Dragons (wee) Jeep

Finally model manufacturing giant Dragon puts up a contender with their wee offering of the venerable jeep. We first had a whiff of this model in the form of a prebuilt version. Then came the one included with their sherman and LVT kit.

      So after further ado, they finally released a dedicated set to the jeep in the form of Armored 4x4 Truck, followed quickly by the SAS raider 4 x 4 Truck. The first set comes with 2 jeeps complete with photoetch parts for the extra Armour field conversion. It comes with a nicely detailed .50 cal on a pedestal mount and twin bazooka on the same mount.

The SAS flavor is the ETO version and only gives you one jeep plus the extra parts such as guns, fuel tanks, etc.

These are wonderfully detailed kits, nice one piece body simplifies assembly and looks really good. The tires and wheels are spot on. The biggest downside to this is that the overall size looks to be a wee bit smaller than 1/72 scale. Closer to 1/76 as it seems, though it's advertised and sold as 1/72.

A preview of the SAS jeep oob. 

Airfix / Heller Jeep

Not to be confused with it's older uglier smaller 1/76 sibling jeep in the Buffalo kit, the Airfix Willy's Jeep and Trailer is in fact 1/72 scale and is in fact adopted from Heller.

This little gem was quietly gaining it's supporters while the Academy Jeep was hogging the limelight. It might be due to Academy's kit having a greater distribution, though the same can't be said now as it's getting harder to find the Academy kit while the Airfix one has just been re-issued. The overall shape and dimensions look good. The wheels are almost correct (front and rear hubs should be of different lengths); tires (or should I say tyres?) are almost correct too, the thread is unfortunately not offset.

Here's a great comparison forum thread on the Airfix Tribute forum.
The big plus is the trailer and canvas top. Big minus is the bridging plate molded on the grille and the figures look to be too small even for 1/76.
It also comes with a pedestal mounted .30 cal which isn't too shabby.

This was definitely the best jeep kit in 1/72, I'm saying was because now there is a new contender out there - S-model's!



Here's a link to an awesome Airborne Jeep project by Stefan Landman.

Searching for this kit on Airfix's site now, I'm surprised that I can't find it anymore. The last known kit number is A01322. The kit falls through the cracks in category since most Airfix Military subjects are 1/76 scale.

Academy Jeep

I was in modelling hibernation when this came out. By the time I wanted to start my braille SAS jeep, this was touted as the best jeep available even though the better Airfix/Heller jeep as also available at the time.

What's good about this jeep? Looking at the photos, this really reminded me of the Hasegawa jeep. Upon comparison, the parts were very similar, though Academy had moulded on some additional interior details, most notably the engine. Apart from that, the overall dimensions and shape are the same.

The big plus are the Kubel, Kettenkrad and stores that come with the kit. Wheels, tires and front grille share Hasegawa's shortcomings. Comes with a .50 cal on the pedestal mount, but it looks very toy like indeed.

Hasegawa Jeep

The grand daddy of 1/72 scale Jeeps. It's getting hard to find it on the LHS shelves these days.

 

As you can see from the photo, it does look like a jeep. The obvious shortcomings are the lacklustre windscreen, wheel and tires. I had previously thought that this had the wrong number of slats for the front grille. This was based on the assumption that the academy grille was the same as this one, but it turns out that hasegawa's jeep does indeed have the correct number of slats on the grille.

The big plus for this kit is the inclusion of trailer, 37mm gun and hard plastic figures. More photos of the kit when you click more.

braille jeep lives!

This blog has been inactive for a while now, but fortunately the braille scale jeep scene has been quite the opposite. When I first started this site, there was only a handful of 1/72 scale jeep models available, but that number has grown significantly since then.

The plastic model kit contenders marked as 1/72:

Hasegawa - U.S. Jeep Willys M.B.
Academy -  WW.II Ground Vehicle Set
Airfix - Willys Jeep and Trailer
Heller - Willys MB (same as Airfix)
Italeri -  1/4 ton. 4x4 Truck
Dragon - Armored 4x4 Truck, SAS Raider 4 x 4 Truck
S-model - Willys MB & Trailer

The plastic model kit contenders marked as 1/76:

Fujimi -  U.S. Field Car
Matchbox (now released by Revell) - Morris C.8. MkII, L.R.D.G.
Airfix - Buffalo IV and Willys Jeep, another link

That's it for now, I'll keep adding to this list as and when I can find new info. Subsequently, the aim is to post in depth and comparative reviews of these kits!

Stay tuned.