Kit Build/Review: Heller 1/72 Jeep (+ Academy Jeeps!)

After reading and reviewing the inaugural Land Craft book on the Jeep, I fancied making another, having already built one from the Allied & Axis light vehicles set by Academy, many moons ago. In an excess of zeal I bought the Academy set again anyway, so I can rebuild that one as well. You can't have too many Jeeps can you? I think in excess of 90,000 were built during WWII.

I had hoped to build both Jeeps today. Indeed, I almost set myself the challenge of building and painting them both in this one day. But what with a lazy Sunday lay in and the World Championship snooker as a distraction, that was a forlorn hope!

Prepping all the parts, laying them out ready to assemble.

Jeep assembled, trailer ready to go.

I decided to do the Heller Jeep sans hood, so it'll make a nice companion for the Academy ones. This meant fabricating the frame, from wire and plastic card, as the only supplied frame elements in the kit were for the hood up scenario.* The hardest part of doing that was keeping the frame components separate. A very fiddly process!

I also broke one of the hood attachments on the windscreen, whilst masking it. The masking is made trickier by the fact that aheller have included windscreen wiper detail in the windscreen part. I fabricated a new one from plastic card. It's a bit chunky. But I hope I'll be able to pare it down a bit. I also had to repair the MG-mounting post, in a very minor way. As it happens I think I'll leave that off the model anyway.

Heller Jeep alongside the already built Academy Jeep.

* This is a bit odd, 'cause if you build this with the MG deployed, then the hood needs to be down, yet they don't supply suitable parts for that iteration.

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Day 2...

Academy Jeep #2

I've already built one of these Jeeps, but fancied making another. It's a nice clean moulding, and goes together nicely, but lacks one or two of the nice details the Heller kit has, such as the clear plastic headlights, or the wrap-around handles on the rear corners of the bodywork.

Parts prepped for assembly.

I've opted to leave the machine out again, so that's two for the spares box now.

Chassis first...

Body pan next...

And before you know it, done.

Loading with stowage...

I think I'll load this Jeep to the gunnels: just added two tarps and a box so far. But a load of jerry cans, and perhaps some scratch-built bits... maybe a toolbox? Hmmm... time for a break. Keep tabs on Trump vs. Higgins, in the Snooker final.

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Yay, the Judd-ernaut won! I had hoped the final would be Gary Wilson vs. either Trump or Dave Gilbert. But as it was Trump vs. Higgins, I wanted Trump to get his first World Championship title. And what a game he played!

My next batch ready for undercoats and base-coats.

Anyway, back in Styrene-land, my two latest Jeeps are built, and a certain amount of clobber has been added. I thought I'd add some finishing touches and stowage to a couple of PSC Sherman's that had kind of stalled, so I could undercoat and base-coat a decent batch of models in one go tomorrow. 

Book Review: The Jeep, Lance Cole (Land Craft, 1)

With this title on the iconic Jeep, Pen & Sword launch a new series called Land Craft, a companion to their already well established Tank Craft series. The Jeep is an excellent place to start, being one of the most recognisable vehicles of WWII (and beyond). Indeed, it's iconic position is such that it's been used as the logo for the Land Craft series, in the top right corner of the cover.

I've been lucky enough to receive a new copy from the publisher, for review. I'm really chuffed to be getting to review a fair amount of books on a variety of Pen & Sword imprints. And thus far I've loved and been very impressed with pretty much everything I've read. So much so I've rated practically all of them around four to five stars. Alas, this title hits the first bumps on this particular road!

It's still a book worth having, primarily for the visual reference, and secondarily for the model-related sections. This said, the non-model related picture content is not up to the usual Tank Craft standards, mixing WWII period photos with more contemporary images apparently randomly, with too many of the latter. And within the latter there's too much repetition of images of the same vehicles.

A very well known image, of a Jeep in British North African service.

Tamiya's 1/35 kit helped cement (boom-boom!) the SAS image in our minds!

The colour profiles are also not as good as in other similar titles I've received from the Tank Craft line. On the plus side this volume does include aerial/plan views in the colour profile section, which most of the Tank Craft equivalents don't.

But where this particular title differs most is in the text, which is very poor, in my opinion. I mean no offence to author Lance Cole. He obviously loves his subject, and doubtless knows a lot about it. But it simply doesn't read well. I've struggled to about half-way through the written part, and given up. It's headache-inducingly prolix, meandering around aimlessly and constantly repeating information. It could be cited as a definition of the phrase 'lumpen prose'. 

Although the book is structured similarly to the Tank Craft series - listing the chapter titles shows this to be the case (Development and Design, The Jeep in Detail, Camouflage and Markings, Model Showcase, Modelling Products, In Service and in Action, Variants) - it doesn't read that way. Compared with the lucid, well-structured writing of, for example Dennis Oliver, this text is like treacle. Strict and severe editing is required. Judicious editing from what's here would probably reduce it by 50-60%. But it's so poor a total rewrite would be best.

Another Jeep, also in British service; is this Burma?

All the Jeeps in the Model Showcase section are 1/35th. It'd have been nice to see one or two in other scales. Anyway, in conclusion, I'd say that thanks to the imagery herein this is still worth having. But I'd forewarn potential purchasers/readers re the quality of the writing. 'Tis a pity that what will surely be a very useful series (I also have the next one, on the M2/M3 halftrack) gets off to a somewhat shaky start.

If you did think you might want to buy this, now is a good time, as both this and the M2/M3 title are currently reduced from the RRP of £14.99 to just £12.99, over at the Pen & Sword website.

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NB: I used to write regularly for the now sadly defunct Drummer (UK*) magazine. I remember several occasions where the editor intervened to temper my criticisms, usually either on account of personal or professional connections between the subject and the mag. So, for example, I was asked to review a particular CD by a certain band (I forget who now, thankfully). I thought it was awful, and said so. However, our editor was trying to cultivate the drummer of this band as a potential contributor to the magazine. My review wasn't used. 

I also recall having to soften critiques - or finding them having been editorially softened for me - of products. What galled me most about the latter was that I was prevented from speaking the truth as I saw it, and usually re cheapo gear from big manufacturers, whereas there was a freedom to pan the little independent concerns, 'cause that wouldn't threaten advertising revenue unduly. I mention all this because I want it to be known that opinions expressed on my blog (at least by me, at any rate) are genuine.

* Not the US Drummer magazine, by the way, a gay leather/porn mag!

The following photographs include some great Jeep images... none of which feature in this book, alas:

Jeep goes airborne... yeehaw!

UK or Commonwealth soldiers posed as if thumbing a ride.

A US vehicle graveyard on Okinawa, '45.

Jeep ambulance. Not sure where this is, or what nation it's being used by?

Jeeps roll off the production line and onto the transport supply lines.

Maintenance work; is that an engine powered lathe? 

Another Jeep auditioning for the airborne!

Jeep ambulance. Note bullet holes in windscreen!

They sure made a lot of Jeeps!

Jeeps are sexy!

Cole meanders in and out of his timelines all over the place, one minute talking about wartime Jeep history, and often (too often for a book aimed at WWII Jeep modelling) talking about postwar Jeep stuff. But he doesn't include the rather amazing almost James Bond-esque image above.

Academy 1/72 2.5 Ton Truck

The second of the two US military models Teresa treated me to at a recent '40s show, this 2.5 ton truck is another nice model from the ever reliable Academy. The pics that accompany this post aren't strictly chronological; I totally lost track of the build, somehow! I started it whilst we were away on our recent holiday in Suffolk. And now, back home and back at work, it's nearing completion.

The major sub-assemblies; sanding the wheels.

As with the Dodge ambulance, I went with the principle of building several major sub assemblies. These could then be painted to a certain basic level, before assembly. Thus process giving one the opportunity to paint certain parts - wheels, cabin interior - before final assembly makes them awkward or impossible to access.

Ready for a dry fit.

Dry fitting the various elements of the sub-assemblies is great fun, and especially so with a kit as well manufactured as this. I'm still well off perfectionist levels re perfect alignment. But plonking the parts together to get a sneak preview of how the vehicle will look is highly satisfying. 

The dry-fit, or temporary assembly.

The circular opening in the cab roof is an optional thing, as the kit allows for the building of several variants (with or without the cable-reel at the front, and with or without the MG mount over the cabin, etc.). And cutting it out was tricky. I got the smooth circular hole by wrapping sandpaper round a paintbrush handle.

Dismantled. Starting on window masks.

A YouTube video on aeroplane canopy masking has helped me improve my window masking on ground vehicles. The technique involves tracing the masks out in situ, on the model, with a nice sharp pencil, and then removing them and cutting them on a board, before re-applying the accurately (one hopes!?) trimmed masks. I'm no ninja with this technique, yet. But it has improved my working with 'glass'. I've included that video in this post, down the bottom somewhere.

Windows masked. Willys Jeep joins the party.

It was at about this point that I spied my old and neglected Academy Willys Jeep, which has sat unloved whilst the accompanying Kubelwagen and Kettenkrad were completed ages back. Adding the Jeep to my current workload seemed a no-brainer at this point. So I determined that I would replace the missing MG - one of the reasons I'd abandoned it - with one from the 2.5 ton truck set, which includes all sorts of useful extra stuff.

Grey primer, then Olive Drab.

After undercoating the truck with grey primer, both vehicles got their coat of Olive Drab. Then engine, tires, and sundry other bits (seats, steering wheels, gear knobs, etc.) were painted. The sub assemblies are still separate at this juncture. I rather like the pristine simplicity of the block-colour finish at this stage.

Tires in black, seats khaki.

Finally the sub assemblies are glued together, and the two models start to look quite nice. They're ready for a gloss coat at this stage, and then decals.

Ready for the pre-decal gloss varnish coat.

With the decals in place, it's time for another gloss coat, to seal them in, and some hand-painted detailing. By now the models are looking, though I say it myself, quite handsome.

Decals in place.

Okay, so after a few days off this model, working on some others, I got back to it today, and sealed it all in with a coat of matt varnish. I ought to do a bit more: some pin-wash detailing, highlights, and the reel of cable on the front fender. 

But for the time being, here she is in her current state. I'm quite pleased. Particularly with how the windows came out. So many of my other models end up with cack all over the windows, despite careful masking. These aren't perfect, by any means. But they're better than most of my other efforts!

Okay, not 100% finished... but they'll do for now!

And the jeep's come out alright as well. I had to snip off the old gun-mount, and then drill a tiny hole for the new MG, from the 2.5 ton truck collection. The glass on the Jeep is good, by my standard, as well. Very gratifying. Bit late to add a driver to the truck. But I might populate the Jeep...

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Here's the canopy masking tutorial that I found very helpful: