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The model kit (Italeri, Ref: 3721) is honest enough – it seemed fairly old when we built it in the early 2000s. It's pretty standard Italeri fare – a good price, adequate quality & room to super detail, if required. Some of the flaws of the 1:35th Willys Jeep seem to have been transferred across to its bigger sibling – mainly the wheels. They don't capture the proper shape & thickness of a real Willys wheel. Added to that, the tread pattern lacks detail. This points possibly to a pantograph copy of the smaller moulds.
One of the drawbacks of “going up a scale” is that you may not get the range of accessories & extras you'll be familiar with. In 1:35th, we would probably have changed the wheels for after market resin items, added some resin bags & packs & detailed with a photo-etched brass set.
No such luck here, we couldn't find any accessories in this scale, so we decided upon an “out of the box” build. In a way, this is the purest form of modelling. It allows you to focus on the painting & finish without getting bogged down in super detailing.
For these reasons, our Jeep ended up looking pretty empty & the shortcomings of the kit are readily visible. There're those wheels, plus the windscreen sits at the wrong angle when folded up. It could also be said that in terms of proportions, the model doesn't quite seem to sit right although dimensionally, it may well be accurate – we didn't check so can't tell you. Also the front grill portion doesn't fit well on the chassis rails.
That said, it was a swift & enjoyable build with no nasty surprises. Enjoy!
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