Get the most out of your Rubicon Willys Jeep

Hey all!

War Penguin Studio signing in with the first WWII dedicated hobby report.

If you are like me, you probably love to collect every miniature force under the sun. If that is the case, a little creativity and a bit of patience will likely reward you in the long run. When I ordered a willys jeep from Rubicon, to build a recon option for my expanding WWII soviet force, I thought it was only appropriate to give a use, to the excellent US crew that came in the kit. I decided to take my time and try to make it work for both my soviet force and my newly started WWII US army. 

Here's how I went about it.

First off, the willys jeep kit does not come with a soviet crew. Off I went to the shopping list and purchased a few additional items. Below is the list of all the kits purchased to make the conversion

28mm willys Jeep (US version)

Soviet Jeep Crew

US Jeep Accessories Set 2

Now on to the fun part! While you are at it, grab yourself some rare earth magnets. I used 3 and 5mm diameter round magnets.

Starting with the "attack" plan, I am going to decal the vehicle as a soviet lend lease jeep, so I will need some stowage strategically applied, to cover the soviet markings on the US version. To make it as simple as possible, only one decal will be aplied on the bonnet. In addition, the back of the jeep has to be magnetized to hold in place the us crew, so some stowage will be used to cover the back of the jeep on the soviet version.

Here's what we are aiming for:

US version (notice the stowage covering the bonnet to hide the spot for the soviet decal)

 Soviet version (stowage covering the magnets applied to the back of the jeep, to hold the us crew members)

First off, resist the temptation to assemble the kit as instructed by the manufacturer. You'll need the chassis separated from the frame, to ease the magnetization process. 

Here you can see both parts of the jeep assembled separately

Time to start drilling. Carve a hole in each figure's bottom (except for the US crew figure standing_MG gunner) and attach a magnet. For the standing US trooper, simply glue a magnet to the underside of his right foot. Us crew in plastic and soviet crew in white metal.

US crew tactical meeting ;)

To fit the front crew of both factions, you need to magnetize the underside of the front seats. This should snap in place, both driver and passenger next to it.

US crew

As mentioned above, the US version needs stowage cover for the bonnet, to mask the soviet decal I will be applying. 

 The blue circle is highlighting the stowage magnets. Use two as I did, to avoid the stowage spinning around. The red magnet holds the MG gunner and the green magnet, under the fender, locks in place the seated passenger.

You will need a dremel to carve a groove for the magnets on the white metal stowage piece (Blue circle). I found it easier to glue the magnets to the stowage first. Then just turn over the chassis, place the stowage in place, add a bit of glue to a magnet and let it snap in place. All going well, it will be perfectly aligned to the one on top.

Note that the red magnet will interfere with the gluing of the chassis to the frame. Cut a hole on the frame so it goes through (red circle).

With the US version about done, time to devote some time to the Soviet version. This is as simple as adding a piece of stowage to cover the back of the jeep. In the picture below, green snaps to green and red snaps to red. Note the red magnet "tower" on the stowage piece. IT's actually 3 magnets glued together for extra height. This way, the magnets on the stowage will be touching the jeep floor and as close as possible to the magnet on the underside.

That's it! The jeep is now ready for priming and painting. That's work for a future blog post for certain.

US version

 Soviet version

Hope you enjoyed this minitutorial. Get your imagination flowing, grab your modelling tools and start making the most out of your kits.

Until next time, keep on painting.

War Penguin signing out