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Tamiya 1/35 M1025 HUMVEE Armament Carrier Kit #35263 |
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Reviewed by Mark Aldrich, # 39295 |
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YEAH!!! Finally someone released an accurate wheeled HUMMWV. Tamiya’s old 25mm bushmaster, Italeri and Academy versions all had non-realistic glue on caps to allow the wheels to roll. Big Kudos go to Tamiya. The kit comes packaged in an attractive box as usual. It consists of five sprues, four tan and one clear which comprises 205 pieces. There is absolutely no flash on any of my parts. Ejector pin marks were at a minimum and NONE are on any exterior parts. This kit comes with two beautiful figures (one driver and one gunner), 2 choices of weapons (though the mount can only hold the 40mm), and decals for a choice of four different vehicles. The instruction manual is typical Tamiya and is sixteen pages long. It is multi-lingual and has many exploded pictures for parts placement as well as a short front page history. There are four pages dedicated to painting and decaling. These are great to me. The painting pages show all FOUR sides of the vehicle. Unlike other manufacturers, this leaves nothing to the imagination on what and where the camouflage goes on that 4th side that is never shown. Basically, all I had to do was; toss in glue and paint, shake vigorously, and out pops a beautiful M1025! Seriously though, except for a couple builder errors, the kit assembled itself. I do believe that in over 16 years of model building, this is the only kit that I have NEVER used putty on. |
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Click images to see full-size photos |
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I followed the kits instructions during the construction and only deviated by leaving off the glass parts until the painting was complete. The interior is adequate but those detail nuts can go hog wild here. There are no gas or brake pedals and no wires or hand mike sets included. They only supply one ammo can which leaves plenty of room in the back for more. There is also no engine and I know at least one cottage industry that produces such an item. You will need to decide whether you are doing the Marine or Army version early on. Steps 10, 21, and 22 are the important steps for your different versions. I used Testors Model Master Paints throughout. The paint was given a gloss coat and decals applied. Two cautions on the decals. The whites were great and VERY opaque. I used Micro-Sol and on two different occasions, the decals after being touched by it tore as I was trying to do some minor adjustments. The gray tone markings need to be a couple shades lighter or you need to lighten your black paint slightly. Once applied over the black camouflage they are completely invisible. Even on the brown it is hard to see the MILITARY POLICE decal. After assembling, I painted and decaled my HUMMWV to represent vehicle #10 of the 65th Company of the 519th Battalion (MP) stationed in Brcko, Bosnia in the summer of 1996. I always dip my clear parts in Future and have never had a problem. This time I did. All the parts turned out great except the passenger windshield. It had a BIG run in it. After removing all the Future and sanding it smooth (I thought), it was re-dipped and once again it ran. I mounted it as was and it is not very noticeable. Kudos to Tamiya again. For the big turn signal indicators, they include clear parts to go over them. This is a really nice touch. You just paint the back the appropriate red or orange and use your favorite clear plastic cement and you get very realistic turn signals. The antenna is a piece of control wire cut to size and topped off with a white glue eye guard. This is a really great kit and by far the best to hit the market stock. With many of the aftermarket products and some finer detailing this will definitely be winning trophies at all the model shows. |
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