Search the Community

Here’s my build of Aoshima’s ‘92 Range Rover! It’s a pretty simple curbside kit that goes together great and has plenty of detail. It’s painted in Tamiya TS-2 “Dark Green” with three coats of Pledge floor gloss (TS-2 is a matte finish). Thanks for looking!

While looking for more realistic leaf spring options, I stumbled upon these 1/24 scale Minor photoetched brass leaf spring sets, so I ordered one of each, and they arrived today. Set VMD24002 is designed for use with the Italeri Land Rover LWB kit(s?) while set MVD2400 is for use with the "U.S. WWII 1/4 Ton Truck", aka, Jeep, and each set consists of over 100 pieces each, 158 for the Jeep specifically. All leaves are separate and have an existing bolt hole in the center, so they are a bit limited for use with vehicles which use symmetrical leaf springs, but I'm sure one could get creative and re-drill new holes (while hiding the existing holes) as necessary. I have yet to start assembling them, but did take comparison pictures with a few kit-sourced leaf springs: Revell '57 150 Black Widow, Revell '69 Charger R/T, and MPC Jeep Commando front and rear leaf springs. The Jeep leaves are small, as expected, and would need to be used on a small/compact sized vehicle, while the Land Rover leaves are a bit wider and longer, so better for medium or mid-sized vehicles, and maybe even compact trucks, too. These are very nicely detailed, with separate spring hanger brackets, shackles, and spring clamps. You need to supply a few bolts to hold the spring pack together and to mount the assembled springs to the brackets/shackles, but Model Motorcars, Ltd. or JB Motion can supply those. Having a photoetched bending tool is a good idea, too. Cost was about $14.00 U.S. each, plus $5.00 or so for non-tracked shipping from Australia. The paperwork says 1/35 scale on the Land Rover springs (which they also offer), but they are 1/24 scale. I will take some exact measurements at a later date and add them to this post.