This weekend I am starting the process of converting Trumpeter's M983 to a M984 with the HobbyFan resin conversion

since the conversion as made for the Italeri M977, there is going to be a bit of extra work to make it fit the Trumpeter kit.
First thing I have to modify is the frame rails. While the M983 has a shorter wheel base then the stander HEMTT it is 10 scale inches shorter the the M984 wrecker. Hobbyfan included a whole rear section for the Italeri kit.
I made measurements and cut the Trumpeter's frame rails accordingly and removed parts I won't be needing.
I also carefully cut off the shock mounts and bump stops form the frame section I cut off the Trumpeter kit so I can glue them to and Hobbyfan section of the frame.
This is all I have time to do today, But I'll get some more work done on it tomorrow .
Till then...........

Good deal, another HEMTT build to follow. Looking good so far.

This is a project I've wanted to do for a long time, just never had the money. Now that I have a new job I was able to get the coversion.
If I wasn't doing a ride along with the local sheriffs department tonight, I'd be working on it still

Oh, I like this! I will be following the build too. I have the conversion kit in my stash too.

Way to go! It has been a toss-up for me weather to go for the wrecker of firetruck conversion. I will be watching this build for sure.

Off to a good start, looking forward to seeing it with the Trumpeter HEMTT

Rounds Complete!!

So, you may ask yourself what have I done today on my M984. Well, I got to spend some quality time in the workshop today and I a got a lot done.
One thing I did not think to check was the width of the Trumpeter chassis compared to the Hobbyfan subframe. As it turned out the Trumpeter kit is betwwen a 32nd to 64th of s inch wider.

I wish I noticed that before I glued patrs of the supenstion to the rear. I ended up cutting the frame appart again and gluing the frame rails to the weinch bed and getting things lined up the best I could.

Now I can start on building the wrecker part of the conversion. So far the kit has been so-so some of the resin parts are really thin and has a slight warp to them. I also found the instructions to be not very clear, but there is a nice walk around on Prime Portal that will help a lot.

Looks like good progress.

Rounds Complete!!

Looking good, bummer that the extension is bigger than the kit frame. Keep up the good work.

its the other way around, the kit frame is slightly bigger then the subframe in the Hobbyfan kit, but the conversion wasn't designed for the Trumpeter kit. But I will carry on..

Beautiful walk around - M984, Oshkosh HEMTT Wrecker, by Vladimir Yakubov

http://svsm.org/gallery/HEMTT/IMGP0586

Awesome start Vince, love those heavy engineer vehicles. Will be following.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

Sorry for the delay on my updates, I haven't been able to spend much time in the shop this week. But here is what I have been able to do so far this week. Sunday night I started putting major components for the conversion on the the frame. The fit was ok with some of the parts, but I still have to straighten out a couple here and there.

Although I complain about the fit of the parts , the detail is great and there is lots of little parts to add to the truck.

Tonight i worked on the remainder of the trumpeter part of the kit , everyone should know how well it goes together so I'm not going to cover that.
Now a bit on the wheels, Normally all versions of the HEMTT have a set of shallow rims on the from and a set of deep rims on the rear, except for the M984 which has the same rims on the rear as the front. The Trumpeter Patriot kit has these parts in it since the M983 and the launcher
share the same H spruce. Since the the shallow rims go unused in the Launcher/Radar I am looking for someone willing to part with them. I did have the extras till a few months ago. I tossed them thinking "I'll never need them"...... lesson learned!

Vince,
Can you show me what rims your talking about. I just finished my Patriot set and placed all those rims in my spares box. I think I know what your talking about, but want to make sure.

Looking good Vince. It is starting to look like the beast it is. The Trumpeter cab interior is really nice, light-years ahead of the old Italeri HEMTT kit.

The part that I am looking for is H3. I thought about goinging with aftermarket wheels, but I found that the kit's front wheels will not fit correctly on the the rear axles. So I going to have to take the back halves of the rear wheels and mount extra front halves of the front wheels to it to get the correct tire set up. I hope that makes sense.

Below is an excerpt from my thread about building the Italeri HEMTT LHS. I hope this helps. On the various models of the HEMTT the front four tires ARE DIFFERENT from the rear four tires.

On the Italeri model (I can't speak for the Trumpeter kit.) the front four wheel drums are different than the rear four. Special care should be taken to insure that the correct drums are used in the correct locations. However there is nothing about the model that prevents you from putting the wheel drums on incorrectly! The most visible difference between the front and rear wheedl drums is that the wheel center housing projects out further on the rear wheel drums than it does on the front four drums.

As with most REAL wheel drums, the center of the drum is off-set relative to the centerline of the tire tread. With the HEMTT the off-set wheel drum can be mounted on the vehicle facing either way. Due to the presence of the steering mechanism on the first two axles the off-set of the wheel drum is to the outside to allow more space behind the wheel.

On the rear two axles the axles are actually narrower (no steering mechanism) so the off-set of the wheel drum faces the inside. Doing this keeps the finished tread width of all four axles approximately the same.

The same is true for almost any heavy truck.

As per the Italeri instruction sheet the front wheel drums are identified as parts 2G. The rear wheel drums are identified as parts 1G. Finally the wheel drum for the spare is identified as part 3G and has no wheel center at all.


. . . . . . . . . . . FRONT WHEEL DRUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . REAR WHEEL DRUM . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . OUTWARD FACING OFF-SET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INWARD FACING OFF-SET . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . LOW WHEEL CENTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HIGH WHEEL CENTER . . . . . . . . .

Excerpt from tire changing procedure shown in HEMTT Tech Manual:

great start to the conversion, i built it on the Italeri base kit many moons ago.

M984 Wrecker

its no the best of conversion kits that's for sure, and if I remember I had to replace a whole raft of parts, but it certainly looks good once done.

sadly mine exists no longer as the box it was in was dropped by a fellow modeller loading it into his car.

i may have to have another go, but finding the conversion is difficult as its OOP currently

will be watching this thread with interest

Keith

[quote]This weekend I am starting the process of converting Trumpeter's M983 to a M984 with the HobbyFan resin conversion

since the conversion as made for the Italeri M977, there is going to be a bit of extra work to make it fit the Trumpeter kit.
First thing I have to modify is the frame rails. While the M983 has a shorter wheel base then the stander HEMTT it is 10 scale inches shorter the the M984 wrecker. Hobbyfan included a whole rear section for the Italeri kit.
I made measurements and cut the Trumpeter's frame rails accordingly and removed parts I won't be needing.
I also carefully cut off the shock mounts and bump stops form the frame section I cut off the Trumpeter kit so I can glue them to and Hobbyfan section of the frame.
This is all I have time to do today, But I'll get some more work done on it tomorrow .
Till then..........

Oh, BOY!!! Will be watching this build, too!!!

Thank you for the info on the tires, very informative. It seems that Trumpeter shorted me a tire in the kit so I'm going to have to order aftermarket wheels after all. I contacted Real Models and they will send me a set of just front wheels and I'll figure out how to make them fit.

Now for an update on my progress. I finished most of the building on the Trumpeter parts and I have my SUB-assemblies ready for painting with the exceptions of small leavers and hand rails. Here is where I'm going to pause for a few days because I have to run to a Hobby Shop in Huntsville to get some Tamiya paints for the interior of the cab. I'm thinking of going with sand on this one.

MAD, I went thru the issue of cab interior paint color with my HEMTT LHS. The conclusion was that 99.99% of all HEMTTs have the cab interior painted green regardless of exterior color. However I will say that I found ONE photo of a sand colored HEMTT with a sand colored cab interior (wish I had copied the link) so it is not out of the realm of possibility to have a sand interior in yours.

Great looking work. Question; I have this convertion kit too. What is causing the body to tilt on the frame the last picture you showed.

I didn't notice the twist till I posted the photo. It may have been either warped parts in the conversion or a mistake in my part. I'll see if I can strighten it out

Time for another update. I have been really busy since the last one with work, but I made some progress. Although I am waiting on my wheels do come in from Real Models there is still I lot I could do. I started painting it this week. I'm going with sand and green interior.


Tonight I hope to do some more details painting and warping up up the details in the cab. I also plan to draw some decals for all the placards that are on the M984.