Hinsky,regarding the jerrycan paint it a slighty different shade of OD,either slightly lighter or slighty darker than your jeeps color.These were either discarded when empty or swapped out at a resupply point with a new full one,therefore the color would not quite match the vehicles coloring due to possible differences in weathering and age.The same holds true for metal ammo cans.I remember reading once that there are still thousands of discarded WW2 jerrycans being used today all over the world.

sorry I read Jerrycan and assumed you was talking about a German captured one but now that I look at the pics again I see its a US made can

Lights: I would paint them black, yes. Besides the left oval red lens, the others were "cats eye" distance marking lighting systems -- that showed 1, 2, or 4 pairs of lights depending on the distance of the following vehicle.  If you were too far, you saw one light.  If you were the right distance, you saw two. If you were too close, you saw four.

The germans had a similar system -- that's that four light rectangular light contraption they had with the flap

That's really helpful Roy - thanks

The rear lights apart from the one oval red reflector the others look almost grey/black in the photo? Is that right?

Thanks for the heads up on the bolts, I'll sort them and add some weld beads to the wire chopping bar on the front.

Nice build above btw. This is totally OOB apart from a few little bits and no PE but I do fancy having a go at one of the recent Dragon releases.

Thanks again buddy,

Ben

Ben: you don't need to put an edge on the wire cutter -- it wasn't meant to be a blade as much as something to snap a wire. Also the upper oval lens of the right tail light should be like this:

i45.photobucket.com/.../rightlight.jpg

The left one should be like this:

i45.photobucket.com/.../leftlight.jpg

The bolts on the body handles are missing from the kit.  An easy fix

Hope these help

Hi fellas,

A brief update!

Although I did the basecoat again yesterday it still dried too deep a green - ideal for a Soviet T-34 perhaps but not for a 1944 Willys Jeep.

Having looked at photos and the box art it was obvious that this still needed attention SO today I decided to try a new mix but reverted back to using some of my Vallejo Model Air colours instead of the Tamiya.

I made a mix which comprised of about 60% Tank Green and the remaining 40% was made up of an even split of Dark Yellow and Khaki Brown - all Vallejo Model Air. I added some Vallejo Satin Varnish to the mix in the airbrush cup - it looks a lot better now!

I've also resprayed all of the bits still on the sprues with this shade.

I've also basecoated the Muffler with a medium brown, added Flat Red to the lights/reflectors, Leather Brown to the rear Jerry can strap and I've painted the inside of the headlights with a simple chrome silver.

I have lost the pice of angle Iron that was going to mounted on the bumper to protect the crew from Piano wire strung across trees to decapitate Jeep Jockey GI's Having checked the spares box I found about 3 sprues from Dragon kits, all the same, and all these had a great looking Crowbar only bent a bit at one end which I've just loosely stuck on as my friend Carl is also building one of these and isn't using the cutter so he's going to let me have that - I'll see which one looks best.

Next week - the tyres, seats and interior detailing!

• Photos - the paints used:

I hope you like her guys - I definately feel a lot better about the colour. It doesn't show up so well in the light used on these photos but it's much better

Do you reckon the angle iron cutter looks ok? I'll take a file to it to give the impression of a sharpened edge. Failing that I'll use the kit one my buddy is going to let me have.

I'm building it as a Christmas 1944 Ardennes/Battle of the Bulge recon vehicle hence the need for the wire cutter. I'm not going to load it with stowage - maybe some rope wrapped on the bumper, a couple of extra tins of ammo and a Duffle bag? Sound ok? Anything else you reckon I should have?

Have a good week guys,

Ben  

Rambo: Ben is using the kit supplied jerry can which is a US made one, not a captured one.

Cheers lads,

I was planning on keeping this a fairly tidy looking build but showing a rough old Jerry can in use. The kit Jerry can is a US one so I want that to look right.

I won't be chipping the bodywork at all - like you say I'll probably just show some small lighter patches of green for scuff marks etc.

Ben

The paint would still get damaged, to show chips i would just use a lighter shade of the green you used  as the base and maybe some small rust spots too. When you say under the green do you mean the Jeep or the Jerry Can? the Jerry can would be either dark yellow or grey since they just painted over German captured stuff, and the Jeep it really depends on what company made it, the different auto companys all used a different type of primer

Nice to see paint flying on this one Ben, looking good!

Hi guys,

I've had a very busy day today and have been up since 6am but have just got home and found time to re-do the basecoat before watching the Football.

So, it seems that the way forward is through a mix of OD (two to three parts) and DY (one part). I also added a touch of Khaki which worked well. I'm not used to painting US WWII colours!

When spraying the colour it looked perfect but now it's dry it's darkened up again. It was going onto a very dark base and the new colour was thinned right down so I'm presuming that dark basecoat is still showing through a touch.

I'm happy with it though so I won't be getting the airbrush out again. I also airbrushed all the other parts that are still on the sprue with the same colour green.

The plan now is to have a nice, relaxing night in and tomorrow I'll be breaking out the Vallejo paints and painting the engine (basic colours as the bonnet will be fixed shut), pedals, seats, rear red reflectors, the .30cal and a bit of stowage. I also need to look at the dashboard - I'll get some images of the real thing and see how good I can get it looking. Finally there's the wingmirror - is there a better way to replicate a mirror other than just painting it shiny silver?

I'm not planning on anything extravagant here - just a simple Jeep build  with some light weathering and a dusting of pigments.

I understand these Jeeps had the paint 'baked' on? Does this mean it wouldn't chip? I want to show some wear and tear and use the hairspray method on the rear stowed Jerry can - what colour would they have been underneath the green?

• This photo was taken  in my bedroom whilst we still had daylight and shows up the tint of brown quite nicely:

• The scratched pedals and dash detail - lots of potential!

Tomorrow I'll get all the basics painted then I'll add a shot of varnish so I can get her decaled up.

I've got to figure out how to make the best type of 'T' latches for the bonnet and then sort the windows and masking the wiper ares to show the clean areas covered by the wipers.

If anyone can help with what colour the Jerry cans were before being painted green that would be cool - also, what colour green is best used to paint US Jerry cans?

Thanks guys,

Ben

Hi guys,

That's an interesting sounding combo - thinking about it the addition of the DY should do the job nicely. I'd have never thought of that one!

I'll try that first and see how it turns out - many thanks chaps

Ben

I gotta give credit where credit is due -- my forumla is because I like the look of Steve's OD subjects!  

Hey Ben, nice to see the Jeep back!

The Tamiya OD Green cut with 1/3 Dark Yellow is also what Steven Zaloga recommends - so it's what I've been using too. I mean how can I argue with Roy and Zaloga??? 

I build tons of WW2 US stuff. I use Tamiya OK cut with about 1/3 Tamiya Dark Yellow. It looks "right" to me and serves as a good base for future weathering.

Cheers for that Roy - ideal

That's the windows sorted - anyone got tips on a good paint mix to make a good colour for a 1944 Jeep?

Thanks,

Ben

Ben: If you don't find those masked areas too gimmicky, I think it's just a matter of getting a dividing compass.  From the axis of the wiper blade make a circle using the radius of the tip of the wiper blade. Then a 2nd, internal circle from the inside length of the blade.  Then you can cut out several arcs as you see fit.