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| Kit Name: |
Humber Scout Car Mk I w/ twin K gun (D Day version) |
Manufacturer: |
Bronco Models |
| Kit Number: |
CB 35016 |
Retail Price: |
US$59.95 |
| Scale: |
1:35 |
Release Date: |
Monday, September 01, 2008 |
| Review Date: |
Friday, April 10, 2009 |
Reviewed By: |
Steve Allen |
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Overview
Bronco first released their Humber Scout Car kit last year and have now followed it up with this second version which features an additional sprue of Vickers 'K' guns with their associated drum magazines and a second set of rubber tyres featuring a different tread pattern. The original tyres are also included. There is no crew figure supplied with this kit.
Box contents
The kit comprises of four sprues of olive green plastic (A,B,C and F), a hull tub and superstructure also in olive green, two sets of five rubber tyres, two sheets (one very small) of etched brass detail parts, two clear parts, the drivers windscreen and a length of flexible rod neither of which are listed on the contents page. (I'm assuming the tubing is for the radiator hoses which are shown on the instructions but without any part number), a beautifully printed (by Cartograph) decal sheet and a 15 page instruction booklet.
The standard of moulding is excellent with very little flash present. There are however, numerous ejector pin marks, some of which are in fairly inaccessible places. I also noted that one sprue has a nice selection of various sized rivets/bolts cast on one of the runners. Just remember to keep that piece of sprue once you have built the kit.
Construction
Construction starts with the hull interior details. I was a little concerned with the large number of ejector pin marks on the hull floor but soon came to realise that most of these would be covered by other parts. The instructions, while clearly printed, leave some areas of doubt such as location of the engine bay fire wall. The commanders seat is adjustable in height, just like the real thing and the transmission cover features a very subtle texture some of which is regrettably lost as the joint between the two parts of the cover does not follow a panel line and therefore requires filling and sanding.
At this point I also opted to glue all the various parts that come in two halves such as the leaf springs (more on them later), exhaust silencer, air filter, starter motor and so on so that they could be curing ready for sanding while other work was going on.
One thing I did notice straight away was that the type of plastic the kit is made from does not lend itself to sanding or scraping, tending to leave a rough edge which is almost impossible to smooth.
When building the engine, I found that several of the smaller detail parts required reinforcing with brass wire in order to attach them to the block because there was very little 'glueable' area to work with though I'm fairly convinced this has more to do with my clumsiness than the kit design. The clear plastic supplied for the radiator hoses is not in fact tubing and I decided to use plastic insulation stripped from electrical wire instead.
The crew compartment is very busy and the view ports feature some of the smallest etched parts I have ever had to work with. For example, one latch is about 1x.5mm and requiring THREE folds.There are also a couple of anomalies here. All the hatches have very fine latch detail except the rear one which has no detail at all even though this is one which many modelers will want to have opened and secondly, a very nice No 19 radio is supplied but no mics or headphones to go with it. I scratch built some hatch detail as best I could from available photos. Painting information is also very limited in the instructions and it would be extremely useful if Bronco could include a copy of the original army stowage diagram which names the various components, at least that way it would be easier to chose the appropriate colour to paint them.
Next I completed the suspension. The steering is poseable but not moveable and very nicely detailed. Just be very careful how you cut the parts from the sprue. Some of what look like sprue attachment points are in fact part of the final assembly. The springs leave a lot to be desired. Each spring is made up of two halves, split vertically, the mating surfaces of which are covered in ejector pin marks, some raised, some indented and these combined with the guide pins and holes make the whole thing almost impossible to fit well. I decided to sand the mating surfaces smooth and line up the halves by eye.
Once all the interior was done I then fitted the upper section of the crew compartment, the wheel arches and the engine decks. All these parts fit reasonably well but the whole kit is plagued with locator pins/holes which do not match in size leading to some very sloppy fits. Two sets of 2 gallon POL cans and racks are supplied but I was a little disappointed with the lack of detail on the cans. Etched brass replacements are supplied for the handles and rack but this requires the builder to remove all the moulded on detail. In my opinion it would have been much better to have supplied the cans minus the moulded on detail and just gone with the brass. I opted to use Accurate Armour cans in the Bronco brass holder.
 
Lastly came the fine external detail, various clamps, headlight and siren, tools, the remaining hatches and the PLM mount with the twin K guns. The PLM mount is beautifully done and VERY fragile.
All in all this is a very detailed and nicely engineered kit. There are some problems with the instruction sheet (I have several etched parts left over which don't appear anywhere in the instructions) but these are minor nitpicks and shouldn't put anyone off from building this neat little vehicle.
Recommended
Thanks to Stevens International for the review sample Edit 04/10/2009: Added pic of finished model
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