Empress M151 Ford Mutt

 I ordered the M151 Ford Mutt from Empress soon after it came out, but had not got round to starting it.

This is the contents of the kit (I also ordered the crew set for it).

The kit is all white metal, the body is a lovely clean moulding requiring minimal clean up

It comes with a full set of weapons (clockwork grenade launcher, M2, .30 and M60), a trailer and some stowage.

Unlike the M422 Mighty Mite, the seats are integral.

I need to clean up the back of the seats a bit.

I now have top decide how much (if any) soft stowage to add.

Compare the Jeep, part 94

Comparison photographs.

Empress Modern British vehicle crew and Jeep

Empress make a four man vehicle crew set. It is intended to be used to "rescale" Airfix 1/48 scale British vehicles.

Thought they would work with the Empress WW2 American jeep.

here is the contents of the pack.

Here are two of the figures perched on the seats of the Jeep.

A side view showing how well they fit.

Crooked Dice are doing a Post Apocalypse range and they have crew figures which might also be of use.

Rubicon LRDG Jeep continued

Slow progress on the Jeep front.

I have added two jerry cans to the bonnet. One of them is a British one from the Allied Stowage set, complete with the W^D logo. The other is from the German stowage set. Straps have been added out of Slaters' Microstrip. I have also added two magazine pouches in front of the driver. They are from the Perry Miniatures Eighth Army set.

 The third crew member has received arms, the right arm originally was holding a rifle.

Details of the straps holding the jerry cans on the bonnet.

Rubicon LRDG Jeep

So, as mentioned in the Colours 2017 posting, I bought one of the new Rubicon Models Commonwealth Willy's MB (Jeep is trademarked).

The kit comprises one large sprue containing all the main components, a crew sprue, plus separate canvas tilt and upper body. The Commonwealth/UK and US versions differ on the crew sprue (the Commonwealth one comes with two LRDG/Desert SAS figures and two Airborne figures).

I had started construction when I spotted a fill issue on the  upper body moulding.

Another view of the rear showing the fill issue. Now as this is going to be built as an LRDG gun jeep with plenty of stowage, it was not going to be too much of an issue. If this was a plain jeep, it would have been awkward.

Having looked at the Bolt Action Armies of Great Britain list, the (SAS) gun jeep has a forward facing HMG, either a LMG or MMG also firing forward, and twin rear firing LMG or MMG. The kit has the HMG, one forward firing BREN LMG (or a Vickers K MMG) and twin rear firing Vickers K MMG. So the twin rear mount was added to the back of the body.

The ABS type plastic used by Rubicon can react variably to Humbrol liquid poly. This kit does not particularly like it, resisting the solvent making assembly slightly difficult. The chassis, grille, wings assembly and upper body do not have any location tabs or pins/holes. This, together with the solvent resistance made this part of the assembly more difficult than it could have been. This contrasts with the seat assemblies which have very positive location points.

A very good point on the model is the pre-shaped wheels, they have a definite flat at the bottom showing the weight of the vehicle. The D shaped locating pins ensure that the flat is at the bottom. However they are all different so I decided that rather than leave them off for separate painting (and mix them up), I would glue them in place.

The two parallel pieces of Slaters Microstrip are not holding the moulding together but I thought I would use the excellent Rubicon Allied Stowage set British jerry cans with the WD logo. They are part of the mounting bracket (and should improve the adhesion).

I added the large fuel tanks in the rear of the jeep. The feed pip is difficult to clean up.

Before assembling the chassis I would some thread around the bumper as a tow rope. It is a lot easier if you either use a needle or (as I did) make a weight out of masking tape.

I was going to leave the figures out until they were painted, but I did find them very hard to position so ended up gluing them in place. Hopefully the desert sand/tan colour will cover them suitably.

The WD jerry can added with its holder.

Still some gap to fill.

So started to add stowage. If anyone has previously seen my work, you will know I have sculpted a lot of bags on my tanks. I decided for this one that I would use the soft stowage from the Rubicon Allied Stowage set. As I had had problems with getting a suitable bond, I used Greenstuff both as an adhesive and as a filler between the body and the bags. The front right rucksack had a 1.5mm hole drilled into the body and an Evergreen 1.5mm plastic rod pin added.

A Perry Miniatures 8th Army figure (with optional Keffiyeh head) for scale.

Just in front of the HMG is one of the pieces of rod fitted to the bonnet for a tarpaulin. I have added another WD jerry can under the front passenger's foot. It needs some strapping.

Now the vehicle comes with only two crew, but the rear mounted machine guns will need a crew member. The kneeling Desert Rat figure (I need to add some more greenstuff to make the Keffiyeh a similar length) will have some suitable arms added.

I have added the first roll of tarpaulin on the bonnet and two more rucksacks on the left rear of the jeep.

Front view. I have added a rack of ammunition boxes to the front right mudguard.