Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler

       

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Original Kit:
Jeep Wrangler Open Top
Made By:
Tamiya (kit #24154)
Scale:
1/24
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Jeep Wrangler from Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler interior front Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler front bumper detail Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler engine Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler interior rear Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler chassis Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler rear

 
Buy this kit at eBay

Tamiya's Jeep Wrangler kit is one of those that I really wish they would reissue. Two versions were released back in the mid-1990s, an open top and a hardtop, and neither has seen production in the last quarter century. It's still easy enough to find them on eBay and the like, but secondary market prices have made it so if you find one you have to be real choosy about what you do with it. But once I finally secured one, the first build of course had to be one of the Jeeps from Jurassic Park.

Most of the build was pretty straightforward thanks to Tamiya's typical high quality. The engine and chassis went together with little trouble, painted according to the directions provided. The only problem I ran into was when I got ahead of myself and forgot to install the main exhaust pipe before mounting the body, and so had to cut the pipe into sections and pop the rear axle loose to get it in place. I also did my usual trick of opening the visible spring shackles to give them a more realistic appearance, and finished by replacing the tires with a set from AMT's Siverado Dually kit. They were a little more aggressive than what came in the kit, and were B.F. Goodrich brand so the "blackwall" sides would even have (most of) the correct lettering.

For the body, I removed the front fender marker lights, scratch built the windshield brace and soft top mount hardware, and used 3D printed parts for the fog lights, winch, and antenna base. The spare tire was a used part I got from a friend that had to be stripped and repainted, then matched to a fifth tire from the Dually. Inside, I filled the most egregious assembly seams on the seats before adding scratch built pouches to the front seats and doors. The final physical modification I made was the roll bar padding, made from masking tape so it had an appropriate texture.

The base color for the body is Light Sand Beige from ScaleFinishes, airbrushed over light gray primer. It was then masked off, and the interior (and seats) were painted Tamiya TS-78 Field Gray. Then it was re-masked for the stripes, which were painted TS-8 over pink primer. It was at this point that I realized I forgot to paint the underside of the tub, so one more round of masking and I hit that with some TS-4 German Gray to represent a "no expense spared" addition of undercoating (it seemed appropriate for the tropical climate of Isla Nublar). Finally, one more round of masking and a coat of TS-14 Black gave me my engine bay. It's probably the most masking I've had to do on a body. The chassis was painted several different tones of black to give it a little variety, and the wheels were done to match the stripes. The interior accents were painted Apple Barrel's Antique white, which is probably a half shade lighter than it should be but close enough to what I wanted.

Markings were a combination of Fireball Modelworks' decals for the tires and my own work for the body and license plates. The large antenna is a length of guitar wire, while the smaller antenna is a short section of black coated wire.

 

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