This is the old Tamiya kit released in 1982, which despite it's age is a decent little kit with minimal flash and so far well fitting parts. It does however have some well known short comings, especially in terms of simplified details. Built out of the box it would be a fairly quick and straight forward build, which as my first model in some time would be the sensible path to follow. However I am keen to practice some basic techniques that I have seen but not yet tried out for myself, so am intending to make a few changes and hopefully improvements:
Firstly I drilled out the headlights, which I hope to replace with some acrylic lenses.
The specific example I will be modelling does not have the gun mount but instead has the rear seats fitted. Though these are included in the kit they are very basic. The seats have a metal outer frame and a spring backing, which unlike the front seats is largely exposed. There is actually a PE set with some generic jeep springs available but I decided to make my own by using some fuse wire and creating a suitable jig. The results are not a perfect replica but do look better than nothing.
The outer frame might be abit thin, especially when compared to the framing on the front seat, though this is clearly too thick. I might thin the front frame down somewhat or even replace with fuse wire, though in the end it won't be as visible as it will be mostly covered by seat fabric. Would anyone care to suggest a good material to use for such fabric?
Also looking to add some pedals to the footwell, replace and in some cases add tie downs with some wire and no doubt a few other details as I find further areas lacking!
Thanks for looking, hope to update my progress soon.
