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Showing results for tags 'Ford GPW'.
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In the real world of military vehicle collectors, the "Holy Grail" would be to find an original Jeep in its shipping crate. Of course, other than those at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the holds of sunken ships, it's very unlikely anyone will ever find one. The whole "Jeep in a crate for $50" idea came from a post war scam, trying to con people out of their money. However, there are a number of photos around the net showing Jeeps in crates, although how they were packed and how disassembled they were seems to vary from picture to picture. This model was built for a friend, with the hood number matching his Jeep. The Jeep is from the Italeri kit with a scratch built crate from ramin strip wood and 1/32 birch plywood. The metal tie down straps are black painted paper, with painted wire over paper holding the wheels into the tub. It is presented in an A4 box frame.
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There doesn't appear to be a "Softskin" section of the forum for work in progress, so this Jeep story will have to go under the Armour section ( hope this is the right place! ). This story began around the end of 2004, when because of health problems, I decided to take a break from balsa dust and R/C model flying and find a new hobby. Growing up on a diet of war films and M*A*S*H, the iconic Jeep had always appealed to me. Affording a Jeep was one thing, fitting it in the garage was another matter altogether! The garage isn't quite a double, being 11ft 8in wide, with one half occupied by my 12 x 6ft trailer that stored my 1/6 scale B-17 Fortress. This didn't leave a huge amount of space for a Jeep, but they are fairly narrow vehicles. A search of the internet gave me some dimensions which suggested it should fit, 'though very tight. I didn't know if the dimensions I found included the handles, mirrors etc, and without a vehicle to measure, a plastic kit was the next option for some measureable dimensions. Once I had those, I was more prepared to spend money driving around the country looking for a vehicle. An Italeri 1/35 scale Jeep was bought, and it seemed moderately accurate comparing the parts to photos. I hoped the finished model would give me a better idea on how tight the garage fit was going to be and a better idea whether the measurements I found on the net were the overall or basic body dimensions. The Jeep and trailer were built purely as a tool, so there wasn't much attention paid to filling, painting and crafting a nice scale model. I just wanted the overall dimensions, which once built, turned out to be pretty accurate. The kit suggested that a real Jeep would fit my garage with around 1 inch clearance each side between the garage wall and the aircraft trailer! I did wonder if I would have to remove the handles from the bodywork to reduce the width slightly. The trailer as shown below, also suggested a real Jeep trailer might also fit within the length available.