Introduction

Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) or 7-Ton, is an all-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle used by the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy.

It is designed to replace the old M939 tactical trucks, and was first fielded in 1998, after the contract was awarded to Oshkosh Truck Corporation. The MTVR comes in several variants, for a wide spectrum of tasks. It offers a major improvement in off-road capability.

The MTVR is often referred to as a 7-Ton - 7 short tons (6,400 kg); denoting the vehicle's off-road cargo capacity. The MTVR's maximum payload on paved surfaces is 15 short tons (14,000 kg). The MTVR is the Marine Corps prime mover for the M777 howitzer, fuel and water assets, troops and a wide variety of equipment. Its wide versatility and offroad capability make the MTVR an integral part of the Marine Corps logistical backbone.

First Impressions

The first impression is how did Trumpeter manage to put this big vehicle into a small box? Well, the cabin is in two pieces and the large bonnet is put separately. The sprues are loaded with pieces and it can be tricky to remove fragile ones. The details are good and the bonnet is bearing the Oshkosh logo without any misspelling.

I have been reviewing Trumpeter trucks for more than 5 years now and my main concerns were level of details on the cabin inside, the ability to open the doors or not as well as the flat bed. Well with the MTVR, Trumpeter really listens to the market and addressed these issues. Yes, the doors as well as the roof top can be open. The level of details inside the cabin has been improved. Finally, the flat bed can be open too without any addition surgery. Still one big missing detail is the lack of the engine.
The truck is one of the most advance kit released by Trumpeter in term of details.

Contents

The kit is pack in the normal size and it is surprising due to the size of the vehicle. Content of the kit:

• 9 Plastics sprues with more than 460 pieces. Sprues are pack with parts, the concentration seems really high not the trumpeter standard.
• 1 Transparent sprue
• 1 PE fret
• 1 Brass wire
• 1 Cabin top
• 1 Cabin lower
• 1 Engine bonnet
• 6 Tyres
• 1 decal
• 1 A4 instruction booklet 20 pages
• 1 A4 color set

Review

Step 1 is the frame construction, not big issue here, only the fake engine lower part is glued between the two frame beams. Gear box is also added. Level of details is really amazing.
Numerous parts are glued in this step,

Step 2 is the building of the front bumper not thinks special to comment here.

Step 3-9, during 6 steps the beautiful TAK-4 independent suspension units are build. The level of details is good. All the gear boxes are engraved with a tiny Oshkosh logo. Seam lines are little on the universal joints. Springs are pretty align too so less work will be required.
More than 20 pieces are glued together for the half of a TAK-4.
Drum brakes are included on all hubs. One small complains is the lack of tubing but you can really add them finding all necessary documentation on internet.
One big comment is the possibility to turn the front wheels, since the TAK-4 is an independent suspension system all wheels are connected with an universal joint, so you will need to added angles into it to turn the wheels, the rest of the bars can be easily movable.

Step 10 is the gluing of all TAK-4 onto the frame and their connection on the gear box.

Step 11 is the assembly of the fuel tank as well as the driver stair in PE

Step 12 is the assembly of all the airline of the CTIS for the tires; this is follow by their attachment onto the frame.

Step 13 is the mounting of the passenger stair.

Step 14 cover the construction of the air inlet and filter as well as the gluing of the engine wall onto the frame.

Step 15 is the gluing of the perforated steel plate behind the cabin maybe a PE piece will a better addition. The air filter is connected to the “engine block”.

Step 16 is the beginning of the cabin construction with the lower part and the dashboard which is superbly detailed. The wheel and transmission system is nicely represented. Seats are good, for the bench you will need to operate some surgery to fold it if you want to open the roof top.

Step 17 covers the build of the gunner station and gun rig. The roof is equipped and can be represented open or close. The gunner ring is glued onto four small rods.

Step 18 is the closing of the cabin with the doors. Cherry on the cake you can leave the doors open. Exhaust pipe is detailed with PE grill.

Step 19 is the assembly of the mirrors, the attachment points are really small and render with PE, outstanding level of details.

Step 20-21, the cabin is attached to the mainframe, nothing special here.

Step 22, the engine bonnet is nicely detailed with a perfect Oshkosh logo. The engine grill is perfectly represented with 2 PE grills.

Step 23 covers the assembly of the flat bed and you can notice that the flat bed can be represented open or closed.

Step 24 is the building of the lower reinforced parts of the flat bed as well as the attachment points.

Step 25 describes the mounting of all small attachment clamps such pieces are done using a jig and the copper wire, this can be tricky to do, I used lead wire that is much more flexible.


Step 26 finalizes the building of the flat bed with the gluing of all small tie-down attachment these pieces are really fragile to remove from the sprue but the detail is really good.

Step 27 is only the gluing of the flat bed onto the frame, not problem.

Step 28 is the assembly of the tires’ hubs. The vinyl tires are really nicely detailed with good engraving a small seam line is presented but can be hidden by putting them inside. The hub represents well the CTIS system.

Conclusion

Finally Trumpeter has just release a great truck with a lot of flexibility in term of assembly, doors, roof and flat panel can be open or close.
The level of details is excellent and we hope that Trumpeter will release more of the MTVR family.
Highly recommended

MTVR Build Log Live links

Real Model MTVR Resin wheels Live links