PMMS
Mig Productions
M1114 Up-armored HMMWV
1:35 #MP 35-254
Review by Terry Ashley

TamiyaTamiya
For HMMWV fans MIG Productions have released this conversion set for the up-armored M1114 HMMWV designed for the Tamiya Humvee kits #35263 M1025 Humvee or more appropriately #35267 M1046 Humvee as this kit provides additional OIF options.

It could possibly be used on other Humvee kits but additional work would be needed and some of the resin parts may not fit so we will concentrate on the Tamiya kits as designed.

The set consists of 28 parts in light cream resin with just the usual casting blocks to be removed as well as some parts cast with the resin sheet backing that will require removal by sanding on a flat surface.

Standard of casting is excellent overall with clean crisp details and no warping or air holes present except a some minor twist in the large roof which is pulled into place as you glue to the rear body and windshield so really isn’t as issue and slight bowing of the two rear roof “wings”, more on this later.

The set includes most of the essential parts needed to bring the Tamiya kits up to M1114 standards but the four roof mounted 4 smoke grenade launchers fitted to later M1114s are not included.

Included are the side up-armoured panels, the enlarged front radiator, full width rear bumper bar, the new roof with left side air conditioning louvers with a separate rear door, the new armoured windshield and new armoured side doors plus the new style hatch for the upper weapons ring and the new larger seats for the interior.

Detail on the parts is very well done with the doors having details on both sides if you wish to show these open but you will have to source the glass sections elsewhere. One issue is the doors are not quite the correct shape and size with some minor trimming required but nothing drastic. But the trimming does remove the small sealer lip around to outside of the doors and this can be replaced with thin plastic strip after trimming. There are also separate door handles which are quite small and will require care during cleanup but do add a nice detail touch to the doors.

Actual sizes of the doors over the resin doors
Mig Productions

The rear door also has nice details on both sides if you wish to show this open but gluing this in place fixed the minor bowing of the roof ‘wings’ mentioned earlier so this may be the better option.

The casting of the air conditioning louvers on the rear roof section has a bit of dimpling inside the louvers due to the thicker resin here and it could take a bit of effort to eliminate but may not be that noticeable after painting.

Mig Productions

The upper weapons ring has the new split hatch and you can add any weapon fit but none are included in the set and there are now a variety of shields being fitted to operational vehicles so you can exercise your building skills here.

The new extended radiator is nicely done and includes the winch which is standard on the M1114 but you may wish to also add the kit bull bar as these are also fitted to some vehicles. There is also the new lifting hooks with armoured surrounds for the hood and the full width rear bumper bar and the new windshield but you will again have to supply your own glass sections from clear stock.

On the insides are the new larger crew seats and the rear cargo bay wall with sliding hatch (although fixed in place on the resin part) and air conditioning outlets included with the rear panel that blocks off the air conditioning unit in the rear compartment. All other interior parts come from the kit or other interior update sets.

The resin wheels shown on the box top are not included (as clearly stated on the box top) and you may wish to add these using the MIG set #MP35-255 or any of the other resin radial pattern wheels designed for the Tamiya kits with the Blast Models set #BL35027K and Masters Productions set #35014 being the pick of the bunch IMHO.

There is a fair bit of surgery needed on the Tamiya kit for the new resin parts most notably cutting out the radiator from kit part B1 and cutting the lower engine bulkheads away from the kit windshield (part D20) as well as carefully removing the windscreen wipers and side mirrors from part D20 to reuse on the resin windscreen.

All the side body detail must be removed to accept the new resin side panels and the kit seat cushions will have to be cut off to use the plastic bases with the new resin seats although the instructions don’t mention this.

Mig Productions

Care is needed with this surgery especially the front radiator and test fitting of the resin radiator along the way will ease any pain as will using the chippies motto of ‘measure twice cut once’. The alterations to the kit windshield will also need care as you have to reuse most of the detail parts and it should also be noted that the side mirrors are mounted lower on the M1114 than in the Tamiya kit which is easy to do when reattaching the mirrors to the resin windshield.

As mentioned the omission of the prominent roof smoke grenade launchers is noticeable but there are still plenty of photos of M1114s in Iraq and Bosnia without the launchers so the set is still quite usable in that regard.

Instructions:
These are in the form of a small coloured sheet with photos of the resin parts called out by number and some step by step construction photos of the main components although these are quite small and a little abbreviated in parts and careful study will be needed. As mentioned the seats are not mentioned in the instructions and you will need to cut off the plastic cushions and attach the resin seats to the plastic base with a new base made for the driver’s seat.

A coupe of small photos of the interior are provided showing the location of the inner cargo bay wall and air conditioning bulkhead but these are in close-up and it’s not clear exactly where these parts go initially.

Conclusion:
Overall this is a nice update set with good quality resin parts that include most of the features of the M1114 excluding the later smoke grenades but there is quite a bit of work needed on the Tamiya kit to add the resin parts and this set may not be for the inexperienced modeller.

But once you get underway the fit of the parts was quite good and the overall look of the set represents the M1114 very nicely and will build into a nice addition to the HMMWV family especially for those who want a current vehicle for Iraq dioramas.

Highly recommended.

Resin Parts
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Mig Productions
Construction Feature
Mig Productions
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References:
WWP M998 HMMWV in detail
Present Vehicle Line No4
Wings & Wheels Publications.
Published by RAK, Czech Republic.
ISBN 80-86416-14-3
60 pages all in colour.
Concord 7510 HMMWV: Workhorse of the US Army
'Mini Color Series' No 7510
Concord Publications Co.
by Carl Schulze
ISBN 962-361-676-7
56 pages, 1/35 scale plans
Concord 7513 US Army HMMWVs in Iraq
'Mini Color Series' No 7513
Concord Publications Co.
by Carl Schulze & Ralph Zwilling
ISBN 962-361-108-0
Thanks to Mig from MIG Productions for the review samples.
MiG Productions are available in Australia from the local distributor SouthEast Hobbies


Page created March 26, 2006

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