Jeeps for AK-47 Republic

Some sources (such as my Battle Action Force comic in the early 1980's) say that the Jeep gets its name from the initials GP for "General Purpose" vehicle.  This was apparently something of a ret-con by people who were embarrased that it actually got its name from Eugene the Jeep, a Popeye cartoon character who could "go anywhere"!

I was also confused by the packaging of the Matchbox LRDG model kit (with diorama base!) which included a Chevrolet truck and Willys Jeep.  I misread it as "Willy's Jeep", and assumed that Willy must have been some famous WWII desert hero in Monty's army.  In my defence, I was probably only 9 or 10 at the time, and as WWII wasn't taught in my school, all I knew about it had been absorbed by osmosis from my Dad's interest and from my Battle and War picture library books!  Incidentally, the Matchbox kit was absolutely fantastic, one of the most fun I ever made, partly due to the insane amount of stowage included.  There's a great review of it on The Sprue Lagoon.

My jeeps are 1:100 for AK-47 Republic and as usual come from m-bergman's WWII vehicles on Thingiverse.

I've used the "SAS Jeep" just because they're cool.  They're crammed with very detailed stowage, coming in 8 or 9 different versions with different combinations of bits, so all mine are different.

Weapon options include the drum-magazine Vickers K gun in twin -mounts.  These had a phenomenal rate of fire (greater even then the German MG-34) and were originally intended for aircraft use.  The Vickers K was more reliable than the .303 Browning, but the belt-fed nature of the latter made them easier to fit into aircraft wings.  The Vickers K gun was apparently also less prone to jamming due to sand etc. than the Browning or the Bren gun, therefore a more useful weapon to be using in the desert war.

Some of my jeeps also carry a .50 cal Browning.  Rather than use the version that came in the jeeps, I used one with some extra details such as the handle under the barrel and the holes in the sleeve round the base of the barrel.  Unfortunately I can't remember where this one came from.  I also added a wooden crate to the front of one.

The jeeps were printed flat on the build plate.  The guns were printed separately and glued on with gel superglue.

Undercoat was Wilko grep spray primer.  The wheels and underside of the vehicles were painted with Humbrol sand brown.  Base coat was Vallejo desert sand, then a 50/50 sepia ink/matt varnish wash, thinned with another 50% water (yes, I know that makes a total of 150% but you get my meaning).

Camo patches were added with Army Painter camo cloak speedpaint.

Seats were painted with GW gore-grunta fur contrast paint.  Guns are GW chainmail with a thinned black ink/matt varnish wash.  Headlights are GW chainmail with some extra shine from a silver marker, then a blob of acrylic gloss medium.

These will be great as technicals for one of my AK-47 Republic armies, fast moving and well-armed.  I expect they could also feature in an Action Force game sometime too.

One thing I might try and improve in due course it the lack of "soft" stowage, ie. bags, tarps and bits of webbing.  This will need to be sculpted in Milliput and added on.  I'm thinking of adding a few drops of coloured ink to the Milliput to pre-colour it and avoid trying to paint it in-situ.  A simple ink wash might do the trick if it's more-or-less the right colour already.

 The most important next task is to try and find some suitable crew figures for them all!

*EDIT: Bearing in mind what I said near the start of this blog post, it should have occurred to me far earlier that the leader of my Jeep squadron will, of course, need to be named Willy.