Olivier Carneau takes a look at the latest Academy Humvee kit, the M1151 Enhanced Armament Carrier.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

A question for Olivier:

How does the overall size of the model compare to other Humvees? Tamiya and Bronco kits are "compatible" in size and I believe are considered to be more accurate, while Italeri and Academy kits, while also "compatible" with each other, are different size from Tamiya and Bronco ones and supposedly not that accurate. For example Tamiya kits are significantly wider, so many conversion sets designed for Italeri and Academy kits don't fit... Doors are also different in size. Is the new kit the same overall size as earlier Academy Humvees, or was it redone to be closer in size to Tamiya and Bronco ones?

In my opinion the biggest flaw ("fatal" for me personally, so I don't plan to buy this kit, particularly that I already have the Legend converion set) of this new Academy kit is in the position of headlights - they sit clearly too low in relation to lower edges of fenders. Note how on a real vehicle - and even on the Academy kit box art above - the bottom of headlight lenses is at approximately the same height as the bottom edge of the fenders. Now compare it to photos of the built Academy model here: http://www.mmzone.co.kr/album/view.php?id=40178. Many modelers probably won't notice that, but for me it is very noticeable and makes the front of the vehicle look just wrong. I don't know what causes it, but it may be the hood sloping too much. I believe that earlier Academy Humvees also had hoods sloping more than similarly sized Italeri parts. Or maybe the front part of the fenders is not tall enough.

Pawel

Thanks for the review Oliver. The thing I'm wondering about is the price... the kit is listed on Lucky Models for $27 and HobbyEasy for $21. With $10 shipping it turns out to about 20-25EUR.

Mario

Pawel,
I just checked the hull dimensions against the Tamiya M1025 and they are the same (length and width).
I also checked the hood size and shape and it looks identical to the Tammy one too. So I can't explain the position of the headlight before I build the kit. My guess is the fender being not tall enough as you state it.

Olivier

In the box art it appears that the bracket that attaches the extended headlight/grill assembly is quite thin and is at a similar level (+/- 1mm) to the lower edge of the fenders.
However on the model, the same bracket appears a lot thicker and sits a lot lower than the fender age. Perhaps the entire headlight assembly just sits to far down and needs to be moved up? though im not sure this is possible without significant work.
(Did that even make sense? )
Still this doesn't spoil the kit for me since its great to have an M1151 that I can actually afford.Thanks for the review Olivier!

Anirudh