introduction

This set contains simple steel plate armored doors for Tamiya Humvee kit, replacement Marines style exhaust pipe, spare wheel, and racks and stowage to give the model busy look, typical to OIF Humvees. Just as all Blast Models Humvee sets this one is also packed in a small clear plastic container. Inside it is a resealable zip-bag with thirteen cream colored resin parts. There is also one page instruction sheet included, with a few photographs, which should help in correct positioning of parts on the model.

Resin parts included are:
- four simple "half-height" armored doors,
- spare wheel with new style aggressive tread pattern,
- spare wheel mounting bracket
- USMC style exhaust pipe with a mesh shield - better detailed that this included in the kit,
- two parts for a wooden box, which is sometimes carried on the exhaust pipe,
- rear tailgate with jerrycan rack molded on it. Two handles for fuel jerrycans are provided as separate parts.
- a shelf and pile of soldier's gear to attach to rear door,
- a coil of concertina wire in protective wrap.

Molding is almost flawless. There is just a couple of tiny air bubbles on largest parts. I discovered the biggest hole when I cut off the resin pouring channel from largest part (the one with crew gear) - the hole was hidden underneath. But it was on flat side of the part and should be easy to fill. There was no flash on parts in this set. Resin pouring channels are small and very easy to remove as the resin is of very "knife-friendly" type.

Armored doors are of different type then those in Blast 35052 set (see review here). While doors in that set were original hard-top Humvee doors with additional armor plates bolted to them, doors in this set are just simple thick steel plate type and they replace original doors completely. These doors are low profile and do not protect crew fully. On photos I saw such simple steel doors used mostly on soft-top Humvees, but sometimes they were also used on hard-top Humvees and even on M997 ambulances. There are simple bolt locks molded nicely on inner side of doors.

Spare wheel is a modified part from Blast's resin wheels set for Humvee (see review here). In this original set Blast made a small mistake and mistyped the logo on outer side of each wheel (Goo Year instead of Good Year). They didn't fully correct this error here, but they molded modified wheel in such a way that misspelled name is now on the back side of the tire and will not be very visible once the wheel is attached to the model. The tire on this wheel has newer style aggressive pattern tread and will not match wheels included in Tamiya kit - so you actually must buy Blast wheels set to have full set of matching wheels on your model. There is a part provided for a spare wheel mounting bracket which allows for mounting the wheel to brushguard.

In the set we get US Marines type long exhaust pipe to replace the one included in Tamiya kit. This new part has better molded mesh screen details on it, but I would still recommend replacing it with photoetched mesh screen. In Blast set we also get two-piece "open" wooden box, which is quite often seen put on the exhaust pipes of Marine Humvees. I'm not sure what is the purpose of it - maybe to provide additional shielding from hot exhaust pipe?...

Blast included a jerrycan rack which is very often seen on USMC Humvees in Iraq. The part is molded integrally with tailgate and with two water and two fuel jerrycans in it. Handles for fuel jerrycans are molded as separate parts. I have not seen this kind of rack attached to Army Humvees, but it does not mean that they are not used. All the pictures I have which show such racks, are of Marine Humvees. Tailgate fits the kit body part almost as good as the original part, with only some minor trimming needed on the bottom of the part (or on the kit body part), as the tailgate sits a fraction of millimeter too high, causing slight misalignment of hinges. But it is hardly visible and most modelers will be completely happy with the fit of his part.

The biggest part in the set is the "shelf" for the top of rear Humvee doors with a lot of soldier's gear on it. Everything is nicely molded as one part with lots of details and identifiable among various stuff are two ALICE backpacks, sleeping mat and sleeping bag, a helmet with goggles on it, canteen etc.. I would prefer to see MOLLE packs instead of ALICE packs here, as most parts in the set seem to be more suitable for USMC Humvees and Marines now almost completely switched to MOLLE gear. From pictures I have it looks like old ALICE gear is more commonly used by Army soldiers now, but I'm sure Marines still use some ALICE gear as well. I don't know who, Marines or Army, use the kind of rear door stowage shelf as portrayed in Blast set.

I dry fitted resin doors to Tamiya kit and the fit was perfect. Resin parts have exactly the same outline shape as original plastic parts.

in conclusion

This is another well designed and researched, nicely detailed and almost flawlessly molded set from Blast. Highly recommended!


Review sample was purchased and quickly received thanks to excellent service from Blast Models.

Reviews of other Blast Models detail sets for Tamiya Humvee:
- Humvee Wheels, Aggressive pattern with new rims - BL35027K
- Late type weapons ring with OIF modifications and smoke dischargers - BL35050K
- Armored doors for OIF Hummer - BL35052K