M125 10 Ton Truck 6x6

by HobbyLink, made in Vietnam

The first look review on this kit can be found here:  https://www.amps-armor.org/SiteReviews/ShowReview.aspx?id=15192

I started by carefully removing the parts on this kit from the printer gates that the parts were printed on.  The parts were formed by the 3D resin printing process where the parts are built up in layers over time.  The parts are attached to the gates which are a series of thin connecting pins that have to be clipped off.  Depending on how thick or thin those parts are, they are very easily broken during this process.  The detached parts required careful cleaning and some straightening due to warping.  The frame was one of these parts.  When I examined the frame it was warped pretty badly.  In order to straighten this part, I tried heating up a pan of water to where it was just about boiling and then dipping the frame into it for about 15 seconds.  Once I did that, I removed it from the water and then bending the frame the other direction, holding it until cool.  Normally, that works.  But, sadly, when I woke up the next morning, the frame had returned to it's original position.  I did this several times, at least six attempts and the frame would return to it's original position every time.  It then required a more direct approach to solve this issue.  I chose five points in the frame where I made small razor cuts, almost cutting through the frame.  When I did this, I filled the spread of the cut radius with a small sprue wedge, super gluing it into place to spread the frame every so slightly in the direction that I wanted it to straighten..  I then applied super glue over the area that I just glued in, just to lock that "surgery" in place.  This also helped to secure the weakened frame in the new position.  I did this at five locations along the frame to correct the warping of the frame.

In this photo, you can see the small finger held razor saw that allowed me to cut the frame.  The "x"s on the frame is where I cut it in the five places that needed it in order to straighten it out.  I had to straighten the frame this way because I simply could not get the reheated frame to keep the corrected shape once I dipped the frame into some boiling hot water.  I did that several times.  The last couple of times I straightened the frame and actually took it a little bit further past the point of curve that I needed in order to give the frame a little bit of room to work with if it should decided to bend back to it's original shape.  I figured the frame would split (pardon the pun) the difference and stop on it's return travel to the warped look and settle where I needed it.  Nope!  No such luck.  The frame just went right back to it original curve much to my dismay.  I even tried flash freezing the reheated frame in an attempt to get the resin to densely firm up in it's straightened position, only to find that once I set it on the table about 30 minutes after being in the frig to slowly warp back the other way.  Yes, it was frustrating to me but...where there is a will there is a way and I decided to cut the frame in five locations and do it that way.  Now, if you do this, keep in mind that the frame where you cut it will be extremely fragile and any bending or flexing, you are playing with fire at that point.

The next photo shows the corrected frame

You cannot see it in this photo but the fuel tanks on both sides, along with the step up steel plate parts had the "layering" effect from the 3D printing.  I had to scrape and sand that detail to remove it and in some cases, you cannot do this without removing some of the details of the part because of the sanding process.  I found that it's easier to take a sharp razor blade and "scrape" the part, removing the layering lines and then lightly sanding the part to smooth out the uneven scrapes.  If you do this, be prepared to do a lot of sanding to smooth these areas out.  It can be done with a little bit of time and patience.

The engine detail in this kit is really nice.  As you can see, the spark plugs, air intakes and the intake manifold details are there.  The fan assembly in the front is extremely delicate and a lot of care must be taken to keep from breaking off those fan blades.  Some of the parts in these assemblies also had the "layering" effect of the 3D printed lines showing up on the part.  Look carefully at the transmission casing and you will see these lines.  But, having said this, the lines are in a place not easily seen.  Keep that in consideration because in the case of the transmission housing, that slides pretty far up under the cabin bottom where it can't be seen anyway.  Sweat the lines on parts where the viewer would see them, not just because you knew they were there.  Address the layering lines in a way to maximize your time on the model.  You do not have to remove those lines there if you don't want simply because they will be hidden.

At this point, I began to test fit the bottom of the cab onto the frame but primed the parts first with Mr. Color's "Mr. Surfacer 1000 Mahogany" where I could.  Frequent dry fitting was done at every step of the way during construction.  This helps to keep your model construction straight and tight.  It is important on how these parts line up and glue on, as later you will see evidence of good preparation in gluing will get you, especially when Superglue is involved.  It is not advisable to spray paint parts and then attach them to the model over other painted parts.  What you will have is a situation that at the first sign of stress, the glue join will fail, pulling off the paint  when the parts separate.  Super gluing painted parts is always a choice of last resort.

The parts lining up prior to construction and how they look in relation to the rest of the model is important.  Using a product called UltraGel Control by LOCtite is the glue of choice for building this kit.   The Mr Color Mr. Mahogany Surfacer 1000 bottle is in the next photo for references on what I used.

I switched to using this primer several months ago and found that I really liked how this stuff lays down in coverage.  Being a lacquer, that was the only thing about the primer base that I did not care for.  But, the brown here is excellent in adding depth to the painted surface and allows for blemishes to be seen much much easier.  Mr. Surfacer Lacquer primer was sprayed on some of the parts in this photo that could wait for gluing.  This allowed for some of the paint coverage to start as noted.  If you look carefully, you can see the "layering" of the printing lines on the fuel tank in this photo.  That's what the Mr. Surfacer is good for, in uncovering parts that needed attention.

Another view of the engine compartment and details.  The engine is possibly one of the best detailed I have seen.  Dry fit here is everything so make sure that a sound fit is able to be made.  Some of these engine parts also have the 3D printed layering lines that have to be removed., IF....IF you plan on displaying the engine compartment open.  sand and scrape them down as best as you can if you plan on raising that engine compartment.

In this photo, you can see the molded on dials on the dashboard.  A lot of that detail has the dials but without the individual molded needles or values within the dials that could be picked with a paintbrush and white paint.  I added some scale decals to these areas, it will go a long way in making the dash look pretty awesome.  A good aftermarket instruments decal sheet would be a good logical step here in detailing the dials.  The instructions for adding the cab and the engine are in a logical step.  I do suggest that care is taken to make sure you can install the engine into the engine compartment once the cab is installed onto the frame.  With the transmission added, that drive train assembly becomes tricky in adding that to the model where it mounts to the frame.  I had some issues getting that drive train inserted into that area, having to turn it on it's side to make it fit the opening, then gluing it to the support.  I only got that to fit by turning the engine on it's side, then angling the assembly diagonally and sliding it into place, then turning it right side up to where it would fit.  The firewall in the back of the engine compartment make this step a little bit harder to deal with and with a little bit of coaxing, I was able to make it work.  It was nice to keep from having to worry about 3D layering lines in the cabin area.  The parts were printed on the printer in such a way as to have the lines on the underside of the cabin parts where they could not be seen.

I started painting the base color of Green.  I used Tamiya Acrylic XF-67 NATO Green as my base color coat.  I then sprayed some highlighted areas of a lighter mix and some recessed areas of a darker mix.  This will break up the monochrome effect of a one layered paint job of "green".  I often like to spray a darker color first to add "depth" to the base color before I spray the lighter tones.  In this case, some of the wheels had the layering lines that you sometimes find on 3D resin printed model parts.  I should have seen these on the tires which would be discovered much later on because I didn't take the time to look carefully.  I found that out once I started to apply a light dirt wash to the wheels and it flowed along those layering lines.  I would have to back track and sand those lines down and repaint, re-weather the wheels once again which was not too much of a problem, thankfully.

If you look carefully at the winch housing, to the right of the cable, you see the 3D printed lines from the layering process.  You actually will see this in several places if you look carefully.  You see it on the front of the lateral guide on the front of the bumper as well.  The only way you can get rid of this is to manually address these layering lines by removing them by careful sanding by hand.  You have to be very careful in what you sand because the parts if sanded to aggressively, will look like they are not straight with curves to them.  You don't want this.  Make sure you have a straight edge sanding tool where you can address these lines.  What I chose to do as you will see in later photos, was to take some chain that I added to the cable which is Berkley "FireLine" Braid Fishing line (10 lb test-Moss Green) to fill the wire spool.  There is some thread that comes with the kit but in my opinion, it is too thick and not the right scale to use.  I installed the fishing line around the winch spool which was a pain in the butt to do but once I added the line, it looked in scale and way cool!!  I then spray painted the spool of Fire Line with the Mr. Surfacer primer, then the Tamiya XF-1 Black.  It takes paint really well and will actually take a black magic marker sharpie really well too if you need to touch up any of the fire line.

More test fitting and some paint going down as a "base" color.  I added the frame support members on the front for the fender to rest on.

Construction of the cargo bed.   Let me tell you about some of the hardest work on this model, beside the frame being warped.  One of the worst cases of the warping of the bed floor, was the last half inch or so where 90% of the floor was level and on the same flat surface.  That last half inch around the edges of the floor were in fact warped down.  So, the first thing that I had to do was to get the stove going again with the water, bring it to a boil and then dip the cargo bed floor into the water and count to 30.  I then took that out and put weights on the body after laying it down floor first, upside down with weights to press the bed down flat.  I left that overnight and that adhered to the new shape.  With that addressed, I went to go add the bed sidewalls.  As you can see, the sides of the bed walls did not sit flush with the floor bottom as it curved down completely.  It was just enough to have a small gap.  So, I glued the rails in place after straightening them.  I decided to address the gaps with Orange BONDO putty.  I allowed that to dry overnight.  Next I worked on the seat supports which in the crew seat being down for troops, have to be attached at an angle as they fold up under the seat as part of the bench system.  They were very easy to break when removing them from the part gates upon cutting them off.  Care must be maintained when cutting these parts from those supports or you will snap off the ears on these seat braces which I did on several of them.  If that happens, just cut the missing ear off the sprue gate and reattach to the part with some super glue while it's in front of you.  Allow it to sit for a while and then it will be good as new.  Some of these parts required a little bit of flash cleanup and some very exacting dry fitting before gluing in place.

The completed bench seat is seen here with the supports attached.  I had to heat up the seat to straighten it and it did adhere to the process to remain straight.  The parts are thin enough that they bench seat does not have to be 100% true in being straight.  When you glue the seat into the truck bed, it will allow you to press down to glue the supports in place so don't fret not having a straight bench.

I test fitted these resin parts so frequently I thought that I was building a LEGO vehicle.  But that is what you have to do to make these model turn out the way you want it to be.  The parts on both sides of the truck bed had to be lined up, test fitted and installed without either primer or paint on them.  The fit and gluing here has to be done in a way that you do not want any of these parts become loose or the show shape of the bed might go astray.  It didn't require much, a little bit of filling and then clean up after that.  At this point, based on the tape, the seats were just taped into place to show how they looked for the photo.  This also gave me an idea of what I would be dealing with when it came to the weathering process.  I knew that it would be hard to paint and weather under these seats as I wanted them in the "down" position.

Putting the tire in it's place to test fit that.  I found that the tire mounting holes in the hub were not the same distance so I had to cut them off and just mount the tire on the front wall of the truck bed.  I then added some sheet bits to make it appear that the tire was secure.

The mud flap detail.  Here you can see all sorts of things going on with these two parts.  You see the deep scratches as the parts come like this from the molding process.  You also see some of the layering lines from the printing process.  As with the parts where the layering lines would be seen, I filled these with my BONDO and once dried, I sanded them down smooth.  This was an easy thing to address.  Again, I'm priming and painting where I can to keep that going forward to make it easier to keep up with he painting. 

Plugging away here, priming, painting, dry fitting, more priming, more painting.

I have painted the interior and exterior of the truck bed and painted the bench seating.  If you notice, I have painted the "wooden" parts a more greener shade of the paint mix that I wanted to put on wood.  My logic for using different shades of the green found on this model, Wood and Steel (metal) with having the same paint applied, will fade at different speeds while sitting in the sun and being exposed to the weather elements.  I chose to have the lighter green base on metal, the more darker green on the wood parts.  Here, on the bench seats, I have started to apply chipping to the wood in an attempt to make the seats look chipped, worn, cracked, etc due to the years of neglect and heavy use as a hauler.  Cargo in a truck bed like this will often slide around and bang into those seats when in the collapsed position, tearing them up in the process.  I achieved this with applying various shades of green and yellow, randomly applying this to the bench all over it.

The basic truck is built now in this photo.  You can see I have the bench seats primed and installed.  The truck is starting to come together at this point.

Primed and painted the base olive drab with underlying shading all over the vehicle.  Look at the formation lights on the fenders.  Notice the layer lines on the parts from the printing process?  I left those there in this photo so you can see that even some of the tiniest of parts will have these lines that have to be addressed.

OK, here are my colors.  Not shown is the XF-67 NATO GREEN.  I used that as well.  So, I actually had three different shades of green that I used on this model.  It breaks up the monochrome effect of a boring Olive Drab color.  But, these colors in this photo are the primary colors that I used for everything other than white or black.  These paint mixtures are custom mixed from Tamiya Acrylics, from the XF line of paints.  I find that they are extremely durable, cover well and are very easy to mix and shoot from the airbrush.  As you can see, the color mix ratios are written out and printed in MS-Word and then taped to the side of the jar in readily seen, clear, printing.   In mixing these colors, I wanted to depict the vehicle in a very well worn and faded paint scheme.  Sun will bleach Olive Drab and lighter shades of green in strange ways.  The US Faded ARMY GREEN is something that I came up with.  I don't hold any licenses on the formula so please feel free to copy this formula if you want.  I find it is a very close representation to faded green.

Here, I'm applying tonal differences in the Olive Drab paint coverage as well as the wood features.  I mixed up some different shades of the olive drab because I wanted to "fade" some areas of the paint.  Here is what I came up with....you will see the lightened effect on the panels of the various parts in the photo below.  You will see darker highlights, lighter lowlights.....I know that sounds weird and probably the reverse of what I intended but that it does work.  

I realized that I needed to do some of the weathering on the frame and underside of the major components of the vehicle as I went along.  I wanted to start off with a simple MIG pigment wash made with Turpenoid in a solution and applied that to the wheels as you can see here.  One of the largest challenges that I had on these wheels is that the alignment positions for the differential assemblies is not exactly 100% true to being located in way to align the wheels properly.  I had to put the wheels on and then weather them in place which is sorta backwards but in this build, effective as you have the truck bed not attached at this point.

At this point, the MERDC scheme is applied and I have toned down the paint so the edges are not that harsh.  I have free handed the pattern to replicate years of fading in the sunlight.  The only color left was the tan color to apply which was the least amount of the colors.  All of the wheels have received a MIG Pigment dust wash as well as the rest of the frame.  The wash is applied a little at a time as I progress on the model.  This way I can reach into areas that are harder to do before it becomes almost too difficult to reach in the end.  I found that really easy to do.  Notice in the photo below how the greens are "toned" down on the hood.  That is because I misted a film of the faded Olive Drab on the hood and the front fenders.  I wanted those parts, in the sun more than any other of the horizontal surfaces to receive the most direct, "Fading" sunlight effect.

I had started to add the weathering to the truck bed at this point.  I found that the truck bed was a little warped when I went to put the sides, and the front on with superglue.  I had to heat up some water and dip those parts to straighten them.  Unlike the frame, these parts took the new corrected shape just fine and held that through the cooling process.

The tailgate was added here.  You can see some of the glue splooge (AMPS President Mike Petty's favorite modeling term by the way while swinging a 1-iron),  where I glued the gate into position.  I left that and decided to make that "bubbled" up rust under the paint.  In some applications, bubbled up rust can be simulated by some of the glue not being cleaned up where you have seams.  The point is, you can use that gluing mess in your favor if you incorporate rust in it.  Rust will often get under paint and attack it from within, causing the paint to lift up in a bubble.  I left some of that here on purpose.  The rear tire flaps were easy to install, but there were printing lines that had to be dealt with in sanding them down smooth.  It was not too bad to deal with.

The attachment points for the overhead canopy cover in the truck body is clearly seen here in this photo, scraped away of all paint and primer.  You have to have a good surface to get the superglue to stick with this 3D resin.  I found that out after knocking a few of the brackets off the rails after I had set them in place.  They were also crooked and needed heating and straightening as well.

The winch details are awesome on this kit.  Don't worry about those lines that are seen from the layering process of the part when it was printed.  I will take chains from A-line, a model railroading company to tie my winch wire to and then wrap that chain over the bumper and around the winch to hide that from sight.

OK, if you look at the front wheel in the above photo, you will see at the top of the side wall of the tire, the "layering" of the printing process.  I had not seen that and it was present in this photo that I took.  Just goes to show you that blemishes can be found at all times when you work on models.  In this case, I had to readdress those layering lines because not to do so, would be a major point reduction in the judging process.  The details for this kit are really nice and crisp on most parts, but with layering on other parts that must be addressed.  You can see it throughout the model.

Look at that steel plate detail on that step.  Those were parts that were gorgeous to work with.  As many parts as possible where printed so the layering lines were on the "hidden" side of the parts so the observer would not see them.  Good thinking in the engineering department for the design of the kit.  One thing about the rear of the cab gluing to the rest of the cab.  You have to get this right because if you don't, you will have unacceptable gaps in the construction.  There is the whole alignment issues here for the doors to be considered as well.  So, be careful at this step.

Here you can see the unfinished truck bed with the initial weathering already having been done in several areas with different products.  I wanted a buildup of mud in the rear of the bed, especially under the seat where some muddy US Marines would have their boots caked with that stuff, with it falling off while riding down the road.  I could envision it collecting and piling up under the seat.  The other "wet" areas are some MIG products like engine oil and oils stains "dripped" onto the flat portion of the bed.  Notice the tire is still clean.  With the tire in the upright and stowed position, I wanted the tire to be pristine and never used.

Notice the canopy and the curve in the mold?  It had a slight bend to it.  I had dry fitted that part to see how it would lay in place.  It really didn't do all that badly.  I figured that it would glue down once I got to that step in the process and that a little bit of super glue would do the trick.

Ah...the window panes.  The kit comes with these blocks of clear resin that are to be used for the window panes.  I did not like how that looked.  So, I took a packaging box that I had ordered a set of resin tracks from T-Rex for another project and used that for my window.  All I did was measure out the two pieces that I would need and then carefully cut the Box (using a new No. 11 X-Acto knife blade) that the tracks came in and insert those pieces into the opening on the windshield.  I will say, it worked like a champ!!   I used Future Floor Polish as my setting agent to make the panes stay in place.  The beauty of using Future as my bonding agent is that once it starts to dry, it will self-level to a certain degree and become hardly noticeable once applied.  Very easy adjustment that I did to help improve an already excellent kit.

Windshield installed, canopy rails installed, seats installed.

A view from the rear on the canopy rails.

OK, step right up and be intimidated.  You would not believe how delicate these side driver and passenger side mirror frames were to cut off the printing gates.  This kit comes with two sets of all the real delicate parts.  I believe Hobby Link determine that some of these parts would simply break when the modelers was cutting them off the part gates.  I will admit, I broke a few but did not have to resort to using the second parts on any of these delicate ones.  This included the side mirror lattice work.  Care must be taken to clip away the attachment reeds that anchor the parts into the gates.  You cut them off one by one at the base of the gate, then the other end that is attached to the part, once the part was freed from the gate completely.  It is a multi-step process in trimming up the parts.  This was a real challenge to remove these without breaking them.

Some of the most delicate parts on the kit that require a real light touch.

Now, I did take the liberty of providing scratch constructed mirrors.  Again, these parts here were very delicate.  I found it easier to cut out the mirror facings from a sheet of thin sheet stock.  I could then glue framing onto the mirror and position the mirror in a way on the mounting frame.  With soft plastic, it would allow for more time to move the parts around and angle the mirror as needed.  I used my tried and true method for simulating the mirror facing by using one of the Triple-AAA bumper sticker that comes in those mailers once you start approaching the age of 55.  Just like Triple AAA, they will send you a membership packet in the mail.  Simply remove that Triple AAA MYLAR and keep that for trimming up for mirror facing!!!  Those SILVER MYLAR stickers can be cut to shape and installed as they already have a very shiny (like a mirror) look to them.  Those stickers come with a heavy duty mounting adhesive already on the backside of the sticker.  Peel that off and you will have pretty substantial stickers.

End result of my handy work on the mirrors in the photo above.

FINAL PRODUCT PHOTOS.........

I want to say that this kit is really nice and I'm not just saying this.  The kit is a bit of a challenge, I will not lie there.  It's not an easy kit to build.  But, it is a very rewarding kit to build simply because of the challenge.  It can be done so with a very accurate result.  The kit is very nicely detailed even though there are some major 3D printing layering that has be be removed through tedious sanding and hiding.  If you navigate through that, you can deliver a very superior model.  I for one am happy that I was allowed to build this model as a review.  It's gorgeous in my humble opinion.  It has some rough spots but those spots are insignificant really, compared to what this kit offers the builder.

The resin is not hard to work with other than removing some of the parts from their print gates.  You will need a very sharp pair of "nippers" for this.  I used just regular Loctite superglue and that worked fine.  The resin parts are easy to work with.  If there are any drawbacks to the kit build, I would say that the yarn that is given for the winch cable, and thick windshield parts that have to be replaced.

The decals are really thin.  I used the Micro Set/Sol method and found out that the decals have a very short setting time before you cannot slide them around on a slick future floor polish surface.  But they are nice.

My only reservations about this kit were:

• Layering of the parts with 3D print lines on some of the parts, not all.
• Limited markings on the decal sheet
• The yarn/thread included with the kit for the rope
• No hook that can be tied to the winch cable
• One stowage can when there were two holders for these cans, either water or fuel
• Instructions are difficult to read at times because the kit part numbers were not clear

The model scales out to be approximately sized correctly for a 35th scale M125.  It was a very enjoyable kit build.  It is pricey if you can find one but well worth the investment because it is an iconic prime mover that presently has no kits on the market for this vehicle type.

Highly Recommended for Intermediate to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to Wanamaker Hobbies for this review kit.

Reviewed by GLEN MARTIN

If you liked this review, consider joining AMPS. Your annual membership
includes six copies of AMPS's magazine, Boresight,
and helps to support our ongoing reviews.

Click here for more information about joining AMPS