¹⁄35

Goodwood

The Jeep

There is no surprise when opening the box. Tamiya's Jeep can be built straight out of the box except for one or two things.

I started by adding new pedals and hand brake, another jerrycan support is made from foil but don't forget to remove the “US jerrycan” and replace it with another one wearing the “W D” marks on.

Rather than using the US rifle rack from the kit on the wind screen, I chose to make two home made Lee Enfield supports. It was too easier to use the kits windshield wipers, but I chose to build new one's with copper wire after having looked at many reference photos

My main problem came from the front hub. It wasn't suited for the purpose I had in mind. Using the same part form an old Italeri jeep and some plastic tube I finally obtained something pretty close to what i wanted

The canvas top was home made using the age old tried and tested method off tissue and white glue mixed with water.

Painting and weathering is the same as the Dingo. However, to get a slightly different green the basic color is lightened with few drops of yellow. My jeep wears the divisional marks of the 11th Armoured Division.

The diorama and Figures

I opted for something simple to show this scene, An old farmyard with enough room for two parked vehicles. During construction I found that my diorama appeared to be a little bit … bare. So I created a pond, I found that placing a water element in the diorama it came to life.

A cork board was covered in white glue, then I poured a coat of plaster mixed with sand and sawdust, over the top. Different sizes of sawdust was used to simulate the grass grass. Once dry the grass and the ground were air brushed with acrylic paints.

The farm is an old reference from Verlinden and has been around quite a while but is still of a high standard when compared with current offerings. I scratch built many of the details such as the roof tiles which were made from cardboard.

The pond was dug into the cork board. I painted it in different shades of green. Later it was filled with resin colored by a drop of Humbrol paint. Before your resin dries you could add something to the water as here,i used a branch of thyme again to add life to the finished diorama.

The very old washing machine is scratch built from Balsa wood and copper foil according to two photos in a book i had and a real one i found in a museum.

I wanted the Dingo's driver to be amused to see the jeep running a washing machine. Whilst the old man is a little bit puzzled. I feel that i have been able to show this by using figures provided by Resicast , MK35 and Phebus. The Figures are all nicely moulded and detailed. I painted them all with acrylic paint from the Prince August paint range.

In conclusion

It was really fun to build this diorama, using two simple kits and an old Verlinden set plus a couple of figures. All the details were added using only plastic card, strips of foil, electric wire, items that are easy to find and simple to use.