I am in currently in Iraq and decided out here to take up modeling when I get back home in February. I have ordered more than 500.00 worth of models, figures, paints, books, and supplies in an effort to create some dioramas about Iraq. I have taken many pictures to help with the details. There is an awesome truck out here. It's an M1070/M1000 HET. I searched on Greatmodels for it and found it. The price is outrageous, more than 500.00. How in the world can a model cost that much money? Can someone please explain to me why it cost so much? Is it new and in extremely high demand? Will the price ever come down to a normal price (say under 100.00)? When?

My next question/topic is about a detail kit for an M1025 Humvee. One item that I purchased was Tamiya's 1/35 M1025 Humvee Armament Carrier which was part of an order I placed on the 3rd of January. I also ordered the Eduard Accessories 1/35 M1025 Humvee Detail Kit. The problem is that according to the GreatModels website, they are still searching for it after a week. How long does it take for them to find your stuff? I emailed another company and was told they could get it in two days. Should i buy from them or cancel that item and get it from the other company? Also what is the difference between that detail kit and the Eduard from Czech Republic M1025 Hummer exterior detail kit. Obviously the czech kit is exterior stuff, but the other kit, I can not recognize hardly any parts. Which would be better to get? I am leaning towards cancelling my current detail kit that is on order and buying the czech kit because it puts more detail on the outside of the humvee. I also have the up armor detail kit for it on the way.

The only bad thing is that I have spent all this money only to go home and really just begin learning on all these models. Oh well, I guess you have to start somewhere.

Semper Fidelis.

The HETS is cast in resin It's time consuming But it provides a greater level of detail than most injection molded kits.

Welcome back when you do get back Tony.

The HET kit! What to say about that. The reason why it is so expensive is because it is an all resin kit with lots of photo etch and white metal. Unfortunately, there is no plastic of this kit. We've all been wishing for one to come out. So the Accurate Armor $500 kit is the only one out there.

As far as the M1025, do a search on

Squadron Mailorder

It will pull up everything related to the M1025 that is in stock at the time of the search. Also, Blast Models has some nice resin sets that would make it even better.

The two photo etch sets your are talking about are both from the same company. Eduard is a Czech company, it just depends how the seller list it.

For the M1025, Eduard has an enterior and an exterior for the vehicle, plus there are other accessory photo etch sets to enhance the model.

Hi and welcome to Armora!

The HET is a massive Resin kit (the material is Polyurethane). Resin kits cost a lot, due to the way they are manufactured.

Regarding the M1025 detail set, it´s important to know, which of the Eduard detail sets you ordered. There are several kits out there and Eduard makes different sets for each kit.
For the Tamiya M1025 Eduard set 35629 is the right one.

Thomas

Sounds like you are diving head first into a pool that you have no idea the depth of. My advice is to forget about all the resin and PE upgrade sets for now. If you are just starting out, it would be better to just build some models straight out of the box before you start with all the extras. PE and resin sets take some experience and are an advanced level of modeling, not meant for beginners. I suggest starting with the Tamiya M1025 or M1046 HMMWVs first and working on your skills before you tackle the rest of it. You can make some nice models without all the added peices. Once you have a few models under your belt and when you feel confident in your abilities, then try some simple PE, resin, etc. Progressively try harder items.

Don't get me wrong, I am not putting you down, but if you start out trying to work with PE and resin, you may be disallusioned and turned off to modeling because it is too difficult. As with everyhing else, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, then run.

Good luck.

Hi welcome at Armorama.
Nothing to add about the kits to the above posts but keep safe till back home.

olivier

Hi and welcome aboard
Like Gino (heavyarty) Modelling is a deep pool and one can easily get lost in all the kits and accessories available to the modeller. What I would personally do again as Gino said is forget about all the PE and resin sets for the mean time and focus getting a few basic kits done. As you are in Iraq you probably have god access to the vehciles so perhaps take a few pics for reference-of the interiors and all the small details. When you get pack get hold of some plastic card of different thickness's, some thin metal sheet that you can bend easily-maybe some lead foil or a bit of alu from a can and just try you hand at detailing your models from scratch, e.g with the eduard set they provide seat belts in one of their m1025 detail sets, these could easily be made with lead foil and a bit of plasti card. Id say just play around with this for the mean time and get used to detailing things then when your confident pull out some of the eduard sets and really go to town on your models.
As with the M1070, that has to be for the experianced modeller-a lot of difficult resin and small parts to play with-ive seen it up close and its a damn sweet model though.

Would not recommend these to a person just breaking into modeling-----


------the time taken in preparing ,dry fitting and working out where bits go will give you a case of ........."Why did I start this"......syndrome
As has been said ...there are a lot of nice OOB kits out there for what you want---get settled into the swim of things ..and save a few pennies for the time you can get your ""BIG BEASTIE"..and do it -and -yourself justice...............Welcome to the great fraternity----remember ...Walk before you Run
Happy modeling
aye
BARV
(GOSMG)

tlmoore,

Welcome to the wonderful world of plastic models and such.

Once again I would like to reiterate what others have said about the HET 1070 kits. They are very complicated and will need a lot of skill to build. But above all they will require a tremendous amount of patience too. Many of the parts are quite small and require test fitting over and over again before you get to the gluing stage. And the clean of the resin parts will seem to take forever. Yes, both of the 1070s are on my list of things to purchase this year, SWMBO has consented to these purchases. Chocolate helped, lots of chocolate.

In the meantime, since you have the opportunity to stand next to this beast of a truck get all the pictures that you can. I mean take pictures of virtually every nut and bolt. If you can see it standing 3 feet away from it, click it. And crawl under it too, ya never know.

Start out building out of box and get a feel for the basics of construction. There are many people out there who will help in person and online. Don't ever be afraid to ask questions, we will always help. And remember, patience is the key.

Good luck.