Hobbyboss 1/35 M911 C-HET

[KungFuDrew]

Well I guess I'll kick this one off. Welcome to my build of the Hobbyboss M911 C-HET.

First off a bit of history:

The M911 CHET is a Cold War era heavy equipment transporter of US origin. It was acquired in the mid 1970's as a more capable and lower cost alternative to the M746 HET that had been developed only years earlier. The name CHET stands for Commercial Heavy Equipment Transporter. The design was bought of the shelf in order to keep the costs as low as possible and to start production as soon as possible.

Layout
The M911 is based on the commercial Oshkosh F2365 truck. This model was modified in a number of areas. Two winches were added behind the cab. The US Army models feature a lift-up non driven fourth axle located in front of the two rear axles. The M911 is a soft skin vehicle and does not feature any armor or other protective measures.

Cargo capacity
The M911 was to be used with the M747 trailer. That trailer was developed in the HET-70 program alongside the M746 tractor truck that the M911 supplements. This combination allows for 60 t loads. Heavier loads such as the M1 Abrams cannot be transported. In foreign service other trailers are used with the M911. Most of those are capable of 50 or 60 t loads.

Mobility
The M911 had better mobility than the M746 it was designed to supplement. The huge Detroit Diesel 450 hp diesel engine allows for speeds of 70 km/h on roads. The speed on dirt roads and offroad is much lower. When used in difficult offroad conditions or with loads exceeding 60 t the reliability of the M911 proved to be limited.

The box art shows it hauling an Abrams, from what I've read it could actually transport an Abrams, but it would struggle.

This chunky munky comes in a big box, with all the plastic sprues individually bagged.



The trailer is moulded as 1 piece:


The cab and bonnet are slide moulded:


I have noticed a decent bit of flash in the grill, nothing too much to worry about though. The kit comes with the usual PE frets, decals and LOTS of vinyl tyres:






The instructions are the usual black and white jobbo, with colour instructions for the paint schemes:



My plan is to do this up in one of the NATO tri-colour camo schemes, and give it a dusty/muddy look. Depending on how the build goes and how much time I've got, I'll add something tracked and heavy to the back of it. On with the build!

[ForeverPlasticKits]

That's a big truck, have fun built it!

[BigWall]

This is going to be huge! I've always wanted to build this or the Dragon Wagon. Maybe some day.

[digger303]

Yes I've always lingered over this kit too and the Dragon Wagon......Ya never know what fate or Miss Cosmos will throw your way unexpectedly.

[Parker]

HUGE

[Tomcat64]

Well done on being the first to take the plunge into this one!

That looks like an awesomely huge piece of work

Really looking forward to seeing this all come together

[Donkeywalloper]

Pulled out and so excited to see result of this.
DW

[DBMiller]

That is a big baby!

[KungFuDrew]

Cheers guys, hopefully I'll do this beast justice, it'll easily be the biggest kit I've ever done once it's complete. For a reference on size, here's the chassis of just the tractor unit next to a Sherman Firefly:


So on with construction. My plan for building this up is to build and base paint the chassis, cab and winch separately. Then join them up, add camo then weather. Like pretty much every truck in the world, it's built on a ladder chassis, so the first step is building the bits to go in the middle. The kit has no engine, just a bit of detail under where the engine would be. This doesn't bother me, as there wouldn't be any way to see the engine without performing some major surgery to the kit.


Up next was the axles and suspension components. The fit on these parts is very loose, so I left most of it unglued until I could put the wheels on and getting it sitting level. The lifting axle can only be shown in the deployed position, unfortunately the shock absorber for it doesn't contact with the axle, so I lengthened it with some plasticard.



While working on the chassis I made my way through the multitude of wheels. These are vinyl and appear to be half decent, with only a small mold line.


Next I could get the wheels on, I weighted the whole thing down to ensure it sat level and glued the suspension and axles solid and added the drive shafts.


Finally I could add the last of the chassis parts before painting. First up were the rear mudguards. These are p.e parts, I annealed them and dinged them up a bit, as I couldn't see the being perfectly flat IRL.


Then it was various fuel tanks, fenders and p.e, here it is as I'll paint it.


Just for poops and giggles I added the bonnet and cab, and posed a 1/35 figure next to it.


Cheers for checking in, it'll be on with the cab next, and a bit of paint on the chassis.

[Casper]

what a great looking kit and BIG. Love the extra PE parts
mark

[Tomcat64]

Awesome start on that and the Firefly sat next to the tractor chassis really does show off the size of the beast.

[digger303]

Wow off to a flying start and already solving small problems I can see this being a stand out display piece once finished.

[KungFuDrew]

Cheers guys. I've made some progress over the last week, but not as much as I would have liked. First things first, the chassis got a coat of paint:


This is just the basic NATO green, I'll do a bit of detail painting and some basic weathering to the hard to reach areas, then add the other parts once they're done. Once the chassis was painted, I could start work on the cab/bonnet. To start with I added the marker lights to the roof:


These required a lot of work. One pinged off to be eaten by the carpet monster, never to be seen again. To replace it I used an off cut of clear sprue and cut/filed it down to size. The other ones were too big and looked totally out of proportion to the mounts, so they all got sanded down to size as well. Now they look much sleeker and less bulbous.

The inside of the cab is very simple, with just the dash, a couple of seats, the handbrake and the gear selector.


The dash has a couple of options for the decals, one that covered the whole thing or one with the just the dials and switches. I cut out the dials and painted everything else, it seemed the best option. I gave it a quick wash and drybrush and it was ready to go.


Because the cab is so simple I wanted to weather it pretty heavily. Since I'm planning on making the truck pretty muddy & dusty, I went for that look inside the cab:


Next up was the glass. The kit comes with pre-cut masks, unfortunately the fit on these isn't the greatest, I'll be using a mix of these and Tamiya tape. On with the glass itself, it's mostly fine, unfortunately some parts have the sprue gate extent onto where it could be seen on the finished model.


After some quick attention with sanding sticks it looks fine.


And that's where I am now. Hopefully I'll make decent progress over the weekend, maybe get the cab exterior constructed.

[digger303]

Great work and progress ....lovely work and chassis looks suitably busy.

[Tomcat64]

Nice progress - the dashboard especially pops out for me and great job on cleaning up the window glass too

[BigWall]

Nice progress. The dash came out awesome!

[digger303]

Nice progress. The dash came out awesome!

yes it almost looks like one of those new Quinta 3 d decals it's that good.

[KungFuDrew]

Thanks guys!

Nice progress. The dash came out awesome!

yes it almost looks like one of those new Quinta 3 d decals it's that good.

High praise indeed! So progress over the last couple of weeks has been spotty at best, but some has been made. I swear every time I enter into on of these GB's work decides it's time to go crazy.

I finished up construction on the cab, there wasn't much else to add to the exterior.


I can happily report that the wing mirrors have been knocked off several times since this photo was taken. All that needs added to the cab are the windshield wipers, that'll probably be the last thing added to the kit once completed. The cab got the same treatment as the chassis, then I was ready to move on.


The front grill was assembled, although not without problems. The headlight housings are supposed to be at the same height, but for some weird and wonderful reason on the part the mounting guides are totally off. Here you can see that one side is correct and the other is well off, I've mounted the parts where they would go, the top one is correct:

Not a major hurdle, but did result in some head scratching. Up next was the winching platform. Nothing exciting about this part, it went together without any headaches.

Since taking this photo I've put a coat of paint over it, and removed the string that was representing the winch cables, it was looking way to fuzzy. I'll replace them with some copper wire.

So that's where it is now, not much more construction to do on the unit. All that's left is the fifth wheel, then I can dive into getting it painted up properly! Also this week the postie delivered something to put on the trailer!


Hopefully I'll be able to include it in the GB, if not I'll add it at a later date. Thanks for checking in!

[digger303]

Even the load is going to cool.....real nice

[Tomcat64]

Wow that really is starting to look a beast.

Looking forward to seeing the M60 go together as well

[KungFuDrew]

Thanks guys, I picked the M60 because I didn't want a plain jane Abrams on the back, and I saw a picture of a M911 with a bulldozer on the back. This seemed like a good compromise!

The winch platform got painted the same NATO green as the rest of the unit, it was after this I removed the string:


Once that was on it was time for painting the wheels. The hubs are NATO black and the wheels are MMP tire black:


I initially tried painting the wheels first then adding them on to the hubs, but I quickly found the MMP paint really didn't like this.


With assembly finished on the unit, I could start work on the trailer. First was adding various supports & air tanks down the middle, noting too exciting apart from the spars at the back, the fit here was frankly piss poor, and needed a lot of surgery & filler to get it looking even half decent, fortunately most of the work required was on the bottom and will be tricky to see.


Next up was adding the bottom of the trailer, and here things kind of stalled. The parts are covered in ejection marks, and 90% of them will be visible, so out came the sprue goo.


Work had stalled on the trailer, so I started camo work on the tractor. I've done the NATO black so far.



Remember how I said I'd wait to start the M60? Guess who got an itch to start a new kit...


More M60 pics are on the way, plus plenty of progress on the star of the show! Thanks for looking in, any comments and critique are welcome!

[RangerNeil]

That is a serious amount of tyres and a whopper of a truck!! Looking forwards to seeing how this build progresses.

[digger303]

Going well.

[Tomcat64]

Superb work mate - the camo pattern in the NATO Black looks great

And yep - that's a helluva lot of wheels all in one place - especially with the AFV on top

[smokeriderdon]

"I initially tried painting the wheels first then adding them on to the hubs, but I quickly found the MMP paint really didn't like this."

Is the MMP acrylic?

[digger303]

"I initially tried painting the wheels first then adding them on to the hubs, but I quickly found the MMP paint really didn't like this."

Is the MMP acrylic?

Did you try wiping the wheels with denatured alcohol ( Metho ) first ?

Shame to learn that adding the cross members to the chassis resulted in a poor fit I would have expected more from Hobbyboss. The end result after your fettering hides it well.

[KungFuDrew]

"I initially tried painting the wheels first then adding them on to the hubs, but I quickly found the MMP paint really didn't like this."

Is the MMP acrylic?

MMP is acrylic, and I've found it to be VERY fragile. I've found in the past it also doesn't mask very well, I'm now in the process of using it up and replacing it as it's too "finicky" for me.

Did you try wiping the wheels with denatured alcohol ( Metho ) first ?

Shame to learn that adding the cross members to the chassis resulted in a poor fit I would have expected more from Hobbyboss. The end result after your fettering hides it well.

Maybe I should have tried that, they're primed with Mr. Surfracer 1500 and then painted. TBH I knew that they were fragile paints and should have seen it coming.

This was the part that caused the problems on the crossbars:


The channel running the length should have been all the way along, plus the width wise parts should of had recessed channels as well. 20 mins with a chisel and some files fixed the problem well enough, but it's one of those things where you look at it and wonder if anyone from the company actually assembled the kit before selling it