Hi gents,

in regards of my current project I decided to start a new thread a post pictures and comments on the construction. I started with Tamiya´s M1046 TOW Humvee, Legend´s IDF TOW Humvee conversion, MIG´s resin wheels and several Eduard´s sets ...and logically loads of pictures collected after hours spent browsing.

Here is the chassis with the front frame and the rear spare wheel holder. The Legend set seems to be very detailed, but despite the general high quality of their production, some parts were useless

The front frame in my set was a nice clear cast, but unfortunately twisted several places so I replaced it with one made from a wire used at the florists´ to fasten the flowers together. This is a thin wire covered with plastic and is very easy to bend but at the same time very solid.



The rear spare wheel holder is also a nice cast but according to the real one it is incorrect so I made one from Evergreen styrene profiles.



Usually the whole kit construction takes me about 4 - 6 months. With this one I will try to do faster and post regularly

Every comment, every help or reference picture will be highly welcome.

Rgds

Jiri

Nice start Jiri -- looking forward to more.

Cheers,
Ian

There's an old Irish saying: a good start is half the battle.

Cheers,
Sean

Nice build! It's always cool to see a HMMWV, especially when it's such a rarely seen version.

Lars

Some progress on the kit. See pictures below...

Always when building a kit, from the very beginning I focus on its one main characteristic. With may last kit it was the loads of stowage I wanted to add, with this Humvee it is to achieve a high level of detail (among others because the vehicle is completely open). Therefore neither the Tamyia´s kit nor the Legend´s and Eduard´s update sets were enough.







One of the few weakpoints of the Tamyia´s Humvee kit is the total lack of the air-co system in front of the vehicle´s commander. It was quite an easy work with few plastic pieces, plastic sheet and a hose. FYI: The air-co system in IDF Humvee looks different from US versions.

Both the US and IDF versions have the central floor covered with a tarp next to the driver and the commander (I am not a specialist, but may be some kind of isolation). The kit comes without that so I demonstrated that with a cut piece of paper. There were some more minor inaccuracies in the Tamyia´s kit I had to deal with at this stage.


Recently there was a discussion at Missing-Lynx DG about if it is correct or wrong, moral or immoral to rate the quality of models in public (as it may have a negative impact on the sales). For me the answer is clear and until someone stops me I will always be telling here my personal opinion ...whatever it is. I am more than happy when I can comment a kit positively and recommend it to others, but if there is a major mistake in it I will mention as well. At least to give the other the chance to fix it. Unforunately this will be the case of Legend´s IDF TOW Hummer conversion set.

Legend did a great job on details. According to the reference pictures you will hardly find a detail on the real vehicle which is not included in the set. But the quality of the parts is very poor (except of the PE-sheet).
I already mentioned the front frame which I could not use at all and the spare wheel holder which was shaped incorrectly. Above that the fastening frame that goes to the floor between the rear seats had to be replaced with a new one made of Evergreen profile. It was very inaccurate. But what surprised me the most were almost 4mm missing in the lenght of the rear bumper (partly visible on pic no.2 and about 7mm (!!!) missing in the lenght of the rear part of the frame. See below...



I think it is a must to purchase the Legend´s set when you want to make the IDF TOW version. There is no better on the market and despite the problems it will give you a very clear and accurate idea on the details in the real veh. Only you have to reconcile that also lot of scratch building will be needed as some parts are simply useless.

Despite I use only about 50% of the Eduard's PE set I must say this one is great! I have worked with many other sets from their production but non has been so accurate and fit so well.

There are still some details needed to the interior. Then I will go to the upper frame and TOW system and hopefully ASAP to the paintjob.

Any comment will be highly welcome. Especially I would like those who also used the Legend's set to give their 2 cents...

Regards

Jiri

fantastic build mate i'll be watching this one closely ,,, brilliant ..

Thanks Ian,

I will try to come back regularly with progress photos and comments on the kit and update sets.

Jiri

Hello,

as promised I am back with some update on the kit. I will not describe all the mistakes and inaccuracies of the conversion set. Instead I attach three pictures of the full assembled kit before the paint job. It is quite obvious which parts were scratched and which are from the orginal conversion set (light cream parts)...

This clearly shows that the whole upper frame with the TOW operator´s ring needed to be replaced due to being bend. The ring was not event rounded, but some kind of elypse
Also the TOW tubes holder must have been updated a lot. The lower deck replaced and all the parts narrowed, othervise they would had been about 10cm thick

I already mentioned that the Eduard´s PE set for the Tamiya´s kit is just great and a must for the construction. Also the Extratech´s PE bolt set was a great help during the construction, because the real vehicle has quite a lot of quite a big bolts and the PE set is very easy to work with while scratchbuilding new parts from tubes, rods and sheets.







Regards

Jiri

Look Really Great Jiri
Congrats
i hope to see it more of your work
Cheers
Seb

Jiri
A nicely complicated vehicle just how I like them.
Regards
Bill

EXCELLENT JOB!!!

Jiri-
I have seen some of your work (online) before, so I know that this will be brilliantly painted when it is finished. The construction so far is really something- you are a talented guy!

Please keep posting as this progresses!

Steve

Dear all,

thank you very much for your kind words. It´s just a hobby and one might say "Whatever they think...", but your positive (but also the negative) comments really give me the drive and make me focus even more!

I am now a little bit farther away, but here is the last set of pictures I have. At that stage the paint job on the body was done - a filter, a wash and a very VERY light drybrush and of course the weathering. Everything was fixed with the syntetic matt lacquer.
For the paint job I used the IDF armor sand of Model Master enamels. Before the wash was made it was sprayed with Tamiya´s acrylic gloss lacquer and the final matt was Humbrol´s enamel (no.49).







THX
Jiri

Loog great Jiri. Well done!

Sean

Hay man your work kicks butt big time. May I ask you and the otheres something about that chassis. QT: Are both the Tamiya´s Humvee (M1046 and M1025) chassis the same or is the chassis in the TOW M1046 kit the only one that looks that detailed I have the Legend Uparmored Conversion kit. An I was just thinking to my self if I get the basic Tamiya M1025 Humvee will I have that detailed chassis as well. "hummmmmm"

Oh and one more thing if you have resin part that are out of shape. Heat them up and there easyer to bend back in to shape. Resin is flexible once heated, there are two way to heat your resin. Air and Liquid.

great work and nice paint job, I'm already looking forwar to your next post!

As best I can rememmber the chassis is as detailed on both Tamiya kits, but, you should check the legend instructions to see is there are any parts from the TOW launcher itself that you'll need.

Both models' chassis are the same. But remember - Legend Uparmored Conversion kit is for Academy Humvees (there are some major differences in dimensions and shapes of Academy and Tamiya Humvee parts).

Your right about the fit issues. I have a friend that's giving me that M1025 Hum, so I'll lean heavy on my scratch-building skills to fit and gaps. Like Jiri Skarka AKA: "skarik" If you go look at my work on my Mk. IIID Baz Conversion you will see that this will be a bit easy to fix if needed. Thanks guys for the chassis help, I'm going on and tell my friend to bring that Hum on over.
Oh and I will look in to getting the TOW version for parts as well. Good thing is I'm only going to have to buy one kit.

Hi guys,
thanks for refreshing the topic. This kit is really time consuming! At this stage the load is painted and I am putting it into the Humvee. The chassis is half ready. I will try to post some pictures of the progress asap.

Unfortunately I have no idea about the difference between the two Tamiya´s Humvees. I think there was an update made on the veh. rear door, but apart of that...

Take care

Jiri

i remember that alot of people were using tamiya humvees for the legend conversions too. unless im mistaking. great model Jiri i love the scratch building