Here is Hobby Boss new Land Rover WMIK I just got in the mail on Friday and already put together, ready for some paint. This is an absolute gem of a kit and will definitely be building another one very soon. Hopefully HB will follow up with more release of this truck, maybe a soft or hard top would be great since there is also civilian possibilities for these vehicles. The only real let down in the kit were the vinyl tires and chunky weapons, but more on the later. This kit builds up rather fast as I just finish build it a few hours ago. I had to use directions off line since my copy had some miss prints on it that a couple of steps could not be read.
First up was the engine, no real problems other than an alternator is missing from it. This should be an easy fit with either scratch built item or something pulled from the spare parts bin. The frame was next to tackle, this builds into a solid piece with all four tires flat on the ground. The frame it’s self is a two part affair and needs some filling and sanding. Hopefully someone will come to the rescue with after market replacement wheels. I had problems in the past with other HB kit and not getting any paint to stick to their vinyl tires. The only real problem I ran into on this whole kit was the transfer case had no positive location for mounting it to the frame. With the engine installed, locating the case and drive shaft is much easier which the directions do not talk about.
The body was next to build which had no fit problems at all. I built this per the directions with only two changes to this area. First I left off the frame for the diver’s seat since most of the photos on the net show this part not being installed. The other change was to move the rifle rack from the horizontal position the vertical position since this seems to be one of the flaws in the kit from most of the forums I have read. I just made a simple base for the rifles and added head pads to the clamps.
From here the roll cage is built up with just a few parts left off to painting easier. The one change I made was to add the spare tire mount to the side of the cage. From everything I could dig up, it talked about the tire being moved from the hood to the cage since the hood could not support the weight of the tire if it was slammed shut.
The dash was next with just the plugger and nav display left off for paint. The pintle mount was installed with just the GPMG being replace with a L7 from Dragon’s modern USMC set.
The front of the truck gets built up in left and right fender with equipment for the engine compartment. One of the discussions that popped up on other sites was the radio antenna base was from an older radio set and should be larger. I’m no expert on this truck and did not really feel like messing with it, so I just left it as is. Another thing that seems to be missing is the camo net storage basket on the hood. I just left this item off and will attempt it on another build later.
Last up was the .50 cal and last bits to add to the truck. The supplied gun in the kit was a chunky lady and decided to replace it with one from AFV Club’s stryker upgrade kit. I know the pintle mount supplied by AFV is not 100% correct, but it just looked a lot better to me. There appears to be a couple different styles of mounts for the .50 and just made the best I could. It would have been nice if HB supplied the pintle mount separate from the gun, but everything is molded as one.
