Converting a £1 Hummer to a Humvee

Here is the diecast toy Hummer, bought from Poundland for- a pound!

Here is the toy out of its packaging- the toy road signs were donated to a friend's young son.



The Humvee diecast shell has been removed from the chassis by removing a single small screw and has been stripped outdoors using caustic soda and boiling water in an old plastic ice cream tub (be VERY careful if using this method and always use protective gear and work outdoors- it's nasty stuff) You must remove all plastic parts or they will be destroyed.

The rear of the Humvee is a civilian version and needs modifying to represent the military 'turtleback' version. Fortunately it is a separate piece from the metal shell and is made of plastic, so easy to remove and to cut with a sharp knife or small saw.

Here is the detached chassis and interior. I have removed the pull back and go motor from this one because I intend to use it for an open backed Humvee. If you are doing an enclosed body you can just leave the motor as it is. I used Araldite to glue the now detached rear axle to the chassis. The motor just pops out so it's easy to remove.

The rear half of the roof was cut off, the sides and rear removed and Miliput used to fill the gaps. It's a bit rough at this stage.

The Humvee has been primed with Halford's grey spray primer, rubbed down on the filled areas and has had a thin coat of Humbrol model filler applied to the filled sections so that they are slightly proud of the surrounding body. I've never done any model filling or sanding down before so it's not perfect.

The rear of the now smoothed turtleback, after a basecoat of dark yellow.

I noticed from some photos that there should be a hatch on the rear, so scored one in with a modelling knife. I'd do this before sanding and painting next time.

A bit of weathering and drybrushing to bring out the detail.

Mud and dust added to the now reassembled vehicle, standing next to an as- yet unpainted 28mm Empress SAS figure.

The two Humvees for £2 are Oscar Mike!

NOTES:
I'm no expert on the modern period or vehicles, having only just got interested in this area in the last fortnight. Ambush Alley appealed to me as a 'fast play' game that I could enjoy with a small number of figures and vehicles and hopefully on a limited defence budget. If I spent hours agonising over every detail or had to save up for the best on the market I'd never get a game going, so I'm quite pleased with these first attempts.

I intend to add some aerials and stowage to the Humvees and the wheels don't look right, so I'll probably replace them with some resin cast ones when I can get round to teaching myself more on mould making and casting. I picked up another half dozen of these so hope to do some with roof gunners and other options.

NEXT UP: Generic Middle Eastern buildings.

:O)