Hello everyone,
Here is the Tamiya Hummer with Mig Productions M1114 UPGRADE
Firstly I would like to thank the manufacturers for bringing out some of the best well cast aftermarket products in the last few years.
Items used during the build Included,
Calibre 35 weighted wheels. Blast Models smoke candles, 50 cal and gun shield.
Also used are Nemrod figures with a Warrior figure behind the 50 cal.
My references had been a collation of images from the internet and the Concord publication “HMMWV in Iraq “.
The Hummer was built straight out of the box with very little alterations away from the instructions.
Seam lines had been removed from the outer edge of the chassis for the preparation of the resin and copper wire spring assemblies.
The chassis was made straight out of the box with leaving the Part Numbers of plastic spring assemblies A25 and A26 substituted with the caliber 35 resin pieces.
After gluing the front grill assembly onto the chassis it was then sprayed with a mixture of
Tamiya red brown and flat earth base coat .The tyres had been sprayed a coat of Tamiya NATO Black
Testors Amour sand was used for the wheel hubs and front end.
Self adhesive Mirror cal was cut and shaped to size and stuck inside the headlight recess.
The clear headlight cover was modified by carefully sanding excess plastic around the outer rim and test fitted prior to gluing into position with small amounts of white glue.
The bonnet was painted in Tamiya NATO black, green, brown as per the instruction sheet and was touched up after it was glued into position. I used magic sculpt broken down in water and applied with a fine paintbrush to the left side corner. There was very little sanding to do.
The cab body was then built as per the instruction sheet with constant test fitting the resin roof and windshield.
The front windscreen and roof had been glued into position and the windscreen angle checked against the 1/35th scale drawing plans which come with the concord publication.
This proved extremely valuable.
The windscreen and windows had been inserted after the doors and cab had been painted.
I cut out plastic from a Heki clear plastic tree accessories packaging box .This gave me a little bit thicker windshield to represent bulletproof glass.
The good thing about the Tamiya cab was you could do all your work inside the cab and later glue it to the chassis.
The internal components, seats, stearing wheel…ect had all been painted with
Humbrol and Testors enamel paints prior to gluing together .With later going back and touching up wherever needed.
The only real trouble I struck inside the cab was the wall behind the rear seats. This was filled with magic sculpt broken down with water to a milky substance Then applied by fine paint brush. One of the easiest ways to fill something with very little sanding
The inside of the cab rear was filled up with Alice packs, bed rolls ,water bottles and an American flag draped across the rear wall behind the seats .The intention of the flag was to show patriotism for a just cause.
The dashboard and radio had been left out and painted separately with acrylic and enamel paints.
Reason for this was when spraying outside the cab I did not want overspray going all over any internal components
The kit radio was detailed with a flex cord and hand piece I grabbed from a modern dragon figure set.
Maps, documents and playing cards of the Iraqi regime had been super glued on top of the radio.
There is a large number of correct resin radios on the market I could have used but didn’t because there is very little way of viewing all the detail inside the cab.
The 50 cal boxes had been painted in Testors dark green and then a sprayed Testors glosscote and left for a day to dry .Warm water along with Gunzy mark softener was used to apply the AFV club stencil and any excess water /solvent was removed by a tissue. A final coat of Testors dullcote was then sprayed over the top of the stencil
After all major components had been glued inside the cab the vehicles crew weapons had been painted with Humbrol metalcote and flat black, test fitted on location in the cab and glued into position with super glue.
The gun ring ,shield,50 cal and smoke launchers along with other small assemblies like the side mirrors and radio aerials had been painted before being glued on the outside of the Hummer.
The end of the aerials had been dipped into superglue and then spray with an accelerator or
Zap kicker we call it here
The windscreen wipers and mirrors had been cut away from the original plastic windshield mount and modified.
I used the scale planes to find the centre of each windscreen and drilled out the area to where the windscreen wiper shaft was to be positioned. Evergreen rod was then glued into position. The wipers had been glued to the rod by Tamiya thin poly cement and I used Tamiya putty broken down with liquid glue to fill in any problem areas.
The side mirror mounts had been detailed with bolt heads I punched out of evergreen card.
The mirrors had been painted in Testors armor sand .Mirror cal was then pressed into the recess of the mirror body by a toothpick and then trimmed to sit inside the mirror housing.
I then used a coat of Feast Watson acrylic floor shine to seal the mirror cal into position. After a day or so I then used Testors glosscote to give the mirror cal added shine. I was trying to replicate what the real thing looks like.
The gun ring, shield and hatch had then been super glued into position with constant test fitting of the Warrior figure leaning against the 50 cal.
After the side doors had been glued on the external component gluing sequence went as follows
1/ gun ring/50 cal shield and hatch
2/air filter breather mount scratch built out of evergreen strip with punched out hex bolts
3/ windscreen wipers
4/ side mirrors
5/ smoke launcher mounts (note I had the smoke grenades already glued to the body)
6/ rear aerial mounts
7/ fine copper wire was then used for the rear aerials and smoke launchers
8/ gluing Warrior figure into position
9/ Last of all the handles
The Nemrod and Warrior figures uniforms have been painted with Humbrol enamel 121 cream, 186 red/brown, Testors RAF sky “type s”. The boots received a base coat of Humbrol chocolate brown with Humbrol 93 Dark yellow as the highlight for the boots.
The skin tone was base coated with Humbrol flesh with oil pants used for the flesh tone. Transparency in skin tone was to create realism, life.
I hand painted the vehicle markings with a 00 paintbrush. The yellowish bar was done with Humbrol 83 stone with Humbrol flat black for the letters and numbers.
The vehicle markings had been based off vehicles used in taskforce
1-77 from the Concord publication. The only real down side at the present is the availability of aftermarket stencils of unit and vehicle markings operating in Iraq over the last couple of years.
The weathering was achieved by rubbing pastel chalks and Mig pigments into the tyre treads Pastel chalks had then been applied by a very fine brush sparingly around the lower half of the vehicle.
Pastel Colours used in a blended mix were white, yellow, brown and light grey.
Conclusion
Test fit the components as you go .Areas of notice are the side doors and rear wall behind the back seats I enjoyed every part of building this Hummer.
A lot of time was soaked up in this project .roughly 8 weeks
I was inspired by all the excellent looking models in the Humvee campaign that helped me to complete this model and I hope that my construction notes help any fellow modelers who want build the M1114 HMMWV Humvee
Happy modeling,
Michael
