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1/48 WW2 Aircraft Diorama Figures and AC

3 - Vehicles and accessories kits available from mainstream manufacturers.

With the recent release of 1/48 scale Armour kits, we can hope to have more injected vehicles and accessories to go with our beloved WW2 plane models in the future. But today, the choice is limited! Only Revell/Monogram and Tamiya have produced mainstream kits that are easily available.

Revell Monogram's WW2 Ground Support Equipment (ref.04511 for Revell) (picture 19) This is, to my knowledge, the only kit of his kind available today and therefore a "must have" for anyone wanting to build WW2 Aircraft dioramas. I think it is available as a Monogram or Revell boxing. The set includes 6 nicely rendered pieces of airfield equipment: a German Oil Cart, a German Bomb Lift Trolley, an USAAF Tractor, an USAAF Bomb Trolley, a British Oil Bowser and a British Accumulator Trolley (picture 20). Fortunately this kit is available almost everywhere for a good price. Definitely recommended as a starting point!

Tamiya's Kübelwagen (ref. 32501 and 32503) and Citroën Traction (ref.32517) kits (picture 21) When it comes to injected vehicles, the only choice right now is Tamiya! Other kits are exist (Bandai), but they are old and not easy to find. Of course everybody knows Tamiya's excellent Kübelwagen and Traction kits. You can find reviews of all these kits here at Armorama: Kübelwagen and Citroën Traction. Other vehicles are available (Schwimmwagen, Universal Carrier, Sherman, Tiger, T-34 etc...) but aren't really suitable for Aircraft dioramas as such so I won't talk about them.

Tamiya's Brick Wall, Road Sign and Jerry Can sets (ref.32508, 32509 and 32510) (picture 22) These sets have been designed to go with the 1/48 Armour range of kits but can be used for Aircraft dioramas as well. In the Brick Wall for example, you have sandbags that could be placed near a plane. The Road Sign set also provides you various useful items and the Jerry Can set has many fuel drums that were used on every airfield (picture 23).

Tamiya's "Special Edition" kits. Sometimes, you can find additional diorama vehicles and accessories in Tamiya kits. The Kettenkraftrad (picture 24), for example, is available in "Special Edition" Me 262 and Do335 kits while a Moto Tug can be found in a limited F4U-1D Corsair kit (picture 25). Lately, a sprue from the Jerry Can set was added as "bonus" in their "new" Hs 123 kit. This is a nice idea from Tamiya but only gives you a limited choice of subjects.

Conclusion

With injected plastic accessories kits and ground crew sets, you can make nice dioramas... if you like German and US subjects! Kübelwagen, Kettenkraftrad, US Tractors, Moto Tug and a lot of figures and accessories are available if you like Messerchmitts and Mustangs. For British and Russian projects you might find something: some figures of course and smaller equipment. For Japanese or, even worse, French, Italian or Polish figures and accessories, you will have to go another way to get what you want: resin and white metal aftermarket stuff! That will be the content of part 2 of this article.