Crooked Dice Cold War Jeep - UAZ-469

Back in November 2021 I assembled and painted the Crooked Dice "Alien Jeep".

Comparison with other 1/50 scale vehicles showed that it was a bit large to be a proper UAZ-469 (even ignoring the two door design).

At Warfare this year I picked up one of Crooked Dice's new Cold War Jeep.

The kit comes in six pieces: A one piece body, four road wheels and a spare wheel.

The model has a fixed canvas roof.

Basic paint job:

Citadel Chaos Black spray undercoat.

Citadel Snot Womble Green base colour.

Windows are Army Painter Royal Blue.

Canvas is Citadel Death World Forest.

Tyres and windscreen wiper blades are MIG Rubber and Tyres.

As you can see, the Cold War Jeep is smaller than the Alien Jeep.

But scales a lot better with the Crooked Dice Land Rover.

M48A3 continued

 So here is the story so far.

The M48A3 has gained a mascot, a TTCombat teddy bear. It has also had some additional armour in the form of track attached to the turret.

It has also gained a bandoleer of water bottles hung on one of the aerial posts (and the three aerials). Note also the deflector for the cupola machine gun to prevent it hitting the searchlight (the teddy bear has no such protection).

Note where I have badly replaced the left rear mudguard, this will be tidied with some Milliput.

Now to add some additional stowage on the engine deck and tidy up the jerry cans.

More on the M48A3

 This is a better shot of the heating exhaust (and the second hole that needs filling.

Test placement of a set of track links on the right hand turret size.

And on the left hand side of the turret.

As you can see, the left hand side should take the supplied track links without fouling the hull.

Some additional stowage.

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT

 Some more WIP shots of the Empress M48A3

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT - further Work In (glacial) Progress

 Continuing the work on the Empress M48A3.

One thing that has been pointed out is the main gun travel lock projects over the back of the hull, for moulding reasons the model has the lock slightly shorter.

So to make a new gun cradle, I took a length of 1mm brass rod and using a specialist set of pliers (business end shown below) bent the end into a loop.

The end after the loop will be given a 90 degree bend and a suitable hole drilled into the travel lock.

The power cable for the searchlight has been shaped and inserted into the hole in the turret roof and the back of the searchlight.

Holes for the three aerials have also been drilled into the roof.

The aerials will be cut from 1mm brass rod and bases made of 2mm plastic tube.

Empress M48A3 Patton MBT - Work In (glacial) Progress

 So it has been a while, but "what with one thing and the other", the effect of gravity on resin structures, and other things getting in the way, not much much progress.

There is a good photograph of a Vietnam era M48A3 in the Osprey New Vanguard book showing rows of machine gun ammo boxes on the mud guards.

I found some of Crooked Dice's small ammo boxes - they are a bit big, but they are all I had to hand.

They are tucked in behind the Empress small crate (ration packs?). Some additional jerry cans are to be added to the rear mud guard. One of the ACAV jerry cans will be borrowed to fit a jerry can in a holder to the turret side.

This is one of those really embarrassing shots (not that type). I spent all of yesterday trying to work out what that hole in the roof was for. The structure to the right is one of the aerial bases, so it is not the hole to fit an aerial.

And then I re-read a post about detailing the Empress M48, and it mentions the searchlight power cable.

The hole in the top of the searchlight a) should have been a hit, and b) is in the wrong place... The power cable goes into the back of the searchlight (I suspect the drawing of the M48A5 in Cold War Armoured Fighting Vehicles by George Bradford confused me - there is a rib that runs along the top of the searchlight that is in line with the power cable).

A couple of shots of the railing on the turret sides.

The railing is brass rod, bent to fit. The supports are plastic rod inserted into quite long holes in the turret side. The railing is glued in place, and the the plastic rods are teased back out until they contact the main railing then liquid poly is flooded over them, bonding them to the holes in the turret and the rail.

Three quarters view.

Salute 2021 - Rubicon purchases

 There was (excepting the Semovente) a bit of a theme on my Rubicon purchases

I also bought the other Valentine kit but it was in a different bag so did not get photographed.

I did forget to buy the Sherman V, maybe at the next show.

Crooked Dice UAZ-486 - AKA The Alien Jeep.

 Crooked Dice have just released an "Alien Invader Jeep", which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Soviet UAZ-469 (though in the form of a two door variant).

Two Zone explorers check out the surroundings. Empress modern Russian and Universal Soldier.

UAZ-469 and Mighty Mite.

UAZ-469 and unfinished  M151.

HMMWV (Empress) and UAZ-469.

Tigr and UAZ-469.

Crooked Dice Land Rover and UAZ-469.

Spectre SUV and UAZ-469.

UAZ-469 and William Killian