1/72 美国海军航母拖车模型

Preface/前言

本文是Alex Suvorov发表在ARC上，经过原作者许可后由我翻译并转载到本站。2017年又找到了作者发在博客上的大图、后来添加的更多文字内容补充到本文中。转载本文请征得原文作者同意。由于本人水平有限，翻译难免有错误，还望同好不吝指出。后来还陆续加入了一些我自己和朋友们的考证。感谢飞猪中队长的翻译协助，风吹小卷毛的考证协助。文中一切观点只代表原作者本人。

Article/正文

I always wanted to have all types of the U.S. Navy's flight deck tractors in 1/72 scale so as to be able to compliment every type of the U.S. carrier aircraft model with a contemporary little tractor. And although my diorama projects are not complete yet, the issue of flight deck tractor models has quite recently become resolved. This article covers my models of all types of flight deck tractors that served on U.S. aircraft carriers.

我一直想收集齐1/72的美国海军航母拖车模型，所以尽可能的收集了各种带同时代拖车的美国航母模型。尽管目前我的模型计划还未完成，但是最近这些航母拖车模型已经完成。本文涵盖了我所有的美国航母拖车模型。

作者的全部航母拖车模型

1. Willys MB Flight Deck Tractor 威利斯MB拖车

Introduction 介绍

Basic information on the Willys MB ¼ ton 4x4 utility truck is available in Wikipedia (link) and will not be repeated here. However, not everyone knows that in addition to widespread use by the Army and the Air Force the ubiquitous jeep has also served on aircraft carriers.

威利斯MB 1/4吨 4X4通用车辆的基本信息请去wikipedia浏览（地链接址），本文不在赘述。但是并不是所有人都知道这种在陆军、空军中随处可见的吉普车也在航母上服役。

Willys MB jeeps appeared on U.S. Navy carrier decks in mid 1942. At this time Grumman Avenger torpedo-bomber was entering squadron service and it was much heavier than the mainstays of early wartime air groups, F4F Wildcat fighters and SBD Dauntless dive bombers. Thus the long established practice of manhandling aircraft around the deck began to negatively affect the efficiency of flight operations, which already increased dramatically when compared to the pre-war years and the first months of war. The logical choice was to have aircraft towed by tractor tugs, and Willys MB jeeps, together with Ford and Clark tractors, were acquired to serve in this role. Thus the Willys jeeps have faithfully served as aircraft tractors on fleet carriers (Yorktown and Essex classes) as well as on smaller ships (Independence, Bogue, Sangamon, Casablanca classes) till the end of the war. Afterwards, most shipboard jeeps were retired. For a short period of time some were retained for use as aircraft starters until replaced by purpose-built NC-1A vehicles in the early 1950's.

威利斯吉普在1942年中期出现在美军航母上。当时装备格鲁门公司生产的“复仇者”鱼雷轰炸机的中队开始在航母上服役，复仇者轰炸机相对当时航母上的主力战机F4F“野猫”战斗机、SBD"无畏"俯冲轰炸机等重很多。作战中再按照战前以及开战前一个月那样靠人力来推动飞机在航母甲板上运动几乎是不可能的事。用拖车来拖曳是非常合理的选择。威利斯吉普和福特、克拉克的拖车一起被选中。从此，威利斯吉普作为航母拖车在舰队航母（约克城和埃塞克斯级航母）以及护航航母（独立、伯格、圣加蒙、卡萨布兰卡级）上一直服役到二战结束。战后大部分航母吉普退役，少部分作为启动车一直服役到1950年代早期，最后被专门生产的NC-1A型拖车取代。

PK注：2020年3月2日，和好友风吹小卷毛聊天中发现威利斯吉普用到了越战时期。下图中的 橙色威利斯吉普和VA-212“猖狂的袭击者” 中队的A-4F同时出镜，旁边还有一辆MD-3拖车（本文的第3节中介绍）。照片拍摄于1968年，根据本站《越战中的A-4天鹰》一文推测是在好人理查德号甲板上。这辆威利斯的引擎盖貌似做了调整。

1968: BuNo 154983 on the far left, with two squadron mates loaded for a mission. 154983 will survive combat and later become a Blue Angel. Photo from Richard Mylar. via www.skyhawk.org

Kit 套材

A number of Willys MB kits are available in the 1:72 scale. There are older models from Hasegawa, Academy and Italery, as well as more modern ones offered by Airfix (re-packed by Heller) and S-Model.

1/72的威利斯吉普的板件有多种可选，爱德美、长谷川、意大利的套材比较老。Airfix（Heller也包装过这套套材卖）和 S-Model的比较新。

As I lack the S-Model's kit, my brief comparison will only focus on the differences between the newer Airfix / Heller sets (catalogue numbers 01322 and 79997 respectively) and the ageing Hasegawa / Academy offerings.

我没有S-Model的产品，所以我只对比Airfix / Heller的套材 (货号分别为 01322 和 79997 ) 和长谷川/爱德美的。

In my view, the Airfix / Heller's item will represent a real Willys quite accurately even when built straight out of the box. First of all, the wheels and the radiator grille – both very distinctive features of this legendary vehicle – are way more accurate compared to what we see in older kits. Then, considerably more interior and chassis details are present, although these are still too thick and rough for the scale. On the down side, the axe-and-shovel toolkit is molded together with the bodywork, and the grille is marred by a round badge intended for data on the vehicle weight and bridge class (not applicable for the USN vehicles).

我认为Airfix / Heller的套材即使只是开盒直做，也能很好的表现出威利斯精准的外形。首先，这款传奇车辆的轮子和水箱比老板件更准确。其次，Airfix还提供了很多内部和底盘的细节，尽管它们相对比例而言有些过大。斧头和铁锹直接铸造在车体两侧。进气栅格上有个贴部队标志的小圆型（美国海军没有使用这个）。

Airfix的套材

长谷川的套材

Construction 制作

When building my model, I made the following improvements and changes to the Airfix kit:

当我在制作这套模型的时候，我做了一下改造来提高我的Airfix套材：

- Details molded together with the jeep's body (braces, toolkit, etc.) removed.

去除了吉普车体的部分细节（风挡、工具包等）。

- Instead, the following detailing scratch-built and added: spare wheel and jerrycan empty holders, hood locks, steering wheel, gearbox levers, pedals.

并且自制了以下细节：备胎、空的油桶架子、引擎盖锁、方向盘、变速箱操纵杆、踏板。

- Scratch-built detailing added to the chassis, including shock absorbers, leaf springs, exhaust system and the engine block.

底盘自制了减震器、板簧、排气系统和发动机组。

- Clear headlights with foil reflectors (from an aftermarket set by Elf) installed.

透明前灯用 Elf 的金属反射片替换。

- Photoetched metal radiator grille, custom-designed and manufactured, used in place of the respective plastic part.

设计、定制了蚀刻片的散热器格栅，替换了原来的塑料零件。

Painting & Markings 上色和涂装

Color historical photographs confirm the existence of Olive Drab (FS34087), Ocean Grey (FS36187) and Sea Blue (FS15042) painted Jeeps on carrier decks during the war years. In that period overall Ocean Grey was the standard color, while Olive Drab and Sea Blue were exceptions, not the rule. After the war most carrier deck vehicles, including the remaining Willys jeeps, were repainted with Orange Yellow (FS33538).

通过战时的彩色历史照片可以确认航母上的拖车吉普有橄榄褐 (FS34087)、大洋灰 (FS36187)和海兰 (FS15042) 三种喷涂颜色。在那个时候，整体喷大洋灰才是标准色，橄榄褐和海兰是例外，不合标准。战后多数甲板车辆，包括剩下的威利斯吉普，重新涂成了橙黄色(FS33538)。

It appears that the jeeps did not receive any standardized markings while in service on carriers. There is a couple of photos where jeeps carry "U.S.N. *****" legend on the hood; but on a majority of historical photographs carrier-based jeeps do not have any markings whatsoever.

一般来说，这些在航母上服役的吉普车并没有任何标准化的喷涂标记。有少量的照片里，吉普车引擎盖上喷了“U.S.N.*****”的文字，但在大多数历史照片里，舰载吉普车没有任何的标记。

My model is painted Ocean Grey FS36187 overall so as to represent a most typical wartime case.

我的模型喷涂了大洋灰FS36187来表现战时情景。

Reference Data 参考资料

[1] The U.S. Army Jeep at War | S.J.Zaloga | Concord Publications, 2009

[2] A selection of photo walk-arounds: link

[3] An article on the history of the U.S. Navy's flight deck tractors | Military Aircraft Monthly magazine, May 2010 issue, pages 68-70

[4] Some historical photographs that show carrier deck Willys jeeps in various colors: link, link, link, link, link.

2. Clarktor 6 Flight Deck Tractor/克拉克6型拖拉机

Introduction 介绍

Same as with Willys jeeps, the U.S. Navy started to use Clark tractors on its aircraft carriers in the first wartime years. Clarktor 6 tractors, which by that time has already been in service on the U.S. Army Air Force airfields, helped to tow and position aircraft on the carriers' busy flight decks and saw success in this role. Replaced by newer flight deck tractors in the mid 1950s, Clarktors continued to serve on some Naval Air Stations until the late 1960s.

和威利斯吉普一样，美国海军也是在二战初期开始在航母上使用克拉克拖拉机。这种克拉克6型拖拉机那时已经在美国陆军航空队服役。它非常适合在繁忙的航母甲板上飞机拖曳到指定位置。1950年代中期被新的航母拖车替换后，它还在陆地上的海军航空兵基地服役到1960年代。（PK注：这种拖车还在台湾空军、印度航母上服役过！）

Kit 套材

Clarktor 6 tractor model in the 1:72 scale is available from Academy and VideoAviation. My model comes from the Academy's set ("U.S. Ambulance & Tow Truck", catalogue # 13403) which also includes a Dodge WC54 ambulance and a rather generic bomb cart. The plastic is good, but the tractor's parts are a bit crude and lack fine detailing. To build an accurate model one will have to replace the wheels and to correct the shape of the front grille, rear fenders, hood and dashboard. An aftermarket photoetched detail set by Eduard (catalogue # 22111) is available for this kit. Most photoetched parts are there to detail the Dodge ambulance; those intended for the tractor are few and not particularly accurate, especially the front grille and the dashboard.

1/72的克拉克6型拖拉机可以买爱德美和VideoAviation的。我的模型是爱德美编号为13403的美国救护车/拖车套材中的。这套套材中还有一辆道奇WC54型救护车和一个装炸弹通用的挂车。套材的塑料很好，不过拖车却相当的粗糙，缺乏良好的细节。为了做好这个模型，最好替换掉车轮并对进气口栅栏、后挡泥板、引擎盖和仪表板进行修型。牛魔王为这款模型出了蚀刻片（货号 # 22111），大部分零件都是给救护车用的，拖拉机用的零件不多，而且并不准确，特别是进气口栅栏和仪表板。

上方是进气口栅栏对比，依次是实物、爱德美的模型零件、实物开孔图、牛魔王开孔图、爱德美开孔图。下左是轮胎对比，下右是仪表板对比。

Construction 制作

My Clarktor model from the Academy's set was subject to the following improvements:

我的克拉克6型拖拉机是爱德美的套材，并做了以下改造：

The tractor's body was corrected to accommodate twin rear wheels (as seen on most USN Clarktors); this included modifying the rear wheel wells and fenders.

拖拉机的车体为了容纳下两个后轮做了矫正（参考看到的实物），修改了后轮轮舱和后挡泥板。

The kit's wheels do not even remotely resemble the real thing. Therefore new front and rear wheels were made using some aircraft wheels from a box of spares.

套材自带的轮子很差，远看还将就。从零件箱里找了些其他飞机轮胎重制了前后轮。

New front grille was made, as neither the kit's original one nor the one from a photoetched detail set made by Eduard are accurate.

进气口栅栏重制，既不像原套材那样，也不是牛魔王的那样。

Dashboard and engine cowling's side panels were made from scratch. Again, neither the kit's original dashboard nor the one offered by Eduard is accurate.

自制了仪表板和发动机罩两侧的面板，同样无论是套材还是牛魔王的蚀刻片都是不准的。

Finally, I have added clear headlights with metal foil reflectors.

最后，我添加了带金属反射箔的补品透明前灯（最早版本里，作者提到了这家名叫Elf的公司的产品）。

Painting & Markings 上色和涂装

Wartime flight deck Clarktors were painted overall Ocean Grey (FS36187). After the war they were repainted with Orange Yellow (FS33538). It appears that Clark tractors did not receive any standardized markings while in service on carriers. There are some photos where they carry "U.S.N. 11-*****" legend on the hood; but on most historical photographs carrier-based Clarks do not carry any identification numbers. However, many carry black diagonal stripes on the radiator grille.

战时，克拉克航母甲板拖拉机全车都涂上大洋灰 (FS36187)，战后，它们被重新漆上橘黄色(FS33538)。看起来本拖拉机在航母上服役的时候并没有涂上一些标准化的标志。有些照片里，这种拖拉机引擎盖上喷了“U.S.N.*****”的文字，但在大多数历史照片里，舰载拖拉机没有任何的识别数字。但是，有许多拖拉机在散热器格栅下方涂有黑色斜角条纹。

My model is painted Orange Yellow to represent a post-war flight deck tractor.

我的这款拖拉机模型表现的是战后的航母甲板上服役状态，所以涂了橘黄色。

Reference Data 参考资料

[1] A photo walk-around (relevant pictures are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 13 through 16): link

[2] A number of pictures on this page show Clark tractors in service on the USS Coral Sea: link