I wrapped up the recent release of Hobby Link M123E2 10 ton tractor. MERDC desert scheme.
When it arrived, the detail of the kit was apparent. A few problem areas that were worked through were the printing lines/ridges on exterior of cab doors and top of the hood; I sanded, added a skim coat of filler, and sanded again. No major stoppage there.
The frame, although taped to a heavy piece of cardboard, was warped and responded well to some hot water treatment to straighten out.
Not obvious in the advertisement images for the kit is the engine/transmission detail which is surprising.
A filler piece of treadplate was warped beyond salvaging, and I replaced with flat card stock, which once painted, blends well and is not really noticeable.
The axles are damn-near one-piece print items, robust and well-detailed. Tires are hollow-printed, separate hubs, and align well onto the axles. The tire profile is pretty square and required substantial sanding to arrive at a more reasonable rounded profile.
After the initial color coats, I managed to drop the front bumper which, to my surprise, shattered. Fortunately. I had an extra chassis sprue for the AFV Club M54, and I robbed a new bumper from there. And I managed to match the color pattern, but then realized the bumper was upside down after cementing, with the winch notch facing the wrong way. Most won’t notice tho. I also used the AFV Club cab roof which had better detail. The kit includes both canvas and steel roofs.
Clear resin or plastic windows are included but not really useable. I used clear acetate stock for the windshields. Headlights are solid, so I drilled them out and added some M.V. Products lenses I had squirreled away. Wish I had more of those, as they really look great.
The engine side access panels are open, and a very flimsy mesh material is included for the screen in those areas. I replaced with some Royal Model PE mesh I had on hand.
Care has to be taken removing some parts from their printing forms. The west coast mirror frames are one piece, but when you see the frame buried among the many supports, deciding where to cut becomes quite the challenge. End result was very nice, in spite of the concerns.
When the whole enchilada is seen, it’s an impressive model, and I look forward to adding a trailed now and strapping a load onto it, to compliment the M1070 and C-HET already completed.
It came out very nice. Good job on it.
I wish this kit had been around about 20 years ago when I scratch/converted one using parts from the Tamiya Dragon Wagon, Italeri’s M923, AFV Club’s M35, an old Revell/Renwal 1/32 M62 wrecker, and a few other kits along w/lots of sheet and rod styrene.
Gino, I visited your earlier work on the old site as reference for my own build of this kit.
One thing I didn’t mention was that the two winches are printed with the cable drums being inaccessible for adding cable onto them due to cross-braces on the winches. They are one-piece items, and the braces would have to be removed to access the drums for winding a cable. I ended up adding tissue paper “canvas” to weather=proof the invisible cable…
The Hobby Link point of contact has been very responsive to my messages about the tire profiles and the winch issue; we’ll see if down-stream changes are added to future issues of the kit.