This is the HobbyBoss Meng Shi Special Forces version which I'm doing for the Special Forces campaign but was surprised to find no build log yet for it, so here goes....it will be an OOB and brush-painted build.


Initial comments...the moulding is crisp and flash-free and it seems very well engineered as we've come to expect from Hobby Boss. There are 6 plastic sprues + the main body, 1 clear sprue with lots of lights and a reasonably large amount of PE (I will photograph it for a later post, sorry) plus 5 vinal tyres.

The Humvee origins of this are very obvious:

Before these degenerates into a thread about industrial espionage etc it's actually licenced by GM.

Chassis and wheels nearly done

For anyone doing one of these the instructions have the wrong rear-bumber listed. It should be part E3 and not D12 if you want to add the spare wheel. Also the fit of the axels onto the wish-bone frame was very loose. Had to be held in place until the glue dried and they are fragile axels....Surprisingly poor fit here.

The dash is quite different to a Humvee though


More later
Sean

great work so far Sean,cant wait to se it finished.

Looking good so far.




Actually, they own it. The Chinese bought the Hummer label from GM around '09 as part of their Chapter 7 bankruptcy restructuring and US govt. bailout.




It is the pretty much the same as the civilian Hummer H1 dash, which is basically what the vehicle is.

Great to see a blog on this Sean- it looks to be a very promising build. Best of luck with it mate.

Gino- I actually think it was AM General themselves that co-operated in the original Mengshi project (I think the original deal was they sent out various parts and the Chinese assembled them)- now the Mengshi is entirely Chinese built but still under the AM General licensing deal. I'm not entirely sure but as far as I can tell the actual Hummer civilian brand that was bought only included the brand name and the H3. (I have an article somewhere that explains the military side of the deal- I'll try and find it and see if it mentioned anything about the civilian brand- as far as I remember the company that makes the Mengshi is not the same one that bought the civilian Hummer brand.)

Sean- I thought I would post some interior pics of the Mengshi for you- Hobbyboss didn't have the interior colors anywhere near correct on the original Mengshi kit. That being said the PLA seem to mess around an awful lot with their interiors- there are several variations of interior colors, trim, equipment etc. The most common interior coonfig is the standard grey set-up;



That picture shows the door inserts as green but they are also commonly seen in the same grey as the floor- a slightly darker shade than the dashboard. The picture below shows the seat shades- the pic is from a Police vehicle (I think) but the seat color is fairly common in military variants:



Sometimes the military also use camouflage seat covers:



Also- the armed variant you are doing is present at the PLA Museum in Beijing but I think it is quite an early model (I think it has been there since about 2008) and so the seats are darker but it does show they don't have head rests attached apart from the driver- I believe this is a common configuration for the armored variant:





I hope these help you out a bit Sean- if you need any more pics let me know.

As to the trade deals I was talking about- some basic info is provided here at SinoDefence.

And, as far as I can tell, the Hummer brand was not bought by a company called Sichuan Tengzhong- the deal, according to various news websites, never went through. I thought this was the case but Gino made me a bit un-certain as it could very well have gone through and we could never have heard anything from Hummer again, beyond the Chinese market- as happend with British MG Rover- the MG brand is making a return but Rover (now Roewe in China) isn't and is a China only make.

A Hummer enthusaists website, www.hummerguy.net also has stuff about the fate of the old company (nothing to tell really- it got shut down and just has a website for parts- still offically owned by GM but there are no staff or dealers etc). Interestingly, it seems AM General are going to release a new civilian Hummer!

The SinoDefence article does mention another company, Shenyang Aircraft Corp., and as far as I know they did build a version of the Hummer but I don't think it was taken on by the PLA.

(Apologies for being so long-winded, I'll shut up now ! )

Sean, good luck with this almost-Humvee model

You're registered on Polish Humvee forum, so take a look here too:
http://humvee-models.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=564
You'll find there some interesting photos and links.

Thanks for the pics and interest Gents. They will come in very handy. The HB colour scheme would have the entire interior in flat black but I'll go with some different greys as per some of those pics.

Kuba, I've forgotten my password and can't follow the Polish instructions

Some more photos:

The main components are built and went together without any problem. The cage was very well engineered and went together without any issues trying to line up the parts for an correct fit. The front bars have no give and can only go on right...really excellent part fit! So far they are only dry-fitted onto the body




There is going to be a bit of a gap with the hood....I can't figure out what I did wrong to cause that as all other parts seem to be well aligned


And the headlights! Very strange how they have done these. There is a lip around the opening that the clear part fits into and the instructions have you fit this first then insert the headlight from behind. However, I prefer leave the clear bits till after painting and that makes it very hard get the headlight properly seated. It's very loose in the hole and has to be just right or it's going to look cross-eyed.


That's it for now, thanks for watching. Painting to start tomorrow!

That's coming along real nice Sean- I assume you are planning to have the passenger front windscreen folded down?

Sean, PM sent.

looking great so far,nice work.

Thanks Roy. Got a bit more done at the weekend....will try post some pics tonight.

Thanks Kuba....PM sent back....

Hi karl, the front passenger side windscreen will be down. I have a PLA light machine-gun from the Dragon Hong Kong garrison set which I'll but on the mount. Curious that the have a mount for a gun there but don't give one in the kit. The big gun in the box art is not part of the kit. Only the top gun which looks similar to an M240

Anyway, after a very fast start it all slowed down, and the daughter took the camera again :-(

One quick photo to show I'm not completely asleep...


Now, most of you will notice that's 3-tone: light & mid green and desert brown. But to me I can't tell the different greens so if there are any glaring mistakes please shout. Now I remember why I like sand coloured vehicles so much....or just plain OD.

No complaints about the kit....it's going together very well. As usual I didn't follow the build plan and kept the chassis & body separate until after painting. I find it easier this way.

Will get more detailed photos in next few days and hopefully a bit more progress

Looks like it is coming along nicely. It may be the pic or my monitor, but I don't see any variation in the green color either. It looks like one color. Also, you may want to repaint the fuel tank. It should be a whitish color since it is a white plastic fuel cell, not metal.

Thanks Gino, I'll repaint the fuel tank....I'm not sure what I'll do with the greens yet