Three Caballeros
We're three happy chappies with snappy serapes

I decided to build all three of the standard Italeri 1:35 Willys MBs together, at the same time. Muscle memory thing, you know. Cement in all three right front shock absorbers, then move on. Like that.

I really like Italeri's tiny MBT trailer. It's a tiny sweetheart.

The first two, the MB with MBT and the Ambulance Jeep, should be pretty obvious. The third arrived here as a "Commando Car" which is just their way of calling out an SAS Jeep (because of the Vickers machine guns that it shipped with; they're English, which makes them SAS). I'm adding scratchbuilt armor to it, though, from flat sheet. Not a big job. I'm also adding the M2 .50 Cal machine gun from an AFV Club M38A1 kit because armored MBs had M2s.

They're all three neat kits. Boy, you should see my pile of canteens and Jerry cans. They aren't as nice as AFV Club and Tamiya Jeeps, but they're worlds better than MPC's idea of a Jeep. Details are really pretty crisp, there's little flash, and most things actually fit together fairly well. There aren't any super-fragile "You must be JOKING!" parts like a Takom has, so these can be built by most of us.

The included axe/shovel... simply cannot be attached to any of these three Jeeps without bending them around corners like a Krummlauf. No way nohow, not without recutting their notches in the left side and deepening them, then refilling them with sheet. I'm not sure how anyone missed that detail, but that's how it is with Italeri. Maybe I could add them somewhere else.

Oh, yes. The rag roof for the basic MB. There's no way to get it to *fight* fit right. If you must have a rag roof, then you'll need to use the two upright supports and build your own crossbars, then fab up your own fabric from tissue paper and white glue. The factory one is about 1/2 too short, making it nearly a scale foot out of whack. There's a reason these things sell for $18.