PMMS
Verlinden
Hummer Weapons Carrier Detail Set

1/35 Kit No. 1976

Review by Terry Ashley

This set is a re-release of set #915 which was originally designed for the Academy Hummer kits.

It contains 68 resin parts and a large etched fret with more parts than I care to count. The resin parts are cast in the usual Verlinden grey/green resin and are blemish free with nice details included. There is also a length of wire and thin lead sheet for storage straps.
The etched fret is well formed with many small parts used on there own or as parts of well detailed and intricate sub-assemblies.

Included in the set are new resin doors, rear hatch door, top weapons ring, new seats and radios, although these are the older type and not the newer Singars.

Also included in resin is a new instrument panel and air conditioning unit under the dash and for the top a choice of .50cal MG or Mk.19 grenade launcher. There is also a selection of .50cal and 20mm ammo boxes for the rear compartment or fitted to the weapons mounted on the top weapons ring.

Etched parts are included for the rear compartment ammo racks, the main front radio rack, latch details on the inside of the rear hatch and details on the insides of the doors, there is also a nice central weapons pedestal which can be assembled in any positioned either raised or lowered and anywhere in between. The driver's foot pedals are also in etched metal and will be right at home in the Tamiya kit which lacks these.

Although the new set is labelled as applicable to the Academy or Tamiya HMMWV kits, this unfortunately is not the case. Any resin parts that have to directly replace or fit precisely to the Tamiya kit simply DO NOT fit.

The Academy kits are slightly smaller in most areas to the Tamiya kit which means the major resin parts are too small for the Tamiya kit, these include the four side doors, the rear hatch door and the weapons ring which are in fact most of the major parts. On the etched fret the hood radiator louvers don’t fit The Tamiya hood for the same reason and the perforated ring on the inside of the weapons ring is too short as the Tamiya ring is of a larger diameter then the Academy ring.

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What aren’t in the set are the wheels shown on the box top illustration but there is no mention on the box they are not in the set, this seems a tad misleading as anyone looking at the box would naturally assume they were in the set.

If you have a set of Verlinden HMMWV wheels lying about you will find they stick out some 2mm from the body without serious modifications to either wheels or axle hubs.

If you want to replace the Tamiya wheels you would be far better using either the Blast Models set #BK35027K (radials), Masters Productions set #35014 (bias ply) or the Trakz set #TX0085 (bias ply) which are all designed to fit the Tamiya axle hubs directly without modifications and are also better detailed that the Verlinden wheels which have oversized centre hubs.

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Verlinden

Okay so what can you use? Any parts that don’t have to replicate the Tamiya kit parts such as the resin .50cal and 20mm ammo boxes with their etched racks, front radio racks, etched driver’s foot pedals, nicely detailed etched central weapons pedestal and the inner latch mechanism for the rear hatch which is also nicely detailed.

The resin M2 .50cal MG and Mk.19 grenade launcher are very nice with additional etched detail parts and will look good mounted on the Tamiya weapons ring. The doors have separate etched inner details including the window channels which again could be used on the Tamiya kit doors if you wish along with many of the smaller etched detail parts.

The instructions are a double sided letter sized page with drawn illustrations showing the assembly of the major assemblies and what is there seems clear enough but some things don’t get a mention. For example the .50cal assembly is illustrated but there is nothing on assembling the Mk.19 and its ammo racks and additional reference will be very useful for this set.

This is not the first time Verlinden has re-released an old set designed for another kit and claimed it will fit a new Tamiya kit, the T-55 sets come to mind and quite frankly this is unfortunate as people will buy these sets and find out the hard way that many of the major components simply don’t fit.

As Eduard and others can release separate detail sets designed to fit different kits properly why can’t Verlinden instead of simply re-releasing mislabelled older stuff for a quick buck.

That said, there are some smaller items in these sets that are quite good and can be used on the Tamiya kits but these “new” sets should be well labelled so the buyer is fully aware that it is “not” designed for and many parts will “not” fit the Tamiya kits as claimed on the box.
It should also be made clear that things like the wheels shown on the box top don’t quite make it into the set either and it may be better to wait for a set specifically designed for the Tamiya kit where the parts actually fit.

The Resin and etched Bits
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Page created 30 October 2003

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