Book Review: M2/M3, ed. Robert Jackson (Land Craft, 2)

After the disappointments I mention in my review of the previous publication on the Jeep, it's great to be able to report that this, the second in the new Land Craft series, is back on track (boom-boom!). 

This iteration of these very useful publications follows the standard form - Design & Development, In Detail, Variants, Camouflage & Markings (aka 'colour profiles'), Model Showcase, Modelling Products, In Service & In Action - covering each aspect with a good balance of clarity and thoroughness. 

The archival and contemporary images are superbly chosen, conveying maximum info with great concision, and the colour profiles are excellent, and include front, back, side and plan elevations, for maximum coverage. The difference in quality between the rather poor illustrations of the Jeep in the previous title, and these - crisply detailed, terrifically coloured, and with nicely rendered shading/texturing - is very noticeable.

M3 mounting 75mm gun, Sicily, (1943?)

Whilst no 1/72 examples are included in the Model Showcase section - they're all 1/35, with the lone exception of one 1/16 example - they're much better covered in the Modelling Products segment, with mention made of PSC, the Italeri fast-build kits, Hasegawa and Academy kits. The old Airfix 1/76 is there as well. And they even cover the large range from Milicast, also in 1/76, a manufacturer I haven't seen mentioned in this section until now.

As is normal for me now, when I enjoy these books as much as I've enjoyed this one, I feel more than a little tempted to acquire a model or three and have a crack at building and detailing them, using the images herein as inspiration. Uh-oh... I can feel a trip to either the Ely model shop or Creative Models in Chatteris coming on!

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Thanks to the middle of the black and white photos on the cover, of an M3 ambulance, I fancy making up one kit as this vehicle, as well as some more typical variants. So I tried to find that very photo, but couldn't. I did however find the following:

Possibly taken at the same photo-shoot as the image I can't find?

An example in context.

A contemporary survivor.

Looks fab!

1/72 WWII - Special Armour Sdkfz 11/4 Nebelkraftwagen (#1)

Original Post:

I haven't had time to post on here for ages. It's sooo frustrating! Anyhow, here's a quickie, which is actually an appeal for information.

I'm taking a bit of a break from my 6mm Napoleonics project. What little time I have free for miniatures I'm spending building 1/72 and 1/76 WWII German armour, etc. This has grown out of the regular monday model-making get-togethers with my father.

My query concerns the funny aerial-like things on Sdkfz 11/4 Nebelkraftwagen bumpers. What are they? I've been rooting around online, but can't find out what these weird little thingies on the wheel-arches are... Can anyone enlighten me? Any help much appreciated.

The parts I'm intrigued to learn more about are highlighted in this pretty cruddy pic.

Sorry it's not a better photo. It's just a quick ref snap from my mobile phone! The things I'm referring to are the sort of zig-zag bendy wire bits, one on either wheel arch. They come as photo-etched brass parts in the model kit; very fiddly and fragile! I already broke one off and had to replace it. Fortunately Special Armour supply the photo-etched parts with a few spares included.

This post is actually really only so the above photo has a URL I can paste up over on TMP! Hopefully in the near future I can return and post properly about the stuff I (or in fact we, as my dad's doing this too!) have been having a ball building.

Update:

In an attempt to go through all my old folders of pics of various model-making sessions, and get everything online and up to date, I came across all the pics - by no means a complete record, alas - of this first Special Armour Nebelkraftwagen build. The observant reader will note that the above part of the post show the model at a later stage than any of the pics below, despite these being posted much later!

I think I posted the 'original post' above, a query regarding the widthi-indicators, in mid to late December last year, and I'm putting these pics up in early June! I'm still not decided as to the best approach to updates: should I add them to the original post, as I'm doing here? Or should they be a completely new post? For the time being, I'm going with updating the original post, so as to keep all the info on a particular model in one place.