I was just given a Hobbycraft Hummvee kit as a gift. I’m not familiar with this brand. It looks nice, but are they any good?
I’m not familiar with the Hobby Craft Hummvee,
But many of the other kits offered by Hobby Craft are really Trumpeter re-boxes.
I would assume the same is true for the Hummvee.
try these
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16255
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11338
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8466
should help
I havn’t tried any hobbycraft kits before, but my friend has and he said the fit was horrible. I looked at it (a Bradley apc) and it was just awful. The cogwheel assembly was messed up and had to be highly modified and the whole thing was just awful. My friend thought that it was just that one kit that was messed up and tried hobbycraft’s m1a1 operation iraqi freedom. I looked at the intructions and it wasn’t very helpful. It came with some tubes that looked like air tunnels for fording rivers that obsqured the movement of the turret and, man was it bad! [:(!] At least it wasn’t my kit![8D] Anyway I’ve never done one, so I’m probably not a great source but from I’ve seen it was just a massacre with plastic. It just might work out, you never know.
hobbycraft is canadian, I believe??? haven’t had too much experience with them, but I did one of their kits and it was decent enough.
The Hobbycraft (Trumpeter) Armor kits I’ve seen are a mix of OK kits and just plain bad kits.
I have both the Hobbycraft T69 and the Hobbycraft AS90. Both of these kits are reboxed Trumpeter kits. They even still have “Trumpeter” on the parts trees.
The quality between these two kits is miles apart. The T69 is an early Trumpeter release (1999?) and has it’s share of faults. The AS90 is a much more recent Trumpeter release (2002/2003) and is much better that the T69.
The AS90 is definitely a buildable kit.
Trumpeter’s kits are much improved, but the old ones still leave a lot to be desired. Trumpeter is way behind the new Tamiya releases and IMHO still behind Dragon (I may have to change my mind when the new Trumpeter “Karl” is released). But, Trumpeter offers some subjects that no-one else does (except maybe resin).
I am currently building Trumpeters Faun, and so far it seems OK. I’ll have a much stronger opinion on the fit of the kit once I get a little further on the suspension.
Yes the Hobby Craft Bradley sucks. I have one the work bench. I’ve built both the Tamiya and the HC bradley. Now as far as the Abrams with the mine plow I I have to defend it. I think it is a great kit and it is more accurate than the Tamiya from what i have been told. It comes with those fording tubes you speak of as well but I just didn’t install them for the reasons you stated and I only in stalled the adaptors for the snorkle tubes instead. I beleive point is if you are fording a river you are in no position to use the turret anyway because it would be underwater along ith the rest of the tank except the snorkle tops! Though I have never seen the snorkle in action I am left to assume it is correct because no one has ever complained about it.
Now as far as the hummers go you can’t beat the price. It’s not perfect but it like all of the previous hummers have their good and bad. I have several HC hummers along with hummers by Italeri, ESCI, and Tamiya [the bushmaster one which is really a partial reuse of the Italeri kit]. The only hummers i have never bult are the academy and the new tamiya. The HC kit when assembled looks just about like all the others I just mentioned but better in that the rear hatch can be positioned open. This kit has two major draw backs. One is that the tires lack tread but all hummer kit tires suck except for the new Tamiya ones. These tires look better than Italeri’s from the side IMHO but definately not from the front. Bottom line if you get any Hummer other than the new tamiya you will need aftermarket tires. The other prob is that there are some minor fit problems with the suspension but nothing major. So some of the HC kits suck and some don’t. Those who compare anything to a Tamiya it’s going to come up short anyway. Of course the tamiya is top notch and you pay for it too.
So here are the pics of the HC ones i’m still working on. You be the judge…
I think they are great for custom fodder, and esp if you want to build a fleet of them. i’m also building several Italeri ones and a Tamiya Bushmaster one.
I picked up Hobbycraft’s M1A1 just for parts. It was cheap and I’ve got both Tamiya’s and Dragon’s M1A1’s, so I’ll be using some parts for my IP M1 and putting the plow on one of the other M1A1’s. This kit is a Trumpeter rebox and it’s headed straight to the scrap box.
Oh by the way the HC hummers are actually based on Academy molds from the looks of the parts. That explains why i like them. Before the new Tamiya kit came out Academy was the most accurate of the hummer kits available. This kit also comes an option of mounting either an m-60 or 50 cal machine gun, jerry cans, oil drums, and m-16 type rifle, and the option of motorizing it. Luckily there are no precut motorization holes to ruin it only indentions where you can cut out the holes your self if you chose to.
One word of warning though. The Hobby craft Commando Hummer displays a hummer on the box art with what looks like a hard top box-type shell with a 50 cal on top. Actually inside the kit you get a canvas top without the option to mount the 50 on it though the optional standard “fast back” hard top is included in the kit with the 50 cal and m-60 machine guns. This kit also has marine type decals. The HC “Liberator” hummer is the same kit but without the canvas top option and only includes the fast-back. The only good point about getting this kit over the “Commando” is that this kit includes different decals including the “military police” lables. I will also add that both these kits also include snorkles for the fording option which is great. These are great kits to get to “accurize” the Italeri hummers. I’m using some of the parts to swap out on both my Italeri Desert Hummer and my Tamiya/Italeri Bushmaster.
[:D] hi, i havent built my hc hummer yet , but when i got the kit i was supriesed that it came with a motor. [:D]
gdarwin.
You’re right Chris, Hobby Craft is indeed Canadian.
faol, check out yellowjasper’s links to other threads in this forum, as it’s been a widely discussed topic.
I don’t know anything about their humvee, as I’ve never built one, but I know that most of their armour offerings, except the M2A2, are trumpeter reboxes, and as such, very nice kits with very reasonable prices.
yeah it’s hard to beat a price tag under $20. The challenger 2 is the most expensive at $23. I haven’t got one of those yet. I’m a modeler on a budget so i don’t mind a little bit of flash here and there as long as the parts fit and the kit is accurate!
hobby craft is canadina, but not manufactured here (canada) i have a uh-60 black hawk no problems exept for the rotor drive shaft that i lost, mi-24 war on terror hind havent started yet, and a cf-18 that turned out great.
I built a trumpeter t-72, the glue did not bond the plastic well so i cannot touch this model 
I switched over to plastic weld a few years ago on my sci-fi and robot kits. As a result since I have been builing military kitsover the paste few months I only use CA or testors plastic glue when i need a relatively slow “sticky bond”.
aaa…[#offtopic] what does that have to do with hobby craft?[:p][:D]
Uhhhhh, it is still on topic. Most of the HC kits are reboxed Trump kits.
You, t3488g said, “I built a trumpeter t-72, the glue did not bond the plastic well so i cannot touch this model :(”
and I said,
"QUOTE: Originally posted by MartianGundamModeler
I switched over to plastic weld a few years ago on my sci-fi and robot kits. As a result since I have been building military kitsover the past few months I only use CA or testors plastic glue when i need a relatively slow “sticky bond”."
How is that NOT related? The purpose of this forum is to assist other modelers. If the glue you are using is not bonding Trumpeter’s plastic and if I, who has built several HC/Trumpeter models with no problems utilizing plastic weld, due to my experiences with sci-fi kits, then the statement is completly warranted.[;)]
From what i have heard you are not the first to have had this problem. Therefore anyone else who attempts to build a HC/Trump kit and has a bonding problem has a possible solution after reading this forum and the kit, and more importantly their money, will not be wasted due to “bonding problems”.
aaa…[#offtopic] what does that have to do with hobby craft?[:p][:D]
[/quote]
Oh my ,you mean someone would get off topic here in the armor forum , that has never happened in the past. [:0][:D]
Shocking… People deviating from the topic, it shouldn’t be allowed…
Anyways, back to the problem at hand:
I usually use ammonia diluted in warm water to prep the walls before wallpapering. Hope that helps.
sorry MartianGundamModeler never realized that is what you meant. Do you mean plastic welding like with the “power spark” toys were you build a jeep/truck put stuff on it then crash it into a wall? wouldn’t you be able to see the weld marks?
there’s a store here that has several iraq war hobbycraft. says on the box, trumpeter