1:35 Scale WWII Army Mobile Field Kitchen truck

[Old Marine]

Rusty, thanks for posting the photos. This was a good, fun project of a rarely seen subject. Most of the time the service units get over looked even though there were usually a lot more of them than the combat arms guys. Even though this is just a small plastic and resin model it gives an idea of how a WWII mobile kitchen operated.

 

I poked around for months looking for reference photos and even though I depicted this kitchen truck operating somewhere in the ETO I never did find a photo of one of these trucks actually set up and operating in the ETO. If anyone has a photos of them operating overseas please post them.

 

I am pretty sure these trucks must have been used overseas supporting the GIs. I think that there probably aren't many photos, or at least any that I could find, because the combat photographers were more interested in getting action and dramatic shots of combat, tanks and artillery. I think if you sent back a roll of film of with photos of a mundane field kitchen with GIs scrubbing pots, peeling potatoes and boiling beans your editor might not be too happy with boring photos like that.

 

The water was actually a lot easer and came out a lot better than I thought it would. The water was made with Liquitex Acrylic Gel Medium. You can get it where they sell artist paints. The Gel Medium has the consistency of pudding and is opaque white. When it dries it dries crystal clear. Because it is acrylic it washes up with water and can be thinned with water and has no smell or none of the problems of working with those 2 part clear resins. It's very good for small things like this. The water in the pot of carrots is Gel Medium also.

 

For the GI pouring the water I cut a strip of clear plastic from a piece of some heavy packaging. I used that heavy clear plastic that they package everything in these days and is impossible to open. I cut a strip of that to fit in to the drilled out mouth of the water can. I put a big glob of the Gel Medium in to the pot and then stuck the strip of clear plastic in to the middle and let it dry for a few days. Once it dried clear I added some more gel medium and let that dry, its a long slow process.

 

Once that was completely dry and clear I glued the boxes and pot in place and let that dry good and solid. Then with the GI holding the water can completely painted I fit the clear strip sticking up out of the pot in to the mouth of the water can and glued the soldier in place with hot glue so it dried fast and solid. When I pulled the figure down and glued him in place the strip of plastic formed that natural curve of the water flowing out of the can. I then brushed on a tiny bit of the the Gel Medium on to the strip to give it some texture. I worked out better than I thought it would.

 

As for the Ration boxes I set them up as cut and fold in Abode Illustrator and then printed them out on brown kraft paper. I have also had luck printing them on cut up shopping bags, and manila envelopes.

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments and photos.

 

Dennis

[msgdavidrcastle]

Great display.  I am also working on one.  Could you please tell me where got the cabinet that the cook is chopping the vegetables on.  Thanks in advance for your help.

[Old Marine]

Hello David,

 

all the kitchen appliances, the stoves, rack light, refrigerator and a few pots pans and utensils came with the Plus models resin kit that I showed in the first photo.  
 

Plus models is from the Czech Republic.  I found and bought that kit thru Michigan Toy Soldier Company.  MTSC, is a real shop near Detroit.  I’ve dealt with them and they are good to work with.  I think if not in stock they will special order it for you.

 

This is neat project, I like modeling the important support function as much as all the green things bristling with guns.  Good luck with you project.  Post photos if you like.

 

Dennis

[msgdavidrcastle]

19 hours ago, Old Marine said:

Hello David,

 

all the kitchen appliances, the stoves, rack light, refrigerator and a few pots pans and utensils came with the Plus models resin kit that I showed in the first photo.  
 

Plus models is from the Czech Republic.  I found and bought that kit thru Michigan Toy Soldier Company.  MTSC, is a real shop near Detroit.  I’ve dealt with them and they are good to work with.  I think if not in stock they will special order it for you.

 

This is neat project, I like modeling the important support function as much as all the green things bristling with guns.  Good luck with you project.  Post photos if you like.

 

Dennis

 

[msgdavidrcastle]

Thanks for info.  I did full size Kitchen Truck back the 90s. If you would like to see it go to seabeecook.com and look for David Castle's Kitchen Truck.  I no longer have it as retired from the Military and moved from Alaska back to Virginia and could not afford to bring it with me.

[manayunkman]

On 12/26/2017 at 8:14 PM, Old Marine said:

I think the Mess truck is finished. These photos are not the best, I'll try to get some better ones outside the next time the sun comes out. In the meantime here are a bunch of photos to look over.

 

Thank you all for your comments.

 

Dennis

Looks like the young lady’s skirt is made of airborne ID panels.

 

Nice diorama.