Diorama “Desert Rat” using Tamiya’s British SAS Jeep - by “Art Instructor”:
This is from my latest page:
http://www.falconbbs.com/model50d.htm
Comments and suggestions are welcome!
More display than diorama, MM… The SAS were a busy lot, especially Sterling’s chaps in North Africa… Overall, a classic little kit though AI needed to do some work on the weathering, especially the tires… They look like they’re on a hardball instead of sand, and the Jeep looks as if it was placed there by helicopter… Carrying the ground color up onto the tires would go a long way towards “tying” it into the landscape… The palm tree is really good, some more scrub would have looked good there as well…
There’s a few seam lines on the jerry cans, but not the welded ones that are supposed to be there… Also, while on the subject, the cans are the dreaded two-handled ones instaed of the correct three. They’re simple enough to fix with some styrene strip & sprue though, and applies to both German and UK/US-built jerry cans…
First, you cut off the offending handles:
Then add the strip:
And finally the handles made from stretched sprue:
Then just paint & weather normally… Keep in mind that this is only used on the metal water & fuel cans, circa 1935-1980s, not the modern single-handled plastic cans.
Feel free to pass on the the info to AI if he cares to give it a try… Beats scavenging other kits for proper cans, or buying after-market ones…
The figures are quite good, IMHO, as is the overall Jeep, but I’d have to recommend that AI use a bit less base or add a few more items, natural or man-made, in order to fill the deadspace a bit better…
My score: 6.9 overall with a solid 7 on the Jeep…
Awfully clean and neat for a vehicle used in the desert.
[:)]
Defiantely not one of Art Instructor’s better builds.[:(] The dio is just plain too barren, the jerry cans are something I’m suprised he didn’t fix, the headlights could have benefited from clear lenses, and the palm tree is looking pretty plain. Hopefully next time Art Instructor will put more time into the project instead of doing a bare-bones rushed build.
Nice sloppy painting around the base of the palm tree as well wher he got brown paint on the sand and rocks. Looks like his standard level of work to me.
Got to agree with Hans, those Tamiya 2 handle jerry cans are… blah.