Hi all fellow pigs,
Here is my Humvee for the TT tour build. I used Academys M996 kit. and added scrap metal armour to the doors and scratchbuilt the MG shield (I couldn't get the angle right)
As always all comments welcome

Great Job Andy. Looks like you put a lot of work into this one...Looks great. Do you plan to build a base for it?? Just wondering..
Mary (++)

Thanks Mary, Not to sure on a base maybe in the future

Looks good , though i have some question on the door cover look. Maybe some rework there. Looks a bit of mess to my eyes, but there is always the case i didnt quite understand what u try to imply . Some day i d like to build one of these

sorry Costas, but in the early stages of the war, when there wasn't many of the up-armored hmmwvs around, the "Hillbilly Armor" was used. They'd weld pieces of scrap iron to the trucks.

Nice improvised armor. Gives it a lived in feeling

In the future, there is an extension on the gun mount that extends forward and attached to the gun shield. That allows for the angling. That is really a factory kit that is being distributed to units in the field. In the meantime, unit workshops are making their own. So accuracy is not really necessary as their seems to be no real standard for fabricatied gun shields.

Given such an old kit, you did a great job. The scratchbuild additions to the doors are well done and you should be proud with that.

Some easy fixes that you could do in less than an hour are painting the indicator lights on the sides. These are the little circular bumps and the half circle bumps on the front and rear sides. The front is orange and the rear is red and can be seen in the below photo from Olive-Drab.



The other thing you can do is make a radio wire for your radio antenna with wire. I usually twist thin-gauge wire, but a single length works too. I don't know the exact length, but I am sure Epi, HeavyArty, sopmod6 and others could answer this.

Otherwise, good job. Remember that you may not be proud of your scratchbuilding now, but this stuff does not come overnight much less in just one model. The cliche "Practice makes perfect" holds much truth here.

Jeff

I'd replace the MG with a better casting that doesn't have a solid trigger/handle.

hey andy , not too bad on the add on armor - it has the hill-billy look to it - as for the marker reflectors - we tape over them or we break them with a hammer - that way we present less of a target at night - we also tape over our head lights to reduce the shine to the sides of the road at night - the green hood gives it that used and abused look as well - a lot of the hummers over here have been run ragged and have a few mix-matched parts - over all good job toad out .

I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up.

Andy, disregard the marker lights critique.

Jeff

Great job Andy

Thanks for the comments everyone ,
@ Costas, as AJ said the welded scrap metal on to the doors before the manufactered armour was available.
@ Jeff, Thats great information. I will deffinatly take that on board for any other Humvees I plan to do. Now I have a question for you. Is there a kit form of the Humvee in your picture?
@ Hi TT hows things with you?, I am glad my build has your approval :-)

The photo was the first photo I found while doing a Google search that illustrated my point with the marker lights. I don't know nationality or even specific identification of the vehicle.

But by looking at the guy in the photo, he doesn't look American (by uniform anyway). Also note the European vehicles in the background. Also note the mud guards in the rear, something I've never seen on American Hummers (not to say they aren't there).

As for the vehicle, I can't tell if it is a canvas top or a hard top armament carrier. I want to say canvas because of...well...canvas and the unarmored "baffles" above the engine grill, plus the lack of the rear enclosure on armored Humvees, but I want to say hard top because of the ring mount.

As for a kit specific to the photo in question, ye..no.

There is Tamiya's M1025 Armament carrier, which is great and a breeze to get through, as well as Blast Model's Weapon Ring set for the Tamiya kit. The two combined make for a great model. The Blast Model kit included a MK-19, M2, and an M249 SAW as well as the factory kit produced gun shield.

There are a number of other canvas versions, Italeri and Academy built with limited quality by today's standards, but nothing that looks completely like the photo above.


I don't have a current picture with the shield installed, but I will shortly when I take pictures of the finished model for the MP campaign.

Pawel's review of the Blast Model set.
Humvee late type weapons ring & other details set

Hope that helps.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, Thanks for the information. I have a strong feeling that the Humvee from your pic is an Isareli one.
I ask about the Kit cause I would like to do a SOF Humvee one day and am looking for a kit that has both the front and back seats but with not rear cover. I am not sure whether the Italeri desert patrol kit is like that.
Pawels reviews are very good and I will keep them in mind.

Also look at Pro Art's Dumvee conversion. There are some issues with it, but over all I hear it is really great.

Jeff

Yeah I have been eyeing that up too