HISTORY
When this kit was first released back in 2012 it was known
in modelling circles as the “John Wayne jeep”, mainly because the officer figure
in the box art painting is so obviously based on him portraying the character
of Lt. Col. Vandervoort in “The Longest Day”. Most people fail to recognise Dan
Aykroyd from Ghostbusters sat in the trailer, but hey, that’s showbiz.
This kit (CB35106) depicts the Ford variant of the US GPW
1/4ton 4×4 Utility Truck (Mod.1942). A few differences set this apart from the
rival Willy’s version; obviously the Ford logo on the tyres and the rear panel
(duh); the embossed pattern of the toolbox lids; the shape of the front frame
cross-member; and a few other minor details. If you are a purist, you may want
to remove the Ford logo on the rear panel, it was only applied to the first few
thousand production vehicles. Also, the exhaust is the early oval section
muffler, later ones having a circular cross-section.
But I’m being pedantic; set aside the perfectionism and you
have a Jeep, pure and simple; and a fine one at that.
INTRODUCTION
What you find when you open the box is a great little kit,
one that is extremely well detailed and full of optional choices for you to
make during construction. Options include selecting the front wheels positioned
steered to the left, right or straight; the bonnet open or closed (a full
engine is included); several front bumper arrangements (including wire-cutters
and a tow bar); several different weapons options (and mounts) and different
windscreen choices. This kit also includes a complete 10-cwt trailer, which is
a superb kit in itself. As you can see
from what I did here however, most of these optional parts ended up in my ever
grateful spares box.
I wanted to use one of the Black Dog stowage sets for this
vehicle, the pre-drop set being particularly enticing. The main thing that led
me to the decision to build this as a pre-drop scene is the kit-supplied
figures, they are quite sparsely equipped for in-theatre troops, having only
pistol belts and holsters. Rather than adding webbing and the like I decided
they would appear as if racing around an airfield somewhere getting ready for
the D-Day drop, this hopefully explains why all of their gear was in the back
of the jeep and would mean I could keep the dirt and weathering to a minimum.
JEEP CONSTRUCTION
I would love to be able to tell you about all of the little
details I added or modified during construction, but I can’t; I built this
model pretty much straight from the box and didn’t feel the need to improve on
anything. What I will tell you though is that even building this kit from the
box will take you some time; it is an extremely comprehensive little model.
The instruction booklet is full-colour, clear and well laid
out; a definite must with a small kit of this complexity. There are quite a few
small parts that will require careful removal and clean-up; some so small that
you really have to wonder if some of them could have been merged into larger
assemblies. That aside, the only thing to watch out for is that once you have
decided upon one of the several options, you need to take care to select the
correct components from the sprues; there are some very similar looking pieces,
especially with the steering and suspension parts.
JEEP PAINTING
For ease of painting, I decided to leave the chassis
separate from the body. I also kept the bonnet separate so I could install the
painted radiator without getting overspray on it whilst airbrushing the front
grille. In hindsight, this caused more problems than it solved, especially when
trying to add the bonnet tie-down catches, I would suggest fixing it all in
place first if you can.
I must admit that it is a very rare occasion that I do any
vehicle airbrushing; those that know me will agree that I’m not a prolific
finisher of my vehicle projects!. However, when the chance does finally present
itself my concoction of choice is Tamiya paint, thinned with their own
yellow-top lacquer thinners. Inspired by an excellent build of the Tamiya jeep
on facebook, I used the same XF61 Dark Green as a base colour for mine. I
thinned this to about 50/50 to which I then added a generous dollop of X22
Clear. I find adding the clear really does help create a smooth surface finish
and it sprays beautifully.
Over a black primer coat I built up the opacity of the base
green with several thin layers, leaving a darker shade on the lower portions of
the vehicle and the chassis, trying to create a very loose zenithal lighting
effect.
To enhance this further I added a little panel and edge
highlighting by adding some XF57 Buff to the Dark Green, just to break up some
of those surfaces and add a little interest. Once dry, this was followed by
selective filters of thinned Van Dyke Brown oil paint to shift the green tone to
a slightly more brownish hue in places. Having let this dry for a couple of days
another coat of Tamiya clear laid the base for the kit decals.
There are two marking options supplied in the kit, both
depicting vehicles from the 82nd Airborne Division just after D-Day.
Marketed as an Airborne jeep, I was a little disappointed that markings for the
101st Airborne Division were not represented too. Saying that, it
shouldn’t be too hard to source those bumper codes and serial numbers should
that be your preference.
After sealing the decals with a coat of satin varnish, the
vehicle was given a pin wash with various dark oils, Van Dyke Brown, Raw Umber,
Payne’s Grey and Black, among others, being used to mix various dirty tones. I
kept any chipping to a minimum, using Vallejo 886 Grey Green and concentrating
on areas of high wear. In a couple of places, where I wanted to show a deeper chip,
I picked out the centre of some of the previous chips with 822 German Camo
Black Brown.
Painting all the little details came next, picking them out
in various acrylics with oils being used for the woodgrain on the tool handles.
The metal tool parts were painted with the wonderful Gunze Sangyo stainless
metallic.
Dirt and dust was kept to a minimum, using various pigments
both wet and dry. Various oil washes were then used to break up the uniformity
and add some depth to the colour. Most of this was done to the chassis areas
and splattered inside the wheel arches, an effect that is all but invisible
when the vehicle is the right way up.
STOWAGE
Black Dog produce two resin stowage sets for this kit, one
the pre-drop set, the other post-drop. As you would expect, the pre-drop set
includes parachutes, life preservers and such, whereas the post-drop set is
more ammo boxes and baggage. As I wasn’t planning on building the trailer,
there were a lot of parts I didn’t use from the set. I only really wanted to
use the one-piece stowage lump for the rear of the jeep and in hindsight it may
have been easier and cheaper to make or source items from the spares box to make
it look busy.
Initially I presumed painting of the resin stowage block
would be a fairly quick affair, but that idea went out of the window pretty
quickly. I found it quite tricky to paint the separate items without slapping
paint on other bits as I went along and it took several painting sessions to
complete it all. I found the key is to paint from the inside out, picking out
parts that are hardest to get to first.
After an initial coat of black primer I painted the stowage
items using various Vallejo acrylics, chosen to match photographs from several
references. I tried to keep everything in similar tones whilst trying to push
the contrast somewhat to make the items stand out from each other. The image
shows the main colours I used along with the relevant highlight and shadow
colours.
FIGURES
Once the stowage had been completed I could finally turn my
attention to painting the figures. I enhanced them slightly by re-scribing some
of the detail then replaced the buttons using a punch & die. Other than
that the only real modification I did was to replace the perfectly acceptable
kit heads with Hornet ones.
With seated figures it is vitally important to ensure that
they look like they are actually sitting in their intended seat, rather than
hovering above it. To this end I glued the driver figure to his seat and
blended in any gaps with magic sculpt.
The other area that really had to be addressed was to ensure
that the driver’s hands and arms were positioned around the steering wheel
convincingly. This took quite a bit of dry fitting, using blutak to hold
everything in place. Once happy, I tacked the parts together with cyano and
filled any gaps, finally bending the fingers around the steering wheel. This did
make this figure more awkward to paint but is definitely easier than trying to
get everything to look right after it is painted.
I am never really satisfied with a plastic representation of
helmet netting, due to the limitations of the moulding process it is usually
fine on the top but the sides usually lack any detail at all. In the past I
have re-netted these by stretching stocking material over them, this really has
to be dry-brushed to stand out and I’ve never been entirely happy with the
results. I trawled a few haberdashery stores recently and found something a
little more suitable; although the mesh is a little over-scale I think it looks
far better. The larger mesh size also means it can be pre-painted before
installation, this allowed me to paint the vertical white “officer” bar marking
directly on the helmet itself.
FIGURE PAINTING
I have painted the US Para jump suit on a couple of
occasions before so the previous colour palette was already in my head.
Ordinarily I would paint some spare torsos to test out some different colour
combinations but I was happy that I knew how this would come out, give or take.
Light colours can be difficult to shade and highlight
correctly without them turning into a muddy mess so it is a good idea to test
out a few things on old figures first if you are not sure how the end result
will look.
After priming with light grey, the base coat I used is made
up from 2 parts 988 Khaki, 2 parts 821 German Camo Beige and 1 part 819 Iraqi
Sand. For shadow I added 889 US Olive Drab; be very careful here and add this
in small amounts, it will change the tone considerably. The shadow colour was
built up gradually, adding more Olive Drab into the deepest folds and creases.
To highlight, I added increasingly more Iraqi Sand into the base mix, finally adding
a small amount of 837 Pale Sand for the extreme highlights and edging.
I usually switch back and forth between shading and
highlighting, concentrating on completing one section at a time. This gives me
an almost instant idea of how things are going and should any changes be
needed, it doesn’t mean a full repaint of everything. You can see in the photo
the difference this shadow and highlighting makes to the overall tone, here the
legs of the passenger are still in the base colour.
I was particularly pleased at how the jump boots came out.
Often overlooked, I think that painting these small items to the same level as
the rest goes a long way to creating a convincing overall paint job. For these
I used a base of 1 part 872 Chocolate Brown to 1 part 875 Beige Brown,
progressively adding more of each colour into the mix to shade and highlight.
Final highlights were created by adding a small amount of 876 Brown Sand into
the highlight mix. To finish off the leather I added a couple of coats of
thinned Chestnut Ink to harmonise the colours and give the boots a slight semi-gloss
sheen. Finally, the rubber soles were picked out with 862 Black Grey. Obviously
the boots are all but invisible when the figures are in the jeep, but I know
they are painted!
I have been playing around with different mixes for flesh tones
recently and I wanted to create a higher contrast than I normally do. For the
base I used 876 Brown Sand, I then made up a couple of highlight and shadow
tones by adding 815 Basic Skintone and 814 Burnt Cadmium Red. The darkest
shadow colour had a little black added for the deeper recesses. These colours
were “sketched” in on the face to get the placement right and the transitions
were then blended with a 50/50 mix of the adjacent tones using a stippling
motion.
The helmets were painted with a mix of 893 US Dark Green and
822 German Camo Brown, darkened slightly with black. I wanted to have a darkish
tone to make the helmet net stand out a little more. The lighter tone of the net
cover was a mix of 988 Khaki with a little 968 Flat Green added.
BASE
To add a little context I wanted to add a very simple base
consisting of a section of airfield concrete with a small grass patch and this
proved an enjoyable distraction from the norm for me.
Around a piece of thick insulation foam I added plasticard
sides to create a raised box plinth. For the runway base top I drew a few joint
lines on a piece of thick plasticard and subsequently scribed these in with an
old hobby knife. The joints were then gouged a little with the knife and the
whole surface was then stippled with Mr. Surfacer 500 and an old brush to add a
little texture.
After a coat of black primer, the concrete areas were first airbrushed
in varying light khaki and grey tones before adding the colours using a
dampened make-up sponge, creating a more random hard-edged patchiness. Some
good old fashioned dry-brushing with lighter tones was then done to highlight
the rough texture. Several washes of thinned oils added some depth to the concrete
and to finish off I added a few selective stains here and there with a slightly
thicker oil mix.
To reinforce the airfield Idea I added a runway light made
up of random bits I found in my spares box. (Mainly from a Dragon Panzer IV
kit!) I didn’t base it on a real light by any means but used some creative
gizmology to fashion something that looks appropriate. That, along with a white
runway marking, adds a splash of colour to the base.
CONCLUSION
This definitely isn’t a kit you can throw together in a
weekend, nor would I suggest is it a kit for a beginner to the hobby due to
some extremely small parts. But if you already have a few models under your
belt, what you will have at the end of building is, in my opinion, one the most
detailed and comprehensive jeep kits available at the moment.
UPDATE - This article appeared in the March 2018 issue of Military Modelling Magazine.
