Bronco Models
|
|
|
"This is the wide part" as John Vandeleur, commander of the 3rd Battalion Irish Guards, and played by Michael Caine, remarked in the film "A Bridge Too Far", while sitting in his Humber Scout Car. Since this memorable scene I have been wanting a kit of this little vehicle, and no doubt has been on the "wanted" lists of many other modellers for a very long time too. Bronco now have released the definitive kit of this subject, and have included a figure of Vandeleur to boot. The Kit Bronco is a Hong Kong based company have only just started to produce 1/35th scale injection moulded armour kit. They have produced an excellent series of French WW2 H39 Hotchkiss tanks, an A34 Comet and more subjects, including a Staghound armoured car, to come. In general the engineering of these kits is good. The Humber is moulded in olive coloured styrene on four sprues. Also included is a small fret of photo-etched brass and some clear parts.
Interior There is a full interior included as well as an engine and engine compartment. Starting with the hull tub and roof, which are detailed with some internal bracing, there are a few nasty-looking knock out pin marks to remove (photo. 10). Some of these are covered up with interior equipment however. Those that aren't hidden may seem difficult to remove, but I have developed a pretty effective method of dealing with them. I carefully place drops of Mr. Surface into each depression, let dry and then with an X-Acto chisel blade (the square one) lightly scrape the excess Mr. Surfacer off. This works quite well. There should be weld seams added to the insides to reflect those on the car's exterior too. These should be quite fine. I find that Slater's polyrod, the red stuff, works well for this. There are various small bolts that could be added to the interior too, it is best to study photographs and the kit first to determine what level of extra detailing is to be achieved. Since there are four big hatches on this car, I will be adding as much as possible. In general the parts supplied for the interior are good, but with any kit, there are additions that can be made. Most notably is the wiring. The junction box (part #C35) should have several cables coming out of the bottom, some running back and across the rear wall to another smaller junction box. This smaller box is missing from the kit, but sits in the centre of the rear wall just beside the battery rack behind the commander's seat. More cables travel from this along the rear, right wall to the radio. These cables can be made from fine solder, while the missing junction box from scraps of sheet styrene. Also missing from the rear upper wall is the smoke grenade stowage. There also should be a few wires that run from the side junction to the front lamp and instrument panel. Good references for these are on the British AFV Stowage Sketches (ref.1). I really like the radio, it is one of the best in styrene I've seen. It too needs some cables for the headset, etc. A photo-etched cage is provided that is bent to fit over the face. There should be a canvas cover for the set that was pulled over when the radio was not in use, and rolled up above the set when it was. This can be made from tissue. The cover is fastened to the back of the set and drapes over the top and front. A map box should be added to the rear transmission housing too. The seats are well detailed, although the instructions do not mention the folded down seat at the left-front (part B26), it is shown in place in the instructions however. This seat could be folded up too, when so there were braces on each side. The rest of the interior is fairly complete, there are a few small items that need to be added, a machete on the roof, small fire extinguisher, a small stowage rack under the glacis containing spare parts and tools, etc. All these I shall be adding to my model and will point them out in the construction report. There is also a good looking engine bay and engine included. I can't find suitable references on the engine so I won't comment on it. Included in the kit, but not mentioned, is a length of tubing, I suspect this is for the engine. I'd suggest that fine solder be used for the engine plumbing however since it is a lot easier to work with. Painting the interior is a little different than what the instructions state. I believe that silver is a more suitable colour than white as stated. The insides of the doors should be painted in the exterior colour too. Refer to my painting section for more details onthe interior painting. Chassis The chassis is quite good. I was a little thrown off my the leaf springs, they're moulding in halves! I'm sure they'll go together with care however :-) Compared to photographs the chassis does look fairly complete, that is, with the exception of brake lines, which can be added using thin solder. Refer to photographs for the exact placement. The chassis is mostly covered with an armoured plate so a lot of the detail won't be seen. The tyres are moulded in some kind of vinyl, they are hollow just like real tyres too. I really like tyres done like this. They appear suitably detailed, although some rebuilt collector's cars show a slightly different pattern. I wouldn't worry too much about the pattern since the real thing would have worn down, get filled with mud, etc. Exterior The main hull consists of lower and upper hull "tubs" (photo. 11). Along with a glacis, driver's plate, engine deck and rear plate. Every hatch that could be opened on the Humber is moulded separately, so all that work done on the interior will be nicely visible. The weld beads are rather well done too. The fenders are ingeniously moulded so that they appear to have an in scale thinness of the edges yet taper towards the hull to give them strength. A few small braces and bolts could be added to the undersides of each fender too. One item I would definitely replace are the "flimsies" on the kit they are poorly moulded with the mounting straps in place and the handles solid. Ultracast make excellent replacement parts for these. Figure One resin moulded commander figure is included, there is no mention of it in the instructions. It is meant to be set in the commander's hatch, sitting on the hull top. The detail and moulding is quite crisp although the binoculars are moulded in place, I think these would look a lot better if ground off and replaced. No painting information is given but finding references for this should be easy. Some British crew wore their old desert issued trousers in NWE, which where khaki drill (sand). Other figure options include the three figures now available from Alpine Miniatures, refer to the after-market accessories section for more options. Markings Paint references for Gunze Sangyo, Hobby Color, Humbrol and Tamiya are given. Only closest matches for some brands are given however, Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green is suggested for Olive Drab No.15, which is off. It's probably best to consult the MAFVA site for exact colour matches. There are couple of errors in paint suggestions, the interior most likely, as I mentioned, should be silver, not flat white. A good match for this interior silver that the British used is Humbrol's Silver Fox mixed with a little flat white to tone the gloss down a bit... the idea is to not replicate a natural metal finish here, just silver paint... and a super glossy silver paint in this scale doesn't look convincing. Photographic references seem to show the front part of the interior, under the glacis, to be painted a much darker colour, Olive Drab perhaps. The fire extinguishers should be a glossy green and not red. Water-slide decals by Cartograf are included for six vehicles, five are British and one is Danish post-war (see photo. 15). Strangely though, that famous car featured in the film "A Bridge Too Far" is not included! The options included are:
After-market Accessories Currently I am not aware of any dedicated after-market upgrade kits for this model, although I'm sure there will be something available soon from Voyager. There are a few kits that will help this model out however. Ultracast produce several suitable crew figures and stowage items such as Bren magazine cases that will be useful.
References As far as I know, there is no single reference book on the Humber Scout Car. There are many photographs in various compilation books however, those from Concord are the best. The best reference for the interior are the "British AFV Stowage Sketches" made during the war, which have appeared in several sources. The Internet is probably the best resource available currently for detail photographs.
Conclusions This is a really good kit. I think it will appeal to modellers of all levels. The beginning modeller will appreciate the details included in the kit and will get some experience from the multimedia items included. The more experienced modeller will also appreciate the challenge of super-detailing the interior, I know I will. When I build this kit, as I plan to soon, I shall update this review with more detailed information on enhancing the interior. I think every kit manufacturer at some time releases their "defining" kit. Tamiya release their new tooled Tiger (late), Tasca released their Luchs, etc... well this has to be Bronco's defining kit. It is by far their best effort so far. It's a great subject, something a lot of modellers have wanted for a long time, it's also highly detailed and accurate. No doubt this will be the kit Bronco will be know for, for some time. |
User Contributed Notes |