipment in the form of a crow bar and sledge hammer and a loud speaker for public address. I plan on adding the first aid kit and fire extinguisher at a later date. The first aid kit is specially tailored for dealing with gunshot wound's.


I have been lucky enough to witness the efficiency of armed police in real life and I must say they are very efficient. In this picture the officers have jumped out of the car and drawn their hand gun's. The female officer takes cover behind the front wing and the driver would be behind his door. Unfortunately we can't replicate this sort of action with Playmobil






Two members of the team show off their latest weapon in the fight against armed crime.




This is the new gun, developed specifically for our Police force and its the latest piece of kit. It has a 10 round magazine and can be fired in three different firing modes, 5 round burst, single shot or fully automatic.


A close up of the weapon on the bonnet of the car, clearly showing the new features.


Here is another new weapon, this time its a pump action shotgun. It is capable of firing 6 cartridges, one after the other. Each cartridge is loaded into the chamber by pumping the handle under the barrel. Pull the trigger and the gun fires, pump the handle again and another round is loaded ready for firing again. These are mainly used for entry purposes and are not part of this particular vehicles equipment load out.


Finally here is the new sniper rifle. This would be used by Police marksmen in hostage situations. It has a 10 round magazine and a large scope. Allthough it has 10 rounds in the magazine it is only capable of firing one after the other or in other words single shot. Simply pull the trigger and it fires a round, the second round being loaded into the chamber ready for firing, pull the trigger again and the second round fires.

I hope you have found this interesting. It was a little more long winded than I first intended but it is an interesting subject with lots of important pieces of information that needed explaining. I plan on revealing a few more of my latest projects in the next few months, so in the meantime stay tuned.

Tim 

[playmovictorian]

Nice to see you around Tim 

Very nice pictures and analysis  !!!

Karim

[Bill Blackhurst]

Excellent custom firearms, Tim ! Very realistic creations, well done  ! I may need to get part numbers, & instructions to provide my PCPD with this type of fire power if you don't mind! Excellent equipped response vehicle, also !

[Rasputin]

Great new weapons your team has Tim. I too would like to outfit the swat team with some newer choices of firearms .

In the states we call the gun that fires one at a time but automatically is a "semiautomatic" and if you squeeze the trigger and it just lets all the rounds out a "fullyautomatic"


PS: one word of advice for the safety of the occupants . That big heavy metal pry bar & sledge hammer should probable go in the boot just in case of a rollover 

[playmofire]

Thanks for the very detailed and informative introduction, Tim.  The new ARV has, as always, been well thought out and the new weapons are excellent customs.  Look forward to seeing more.

[peetje]

Nice work Tim.
I like your weapons a lot.
Very cool custom.

Peter

[Martin Milner]

Very nice design and descriptions Tim. The black uniforms make a very smart Armed Response team.

I'm suprised that the assault rifle would have only a 10 round clip, but fire a 5 round burst. It's more common to have a 30 round clip and 3 rounds in a burst - more than that and recoil has dragged the aim off target anyway. 

e.g. The gun's recoil will affect the aim. The guns are kept in the gun safe.

[Little Jo]

Cool guns and very detailed and helpful background information. 

[Tim_w]

Hello Karim,

Thank you very much indeed for the kind feedback . I am glad you enjoyed looking at the pictures. I hope I was able to clearly explain the background information that goes with the pictures. Its quite a complicated subject when you get down to it, I know more about the fire and rescue theme than police.

Tim 

Hello Bill,

Thank you very much indeed for your kind reply. I am glad you liked the new gun's, they were quite easy to make. I think both you and Ras will be surprised when you see the bits and pieces I used to make them. I will try and get round to posting a thread in the Advanced How To section.

Tim 

Hello Ras,

You description of the weapon is spot on. The same terms are used here as well, it just depends who is talking about the gun's . I must admit that I don't know much about guns and to tell you the truth I spent a while this afternoon trying to get my head around what I was trying to say .
I took your advice on the safety aspect of the equipment stowage and made some modifications this afternoon. I couldn't put anything in the boot because that is where the gun safe is for the large gun's. As a result I made some permanent modifications to the rear passenger compartment and everything is safe and secure now. This car is not designed to take passengers so any changes made won't effect the vehicles practicality. I have a few updated pictures for you to look at when I get a chance to post them. 
On a final note I have taken a few pictures to show you and Bill how I made the guns. When I get chance I will post it in the advanced section of the 'How To Forum'.

Tim

Hello Gordon,

Thank you very much for your reply. I am glad you found the information interesting. I must admit I was slightly out of my depth with that one, but I think it came good in the end. I am sure there are a few error's, but it is correct to the best of my knowledge. When I made the list for my DS order I hadn't thought of any of these custom's. They came to me while I was looking at all the bits and pieces and wondering what to do with them. The bank notes were meant to be for my armed robbers to play with

Tim 

Hello Peetje

Thank you very much indeed for your kind reply. I am glad you enjoyed looking at my latest custom's.

Tim 

Hello Little Jo,

Thank you very much indeed for the kind reply. I will post a 'How To' thread in the advanced section of the forum within the next few day's. I have a strange feeling I am not the first person to use this technique though, I am sure I have seen it somewhere else before 

Tim 

[baden-wurttemberg]

Thats awesome tim.great work