Another 1/72 ground suport vehicle

[Lansen]

The Swedish Airforce bought a large number of surplus WC-51s after WW2. In service from 1948 into the 1960s these cars became kind of general purpose vehicles used for virtually everything. Most of them though served as tugs and marshalling vehicles (designation Ltgb 915).

The Italeri kit is an ex Esci mould and very enjoyable to build, detail and fit is very good. The only flaw is that the vehicle sits too high on the suspension. I sanded down the attaching points but didn't get it quite right, next time I will try adjusting the springs too.

Making the WC-51 a Ltgb 915 is easy. It's simply a mather of stripping the vehicle from equipment and add a fire extinguisher. The location of the latter varied a bit but it was mostly carried on the right side. Some Ltgb 915s were winch equiped, some were not. I left it alone but it's no big effort to make a new bumper if one would like to remove the winch. Note that marshalling vehicles carried a red and yellow flag on the rear fender.

I painted the entire model with Gunze's FS.34079, a shade that is very close to the olive green used by the SwAF. Some details were picked out with OD.

I weathered the car slightly by misting with Tamiya Buff and some gentle chipping with a pencil.

Per

Edited May 17, 2005 by Lansen

[BlackCat]

Cool build, now you need to park it on the ramp with an appropriate airplane!

[mmaker]

Nice model !

Did it has any other markings?