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Revell MASH display


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Long long ago, when the grass was green...Sorry, that's a song by the Irish Rovers.....

A long time ago, I bought the Revell kit of the MASH helicopter. It was a nice little kit, and I thought that the rest of the series would have figures as nice. Well, no. The figures were basic, the vehicles were ancient (The Jeep and Duece and a half were the really old 1/32 kits from the late 50's/early 60s). The "Swamp" tent resembles a large sandwich box more than a tent. However, I had an old speaker box and decided to make all of them and put them into a shadowbox-type display, and even went so far as to paint a backdrop. It has a clear cover which I pried off to shoot these pics, as it's too darn reflective to give me a nice interior shot.

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I replaced the glass in Hawkeyes hand with one made of stretched and flattened clear sprue, as well as the bottle o'blood being held by Klinger. I found the figures only recognizable by their clothing and stance, with BJ at least having a reasonably correct hair pattern.

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The Chopper came by itself, and had a very nice pilot. I hung it on the background with a couple pieces of bent brass.

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The Jeep and truck came together, with the figures of Radar, Col Potter, BJ, Klinger, and the Generic Casualty. Hawkeye and Hotlips came with the Tent, the deck chairs and the iconic sign. Note that the sign includes TWO "Seoul" locators, and a Morton Grove arrow, which was the headquarters for Revell.

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This whole thing was recently dug out of my "Bashment O' Doom" and will likely be put up for sale at the local hobby shop. I'm not all that happy with how the figures came out, especially Hotlips, but my ego tells me to blame Revell. B)

Alvis 3.1

Oh, by the way, I did nothing "Silly" to this in any way, shape or form. I CAN actually refrain from that! :lol:

*Edit: Jeep, Tent and Hawkeye, Hotlips, and Radar all came in one kit, the Truck was with the other figures. Ah, old age, plays tricks with the mind!

Edited by Alvis 3.1
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  • 1 month later...

Alvis,

Nice to see these kits again.

Just a note, think the US vehicles were 1/35th scale and the Germans were 1/32nd. The Grant, Lee and Shermans were also 32nd scale. I still have the Bell as it is pegged for a Batcopter build but got to redo the landing gear unless I can get some off the MRC kit.

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That's classic, Alvis. The backdrop is really impressive. That Revell's kit depicts Alan Alda, Loretta Switt and the gang, instead of Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, et. al. demonstrates the degree to which the show surpassed the original movie in fame and fortune.

Edited by Fishwelding
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  • 4 weeks later...

Update: I had this at the local LHS for sale..ironically, some whiner pointed out the helo is the wrong type for the Korean War (but somehow misses that the truck is as well!). I wasn't there to point out that the helicopter IS correct...for the TV show! Apparently, he was ok with the fictional MASH unti and the fictional characters tho...lol.

The bad news, somebody bought it, so it's now no longer mine... :lol: :crying2::worship:

Alvis 3.1

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  • 10 months later...

I like the work you did on this, combining the two of them together. I am currently getting back to work on a SWAMP diorama which has been laying around for a few years now. There are a few things I intend to "improve", the biggest being the replacement of the old Monogram 1/32nd scale jeep with a newer 1/35 Tamiya jeep. (Incidentally, all of the old Monogram military stuff was in 1/32nd scale.). I'm replacing the too-short plastic stove pipe on the tent with a longer piece of metal tubing, and i'm going to replace the plastic dirt base with the real thing.

An interesting note about the word "SWAMP" on the door----it appeared there for only half of one season, so it could accurately be left off to represent most of the show, but most people don't know that and EXPECT to see it, so i'll be putting it on the door. And it does add a bit of color to an otherwise dull-green topic.

And I would argue that the "incorrect for the time period" vehicles are "correct" for the show, since all of the vehicles used in the show were supplied by private companies, and it's only us HARD CORE puriest who would notice or care that it is a late-model Bell-47 or 1960's-era Duece and a Half truck that they were using. I'm sure Revell was NOT going to cut new molds for these things.

James Staley

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