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Flames of War: British Airbourne/SAS Jeeps is a big title for what is essentially a small product. Small but beautifully marked, as they say. Jeeps being the smallest of the Allied Forces armoured vehicles and faithfully rendered in Flames of War 1:100 scale makes these models are a little over 40mm long, about the size of a 50p. As we’ll see though it’s not the size but what you do with it.
General Purpose
Jeep is derived from GP standing for General Purpose and it certainly was the utility vehicle of World War II. Over 600,000 were produced and were used by all the Allied nations. In contrast the German equivalent the Volkswagen Kubelwagen had a production of just 50,000.
Jeeps were used for just about every Infantry and Light Support function: Scouting, Despatch Riding, Spotting, Radio comms and light support pulling small artillery pieces to seemingly impossible places. The jeeps were usually armed with one or more machine guns (MG) up to .50 cal Browning though some were modified as far as carrying a 37mm Anti-Tank gun.
The version used by the British SAS was a lighter version than the US model so that it could be carried in gliders and air-dropped if necessary and would provide greater range in the desert. It would be armed with a pintle mounted single or twin Vickers K Machine Gun that had a high rate of fire for Anti-Aircraft purposes. The rear held a pedestal tubular gun mount, most commonly the M31C, which would support a .30-cal MG or .50-cal M2 Browning heavy MG.
What’s in the Box?
Flames of War: British Airbourne/SAS Jeeps gives you the parts to make 4 Jeeps with the classic Ford 9 slot radiator grille. As shown in the picture you get two
identical sprues for making up the jeeps and you also get two figure sprues: one with 4 drivers in berets holding a steering wheel and one with 4 beret wearing passengers positioned to fire the spindle mounted AA gun.
The main body of the jeep is moulded in 1 piece with all 4 wheels in place. You merely have to add the bonnet/grille and a back plate for the basic model to be complete. Simple, which is just as well as there are no instructions as such but just an exploded diagram on the back of the box.
You then add your choice of armament. For the passenger you have a single Vickers K machine gun on a pintle mount. This has a pin on the bottom of it to mount it but there is no hole on the jeep! You can either drill your own hole or as I did cut the base flush and just glue it. In the rear you have either the .30-cal or .50-cal MG on the vertical tubular mount. There is no standing figure provided to fire this however.
There are a number of various accessories and paraphernalia that can be added: spare wheel, stowage boxes, tools, tents and petrol cans. There are also items you won’t need. This can be confusing but you are guided on the box to the Flames of War website where all will be made clear.
Ubiquitous design
The Jeep Recce Troop SAS section not only has the parts necessary to build the British jeeps but also the extra or alternative parts to build the US version. There is a separate product available: Flames of War: Airborne Jeep Recon Patrol (Plastic) which is for the US version but I believe (I don’t know for certain) it will contain the same two sprues for the vehicles as this version. It also has helmeted figures and a standing one to fire the rear MG
The difference between the two nationalities is that the US one has a windscreen and a larger back plate that has a spare wheel and petrol can already moulded on it. So in this British Airbourne/SAS Jeeps set you can make any of the 4 jeeps in either the British lighter version or the US version albeit with a beret wearing driver.
Either way the parts are well moulded with an amazing level of detail for such tiny models there is no flash and they fit well together.
Every Allied fighting force would have jeeps within it and this is the way to get them.
