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M1120 HEMTT Load Handling System (LHS) (01053) 1:35


Mike

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M1120 HEMTT Load Handling System (LHS) (01053)

1:35 Trumpeter

 

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Based upon the almost ubiquitous (in US military circles at least) HEMTT, which has been in service in its original form since the 80s, the M1120 is a reinvigorated take on the design, eschewing the lifting crane and instead installing an MPH165-LHS system for load handling instead.  Some were built new at the factory, while many others were remanufactured and zero-houred from existing vehicles, so that all new variants share the same basic chassis, with a cab that can be up-armoured with bolt-on units for operations in more dangerous situations such as the long empty roads in the Middle East where ambushes and IEDs are common. This is why floor armour is consistently fitted throughout the range.  With eight wheels on four axles, all of which are powered, it is capable of handling most terrain from metalled roads to dirt tracks and worse, making it a useful tactical tool to provide operational units with supplies of all kinds.  The lifting system is based on commercial systems, and excels at handling large ISO standardised palettes known as flatracks, which can be prepared with all manner of payload for fast pick-up, transportation and delivery, with a quick turnaround.  Even light vehicles can be palettised and transported in this manner, as can shipping containers as you may have guessed from the box art.

 

 

The Kit

While a kit of the HEMTT isn't news in itself, this is Trumpeter's latest reboxing of their basic HEMTT kit that was originally released in 2015, making it by far the newest kid (and kit) on the block.  There have been two other new releases of the same basic tractor unit from Trumpeter this year, one with a trailer and dozer (01055) and the other with a rather quirky-looking AN/TPY-2 X-band radar unit that is used with missile defence systems.  The kit arrives in a large black-themed box with a painting of a container being loaded onto the back of the vehicle, and inside the box is divided by a piece of card to protect the more delicate parts from the weight of the sprues in transit.  There's a lot of plastic and other parts in the box, so let's have a bullet-pointed list for a change:

 

  • 20 x sprues in light grey styrene
  • 1 x slide-moulded cab part
  • 1 x sprue in clear styrene
  • 9 x black rubbery plastic tyres
  • 1 x Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret
  • 4 x metal tubes (axles) in two different lengths
  • 1 x decal sheet
  • 1 x mask sheet

 

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There is also the instruction booklet and separate painting guide, which is printed on glossy paper and has Gunze paint codes with a chart converting to Acrysion, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol colours.  In case you were unaware, Acrysion is another brand of Mr Hobby, which seems to have a fairly limited line-up of colours at present, and even uses the same codes for their colours, but is supposed to have enhanced gloss and self-levelling properties that lends itself to easier brush painting.  Detail is good, and it's a full chassis and interior model, due to the fact that the engine is situated mid-chassis under a loose-fitting cowling that is open-ended.  There is also a flatrack and even a container to sit atop that in case you wanted to mirror the box art and take up more room on your shelves.

 

Construction begins with the chassis, which is made up from the two main runs, with lots of cross-members, equipment and transfer boxes in between, all fixed on with high-tensile bolts in the real thing, the heads of which are replicated on both sides of the main beams.  The axles are built up in pairs on sub-assemblies, using leaf-springs, the axles coupled by drive-shafts, and movable wheels captured by carefully gluing a cap over the stub axle before closing up the outer part of the hub.  Brake detail is included on both units, plus steering for the front pairing, after which both are fitted to the rail by their spring mount-points and coupled to the central(ish) transfer box by more drive-shafts and steering linkages for the front axles.  Next up is the engine, which although it isn't a highly detailed replica, will definitely pass muster once the cowling is in place.  It would benefit from some additional wiring and a sympathetic paintjob though, which will be worthwhile as some elements of it will be seen on the finished model.  It also has a short drive-shaft into the transfer box in order to put power to the front and rear axle pairings.  The steering is then finally linked to the cab area, with an additional bar between front and rear wheels on the forward pairing, after which the front fenders are built up with the air intake can on one, and other equipment around, with mudflaps extending down to the rear.  Because the engine is behind the two-seat crew cab, the exhaust is just a short pipe leading to the muffler, which has a perforated heat shield made from PE, and attaches to the top of the engine on a small bracket.  At this point the eight road wheels are given their tyres, which simply push onto the hubs.  The spare tyre is placed in a box and hemmed in by a rail at the front and rear, plus a PE strap that goes through the centre of the hub.  An aircon unit is built up, as are a number of stowage boxes and receivers for the various fluids, plus a huge fuel tank and the one piece cowl, all of which are later fitted to the chassis in clearly marked diagrams, with lugs and depressions making for an accurate location.

 

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The crew cab is quite small, and the majority of it is slide-moulded as a single part, with an underside on its own sprue that receives the driver's pedals, steering wheel, plus instruments and dashboard, which has a decal for the individual dials.  The highly adjustable, suspended seats are identical, and are made up from a base, adjustment/suspension element, and the seat pads, which install in the footwells, with more instruments in between the two crew stations.  The upper cab has the product code in raised lettering in the ceiling, plus ten ejector-pin marks that you might want to consider removing before you add the sun visors and glazing, the latter having a set of pre-cut masks provided in the box which is nice.  The doors are separate, and have two glazing panels each, and again have their own masks, but masks for the exterior only in case you were planning on airbrushing the base coat on the interior.  Light clusters and headlamps in the front are installed along with windscreen wipers, and the angled lower front panel with PE grille is fixed to the front once the cab is safely attached to the chassis.  The large wing mirrors and aerial bases are fitted last to avoid being knocked off during handling, and you'll need to find your own aerial material, either from stretched sprue or fine carbon fibre rod.

 

The Multi-Purpose Handler (MPH) system is next to be built up, starting with the L-shaped lifting arm and A-frame, with the metal tubes acting as the hydraulic ram sleeves that allow the parts to slide past each other so that the arm can be moved once completed.  A 1:1 scale ruler is printed on the page to allow you to select the correct length tube in case you're confused by numbers and sizes like Father Dougal.  The base frame fits to the sides of the A-frame and at the other end the longer hydraulic rams fit on a cross-rail.  The whole assembly is then attached to the frame along with a set of rollers at the far aft of the chassis, and a couple of mudflaps hanging off the rear.

 

Three of the sprues consist of parts for the ISO container, with five sides covered with ribbing for strength (the floor being flat inside as you'd expect), plus the door frame, which has a nicely detailed rendition of the double-doors and locking mechanism depicted separately.  The underside has four steady-pads added, and Trumpeter have managed to limit any ejector-pin marks to the inside bottom rails, which won't be seen once it's built up.  The flatrack is made up from a rectangular floor piece with two rails running down its length, and lots of small attachment points fitted to the sides, with the "bed head" upstand fitted to the front for grabbing by the MPH arm.  The flatrack has four cones moulded into its corners that fit into recesses under the ISO container, with locks, holding it in place.  A final page in the instructions shows how to pose the finished model in travel and loading positions.

 

 

Markings

In Trumpeter's usual manner there's nothing accompanying the two decal options to explain where and when these markings were seen, so you're on your own there!  The desert scheme is predictably painted all over sand yellow, while the other option is painted in a NATO European Green/Brown/Black scheme, with the container in a red brown colour and a Florens logo down the front corners, the well-known container leasing company.

 

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The decal sheet consists mostly of number plates, stencils and a branding decal for the crane, as well as the aforementioned Florens logos, plus the instruments for the cab.  The printing is good, with decent sharpness and clarity, but on my example, the instrument decals were slightly offset on their black background, but this doesn't seem to affect the rest of the sheet.  In truth, little will be seen of these once it is finished, unless you leave all the doors open and have very good eyesight.

 

 

Conclusion

Although this isn't a front-line vehicle, it does have a certain appeal, and Trumpeter have given us lots of detail out of the box, plus some useful features such as the movable MPH, and an ISO container to put on it.  It's quite a large model, but like a lot of AFV and softskin models, they're surprisingly compact and make for a cabinet friendly carpark.

 

The kit is indeed proving popular, as between us receiving this and writing the review (about a week), Creative have gone out of stock.  Check back later, as I'm sure they'll be ordering more.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Out of stock at time of writing

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Review sample courtesy of

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