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1944 Ford GPW Jeep FINISHED!


Art Anderson

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Oh, I know, the WW-II Jeep was termed a "Truck, 1/4 Ton 4WD" but most consider them to be cars--in fact only a few times were Jeeps used as trucks--500lbs is a pretty small payload. So here it is, as one might have appeared coming off the assembly line at River Rouge, on 12 July 1944--the same day I "came off the assembly line".  I did discover a discolored place on the left side of the body--nothing that a quick bit of airbrush work couldn't correct.

For those who might question the lack of any US Army markings--those were applied after delivery to the military, at whatever unit depot they reached--not done at the factory.

Art

Finished 1944 Ford GPW1.jpg

Finished 1944 Ford GPW3.jpg

Finished 1944 Ford GPW4.jpg

Finished 1944 Ford GPW6.jpg

Finished 1944 Ford GPW5.jpg

Edited by Art Anderson
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Very very nice, and I hope it doesn't get moved to the Trucks or Other sections.

One question: Aren't those round things behind the rear wheels reflectors and should be painted red? Or did I do that wrong on mine?

Even though the original specification for the Jeep (which stemmed from the 1940 Bantam BRC) was for a scout car, the Army classified them as "Truck, 1/4 ton, 4 wheel drive" Jeeps were seldom used as trucks--most being equipped with a rear seat (removable), a pintle tow hitch, but in the case of Willys and Ford Jeeps, no movable tailgate--hence most people would consider it a car rather than a truck.

As for those "rings" on the sides behind the rear wheel opening--my bad!  I forget that those should be red reflectors.

Art

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Its been a long long time but it looks to me to be a M-151 ford jeep. More to the Viet Nam era. I think the WWIIs were M-38s.

 

Uh, sorry!   During WW-II, Jeeps were either MB (Willys Overland) or GPW (Ford, which my build represents).  In the spring of 1945, with orders for Jeeps winding down (more than 650,000 Jeeps were produced during that war, so Willys began revising the bodywork into what ultimately became the CJ-2A.   With the start of the Korean Conflict, the Army scoured all over for serviceable (or least rebuildable wartime Jeeps, and when that proved inadequate, contracted with Willys Overland to produce more military Jeeps.

What followed was the M-38, which was a militarized version of the CJ-2A, produced from 1951-54, when the M38A1 came out, the first of the "round-nosed" Jeep which was then civilianized into the CJ-5.

The M-151 was the Vietnam-era "Jeep"--the one with 4-wheel independent suspension.

Art

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When I was a kid I did several of those in 1/43 for a diorama that my little brother and I made. We had some sort of tray and used real mud and real twigs to represent blasted trees. There were fighting positions and all that. I painted the wheels and undercarriage in desert tan and splayed the paint brush and made splash marks on the side of the fenders and body, it looked realistic too, and of course the obligatory bullet holes made with a lighter and one of my mom's sewing needles. What fun.

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That looks perfect to me. I had several friends that had WWII era Jeeps in the mid '60's and most were stone stock with a "Earl" paint job. We crawled all over the Forestry Service roads in the San Bernardino mountains. This build looks just like those Jeeps.  

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I knew when I posted I was probably wrong. My regimental commander had a m-38 , the only one around and it could of won any car show for cleanliness. The rest were m-151s. You have a mind like an encyclopedia and I find most of your writing interesting.  Sorry , and thank you for the enlightenment. Bubba

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