Seb Viale takes a look at the newly tooled HEMTT Gun Truck from Italeri, and shares his thoughts on it with us.

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Thanks!

I was on my way to buy one. Thank you for the review, I will make another choice!

I never expected that Italeri would upgrade the moulds. The only reason for to buy this will be the m.g. ring mount. I could use the rest to builsd an "A4" HEMTT of some kind.
I constantly pray to the modelling gods that they give a "divine hint" to some China companies.

I own the HEMTT that they first released and I was disappointed with the quality of the kit when i opened it, havnt built it yet as im saving it for the extreme trucks campaign, for me the biggest let down was the wheels, they look terrible so atleast this release may bring the 1st kit back into light and make it easier to obtain resin wheels etc, lies like this makes us lose faith in companies that have been going for decades, with new kids on block (I.e. Meng) going all out to 'break the mould' and bring us new tricks to the table.

So, Italeri VS Academy. Is that all we have for the HEMTT?



Jeff

The only 1/35 HEMTT is the Italeri kit, also reboxed by Revell and Academy. They are all the same plastic on the inside.

Academy?... Never heard of any HEMTT release from Academy. Anyone has any info on that? There is a Hobby Gallery from Korea rebox with resin and PE included, but I never heard they are related to Academy.

Academy has a 1/72 HEMMT, that's the only one I know of.

I'm still going to get one of these.. only game in town and all that Plus, it's good enough for my skill level

Hisham

Apparently Hobby Gallery is or is related to Academy. It is litsed as Academy on some sites. Some say this -- "All of our items are officially distributed by ACADEMY PLASTIC MODEL CO., LTD. KOREA."

It is still the same Italeri plastic though. It only comes with some PE and resin wheels. I don't think it is worth the price they are charging for it (about $70 plus shipping).



The kit can be a good base for super detailing. Real Model has a few sets, along with Pro Art, and a bunch of wheel sets for it by various makers. Costly, but it can be made to look good when done.

Honestly, If Trumpeter, (who seems to be the only one doing modern US trucks) was to do a HEMTT it would be more expensive the the Italeri kit with after market parts. Ye it would e nice to have a more detailed kit with everything you need in the box, But price point there wouldn't be much different.

I can't speak for brands I have not personally seen, but I have these from Legend and they are quite good.

http://www-legend.co.kr/01_afv01.html?table=product&st=view&page=2&id=502&limit=&keykind=&keyword=&bo_class=1&fpage=&spage=

In some way or another some modeling companies like Italeri and Revell seem to focus on the average modeler, who may never have heard of PE sets, resin upgrade sets and what ever we spend our money on.( yes! They do excist!).
This may be right from some marketing perspective, though I wonder if an initial better research ( how dificult can this be with a common truck like the HEMMT?) and a better tooling, at the end of the day would make higher turn overs and margins?
Now, once again, a very attractive subject, which could be the base of a large series of derivates, is represented by a heap of plastic with flaws, inaccuracies and even failures.
A missed chance for Italeri.
Maybe, we are able to get an answer from an Italeri marketing manager why this is done?

Not really false advertising, the box says updated molds, or new molds and the kit includes new molds. Anyone that thought this was a new tooled kit going into it, needs to give their head a shake. It was known from the start that this would be just the old HEMMT kit with the new gun truck parts added, so I am not sure why anyone would expect otherwise.

Are we modellers? Or assemblers? Sure it would be nice to have a completely new tooled kit, but this kit isn't that bad for anyone with the basic skills to build a kit. So you have to clean up a few mold lines and fill a few sink holes. It still is the only game in town for a 1/35 HEMMT truck.

What Italeri did is no different than most other companies when they re-release a kit from the past, with a few new, or upgraded parts.

I see nothing wrong with this kit, provided you were going into it expecting to see something along the lines of a new tooled Meng, Trumpeter or Dragon kit.