Meng Model 1/35 MB Military Vehicle - VS-011

Meng Model 1/35 MB Military Vehicle - VS-011

The Willy’s Jeep is a WWII legend that shows no sign of diminishing, beginning in the 30s with a need for a four-wheeled drive light vehicle to transport small numbers of troops and officers in a rugged chassis that became more urgent when hostilities began.  The Bantam was a competitor, and some of the design cues leaked from one competitor to another, but the ultimate winner was from Willys-Overland and was manufactured in huge quantities by various factories in the US and elsewhere.  As well as being almost ubiquitous in the European Theatre, they were sent almost everywhere else too, and continued in service to the end of the war and beyond.  Many fans of the type still collect and renovate them, with a huge market for second-hand parts, and some serious in-depth knowledge out there that makes us modellers look like amateurs.

As well as their Officer transport role, they were used for reconnaissance where speed of exit was sometimes more important than infiltration if the Nazis caught you snooping about.  It had leaf-spring suspension with four-wheel drive capable of ploughing over the roughest territory thanks to its 60hp engine and three-speed gearbox with high and low ratio drive modes.  Over half a million were made during the war with more made after, and the design evolved into a civilian vehicle, whilst the brand Jeep became a household name that continues today.

The Kit

This is a rebox of a brand new 2019 tool from Meng that was originally released as a Wasp Flamethrower Jeep under the code (VS-012), which seems to have passed me by at the very least, and has a higher product code, which possibly means a change in release dates?  Ok, I’m confused now.  Anyway, this kit is a vanilla Jeep with a .50cal Browning M2 on a post in the rear, so it’s just what the doctor ordered.  It arrives in a small top-opening box with Meng’s usual high-grade box art, and inside are three sprues of sand-coloured styrene, plus the Jeep bodyshell and the Browning breech separately, plus a small clear sprue, a decal sheet, and of course a glossy-covered instruction booklet with colour front and painting guide inside the rear.  Detail is everything you would ask of a Meng kit, with a complex moulding of the majority of the bodyshell, and lots of lovely detail added along the way.