German Army RECON HUMMER

By

TED WELLS, PRESIDENT IPMS/WATERTOWN, NY

Since it’s inception in the early 1980s, the M998 - HUMVEE, has taken on many roles in military, and now civilian, service. It has been deployed in several variations, from cargo/troop carriers, to anti-aircraft and anti-tank roles, to ambulance and radar versions. The HUMMER also has been exported to several countries for service in their military machines. A prototype HUMMER in German Service is the subject of this article.

I wanted to create a German Army RECON vehicle, using the HUMMER as a basis. Though the HUMMER has not yet entered into actual service with the German forces, it has been tested for various roles, including RECON. The U.S. has developed an ARMORED CAB troop carrier, which is not currently in active service with the U.S. forces, but is widely exported.

To model the RECON vehicle, I chose ITALERI’s 1/35^th scale "DESERT PATROL" M998 HMMWV, kit # 249.

This kit is the Armored cab variant. The kit is pretty straight forward, and I built it basically out of the box, with only a few added details. As is usually found with ITALERI kits, the fit was good, but still needed some adjustments. I did have to make some modifications to support the wheel mounts on the chassis. The locator pins on the chassis were very weak. The slightest pressure caused the pins to break off from the chassis, leaving it inside the wheel. Now what do I do? I only had to repair two wheel mounts, for now, so to fix this problem, I punched out four styrene disks from a plastic sheet. I used a regular paper hole punch, some high tech tool, huh? I first sanded the broken locator pins flush, on both the wheels and the chassis. I glued one disk to each hub, and the others to the chassis. I then glued the disks together. This added some thickness to the joints, but is not very noticeable. The only other adjustment needed was some plastic strips around the seam where the Cargo cab meets the body. There was a slight misalignment on the cargo sides and rear, but with the plastic strip, is not pronounced. A few additions for detailing included a NATO radio unit, fire extinguisher, ammo boxes and a Land navigation "computer", for the interior. I simulated the navigation system using an old "TOW" missile launcher control box. I replaced the kit supplied 50 cal. machine gun, with a current German issue MG-34. I also cut the hatch in half, to show it open. The HUMMER hatches bend in the middle when in the open position.

With an airbrush, I set to painting the model now, which I think, is the most enjoyable part of building a model. I used POLLY SCALE acrylics for the all painting.

I chose a pale gray interior color, using P.S. Israel gray. The color went on superbly, covering in just one coat. I picked out details on the dash, control panels, etc., with various colors. The seat cushions were painted rust.

The chassis was painted Tarnished black, with pencil lead rubbed on the frame to show worn metal. The tires were painted Grimy black with some drybrushing to bring out the tread. The base color for the two tone Camo - scheme was NATO Tri-color green. This matches perfectly to current NATO vehicle paint scheme. I then gave the vehicle an overspray of Tarnished black, in wavy lines. This effectively broke up the scheme.

The turret mounted machine gun was painted flat black and drybrushed with steel. The stock was painted red brown. Canvas tarps and tent pack were painted khaki, with red brown straps. All reflectors and tail/signal lights were painted silver, then picked out with TAMIYA transparent red & orange. The headlights were painted silver and given three drops of Micro-scale crystal clear, to simulate the glass. Bare metal foil was used for the "mirror" glass.

Decals were pirated from TAMIYA modern military decal sheet. Spare ammo lettering decals were applied to ammo boxes, etc. A Unit Shield, GRIFFIN on a red background, was also placed on the right rear cab for color.

The kit was a joy to build, especially since I finished it. It now sits proudly on my shelf, parked with the other HUMMER variants I so adore.