Tamiya 1/35 Willys MB

[Engine95]

I'm building this one for my fiance, a Jeep girl to the core. So she's calling the shots on what goes into it. As of now we have the Tamiya kit in hand and the Voyager PE Detail Set on the way. She likes the Value Gear Willys Set #1 so I'll order that after Christmas and we'll probably also get the Tamiya Jerry Can Kit and US infantry equipment set to throw in the back.

I might look at getting a better driver than what comes with the Tamiya kit if I can find one. Either way I'll need to get a decal set for unit patches and rank insignia. The plan is to drop this on a little vignette: basically just a short stretch of road with a little grass and fence on the side. Maybe a sign post by the fence? I'm open to suggestions. Anyway, that's the basic plan.

Oh . . . and she wants a dog in there too. Now I have to find a 1:35 German Shepard.

[PilotMM]

I wanna put one together as a civilian Jeep. My dad has a ‘48 Willy’s that he bought ages ago and drives around still. He wants to mount up a dummy M2 on it to really stir things up with the neighbors. Anyways I have seen 1/35th scale animals at Target and Walmart. They are preprainted but I am certain I saw a GsD. Otherwise there is this link on fleaBay.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Dragon-1-35-Scal ... 5fffc112af


-M

[digger303]

take a look at set No 11

https://www.mantisminiatures.pl/EN/14,0,Animals.html

[Engine95]

Thanks gents, she's still debating on if she wants the dog in the passenger seat or next to the Willys with a K9 handler or sleeping on the back seat or some other idea. It's like when she's undecided with the entrees while we're at a restaurant.

I have to tell you Digger, the two rabbits humping in Set 6 is hilarious.

We did find these guys which look fantastic: Legend Productions - Nr. LF0121 - 1:35.

Anyway, I cracked the box and did some basic assembly today. I didn't do a lot because I don't know exactly what parts come in the Voyager PE kit, so I just put together the frame, suspension, wheels, and engine. Here's what's in the box:











The Voyager PE kit arrives from Hong Kong sometime in January. I'll update as I make progress.

[PilotMM]

Looks like a nice kit. They are inexpensive online so maybe I will get one. Any idea on where someone could find some scale 35” Super Swamper tires?

-M

[Engine95]

No, but you might be able to steal tires from a HMMWV to slap on there. If I'm not mistaken they're about the size of 35's. I initially thought Stryker or LAV wheels might work but I think those are like 38's. The tough part is going to be scratch building the lift kit and shocks to get them to fit.

Oh, and yes it's a nice little kit. Standard Tamiya stuff, detail is pretty good and everything is fitting so far. A little bit of flash but nothing that can't be knocked off with a couple swipes of a sanding stick. The tread is a bit thin. I'm going to see how they look once I get a base coat on. If they don't look good I might see about getting wheels from DEF Model:

[Engine95]

Holy crap, I ordered that Voyager PE kit on the 21st. It started shipping from Nanjing on the 24th and took 2 days to get 276km (171 miles) to Hangzhou. Amazon has spoiled me.

I guess I need to start one of my Panther Ausf. D's.

[Engine95]

Well gents, I hate to say it but I clearly underestimated the strength of minuscule PE. I spent probably 30 minutes getting the reinforcing bar on the front of the hood (bonnet) bent. I just don’t have the tools yet to do the work so I put the whole shebang away and ordered the Small Shop SMS002 PE bending tool.

On the plus side everything else I’ve ordered arrived. And the Small Shop tool should be here on Friday. So unless my fiancé has a bunch of honey-do’s for me I’ll be able to make good headway on the build next weekend. Stay tuned.

[Engine95]

Starting to make some headway. In hind sight I probably shouldn't have ordered a large PE upgrade for my first kit in years. But it's forcing me to learn how to manipulate PE so that's a plus. I do need to find a better way to apply CA glue because I'm getting far more out of the tube than I need for some of these parts.



I do have a question for some of you guys: how do you clean off the sprue stub on really small PE? I'm using the PE bending tool to hold the pieces and I've tried sanding sticks, emery boards, and jeweler's files. But on the really small pieces they tend to bite into the stub just a bit too much and I've started to bend the PE rather than remove the stub. Any tips or tricks?

[digger303]

I use a pe cutter from Xuron. It's like a small pair of scissors and you can cut very close so no clean up is needed.
https://www.ebay.com.au/i/321883448437?chn=ps
If a small stub is left then a clean up using a sanding stick , pe pliers from Tamiya to hold it and then sand along the edge. Don't sand across it or it will bend.
https://www.ebay.com.au/p/Tamiya-Bendin ... 395&chn=ps
When it comes to the Ca glue place some on a waxy piece of paper then you can either dip the part into it or use a tool to pick up a small dob to place where needed. Glue looper or similar tool is good
https://www.ebay.com.au/p/The-Glue-Loop ... 964&chn=ps

[Engine95]

Thank you Digger, much appreciated sir.

I did pick up both the Loctite original and gel CA. I'm hoping they will give me a bit more control. But I'll be ordering the Xuron PE scissors and Glue Looper in the morning.

[digger303]

Thank you Digger, much appreciated sir.

I did pick up both the Loctite original and gel CA. I'm hoping they will give me a bit more control. But I'll be ordering the Xuron PE scissors and Glue Looper in the morning.

My personal opinion is that this CA brand is world class and has very little in the way of equals.
https://www.vms-supplies.com/flexy-5k-p ... t-overview
https://www.ebay.com.au/i/322171366522?chn=ps

[Engine95]

Again my thanks. I found a supplier here in the U.S. that carries VMS products. If the three other types of CA don't work well (I bought some Gorilla CA also) I'll get the VMS 5K.

It should be noted that every time I read your posts I hear Mr. Bean since he was the first of Rowan Atkinson's characters I watched in my youth.

[Engine95]

I had to put this one on the back shelf for a while for life reasons . . . and frankly I got frustrated with the microscopic PE parts. A large number of the parts were consumed by the carpet monster and the skill level required to manipulate them just isn't there at this point. I clearly bit off more than I could chew for my first plastic model build since I was a teen. So I ditched the first kit and bought and built a new Tamiya 1:35 Willys MB.

Just a refresher where we're going with this. It will be a Willys MB from the 2nd ID outside Pilsen, Czechoslovakia in May of '45. I started working on the driver first. It's the one that came with the kit as I couldn't find an American driver that would work for a May of '45 setting. Not thrilled with the result but it's my first time doing anything more than slapping a single flesh tone on the skin and calling it a day. I gotta figure out how to blend the colors more effectively. I may buy a good Alpine figure, watch more of Ian E's videos, and practice with that for future models.



Next was assembly of the Willys MB (standard stuff so I won't post images of all that) and start figuring out what kind of cargo to stick in the back. The cargo came from four different sets of Value Gear resin boxes (Generic Wooden Crates #3, Generic Wooden Crates #5, Generic Tents & Tarps Set #10, and USA WWII packs & Bags #1). And the dog is from Legend Productions K-9 Dogs Set.







The German Shepard painting was next. I'm more happy with that result than the driver but I still need a lot of practice.



More to come.

[BigWall]

Very nice work! Don't be too hard on yourself with the other Jeep. Biting off more than you can chew is a great way to learn what you need to learn.

[digger303]

Doing well and don't worry about the other kit you can always come back to it. With pe the right tools make a difference particularly tweezers and I am yet to get a pair I'm happy with. Cheap doesn't work with tweezers so I have spent more this time and hopefully they will arrive next week. Thought I had cracked it when I started using Dspiae tweezers, but alias no. Their failing being shoddy assembly.
The dog looks great and the figure is a close second. Maybe a faint filter over the skin might help. Better than I can do with figures so don't take any notice of me.

[Kevthemodeller]

Very nice PE and figure work going on here

[Engine95]

Thanks gentlemen! I'm with you on tweezers Digger. I think I have about a dozen pair now and I'm still searching for something that works well. If they're fine enough for the miniscule PE parts then the tips tend to not align properly.

Next I started working on the tent. We decided to go with the Small Wall Tent. If I'm not mistaken this is the same type of tent you'd see in Band of Brothers when Lt. Winters and Lt. Meehan were figuring out their drop zone for D-Day.

This ended up being the third attempt at the tent since I couldn't find quite the right material for the canvas. I ended up going with some cheap, well rinsed brand of wet wipes that didn't have any flowers or designs imprinted in the fabric. In hind sight the ropes are a bit large for the scale. I'll have to see about ordering some of the rope rigging they use for tall ship models and see if that's more to scale.







I also selected all the cargo for the back of the Willys and the gear that will be stacked outside the tent, gave them a paint job, and painted & decaled the Willys.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Like Phoenix arising from the dead!!!
Great work on this
I really love the dog

[Engine95]

Yea, two years on a tiny model is pretty ridiculous! But spending 2 hours (unsuccessfully) on just the PE hood tie downs was the final straw in the initial construction attempt.

Starting over on a brand new one was the best course of action. If I hadn't I'd have probably shelved my attempt at rekindling an old hobby never to return.

I essentially followed the steps outlined in Adam Wilder's KV-1 videos. However I skipped quite a few as there just weren't enough unobstructed surfaces on such a small model. This is my initial attempt at a dot filter. I also tried a pin wash as well but the OD green was just so dark it didn't show up very well.



I also worked on exhaust rust on the muffler and tailpipe. But you can only really see the end of the tailpipe kind of poking out from the passenger side in a later shot. I definitely need to work on that more before I start on the pair of Panthers for my next build.

Next was kind of a combination of speckling and pigment application using all Wilder products. I used digital calipers to measure the windshield wipers and a compass to make Tamiya tape cutouts for a mask. And finished up with a light dusting with Tamiya Buff. I wanted the windshield to be a little more subtle but it turned out okay I guess.

[digger303]

Very nice and using new techniques I think it has turned out very well.

[BigWall]

Very nice work!

[Engine95]

Thanks gentlemen!

And a Happy New Year to you all!

[Engine95]

Driver and canine are both glued into the Willys. The driver couldn't go in if the steering wheel was on so getting his right hand and the wheel aligned without the wheel being cattywampus on the steering column was a bit fidgety. In hind sight I probably should have glued the steering wheel to his hand without affixing it to the steering column pre-painting.





With most of the model parts complete (kit and resin products) it was time to start working on the diorama base. I'd had a general idea of the tent and gear in a field butted up against a tree line with a gravel road T-junction so I could put a road sign to set the location for the viewer.



I cut a 12" x 9" (30.5cm x 23cm) piece of wood to serve as the base and a same size sheet of extruded polystyrene. I sculpted the elevated road structure into the polystyrene with a hot knife and laid down a base of Sculptamold, placing the tent, Willys, and gear in to make impressions of where they'd go in the finished product.



After the Sculptamold dried I put a base of sifted dirt from the back yard and some fine and medium model train gravel from Woodland Scenics and fixed it all in place with isopropyl alcohol and diluted PVA.

[BigWall]

It's coming along nicely!

[Engine95]

Thanks BigWall! Any advice or constructive criticism is of course welcome!

[BOABModels]

A latecomer to this thread but wow! I think there's a lot more to this than just the Jeep. Very impressive figures and accessories.

I really need to do a diorama some time.

[Engine95]

Thanks BOAB, this is really my first. I did a small vignette for a 1:16 M1857 12-Pounder field gun but this is the first time doing anything complex. Luke Towan's videos to the rescue!

Road sign was scratch built out of balsa and three different lengths and colors of WWS static grass is down. I'm dry fitting the Woodland Scenics Classic trees to the base here.



I wasn't really happy with the original table I had above. Although it was to scale (general measurements came from our kitchen table) it just looked too big. So I worked up a smaller one, found WWII US Army maps of the German / Czech area and printed them off to scale on the thinnest paper I could find. An officer's helmet and some maps tools finished it off.



At this point I'm starting to affix the Willys, cargo, tent, and scratch built US Army cot to the base. Hard to see but there's a May '45 issue of Yank magazine sitting on his blanket in there.



And . . . she's pretty much done. I still need to pickup some stain for the base this weekend. I may play with my wife's DSLR, F-stop settings, and better lighting at some point soon so I can get the depth of field in focus. But I think that's all she wrote.

Thanks for tuning in gentlemen. And as I said before, I appreciate any constructive criticism. Especially links to tutorials on some aspect that could help me improve.

[BigWall]

That came out quite nicely! Great job!

[Engine95]

Thanks BigWall, I learned quite a bit but I have a long way to go. It was a fun project and my wifey unit enjoyed contributing to the end result.

[robwuk]

very nice... and braver than me with all that PE - have used Eduard in the past and have 1 ABER set so that is a next step up - Voyager is beyond me at the moment....

[Engine95]

very nice... and braver than me with all that PE - have used Eduard in the past and have 1 ABER set so that is a next step up - Voyager is beyond me at the moment....

Oh, I got way too brave with the PE and discovered that at this point it was trying to summit Everest with a day pack, wearing shorts and flip-flops. Do you call them flip-flops on your side of the Pond?

[robwuk]

very nice... and braver than me with all that PE - have used Eduard in the past and have 1 ABER set so that is a next step up - Voyager is beyond me at the moment....

Oh, I got way too brave with the PE and discovered that at this point it was trying to summit Everest with a day pack, wearing shorts and flip-flops. Do you call them flip-flops on your side of the Pond?

ha yeah that I can understand - and yes flip flops is the same here

[Tomcat64]

Just caught up with this thread - that's some great work.

I love all the details you've managed to include in the dio - and the Jeep & crew look superb as well.

[Kevthemodeller]

It just goes to show how a simple kit can be made to look superb, all your require is skill

[Engine95]

Just caught up with this thread - that's some great work.

I love all the details you've managed to include in the dio - and the Jeep & crew look superb as well.

It just goes to show how a simple kit can be made to look superb, all your require is skill

I appreciate it Tomcat and Kev, although there's a lot of room for improvement I'm happy with the results.

[digger303]

Marvelous result achieved. I like those large trees too.

[Twokidsnosleep]

The little diamond files are good for removing the little metal sprue remains on PE
They don’t need to be expensive ones, quite cheap on eBay or Amazon
Just solid metal file but smaller

[Engine95]

Marvelous result achieved. I like those large trees too.

I am too, you can get them in a variety of heights and each comes with two trees of that type. There are two visible extractor pin marks on the lower trunk but in this case they're hidden in the back. They weren't too terribly visible until I gave the trunk a gray dry brush to bring out the bark texture on the oak tree.

The little diamond files are good for removing the little metal sprue remains on PE
They don’t need to be expensive ones, quite cheap on eBay or Amazon
Just solid metal file but smaller

Thank you sir, I think I have a set someplace. I'll see if I can scare them up for the next kit with PE parts.