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Tamiya 32559 1/48, 1942 U.S. Army Staff Car Model
When I saw the first picture of a built model I thought it would look nice as a yellow taxi. To prove this, I had to build one.
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And now it´s time for some whining! When I for once buy a "quality model" Tamiya had to be lazy. I find their 1942 Ford Staff car in 1/48 disappointing. Not only is it very expensive. It isn't really a "real" kit. It is more to be considered as a diorama accessory to be placed in the background of an airplane. |
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The outside is OK except for one thing which is annoying. The chassis is made of metal and screwed to the front. In the rear a tab goes in to a slot in the body. It seems to be a good solution, but the tab is visible on the outside of the body. Should one glue it all together putty the joint and then mask the windows, or how is the body supposed to be painted? Why not use a screw in the back as well, or better still? Use a plastic chassis that can be glued. But the big annoyance is the interior, or the lack of it. There is a dashboard, but no instruments. Just plain circles. There are also two sofas and a steering wheel with steering column. Despite the small format, it is pretty good view through the many windows, so at least door sides could have been included. |
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And now for what I consider to be a scandal on an entirely new model regardless of scale. Shouldn't a car have wheel wells? Not this one. The rear wheels can be seen next to the rear seat! But whining doesn’t help, I tried to make a simple interior to hide those shortcomings. |
| I glued the rear seat and glued a little plastic as a basis for Milliput. I put masking tape to the inside of the body in the hope that Milliput would not stick to the tape. |
| Then I fixed the chassis to the body with the screws and built the wheel wells next to the back seat with Milliput. It was a little tricky to sculpt the wheel wells through the windows, but it worked. So, I got a base to work further on. |
| Next, I removed the "tab" in the rear of the chassis and filled the gap in the body. |
| I used plastic card to build the protections on the rear fenders instead of using the included decals. |
| The interior was completed with some simple door sides and a taximeter. I drew also instruments. Feel free to use my instruments if needed The black box should be about 6,5mm or 1/4" long when printed. |
| First, I intended to paint it as a New York cab, but I was attracted to the red fenders on the San Francisco cars so I opted for a California car. I drew decals for a fictional company and built a taxi sign on the roof that I thought fits the car. |
| After the painting it was time for chrome. It was a bit tedious to put on Bare Metal Foil on a car in this scale. It would have been easier to build a military car instead. |
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So now I have proved to myself that I was right. The Ford do look good in yellow, but of course I knew that before, so why did I have to build one? But even if the kit wasn't to impressive I’ve seen some results from some builders that are. It can be made in to a really nice model but that is out of my reach. I build because I like it |
| Here is my drawing for the instruments. |
| Stockholm June 25, 2013 |  |
No updates |
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