Please look at me new project, it is a M1078 Special force vehicles
This vehicle has been allready discussed in this following thread
Special Force war Pigs
I used the HSV vacu kit as a starting kit, well well what to say about it
Summary
HSV, an Austria vacuform company offers the world an interesting vacuform 1:35 scale model of the German Steyr 12M18 truck, which can be easily converted into the American LMVT M1078.
Introduction
Back in the 1980s, when the U.S. Army was working on a specification for a new truck to replace the aging M35, Austrian truck maker Steyr began working on a new platform based on its 12M18, a truck originally developed for the Austrian Bundesheer. The 12M18 is also used by military forces in Canada, Kuwait, Pakistan and Thailand. When the Army released its specifications for a family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV) in 1988, Steyr linked up with Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson and sent several prototype vehicles to the U.S. over the next two years. In October 1991, Steyr and Stewart & Stevenson won the bid. The first truck rolled off the Sealy assembly line in June 1993. In 1996, the Army's XVIII Airborne Corps became the first unit to be equipped with the FMTV.
Contents
The kit comes in a sturdy box with an approximately A4 format, a picture on top showing the company name, kit number, and one picture of the finished kit in black in white.
Opening the box you will see two-styrene sheets format A4 contains all 55 parts of the kit, a styrene rod for the wheels axes, an acetate sheet for the windows and finally a rectangular piece of styrene for the cargo bed. The instructions in German are also included printed black and white on A4 sheets (eight pages).
Instruction
The instructions sheet consists of eight pages with two pages of the blue print from the vehicle at the end. This is not in all cases clear and the quality of the prints is relatively ok. The instruction does not really give good reference on the way to glue to part together; only overall distances are given to help the building.
Well let be honest, these instructions need deep reading and understanding before starting to build the model. I found that the instructions are slightly over scaled compare to the part dimension, you need to photocopy them with a reduction factor of 98%, not really a big deal.
The instructions are relatively simple look like blue print from the manufacturer. The assembly begins with the construction of the cabin, following by the frame, the construction of the cargo bed and finally the canvas.
Parts
Because of the nature of the kit, the parts are cast in such a way that it is hell of a job to remove from the styrene sheets, a lot of cleaning and sanding. Surprisingly, the casting is very well done and shows all the detailing that went into the master. In short, the detail is great for a vacukit. It is true that some parts required special attention.
One big disadvantage of the vacukit, it is the fact that the pieces are printed on one side only. You cannot for example open the door; the reverse side of the part is almost flat.
Other remark is the lack of details from the inside of the vehicle; the cabin does not meet the details of a normal injected kit as well as the cargo bed. It is compulsory to represent the vehicle with the canvas closed.
The kit does not come with the canvas either, this need to be totally scracthbuilt.
Conclusion
Well, this kit because of its intrinsic nature of vacuform kit, does not really match the actual standard of an injected kit. But we cannot compare apples with pears.
This kit seems to be a real good starting point for those who want to create a really accurate M1078, some changes need to be done i.e. the exhaust, the boxes under the cargo bed as well as the front and rear bumpers.
HSV propose in order to improve the accuracy of the kit, a set of resins wheels and a stirring wheel.
So i did some intensive study with TM
here is the cabin with the M1078 style, new light, new front
The inside cabin, I did use some resin seat and PE for safety belt, scracht the TacSat antenna, the rear seat has been removed and extra storage rack has been added to put the radio.
The frame has totally reworked with PS
The air intake has been totally created with PS tubing
The rack for the extra wheel has been also created using the TM as a template.
I hope you like it, comments critics are really really welcome
I will post new pictures soon.
Seb
