M1167 Build Log Installment 1:

Hello everyone! I am beginning a new build. I know that I have yet to finish one that I’ve started here, but that’s because researching and building are my cup of tea. I am planning to build a well-used M1167 that is on patrol in a fictional Middle Eastern war that is set in Iran in the near future. I am using the Academy M1151 as the basis for the build because the M1167 is based on the same chassis as the M1151. I am going to be adding photos throughout comparing the Tamiya M1025/M1046, the Bronco M1114 and Academy’s fine M1151. I am going to use the following in my build:

Academy 13415 M1151 Enhanced Armament Carrier
Bronco CB35080 M1114 Up-Armored Tactical Vehicle
Archer Fine Transfers AR35282 HUMVEE Instruments and Placards
DEF Model DW35032 HMMWV MT/A Wheel Set-Sagged
Echelon Fine Details M357104 Mirrors for Tamiya M1025/M1046
Legend Productions LF1227 M1151 Detailing Set
Legend Productions LF3D006 TOW Missile Rack Set
Legend Productions LF3D007 Humvee TOW Turret Set
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-006 Pintle Hook (4 ea.)
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-023-B Turret Ring (4 ea.)
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-027-TOW-05 TOW Missile Launcher Tube, Empty (3 ea.)
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-027-TOW-08 Wooden crates for TOW missile containers (3 ea.)
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-027-TOW-09 HMMWV M1167 TOW Carrier Addition
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-040 Fire Extinguishers
Shapeways/SPM SPM-35-042 HMMWV M1151 Addition
SKP Model SKP122 Light Lenses for Humvee X3
SKP Model SKP225 Light Tactical Trailer M1101/M1102
Voyager Model PEA234 Modern USMC HUMVEE Family High back seats w/seat belts
Voyager Model PE35422 Modern USMC HUMVEE M1151 w/IED

This is a partial list as I am going to have to use accessories from other sets to fill up the truck and trailer. Many of the parts were created by Peter Samofalov at my suggestion and were printed from his storefront on Shapeways. I hope you enjoy this build as much as I know I will. I will do my best to not get distracted along the way!

This first photo is many of the assembled products that I will use:



These next three photos show the chassis from the Tamiya M1025, the Bronco M1114 and the Academy M1151. I am including the Tamiya parts as a reference to show how well they still compare. I am going to use the Bronco frame as there are problems with the geometry of the Academy chassis. The issues are covered in detail in other blogs about building the M1151 here on Armorama. The Tamiya is, for a thirteen year old model, still the sharpest of the three. The detail on it cannot be matched. The Bronco chassis has the (mostly) correct detail for an M1167. Both the Bronco and Academy chassis require work on the frame where it attaches to the bumper. The Bronco has correctly shaped body mounts at the rear but the chassis will require rebuilding between the frame rails. You can see in the photos that the Bronco chassis is also shorter, but that is because the front of the rails are separate parts. All three companies use similar and greatly simplified front stabilizer mounts. All three also use an incorrect design for the stabilizer itself. It should be three parts, the stabilizer bar and two dogbones as shown in the parts breakdown, but is a single piece in the kits with no dogbones. The Bronco kit has the correct configuration for the exhaust system on both the M1114 and M1151/M1167. Academy simply uses the configuration of their old kits rather than do any research into differences between the legacy HMMWVs and the M1151 based vehicles.







That’s it for now. I’ll try to show some actual plastic and resin cutting for the next installment.

This is going to be a huge endeavour.

Take your time with the project and do your best. I'll be following the progress for sure.

Mario

Tuned in and watching, taking notes. I have a couple of the Academy kits waiting attention.

Happy modelling

Installment 2:

Here is a quick update. I was finally able to get some build time this weekend. I cut most of the major components off of their sprues. I am still doing research and figuring out which kit (Academy or Bronco) the main parts are going to come from. That’s the main reason this is going so slow. I took some time and shaved a ton of resin off of a gun ring from Peter Samofalov to make it fit the recess in the Academy roof. The following photo clearly shows the difference in detail between the printed part and the kit part. The printed part is amazing. Academy’s part looks like it came from a toy. The printed part looks like it is now too small for the hole, but that’s because I need to add a rounded off rim to the hole before I glue the ring in place.



In the next photo you can see some of the parts that will make up the missile rack in the bed of the truck. I built one of these out of the box for a review last year. On this set I want to show that I am opening up the rails that the rack is made from. You can clearly see these open areas. In photos it looks as though the real rack is made from C-channel steel. There are some great photos of the rack on Prime Portal from a walkaround by our own Brent Sauer (Sgt Sauer). I used a Mission Model’s Micro Chisel with the narrow blade. It was the perfect width to do the carving.



That’s it for this one. I did my final UTA weekend in the California Air National Guard last weekend. Now I should have more consistent build time! 30 years and 9 months wearing the Air Force uniform. I’ve worn it to work every day for over 28 of those years.

Installment 3:

Here’s another quick one. Life has been busy. I retired from the Air Force (California Air National Guard) after 30 years so there’s been a bit of craziness adjusting to life as a civilian again. I’m also working on a new toolbox for my bench. Maybe I’ll post some photos of it as I progress with it. I am at my happiest when I have a hundred irons in the fire. I never finish any of them, but I am happy that way! I have been prepping a lot of parts for the different assemblies that will go into this build. I’ve been getting the doors ready the past few days. You can see that there are some wicked sink marks on the outsides of them. Each door is going to have parts from Academy, Legend and Voyager. I wanted to use everything for them from the Voyager M1151 update but there were a few things I didn’t like about how they handled the armored covers for the windows. I am using those from the Legend M1151 update instead. I like their multi-part approach. They will need to be soldered for strength and that will be an adventure in itself. I also don’t like how Voyager handled the padding on the spaced armor inside the doors. It’s far too thin so I think I’ll replace it with plastic card. Missing from the photos are the parts for the windows themselves. I still have to look up more detail photos to see how I want to do them. Then there’ll be a ton of bolts to add. Enjoy!





That’s it. I am sorry there wasn’t more. I will try to have at least a couple of the doors assembled in the next few days.

I haven't seen any M1167's done yet. Looking forward to seeing yours.

Installment 4:

Here’s another quick update. Life has been busy since I retired from the Air Force. I thought it was supposed to be easier! I noticed that all four doors had wicked sink marks on the outer surfaces. I tried to use Mr. Surfacer 500 brushed into the recesses but when I sanded the excess away I didn’t like the results. I decided to shave off all of the surface detail on the outside of the door and just sand them flat. It worked out pretty good. When looking at reference photos to replace the detail I saw that the spacers for the window armor were really rollers that the window rolls on. Academy molded them as indistinct blobs on the end of the spacers. I also noticed that Academy molded a bump in the outside of the door. When I looked at photos I noticed the bump was an additional roller. Academy didn’t have this bump in line with the other rollers, so the person designing the kit must not have had any idea what he was looking at. I also noticed that the spacers on the outside do not line up with any bolt heads on the inside. They are off by as many as two to three scale inches. It bothers me that the kit designer didn’t bother to learn what any of these structures are and that they should line up on the inside and the outside. I decided not to fix this as it would have amounted to scratch building whole new doors. I made the rollers out of punched Evergreen and the rollers are Albion sliding aluminum tube. Each spacer/roller is 6 pieces.





Thanks for looking!

One hell of a project Eric. Glad I found it. That printed turret ring looks great!

Brent, thanks a lot. I hope to be able to keep people interested. Heck, I hope I can keep me interested! Now you know why I was asking for good, all aspect photos of the A/C units. I have the ones from the Legend M1151 set and they are horrible. My only option will be to scratch them so I need good photos. I hope all is well with you. Thanks for looking in.

Regards,

Eric

Installment 5:

Alrighty then! Here is another one. I was able to find the time to do the rollers and the window armor standoffs and get all four doors to the same place. The only thing left on the exteriors is to add the hinges, the window armor and the door handles. I am not going to use the window armor from the kit, or from any of the aftermarkets sets I have. Instead I am going to scratch the window armor based on photos of what appear to be a newer design. The armor I am going to scratch is flat and has no curved plates. I’ve added photos below. The photo from the M1151 with the curved window armor is from Kyle Delisle and is from a walkaround I found on Flickr. The second photo which shows the flat window armor is from a walkaround by our own Brent Sauer. I hope the photos make clear what I’m trying to do.





This photo is my inspiration photo which shows a convoy of vehicles that consists of M1167s and M1151s. I’m not sure where I got the photo, so I hope no one gets upset that I’m using it. The trucks are all very clean and don’t appear to be carrying any kit. It may have been taken somewhere like Fort Irwin.



Now on to the real reason for this installment. Here is a photo that shows all four doors from the outside. All removed detail has been added back.



This final photo shows the insides of the doors and some of the work I’ve done on them. The white plastic is used where Academy has strangely rough areas that were the same on all four doors. Looking at photos I didn’t see anything that corresponded to these areas on real trucks. I thought maybe Academy took photos of the inside of a door that had damage to the foam that had been repaired. I cut away the foam on the top corners of the doors where the door latches are located. Academy had the latches done too small and on top of the foam. That’s an odd mistake as it is very clear from photos that the latches are mounted directly to the doors and the foam is cut around them. I made a mistake though. I cut the foam on one door much bigger than on the other door. Anyone have a couple of Academy M1151 front doors they’re not using? Let me know! Seriously!



That’s it for now! Hope to be posting some more in a couple of days.

Hi Eric,

good start so far. But have you noticed that the "nose" on the rear door /below the window). I do an M1167 myself right no asnd I am only little impressed by the Academy kit. The add-on armor on the side is way to thick, should be 0.3 mm in scale.

Great update Eric. Till next time!

Hans-Hermann, Academy didn't do a very good job on the doors. If I tried to fix everything I've noticed I would have had to scratch build new ones. At some point I had to decide to fix what is really bugging me and leave the rest alone. The doors appear to be made of layers and Academy ignored that and simplified them significantly. I'm happy you're watching my progress.

Brent, thanks for looking! It's great to see you active again.

Regards,

Eric