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Willys MB Wasp Flamethrower Meng 1/35 I've been waiting for this one to turn up for quite a while, having ordered it back in August, but it finally found it's way from China to my doorstep today. I get the impression that Meng may be having some supply or production issues, as a lot of their recent releases seem to be taking a long time to hit the shelves. Anyway, I digress. Back to the kit. This is Meng's first entry into the Jeep market, coming hot on the heels of Takom's new tool release. Unlike their rival, who's first release was a standard issue Jeep with trailer, Meng have gone for a more obscure version in the form of the Wasp flamethrower, which was a one off prototype tested by No. 1 Demolition Squadron, aka Popski's Private Army, while they were operating in Italy. It was never used in action due to the fairly obvious health and safety concerns about spewing burning oil a few inches in front of the drivers head. Makes an intersting model subject though, and there'll no doubt be be more Jeep versions from Meng in the future. I'll do a quick run through of the sprues before I start cutting plastic. Only two sprues (well, three counting the clear one), the first of which looks like a common sprue for any future versions. The second looks to be specific to the Wasp. Sprue A One piece chassis, wheels (split into front and back halves), seats, Full engine and other assorted bits and bobs. Sprue C (no 'B', so that will presumably come in a future release) As I said above, this one look to be just for the Wasp. There are a few common parts on here, such as the dashboard and bonnet, but they're modified for this version. Sprue Y The clear sprue holds just the windscreen and the headlight lenses. The main body comes as a single moulding with the front grill in place, but a separate rear door and bonnet. The wheels/tyres have got nice detailing, including the, ahem, Tirestone branding, which will clearly fox Firestone's lawyers. The seats have got some subtle wrinkles and a bit of fabric texture for good measure. The rear door has nice moulded detail on both sides. The ejector pin marks on the rear side should be hidden by the wheel arches Radiator insert which also holds the headlights. This has a separate radiator piece which attaches to the back The engine look nice. There's about ten parts to it in total The dashboard is modified for this version Likewise the bonnet, which has cutouts for the pipework No photo etch with this release, but you do get a length of rubbery hose for the flamethrower feed. The decal sheet's quite small, with just the instrument dials and the marking for the bonnet Interestingly, it looks like Meng have changed the graphic style for their instruction manuals, going with a bold outlined, partial colour style. It looks a bit overworked to my eye, but it's easy enough to follow Predictably only one marking option, given that this was a single prototype vehicle Okay, that's what you get. More to come as I get the build underway. Have to rush now, as my tea's in the oven, and is rapidly getting burnt Andy

"The Jeep, the Dakota and the Landing Craft were the three tools that won the war." -General Dwight D. Eisenhower Since armour STGBs seem to be doing well lately, and a more general AFV Group Build is gathering steam, why not take the next logical step and try an STGB for an unarmoured military utility vehicle? And what better candidate than the most widely-produced motorized vehicle of World War II, one probably used by every Allied army (and most of the navies and air forces)? The Jeep served as a reconnaissance vehicle, command car, airfield "follow me" vehicle, ambulance, messenger vehicle, aircraft carrier flight deck tractor, special forces assault vehicle, chaplain's car, improvised light AFV, mobile rocket launcher and even a railway locomotive...and that's just some of what it did in World War II military service, so there should be scope for a very wide variety of entries. Eligibility: Within the usual 25% rule, any kit in any scale and medium, representing any era, any role and any operator of: -Any of the vehicles developed for the original 1940 War Department 1/4 ton 4x4 requirement (Bantam, Willys or Ford). -Any variant of the standardized wartime Willys MB/Ford GPW design (including the Ford GPA amphibian). -Postwar vehicles directly derived from the Willys MB including, but not limited to, the Jeep CJ and DJ series through to the 1986 model CJ-7 and military derivatives of the CJ series (M38 and M606 series), as well as license-built derivatives produced by Hotchkiss, Mitsubishi, Mahindra, etc. -Prototypes based on the Willys Jeep design, such as the TJ Tracked Jeep, JBC Jungle Burden Carrier, Willys Bobcat and Hafner Rotabuggy. Exclusions: -No what-ifs, although in keeping with armour modelling conventions, "generic" vehicles are fine as long as they can be justified as historically accurate (or at least realistic). -No "jeep-type" vehicles with no direct engineering relationship to the wartime Jeep family. This would include the M151 Ford Mutt, M422 Mighty Mite, other countries' independently-developed equivalents (Land Rovers, GAZ-67 series, Nissan P60 / Jonga, Kübelwagen, Iltis, etc.) and of course Humvees and the current generation of MRAP-type vehicles. -No unrelated, or only indirectly related, civilian vehicles marketed under the Jeep brand name (e.g. Grand Cherokee, Wrangler, Renegade, etc.) I stand ready to be corrected on the logic of my eligibility list by people who know the subject matter better than I do, but hopefully that should be a good start. Part of me wanted to go for a broader theme that could have included Land Rovers, the Dodge WC series, GAZ-67s and Kübelwagens, but I felt that: 1) An STGB would have a better chance of getting the go-ahead, since it requires five fewer participants and doesn't have to get through the poll, and 2) I didn't see a good way of setting the parameters for a more general military light utility vehicle build that wouldn't either be confined strictly to military service within a specific time period such as World War II, or bloc of countries such as NATO or the Commonwealth, or else so open-ended that it could include anything from a Model T to a Nyala and would probably lose focus (and certainly lose any sense of a definite "jeep" theme). Who's interested? 1) Sabre_days (host) 2) Corsairfoxfouruncle 3) vppelt68 4) Knight_Flyer 5) Threadbear 6) SleeperService

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.

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.