Jeep CJ2A (Land of Black Gold)

Land of Black Gold (French: Tintin au pays de l’or noir) is the fifteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The story was commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children’s supplement Le Petit Vingtième, in which it was initially serialised from September 1939 until the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, at which the newspaper was shut down and the story interrupted. After eight years, Hergé returned to Land of Black Gold, completing its serialisation in Belgium’s Tintin magazine from September 1948 to February 1950, after which it was published in a collected volume by Casterman in 1950. Set on the eve of a European war, the plot revolves around the attempts of young Belgian reporter Tintin to uncover a militant group responsible for sabotaging oil supplies in the Middle East.

 

– courtesy of Wikipedia

The finished model:

The story:

It’s easy to see why Land of Black Gold was cancelled and abandoned during the German occupation years. The story (reflecting what was then current events) is set on the eve of a war in Europe. Tintin heads off to the Middle East, to the fictional country of Khmed, to uncover the mystery behind a militant group responsible for sabotaging the world’s oil supply.

I have to admit, even though I’m now pretty much a fan of all of Tintin’s adventures, Land of Black Gold was never one of my favourites as a kid. I was always more intrigued by Tintin’s adventures in Asia or Africa than in the Middle East. Having said that… who can forget that scene of Thompson and Thomson driving a Jeep CJ2A aimlessly through the desert? You can’t help but chuckle to yourself as you see them laying down more and more tracks as they drive in circles, each time more and more convinced that the obvious increase in traffic has them on the right path. Classic comedy.

There have been three versions of the story, the original publication in the 1940s, the collected edition of the 1950s and an updated version in the 1970s. As a child of the 1970/80s the final volume is the “authentic” one – so as far as I’m concerned Thompson and Thomson are lucky to have been upgraded to a Jeep CJ2A instead of the original Peugeot 201. If you want to know why, I suggest you check out Rajesh Sinha’s Transport Journal entry on the Jeep CJ2A – part of his series covering all the cars that appear in Tintin’s many adventures. I’m a big fan.

Anyway, choosing the red Jeep CJ2A as the subject for this portion of my Tintin build project was simple enough. Besides being a memorable scene, it has the benefits of being an out-of-the-box build using the Academy 1/72 scale “Light Vehicles” set. It’s also just different enough from the blue Willys Jeep that appears in Destination Moon to keep it interesting. So I decided to do both of them in tandem.

The build:

The build itself was pretty straightforward – aside from getting carried away with a candle while attempting to bend the front bumper to create the damaged portion depicted in the story and accidentally warping the windscreen in the process. I don’t know what I was thinking, the windscreen was flat against the hood, so the thin top portion was close to the flame. I’m fortunate that I didn’t cause more damage – perhaps I should’ve done that warping at the beginning, no?

Luckily, I had a spare. One of the boxings of this tandem build had an option for a clear piece which I used on the blue Willys Jeep since that one was displayed with the windscreen in the upright position and needed windows. The lack of window glass on this  one didn’t really bother me since I’d already decided to display the windscreen in the flat position on the the red Jeep CJ2A – as it appears on the cover and throughout most of the story.

What I’m most proud of though, is the base. As I mentioned, that ever-growing set of tracks in the desert really sold me on this one. So right from the get-go I decided I wanted to replicate that as best I could. Luckily I happened upon a product called “Angel Clay” – basically a form of extremely lightweight paper-based “clay” for modelling. It came in several colours, but the “cookie dough” one looked to be just about perfect as is. It replicates the light texture of sand, but holds it shape very well. The best part was that I could have several goes at making the track. I simply glued together a pair of spare wheels and a wire axel cut to the correct length (the wheels of the model don’t turn of course) and then rolled them around in a spiralling pattern. If I didn’t like the outcome, I just balled up the clay and tried it again. Once I was satisfied, I just left it to dry solid (almost like a dry foam). The ONLY problem (and it was a minor one) is that it shrinks as it dries, so I needed to compensate for that.

I think it turned out alright, but let me know what you think: