After having spent years going to shows with my Dodge and having loads of cargo space to carry my display equipment, I was now faced with having to  dramatically cut down what I took due to the load capacity of the Jeep. 
I had to try to think of something small and portable but which would be  instantly recognisable by veterans, historians,  re-enactors and collectors. 

The Unit for which the Jeep has been restored is a French Road Traffic Company in Indochina. This in a way gave me an easy and effective solution to my problem- a French road marker typical of the colonial routes of Indochina. The Jeep positioned next to it would give me an instant small diorama.

 Despite remembering them as a child in France, I had no idea of sizes and markings. This was a job for GOOGLE! I gathered as many photos of road markers in Vietnam as possible. I researched the French markings and size, which was a lot more difficult! 

The build was fairly easy and used skills I obtained during my years of model making.

The four sides were built out of plywood, with  a rounded edge at the top of the two larger panels to give it its shape. 



I wanted to keep it as light as possible and give it a battered look. So the round section was built out of bits polystyrene covered with a layer of "papier-mâché" (a mixture of PVA glue, water and old newspaper). 

Once dry, a small coat of pollyfilla was applied to give it some rigidity.  Later, a layer of PVA glue was brushed on and sand and very small amount of gravel were sprinkled on it to give it a texture.

 Once dry, a further couple of coats of PVA glue was brushed on to bond everything down and smooth down the texture. Damage to it was done with an angle grinder and electric drill, and weathered with sand and PVA glue. The lot was painted off white, red, and was weathered down by several coats of different colour off whites and reds as well as black and ochre washes.

The dimensions of current plastic ones are  650 x 470 x 380 mm, but this does include a wider base which was not always seen on the Indochina/Vietnamese one. 
http://www.signaclic.com/borne-kilometrique-traditionnelle-sans-ligne-de-texte-art_fr_3877.html

The one I have made has been scaled down a little for transport and as this is the type without the wider base  H560 x L400 x W240mm.  I do also believe that the ones in Indochina may not have been  100% the same and several types may have been used.
 Something else I had a problem with was identifying, how they calculated the kilometers distance on the each side of the marker. 

The way it works is that the distance shown: is the distance between main towns but calculated  in an outward direction from the capital Hanoi. 

 So if you look to my marker you have PLEIKU 187km and Ban Me Thuot 3km.
The markers were supposedly positioned every kilometer along the road. This one would have stood at "point kilometrique 187" (PK187).  
187km south of Pleiku and 3km north of Ban Me Thuot. 
The two towns being South of Hanoi, on this section of Route Coloniale 14, 
the kilometer count would have started from Pleiku going south towards Ban Me Thuot. 
I hope that makes sense!

Jean-Luc (French John)

  The real ones,
the BW photo is the only Indochina area one, all the others are later ones Vietnam and post Vietnam

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