Alterations to the Tamiya kit:
The moulded on grill has to be cut from the
Tamiya part B1 basically along the engraved lines around the radiator but
take care not to remove too much plastic and test fitting along the way will
help get things right.
Two small notches on the top of the front chassis have to be cut off prior to fitting the resin radiator and I also added some bolt heads on the suspension mountings for a little more detail.
The Tamiya windshield (part D20) has to have the lower engine bulkheads removed and glued to the body shell (part B2) as well as the wipers and side mirrors carefully removed with a sharp blade to be re-attached to the resin windshield frame. This is made easier as you don’t have to keep the plastic windshield frame so you can destroy this in the process.
On the main body shell the raised side details on both sides has to be removed for the new resin parts and the front of the side panels have the be squared off by cutting off the pointy bit. Ensure you only remove the raised detail to where the resin armour panels end just behind the rear door and making this pint with a soft pencil first will help prevent errors. Also ensure you line the resin panels up with the body front and rear as you glue them in place.
Adding the resin parts:
Firstly add the interior cargo wall and air conditioning
bulkhead which fit okay but I added rod strips as the bottom to endure a secure
fit as the rear door was being glued shut. The full length rear bumper bar
simply attaches to the ends of the lower chassis frame without any alterations
needed apart from not using the tow shackles (parts A20).
The new extended front radiator fits precisely to the front of the chassis frame with the locating points included on the resin part but again test fit before final gluing.
The resin windshield and side door inserts are then attached to the body and both fitted well with just some minor trimming on the windshield location points either side or again test fitting will determine the amount of trimming required.
Before proceeding you will obviously add all interior parts and any other detail which will be enclosed with the rest of the body but this is not shown in the images.
Next add the kit engine hood (part B1) and providing you were careful when cutting out the radiator opening and in positioning the side armour panels and windshield the fit is perfect without any further trimming required.
A few points here after fitting the engine hood, on the right side there will
be quite a gap between the hood and the side panel next to the air intake,
this gap SHOULD be there so don’t try and fill it.
On the left side there
is quite a step between the side of the hood and the top of the armour panel
and again this is correct but the hood securing latch should be attached to the
top of the side armour panel to be exactly correct.
The new large resin roof and rear sections are added after I glued the rear door in place to fix the slight bowing of the two side ‘wings’ and the fit of this was quite good but there was a bit of trimming on the inside needed. The rear contours of the inner air conditioning bulkhead had to be reduced a little and the raised detail on the inside rear door frame has to be removed to clear the top of the cargo bay wall.
After fitting there was a bit of a gap along the lower left rear side needing filling and the gap at the bottom of the rear door is usually filled with a sealer strip on the real door and you can add this to eliminate this gap. Also not the AM General embossing on the Tamiya tailgate has been removed as this no longer on real HMMWVs.
The top weapons ring is a nice snug fit on top of the roof and all that is needed is to add the additional smaller details and any OIF items required to finish off the kit and overall the kit assembled quite quickly and easily for a conversion such as this but some experience with conversions and working with resin will be helpful. The fit of the resized doors is quite good but there may be some minor gaps needing attention but positioning the doors in the open position will alleviate any problems in this regard.
Highly recommended.
Return to First Look Review.
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Page created March 26, 2006