This 1:48 scale vignette was inspired by Japanese Tamiya figure contests that I used to see in those old Tamiya News booklets. They used to give these out in my hobby shop back in the day, but I haven’t seen them for quite a while.
I had just come out of some pretty intense builds, and I wanted something, anything really, to keep my skin in the game. Something quick I thought. Something easy as I had been promised a kit that I had longing for quite some time.
But as fate would have it, the said 3d print was taking longer to turn up than I had envisaged. My main aim was to build something within a month. Now that in itself was a bit challenging thinking back as I write this as all of my builds almost always stretch out to a 3-month period. This one was no different. I’m the sort of modeller that can’t for the life of me spend an entire day at the bench, I need to get up and move around and for that reason this project took on a picking method by that I mean, I did many half hour sessions with a lot of those moments just thinking what I was going to do with it.
Looking through my 1:48 scale stash I came across the Tamiya Jeep kit included in their figure set of Us Army figures at rest item number 32552 and I had the Hauler photoetch set for the Hasegawa kit item number HLX48191 together with the quite superb H3 models 3d printed Us Paratrooper Willys Driver and crew set HS 48025. With all of these I pretty much had all my bases covered for a small quick model to fill in time. Now this is where it got tricky because thinking about it now you’re putting a hell of a lot of work into something the size of a matchbox yea ok, that’s an exaggeration but you get my meaning so my thoughts turned to adding another vehicle but that didn’t work as I had set myself a quite an ambitious timeline for this build.
As many of you know, I write the 1:48 scale column at the back end of this publication and I am privileged to receive samples for review. When all this dithering happened, the first was when I was channel surfing one night in a vain attempt to watching something I came across a program that dealt with re-enactors, those guys that dress up in period uniforms and re-enact famous battles throughout history. Now while I’m not a huge fan of the genre, I do admire their dedication to authenticity.
“The little Tamiya Jeep is included in the figure boxing of the US Army Figures at Rest.”
The second Tetris bock to fall was a review sample that I received from R2 Miniatures called The Reporters. These were two extremely well done 3d printed figures depicting a female reporter and cameraman combination. In what I would describe as light bulb moment, I thought why not have these two doing an interview in the present day. Now that’s different to anything I’ve done before.
LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED
The little Tamiya Jeep is included in the figure boxing of the US Army Figures at Rest, Item No. 32552. It was a toss-up between this and the Hasegawa kit but as I didn’t want to show the engine off in this build the choice was simple and the Tamiya kit doesn’t have one where the Hasegawa one does. Basically, the Tamiya kit falls together in a matter of hours from start to finish if you elect to build it straight from the box. However, I simply can’t build a model directly from the box I don’t know really , maybe it is I want to add my own individually to any model , or maybe its simply like to hyper detail With all my builds I like the build more than the paint so, that may have something to do with it Anyway over the next series of photos I’ll briefly explain what I did to enhance the little Tamiya jeep and some of the pitfalls I encountered along the way.
This photo pretty much sums up how I build - a white paper pad on my bench, jewelers block to cut the etch off the fret photo etch sheets, liquid glue, a Hold and Fold tool, instructions, a note pad and the H3 models figures ready to dry-fit.
I always turn the wheels slightly on all of my wheeled subjects as it adds a certain interest in the vehicle. I almost never modify the steering swig arms in this process as they are simply not seen, so why do it?
The dashboard was replaced with the Hauler item with additional detailing added the seat were detailed with the seat cushion stays added and the cushion support behind the seats themselves. The dash was blue tacked in place for this photo and was painted separately.
The windscreen was tacked-on next with the push out screen being replaced with the Hauler photo-etched part. Note that the earlier versions on the jeep had hand operated wipers added from round plastic bar filed to shape. The connecting electrical wires were added from fuse wire. The rifle holder was a tricky bend achieved by firstly annealing the etch over a flame and then bending with the RP Tool bending tool. The gaps were then filled with super glue and sanded and filled to shape.