Introduction

Oshkosh M1070 Heavy Equipment Tractor (HET) is a vehicle whose needs no introduction. It is one of the most recognizable military trucks in the world. The M1070 Gun Truck is an up-armoured version of the tank transporter and has an armoured platform mounted behind the driver's cab, armed with machine guns and grenade launchers. Balaton Modell's M1070 Gun truck is one of three versions, next to the M1070HET truck and “Mad HET” available on the market in 1/72 scale, all of them characterized by great quality castings.

Contents

This model is packed in the same way as all Balaton Modell's sets packed inside a small cardboard box with artwork printed on the lid. Inside we have:

• 3x Photo etched sheets (over 90 elements)
• 1x Chassis Rail
• 2x bags of resin components
• 1x Clear film for the glazing
• 1x Piece of wire

Review

At first glance the parts look very good all of them are very carefully cast only the chassis frame has some flash on the upper part. The construction begins with the assembly of all four axles. Each of them is composed of five parts including photo-etched parts. Then the axles have to be glued to the frame together with the base for the cab and the attachment for the trailer. The final stage of the chassis installation are the steering rods, stabilizers and drive shafts.

Already at this stage you can see that Balaton Modell's have taken this model very seriously. The number of parts is very high and surpasses that of many plastic models in this scale. According to the instruction the last parts that you should put on at this stage are the wheels. The wheels I must say are something that really impresses me. Resin wheels in 1/35 scale looks great and many of us are aware of that. These are the same quality as the one in the Eagle IV, believe me!

The next stage of the instructions is the driver’s cab looking over the parts needed for its construction I can say, I was impressed. The side steps and the armoured shield for the windscreen (windshield) are made from the photo-etched parts and appear to be in scale. Inside the cab we can find typical parts, for this scale, as the seats, dashboard and steering wheel. On top of that we have the accelerator (gas) and brake pedals, suspension for the seats, gear shift and handbrake lever. Before you start building the cab you must cut-out the doors and windows. Take extra care at this stage because we all know how easy is to break the resin.

You must also be careful with the doors, because in contrast to the tank transporter version the armour panels are cast together with the door, especially the lower part of the door where the armour sheet is bent and must be cut away from the casting plug very gently. In my opinion this part would be better if it was supplied with the etch sheet. In the next stage you have to attach the cab to chassis the instructions direct you to attach the bonnet with grille, bumper, fuel tanks, cabin steps, a whole bunch of other components both resin and photo-etch. All of them look really great with lots of small details. The wheel arches, exhaust heat shield, stowage baskets, rear decking, mud flaps, ladders and handles are just some of the components have been supplied as photo-etched parts.

At the end we are left with the assembly of the “armoured box”. The armoured box consists of a main structure in the form of a box with holes for the weapon ring mounts and rear doors. It also has rails to fix the blast curtains. The curtains are moulded in resin, but they look pretty good and natural I'm not sure what are they made of in reality. On top of the roof there are two holes for the ring mounts these and the armour plates are made of resin with the details in photo-etch. Mountings for ammo boxes are photo-etch the same as weapons details. The weapons consist of one MK19 Grenade Launcher and a M2 Browning Machine Gun. Both weapons are cast in resin and although they look very fine, however, I personally do not like them. I found that the barrels required straightening very carefully as they are very delicate.

Conclusion

I did not have the pleasure to build M1070HET by Hobby Boss, but comparing instructions I can boldly state that both kits possess similar number of parts...
Details and attention to quality of the parts is at the highest level. The number of photo-etched parts is very similar to a comprehensive set from the likes of Eduard. I can easily say that this 1/72 model brings detailing to the next level and is unrivalled in comparison to plastic models and other resin kits of the same scale. I am looking forward to building this beast ...