Hi everyone,

Some folks have asked to see the 1/24 SAS jeep conversion kit that I am working on so I thought I'd try to post some photos. Still trying to work out the whole camera thing but these should give people an idea of what it would look like during the build.
While the production version will probably differ slightly, this is basicly what I'm considering as parts of the kit. A few production pieces not pictured are the British and German canteens and a set of wire cutters.






The other 1/24 jeep kits will feature the same wheels and steering conversion as pictured here only with different weapons and equipment. As always, I'd like to hear people's ideas on the kit's contents and any suggestions.

Thanks,
Jim
Large Scale Armory

Hi Jim

That looks bleeding marvelous,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I love the fine detail you catch in all the bits.

I would love one other than the obvious question in a credit crunch Britain!

What would be the price of a kit and what would the shipping to UK be?

Love the Tommy gun

Nige

How about some U.S. equipment for the first world war and between the wars periods. Such as Lewis guns with the air cooled barrel sleave, rimmed helmets, mess kits and just basic pioneer tools, shovels, axes, picks. I am sure there must be a lot of 1/24 1/25 car kits out there that could be turned into military vehicles such as staff cars, the monogram Mack truck series is just calling out fror parts to make them world war one army trucks. Model Ts into ambulances. You could open up a whole range of soft skin vehicles from the "Black Jack" Pershing's raid into Mexico after Pancho Villa to Pearl Harbor to the modeler. Just a thought.

I think that the stuff looks great. I'm happy to see stuff coming out in this scale.

I have to comment on the Thompson. It's looks nice, but it looks to me like the bolt is on the top on this older model. You should fill the slot on the side where one would find the bolt on the later model.

All the items look really great, especially in this scale.

Love the Thompson gun.

Is this conversion kit to be used with Hassegawa's 1/24 scale jeep kits?

Cheers
Hisham

Whoa---! Fantastic work, James!!! The SAS jeep has always been a favorite of mine and your work is superb. I know that it is probably asking too much, but will you be doing driver and gunner figures as well...?

Please keep us posted on the pricing and other details...

And keep up the great work!

Regards and Aloha,

Johnny B.

Thanks guys!

The kit is designed for the 1/24 Hasagawa Jeep kits. These kits are incredible but they have a glaringly obvious fault, the pattern on the tires is incorrect. The steering conversion portion of this kit corrects this and allows the wheels to be positioned at any angle. I also have a slightly different kit that is for the good old 1/24 Italeri Jeep kit.
As for the Lewis Gun and other WWI style accessories I do have some items (including the Lewis) that are from this period although not that many as of yet. For example, I have a Boys anti-tank rifle and a few other items mainly aimed at making a LRDG Chevy in the future. And I am sure that there are lots of car kits out there that'd be excellent candidates for these. I haven't made any molds of these accessories yet as I'm concentrating on the three initial Jeep kits with all their weapons and equipment.
As for the M1928, John is right, I need to fill in the slide area on this model as it was cocked from the top. I'll have this corrected prior to production and it shouldn't be a problem. This is where other sets of eyes are a real benefit.
That's why I like this forum so much. I can get feedback and make corrections and hopefully create something that others will enjoy as much as I have. Thanks so much for your interest and comments!

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Whoops!

Forgot to answer Johnny's questions on figures. The answer is clearly yes and no. Yes, I do plan to offer both a driver and a gunner for this kit but no, not with the kit or anytime soon.
While I do have everything ready for creating figures, (equipment, weapons, heads, hands and boots) I've got a huge amount of work ahead of me just getting the conversion sets and the complete vehicle kits. I'm afraid that as badly as I'd like to do them, I simply won't have time in the near future to develop anything else.
I have streamlined the figure development process so that when I do begin to produce them then we should quickly see quite a few in both Allied and Axis versions. At the moment I plan to offer them both individually and as part of figure sets.
For example, if you'd simply like the figure dropping the round into the 81mm mortar from one kit and the BAR gunner from another, then they will be available separately for that reason. This way, I hope to encourage people to build kits, not simply buy a bunch of stuff that they don't plan to use.
I also plan to entertain some special orders on weapons and accessories. If you've planned a diorama that calls for say, several open crates of BARs then I will work with you on that but I don't plan to sell every piece individually all the time. A few extra of this or that tacked onto a figure or kit order will be okay.



While these weapons (except the Thompson, Colt and SMLE) aren't part of this kit I thought I'd show them anyway.

Thanks for your interest!
Jim
Large Scale Armory

James, you certainly have some interesting stuff.
Good luck on your production.

Thanks Dave,

As I work on the production molds for this and all the other kits I'm also trying to get in some photos along the way. Unfortunately it also includes some part corrections here and there so progress is at times frustrating but still moving along.

With a bit of luck I'm hoping to post some pictures of the other Jeep kits as soon as I get them sorted out as to what pieces to include and how many should go in each set. Having built my "base vehicle" it shouldn't be too long before I have more to show.

It's funny how all this has been a slow work in progress for several years and now it's coming together rather suddenly.

Jim
Large Scale Armory

per our emails in the past; when can we expect these to be for sale? I have two dusty boxes stashed away for the two other projects we spoke of besides the SAS Jeep.
gary

Hi Gary,

I'm hard at work on the new molds and trying to dial in the new pressure casting system that I need for production. The parts you see here are made with the old labor intensive and time consuming two part molds and slow cure resin.

I'm hoping to finish up and have a small inventory cast up within about another 60 days at which point the store will be open. I've still not put much thought into the prices for each kit and doubt I'll set anything in stone until I show the contents of the other kits. That way people can get a better sense of what will be in each kit.

As always though, I'm open to suggestions. Everything from the product line to the production line are still in the process of being formulated. I'm going to post a couple more pictures this weekend of the individual contents of the SAS kit and would welcome any input or suggestions that anyone has.


Thanks for your interest,
Jim
Large Scale Armory

Well I'm still very interested in doing the two items we spoke of plus the jeep. I've been quietly stashing away photos and other data now for awhile, and have just came upon a third unit to model (assuming I can find a good donor kit).
Jim, you do nice work! Have you ever thought of hooking up with somebody for a photoetch set to go along with your product line?
gary

I've looked into the possibility of providing some photo etch details but with so much work ahead of me I really haven't gone very far with it. I'm really hoping that as the popularity of military modeling in this scale grows that maybe some really talented companies like Aber, Eduard and Lion Roar will begin to offer some 1/24 versions of their existing kits.

I figured that the photo etch will probably come on it's own for these kits but what I have actively searched for is a company to create machined barrels, mortar tubes, shells and other parts. Unfortunately so far there hasn't been any response to any of my inquires. I was hoping to have a company make some initial short runs (about 25 to 50) of these items for me so that I could offer them as an upgraded version in my kits but so far I haven't had much success. (You'd think that in today's economy that someone wanting custom turned parts might at least get a response.)

Hopefully once I get my kits on the market and popularity increases for this scale then perhaps some of the other manufacturers will join in. Until then I plan to keep producing and expanding as much as I possibly can.

Thanks for your interest,
Jim
Large Scale Armory

James:
Nice work! I'm sure there will be many people clawing their way to get one. Are you planning to send review samples to us at Armorama when they're ready? It sure is cheap advertising, and we're fans of your products already. Keep us posted. Thanks!

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the compliments and I'd be honored to have Armorama do a review of any of my kits! The nice part about being such a small company is that I can immediately address those areas of concern that come out of a review. As I've said before, I would really like to see military modeling in this scale become popular and the only way to accomplish this will be if every manufacturer strives to put out the very best kits we can each time.

The potential for military modeling in this scale is incredible. A HUGE amount of resources for vehicle and diorama pieces are already available if you know where to look. The early pre-war vehicles that were so much apart of WWII are already in kits from nearly every manufacturer in 1/24 and 1/25 scale. Entire detailed buildings and parts (as well as Locomotives) are readily available in "G scale" model railroading. You can find virtually any type of non-military accessory by simply looking into G scale.

Even civilian figures, furniture and industrial machinery are all already available in the "Half Scale" dollhouse miniatures and the "G scale" model railroad areas. The level of detail in some of these pieces is absolutely amazing and is just begging to be used in a diorama. G scale even offers a large selection of industrial building pieces that you could use to build anything! A vast majority of these RR accessories are of European design from the "Age of Steam" in railroading---perfect for the WWI and WWII era.

Whats needed to make all of this stuff useful to modelers is the basic military hardware, figures and military vehicles. That's one of my goals, to open up these enormous resources to military modelers by creating the basics that will tie them all together. With some hard work and a bit of luck, maybe myself and others like Piotr (Piterpanzer) can do this.

Thanks,
Jim
Large Scale Armory

Like many I suspect pleas add me to your list of customers for this update set. I very much want a set. I would comment though that perhaps as many satchels and water bottles as possible to be draped over the vehicle, a captured MP40 perhaps and captured German Jery Cans, explosive material (boxes) for the SAS missions on the air fields. Some grnades maybe?

hi jim i have just come across your photos please can you tell me if this kit is for sale and how much and cost of shipping to the uk thank you nick costa [email protected]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your interest but the kit isn't ready for sale just yet. If my employer's promise of returning to a 40 hour week (instead of the 60 to 70 hours) holds true then it won't be much longer until I can begin production. You might like to know that I have made a couple of additions to this kit that aren't in the photos. One of the additions that I am especially happy with is one of the spare tires will now be of a civilian tread design.

Just so you know, this is only one of eight 1/24 accessory kits that I plan to offer initially once production (really) begins with several more waiting. Of these, two are German, two are British and the others are U.S. weapons and accessory kits. I hope to have some more photos of the kit contents to add soon. I've switched to a green color resin that should show details much better.

If you're curious about the contents of any of the other kits then PM me and I'll list them out for you.

Thanks again for your interest!
Jim
Large Scale Armory

Lovely work Jim. I am getting into 1/24 as a better scale at the moment. I see Tasca are about to release a motorbike and sidecar to go with their PzII's so with any luck this scale is beginning to gain traction.

Certainly for the smaller tanks and AFVs it offers more potential than 1/35 IMHO.

I will definately be on your customer list as soon as you are ready to start selling.

Good luck with your business. Judging from the responses from other English and Scottish modellers here you are going to need a UK distributor!

If only LSA were to become successful enough to even NEED a UK distributor! Maybe someday it'll be that big but for now I'd be happy just to get this lead balloon off the ground.

Great news about Tasca releasing a motorcycle and sidecar in 1/24---the bummer is I have one that is about 50% complete already. Oh well, I'll just shift gears over to finishing the Harley WLA. At least all my weapons and accessory kits (originally aimed at complimenting Hasagawa's Kubelwagen) will work equally well with Tasca's Pz. IIs and any other vehicles out there.

Also for any of the really creative types out there I'll probably release some 1/24 figure mannequin sets at about the same time. I'll post some pictures of it as well if anyone is interested. There'll be an U.S. version and a German version and each will come with sculpted faces and hands as well as personal gear such as boots, helmet, canteen, rifle etc. All you do is assemble it into any pose you want and then sculpt the uniform or clothing yourself. I even have a couple female mannequin sets already done but I'm not sure that I'll end up releasing those.

Anyway, I look forward to your being able to order some great stuff and really hope that everyone likes all the gear that I'll be offering! With luck the 1/24 scale is finally coming into it's own.

Jim
Large Scale Armory

Hi Jim,

is there any news regarding the availability of this kit?
I'm really very interested in it!

Regards,
Gabor

Hi Gabor,

Thanks for your interest in this kit. This is kit #11 and will be released shortly before Christmas this year if all goes well with production. I should also note that there are a number of items that will be in this kit that aren't pictured such as a civilian tread spare tire and British ammo boxes. There are 10 other weapons, accessory and conversion kits that will be released prior to the SAS jeep set and, unfortunately, those have to take priority at the moment.

The good news is that all these kits, including the SAS, are now in production and I am now trying to put together a small inventory. (Not an easy task for ten kits with about 30 to 40 pieces each). I will try to announce the exact date when they'll go on sale on this forum first. Hopefully, it won't be much longer.


thanks,
Jim
Large Scale Armory

I like the look of it. Allways thought the twin guns were cool. It's an impressive piece, I just don't follow that niche of building. I'll do the 1/35 version for my British column, though.

Jim,I would like to point out that your tie rod setup on your steering is wrong on the outer end by the wheels.On the real jeep the outer tie rod end mounts below the steering arms by the wheels.The tie rod assembly runs at an angle to the pivot arm on the axle.I am sure you designed it straight to make the steering work.As I am in my thrid year of restoring a full size 1943 MB I thought I would point this out.I am sure you are too far along in production to change this.I am very interested in your kits and look forward to purchasing them when released.