Introduction:

The Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) is a special operations version of the Humvee used by the United States Armed Forces. GMV was designed to provide Special Operations Forces (SOF) with a mobility platform capable of infiltrating and operating in low- or mid-intensity conflicts over varied terrain while significantly improving SOF capability to travel unassisted over long distances.

Live Resin has a soft spot for producing SOF-specific vehicle upgrades in 1/35 scale and the latest addition to the company catalogue are several slightly different hexagonal turrets seen on GMVs used by US SOCOM. This review covers the set which delivers the turret in its basic form: US MARSOC/Navy Seals GMV-M Hexagon Turret (LRE-35291).

Review:

The set is supplied in a hard cardboard box featuring two CAD box art images. The one on the front shows the hexagonal turret included in this set (minus the gunner’s shield), while the one on the back displays various turret setups which can be built using different weapon sets and figures available from Live Resin: M2 Machine Gun sets (LRE-35047 – LRE-35051), M143D Minigun sets (LRE-35061 – LRE-35066), Mk47 Grenade Launcher sets (LRE-35070 – LRE-35074), Twin Mount M2 Machine Gun sets (LRE-35289 – LRE-35290), as well as Twin Mount M240 Machine Gun sets (LRE-35301 – LRE-35303). In all honesty, I can’t decide which setup looks the best to me… I wish I could build a couple of GMVs just to use several of these sets.

The box contains zip-lock bag with 21 parts cast in grey resin and 7 pieces in transparent resin. The resin looks really good and I found no imperfections in the cast. The window openings feature a very thin layer of resin which needs to be cleaned carefully using a sharp blade and some sandpaper. The same goes for the turret hatch opening. The carrier blocks are large and could prove a bit difficult to remove, so patience is well worth it in the end. Although I was being very careful, some of the window frames broke in the process. No big deal, these can be easily installed to the turret this way as well.

Assembly:

There are no instructions included in the set. Also, no instructions are available on Live Resin website at the time this review was published. Although the assembly procedure is deducible based on the protrusions and indentations in the corresponding pieces, some kind of assembly guide should be officially offered for this set.

(EDIT: the assembly guide is now available for download at Live Resin website - link)

This review shows the procedure I used for building the set. I annotated the pieces on their carrier blocks and I’m also displaying photos of major subassemblies, noting the position of each part. Most of the pieces feature series of protrusions and indentations which help to optimally align the parts and obtain perfect geometry of the turret. However, I played a bit with dry fitting the main turret pieces to figure out the best assembly sequence… and here’s what I did. I fixed the rear turret wall first, making sure it is level with the turret base and connects well to the ammo rack. Next, I attached side turret walls again making sure they are level with the turret base and fit the rear turret wall. I wish I had couple of extra arms when doing all this, but the final result was well worth the extra hassle. I attached the window frames with clear window pieces last. Some modelers would probably want to leave these off and fix the windows after the turret was painted in order to avoid masking. Please note this set does not include a weapon system… these are available separately from Live Resin.

The set depicts the weapon turret used on US SOCOM GMVs. I didn’t find the official designation for this particular turret, but it is nicknamed “Hexagon” due to its peculiar shape. The reference images show this turret on Navy Seal and MARSOC vehicles, ‘Thor’ being one of the particularly well photographed examples. The finished turret looks impressive and, as far as I can tell, accurately recreates the Hexagon turret in 1/35 scale.

Conclusion:

US MARSOC/Navy Seals GMV-M Hexagon Turret (LRE-35291) from Live Resin represents an armored turret fitted to a range of Special Operations Forces vehicles. The kit consists of 28 pieces cast perfectly in resin, with the windows offered in clear resin. The assembly is not too complex and the kit builds into an amazingly detailed and very realistic rendition of the SOCOM hexagon turret in 1/35 scale.

A big thank you to Yaroslav from Live Resin for this review sample.