Thursday, 13 August 2015

Jerry's jolly cheap Jeep japes

Last night at the Sheffield club, Jerry presented me with a find he had picked up on a market stall.  The header card was very promising:
And while this was clearly going to be a dodgy plastic toy, an M-42 would be most welcome.  However as my gaze took in the contents the bitter truth was revealed...
That's right.  No M-42.  Just some dodgy Jeeps with turrets(!) and a horrible T-55.
But amid the laughter, I had a closer look at the size of the Jeeps.  They seemed a similar size to the 1/40-something scale toys I use for Little Cold Wars.
So this evening I dug out some 'proper' Jeeps for comparison.
 Left to right:  Plastic kit in 1/40(?) scale; Solido diecast in 1/43 scale, a dodgy model from the pack.  So not bad at all in terms of scale.

 As cheap toys go it's actually rather tolerable - so well done to Jerry.  And what of the T-55?  Oh, it really is ghastly.  Behold it's hollow hull:

Cheers Jerry!
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9 comments:

  1. Brian Carrick13 August 2015 at 21:12

    Nice artwork on the packaging though.

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  2. Tim Gow13 August 2015 at 21:46

    Brian Carrick
    I think the artwork is ripped off from Tamiya box art.

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  3. Pete.13 August 2015 at 22:54

    An interesting find- the T55 looks like a candidate to be dug an as an emplacement to me.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  4. Archduke Piccolo13 August 2015 at 23:32

    I have a tracked AA vehicle with a similar traction system. In part I disguised the flush road wheels with plastic strip, and that is as far as I've got. But I think I will trim of the road wheels altogether, make tracks from baling strip, with drive sprockets from some plastic nut things (retrieved from some now defunct household device), all built around a balsa frame. This is all in my head at the moment, but will probably form the subject of a blog posting when I get around to it...

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  5. JLee11814 August 2015 at 04:03

    The top of the T-55 looks salvageable. As Pete said you can make it into a dug in tank. Either that or give it a new suspension. Maybe use printed paper like you did with the BMP.

    James

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  6. Tim Gow14 August 2015 at 08:05

    Pete
    If you have need of a dug in T-55 it's yours!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tim Gow14 August 2015 at 08:06

    Archduke Piccolo
    That all sounds like a lot of work! And in my case while the Jeeps are about the right scale, the T-55 isn't and will be inflicted on someone who can make use of it.

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  8. Tim Gow14 August 2015 at 08:07

    JLee118
    Given that it's more like 1/76 scale I'll certainly be moving it on. The Jeeps on the other hand have a glittering career before them...

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  9. Pete.15 August 2015 at 00:07

    Thanks Tim- if it is roughly 1/76th scale I'll happily rehbilitate it- can just see it now dug in somewhere sandy....

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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