Saturday, 11 May 2019

SAS Desert Raiders (Part 1)


Image used with permission. Copyright DC Thomson


If, like me, you grew up in the UK in the heady days of the 1970’s, I’m sure you will remember those little pocket-sized Commando comics in the local newsagent; the amazing cover artwork and stories of derring-do always inspired my wargames with Airfix soldiers in the garden and almost certainly influenced my early modelling adventures. Fast forward several years and I was pleased to find Commando Comic is still being published, albeit with a more modern price.

What I still love about these, ahem, “graphic novels” was the dynamism of the artwork, Ian Kennedy in particular was a favourite artist of mine and I wanted to try and capture some of his action and imagery in a model project. My attention was drawn to his cover for the Ramsey’s Raiders edition; two jeeps bouncing over the desert landscape, guns blazing. Thus, the idea for this vignette was born.

The Ramsey’s Raiders stories were obviously influenced by the WW2 exploits of the Special Air Service (SAS). Formed by David Stirling in the North African desert in 1941, the SAS started out as a very effective desert raiding force, causing havoc behind enemy lines; even the eventual capture and imprisonment of Stirling did not put a stop to it. Once the war in the desert ended, under the command of Blair “Paddy” Mayne they went on to fight throughout Italy and the Balkans, then through France, Holland and into Germany until the end of the war.



The basis for this project is the Dragon “1/4 ton patrol car”, or jeep to me and you. Dragon released this particular kit in two versions, the standard patrol car 6745 (with a .50 cal mount) and the commander’s car 6724 (with Vickers K guns). The kits are pretty much identical, the plastic contents are the same in both boxings. The only exception, apart from the instructions, is the etch sets are slightly different, 6745 contains parts for the specific .50 cal ammo box mounting. Both kits however, contain all of the armament options and stowage to build either version.

The main reason for using the Dragon kit was that in addition to the standard wheels, these SAS versions come with a really nice set of multi-part radial tread tyres and I wanted to use these for reasons that will become clear later.




The downside is that the Dragon jeeps are quite difficult to obtain, they are comparatively expensive and supposedly awkward to build. Other options would be to use the excellent Tamiya jeep (35219) with one of the aftermarket resin sets. Both Black Dog and Legend Models make conversion sets for the SAS jeep and several manufacturers make replacement “civilian type” wheel sets.


The diminutive size of a jeep model in 1/35th scale would lead you to believe that construction on a project such as this would be a quick affair. For me, nothing could be further from the truth. I find that any softskin project such as this takes an inordinate time to detail compared to say a tank or armoured car. That said, these little projects give us great scope to personalise and add those details that really stand out.

What finally brought this project to fruition was the release of several resin SAS jeep crews by Soga Miniatures. Two of these sets are very animated which is just what I needed, although I modified them slightly, as I will explain.


I knew that it would be the dynamic posing of the vehicles and figures that would make this vignette successful or not, so the first thing to do was to build just enough of the jeep models to be able to work out how the scene would look on a base. I stuck together a few pieces of insulation foam to create an elevated, inclined slope and then went through several iterations of vehicle placement until I finally settled on a layout I was happy with. I wanted the jeeps to be almost jumping from the base, breaking in different directions to try and give the impression of the start of an attack run but in a dynamic, comic book style.


The position of the jeeps is key here; and the angle of the incline would have a direct bearing on the way the stowage should sit. For instance, I found that the resin hanging bags I intended to use didn’t look right, they were hanging at the vertical to the vehicle, not the base. In the end I sculpted my own bags, the advantage being that I could also try and capture that other elusive effect I was trying to replicate. - Movement.

I tried to add several visual tricks to create the illusion of movement and direction; I added loose bag straps, an unsecured tarp, gravity defying personal equipment and a few other little things. This is also where those civilian-type tyres come in. The radial nature of the tread already suggests a visual blur, more so than the standard jeep tyres; to me they look like they are in motion already. Hopefully all of these small visual indicators together help sell the illusion of movement I was looking for.




The detailing of the jeeps was pretty straightforward; I did use several parts from the Legend models set along with various stowage items from Mantis Miniatures and a few scratchbuilt and sculpted items.





One thing you will notice from the photos is my vivid blue strapping material, this is electrical insulation tape. Once the adhesive has been removed (I use lighter fluid) it can be cut into strips and used as strapping. The advantage of this material is that because it is vinyl it can be stretched slightly to portray an element of tension. It can easily be glued using CA and once primed takes paint well. There is no real reason I use blue other than it makes it somewhat easier to see if you have missed a bit during the painting stages. To this strapping I added PE buckles and the amount of straps on this project certainly made a dent in my buckle supply.



I did make things more time-consuming for myself because I wanted to make as much of the stowage as possible removable for painting. Although it does take considerably longer to do it this way, my process is to do this to ensure I can paint everything to the best finish I can. One day I’ll do it the other way and have that eureka moment, I’m sure.

So until the next instalment, here is a series of pictures of the first of the two jeeps finished ready for paint and the final breakdown with everything removed.

Stay tuned !








Part 2 here



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