Up Armored Humvee

av8rmongo · Post by **av8rmongo** » Thu May 17, 2007 9:01 pm

Has anyone received the new up-armored Humvee yet? If so what's the review?

Paul

Timothy OConnor · Post by **Timothy OConnor** » Thu May 17, 2007 10:56 pm

Just got mine! (along with some Blackhawks and 'Nam era heavy weapons for use with my modern US troops).

Looks great as usual! The gunner position has a gun shield and 3-sided protection. Only potential issue here is that the gun shield seems to protrude a good distance past the windshield. Photos I've seen seem to indicate that the gun shield should overhang just a wee bit if at all. Since I'll be mounting these with two per stand this should not be much of a problem for me since I'll position the turrets at 45 degree angles (thus the gunshield will be over a corner of the roof.)

Side windows appear to be covered with some sort of VERY thick armor plate. Over the rear cargo area there seems to be something that looks like vent fans.

They also have a spare wheel molded onto the rear which is a nice tough.

And there's a gunner molded into the gun position (all vehicles should have crewman! Looks so much nicer!)

The challenge for GHQ or any company making this sort of vehicle is the huge variation of up-armored Humvees in Iraq. There are photos of gun turret side and rear armor that appears to be fairly boxy (like the GHQ version) as well as round like a drum or barrel.

I have the vanilla GHQ Humvee and this new version mixes in perfectly (then again, such perfection is SOP for GHQ!).

Tim

av8rmongo · Post by **av8rmongo** » Thu May 17, 2007 11:39 pm

Tim,

Thanks. I agree about the gun shield. Pictures I've seen show maybe 10-12in overhang, which at this scale would be on the order of about 1mm. Still I don't think it would keep me from buying some. My understanding about the side windows is that these are actually 3-4in thick bullet-proof (resistant?) glass. They're hinged so that they can be opened by swinging them out of the way. The vent/fans in the back are actually for an AC system, at least according to the pictures I've seen in the Concord publications.

So all of those details are molded on? No chance of customizing vehicles by just adding some bits here and there? Too bad. Now I'm debating on whether I should go ahead with a project to PE brass gunshields for my other Humvees or just use these.

Paul

Timothy OConnor · Post by **Timothy OConnor** » Fri May 18, 2007 2:18 am

So all of those details are molded on? No chance of customizing vehicles by just adding some bits here and there? Too bad. Now I'm debating on whether I should go ahead with a project to PE brass gunshields for my other Humvees or just use these.

Paul

I would fully recommend these given their usual precise GHQ-details and excellent casting quality. That's what I most like about GHQ, outside of the VERY rare broken .50 cal GHQ castings are just so darn perfect. Why can't other mfgs do so well?

I agree about the A/C vent fans. In fact, I would like to see GHQ make their soft transports either with varied accents or no accents and special pieces we could use to customize. Vehicles such as Humvees are often pictured with a huge variety of kit hanging off the sides or stuffed in the back. This can range from cargo to troops or is often a simple canvas cover. It would be nice to be able to field "gypsy caravans" of soft and even armored vehicles for greater variety.

In any case I just assembled a couple of these new vehicles and mounted them on a 1" wide x 1-1/2" deep base and they look great. I have one Humvee trailing the other. The lead vehicle is aiming its .50 cal to the front left while the rear humvee (positioned to the right of the leader) is aiming to the rear-right quarter. This mitigates the excessive over-hang by the gun shield but it also revealed another problem...the gun over-hangs so far and the AC fans are so tall that the turret can't face to the rear. It's blocked by the AC fans! If aiming at the right-rear quarter it would need to rotate all the way through the front arc to aim at a target in the left rear quarter.

edit: forgot to mention one benefit of the oversized gun turret: the barrel seems much thicker and sturdier than other models. These look great and should stand up to wargamer fumbling much better!

chrisswim · Post by **chrisswim** » Sat May 19, 2007 7:55 am

I have used the Hummv with gun shield for 2-3 years now. Take the GHQ M113A3 MG in the bucket, put in the other guys hummv, and presto! Stem is cut some and it is not tight, so guy and hold for a bit. Could use the M113 MG gunner in the bucket from other guys on their hummv. Seems to work.