Tomcat's 1/35 Bronco Humber Mk II

[Tomcat64]

Overview

I was originally thinking of building the Academy M3 for this GB but seeing as we already have two of those and I had other options available I've decided to go for Bronco's 1/35 Humber Armoured Car Mk II.


Here's a brief history from the front of the instructions along with a couple of photos I've found on t'interweb...

Guy Motors produced an excellent Light Tank (Wheeled) design in 1938, but did not have the facilities for mass production. The design was passed on to Humber who used their Karrier KT4 chassis to produce the Humber Mk I armoured car in 1940. However the design was revised to make production easier and this was the Humber Mk II, produced from late 1941.

This was an excellent armoured car with good speed and agility. Armed with a high velocity 15mm Besa cannon, the Humber Mk II was considered more than a match for German and Italian armoured cars.

It entered service with the 11th Hussars armoured car regiment in late 1941 and served until replaced by a Humber Mk III or Daimler Mk I. Speed was 45mph and road range was 200 miles, armour was 15mm and power was provided by a 90bhp 6-cylinder petrol engine. Approximately 440 vehicles were produced.

The Kit

Onto the kit

According to Scalemates this had its origins as a Mk IV in 2011 with the Mk II following along in 2012.

Here are the sprue frames all in a fetching shade of dysentery beige appropriate to the desert theatre...


given how small the vehicle is I'm not sure where all these parts are going to fit




Some PE, decals & tyres bagged up seperately


And the instruction book which runs to 55 stages, and includes decal options for four units two of which are unknown; I'm planning on doing the 11th Hussars scheme shown here as it has some black camo to break up the light stone

All being well I should be able to make a start on this at the weekend

[digger303]

Got one of these too so like wise looking forward to seeing you cobble it together.
I took the easy road this build

[Twokidsnosleep]

This looks really cool
good luck with the build

[DBMiller]

It sure has enough parts for such a little guy!

[digger303]

It sure has enough parts for such a little guy!

And there will be mold lines on even the small parts, well at least a few few of them.
Going to build into a beautiful model though.

[Stokesy44]

Cracking little kit.

Looking forward to seeing it get the TC treatment

I have a Bronco kit in the stash I may use for the hauler / loader SIG so I'll be watching this with interest

[Quax]

looks an enormous number of tiny parts, does the carpet monster need feeding? nice subject though and looking forward to seeing it magically appear

Paul

[Tomcat64]

Overview

Thanks for checking in chaps I made a start on this at the weekend and it really does have the potential to be a carper monster frenzy!

A couple of general notes is that there are in some cases very little in the way of locating aids so there's an element of making sure things are lined up by eye. To compound this on a lot of the smaller pieces the locating pins run into the sprue gates, so it's really easy to cut off too close to the part and not leave enough locating pin (ask me how I figured this one out...)

Oh and one final note I found this lurking in the bottom of the box


The link no longer works but with a bit of detective work I found a gallery from the same folks here

It's for a Mk IV rather than a Mk II but I reckon there'll be enough similarities between the two to make these photos useful.

Build Part I

So onwards then, and here's page one of the instructions


And I'll break it down into stages and here's the initial engine block. In order to get everything lined up I attached A49 to A40 and then slid them into place until A49 butted up against the main block. I then added A50, A74 & A75 in that order. 74 & 75 were particularly small & fiddly and it was on 74 that I realised I'd removed the locating pin thinking it was part of the sprue gate


Onto the fan belts & alternator and not too much to report here although I did add the alternator assembly before adding the remaining small parts to the engine block. The locating point for A81 is pretty much guesswork.


Then the exhaust manifolds were added along with two more tiny parts


Then onto the radiator assembly which was pretty straightforward


And finally the rear engine housing - again nothing too taxing, although getting A52 in place was a little hit & miss.


And that was about four hours done, and this to show for it


The final housing for the engine is still just dry fitted for the moment, and I need to work out the best way of adding the radiator fittings too, so that'll be next before moving onto the gearbox.

This will definitely be a slow & steady build and having browsed through the instructions I think it'll be a case of building up & painting sub-assemblies as we go as it's not obvious at the moment which bits will be visible at the end.

So far Tomcat 1 - Carpet Monster 0 (although there was a near miss!)

Thanks as always for looking

[RangerNeil]

That's an interesting subject and a fascinating kit. Really looking forwards to seeing the progress and finished build.

[digger303]

Making good progress and the kit parts look quite good.

[Kevthemodeller]

Good choice Neil an unsung workhorse

watching with interest

[Stokesy44]

Off to a good start. Detail looks nice but those instructions look like a bit of a minefield!

[Tomcat64]

That's an interesting subject and a fascinating kit. Really looking forwards to seeing the progress and finished build.

Making good progress and the kit parts look quite good.

Good choice Neil an unsung workhorse

watching with interest

Off to a good start. Detail looks nice but those instructions look like a bit of a minefield!

Thanks chaps

Yep aside from the occasional heavy sprue attachment points there's been very little cleanup required - the parts are generally good

The instructions definitely need some careful examination before committing anything to cement though

[BigWall]

Very nice start! What a pain that it's got to be the instructions you're fighting though!

[Tomcat64]

Very nice start! What a pain that it's got to be the instructions you're fighting though!

Cheers Joe - yep I think there's more eye tests to come!

Build Part II

I've been struggling for bench time over the last couple of weeks for all the usual reasons but have made a little progress.

Firstly I added some spindly bits to the front of the engine block where the radiator will be attached - this may be asking for trouble by getting pinged off during painting but fingers crossed. There are two more pipes that I'll add later as I think those would definitely be too vunerable.


Then over the page and we find the gearbag and initial chassis construction


The first thing I did with the gearbox assembly was ping part A62 across the desk but luckily a quick search located it not too far away Aside from that and being a little small & fiddly everything ended up where it should be


And then I built up the inner chassis frame, there were some shallow EPMs on the outsides of A33 & A34 but having had a quick scout ahead I think they'll be covered by the main chassis frames so I've not bothered trying to clean them up


As with the engine I'll leave some components off & subassemblies separate until they've been painted up.

That's all for now - thanks as always for looking in

[digger303]

wow detailed little beggar.

[Stokesy44]

Looking nice, lots of detail and well navigated through those instructions!

[Tomcat64]

wow detailed little beggar.

Looking nice, lots of detail and well navigated through those instructions!

Thanks chaps & yes it's definitely scoring well on the fiddlyometer!

[Tomcat64]

I've carried on picking away at this as time allows...

Build Part III

Next stage was the main chassis beams


One thing I spotted here was what looked to be seam lines down the centre of the beams...


I did start cleaning them up but was wondering if they were actually supposed to be there, as there were no mould lines on any of the other parts on the same frame, and then I saw this later on in the instructions...


I'm still not completely convinced either way, but as they'll mostly be hidden when the kit is done I'll leave them for now.

Next we're supposed to build up the chassis sections & install the fighting compartment floor, but since I'm keeping components separate for the moment this is as far as I went...


But I did add some of the detail into the fighting compartment as well


And with the addition of a couple more sub assemblies I've cherry picked here's the current pile of bits


I'm planning on building up the doors & fighting compartment walls and should then be ready to start painting stuff up prior to assembly.

Thanks as always for looking

[Tomcat64]

Build Part IV

I spent some time at the weekend spraying paint around and assembling the collection of bits I'd created so far.

Everything was primed in Ultimate grey and then the chassis frames and underside of the fighting compartment floor were painted in Model Air "UK Light Stone No. 61"; the gearbox & engine were given a coat of NATO black followed by washes & highlights. Getting all the bits in between the frames was one of those jobs that needed at least three hands and when I got everything lined up I saw that there was a gap between the engine & gearbox (red arrow) if the engine was aligned with the linkage (green arrow)


My original thought was to drop a small shim in there, but then realised that the gap would be hidden under the floor/cross-beams when everything was in place so I've left it


I then added the extra two pipes to the engine/radiator assembly that I'd left off earlier - these went in with relatively little trouble. I've taken a bit of artistic license with painting up the engine as I've struggled to find too many reference photos and the instructions just say black with aluminium bits on the radiator housing.


And as you can see from the previous photo the fighting compartment floor was masked off & painted with "White-Grey" - this and the engine compartment will be weathered up a little later in the build.


Just one note here is that the bulkhead that separates the fighting compartment from the engine bay looks different in the instructions to the actual part - I think they may have mixed the Mk IV instructions with the Mark II as there are a couple of other inaccuracies that I'll try and highlight as I go through.

That's all for now - thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

Looking good.

That Chassis frame has gone together really nicely and the engine looks nice and snug

[digger303]

Lovely progress. Thanks for taking the trouble to highlight the inaccuracies in the instructions. I shall make notes as you do this to mine. No point in reinventing the wheel so to speak.
Stokesy has said it all except Nice paint job too.

[DBMiller]

Great work on the engine!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Excellent job
Loving the detail in the frame rails and engine

[Kevthemodeller]

Coming along really well Neil The chassis is nicely detailed and open for detailing should one chose

[Tomcat64]

Looking good.

That Chassis frame has gone together really nicely and the engine looks nice and snug

Lovely progress. Thanks for taking the trouble to highlight the inaccuracies in the instructions. I shall make notes as you do this to mine. No point in reinventing the wheel so to speak.
Stokesy has said it all except Nice paint job too.

Great work on the engine!

Excellent job
Loving the detail in the frame rails and engine

Coming along really well Neil The chassis is nicely detailed and open for detailing should one chose

Thanks chaps

Sorry it's taken a while to respond - it's been another "interesting" couple of weeks that culminated in a laptop rebuild, but I think it's all working(ish) now!

[Tomcat64]

Instructions

Before I post up the latest progress on the kit here's a little tour of the instructions for Digger

In section 7 - the parts indicated with the red arrow appeared out of nowhere... never been mentioned before...


So a quick scan through the instructions shows them popping up again... in section 14... so that's alright then?


No, not really because here they are again in section 18 in their correct location...


Well done Bronco

Build Part V

So onto the build itself...

Section 6 of the instructions included some really fiddly stuff especially around attaching the pedals


Likewise with section 7 - installing the steering column was one of those jobs that really needed at least three hands to get it lined up and secure


Finally section 8 looked pretty innocuous but also included foot pedal fiddliness


Once everything had been left for a few days to settle in it was given a coat of Ultimate Grey primer followed by the Vallejo White-Grey I used for the rest of the interior


Next for this section is to start picking out the details and add the seat and steering wheel.


I then moved onto assembling the suspension components


This was mostly uneventful, but there it a little fiddling required to get the two PE struts in place as locating points are... minimal. Additionally part A19 is really skinny and fragile so careful extraction from the sprue was required


Finally for this update I moved onto assembling the left lower hull panel - I've shown the reverse side of the "filing cabinet" thing as working out where all the small parts go was a bit of a challenge in the instructions


And here's the rest of the assembly without a couple of parts which will be added after painting - also the battery (green arrow) is only dry fitted at this point for ease of painting.


That's all for now - I'll paint up and add the suspension and then continue on the hull sides next.

Thanks as always for looking

[Stokesy44]

I don't understand what's going on but Man Alive, it looks clever

[RangerNeil]

I just re-read the thread and realised I'd missed something. In the list of those credited is Jim Burrill - I've known him a few years now - a real nice guy and he has a FB account. If you need to know anything for the build I think he'd be happy to answer any questions and he has a number of photos that may be of help.

[digger303]

Thanks TC , it does indeed look a little fiddly. However you hammered it into submission beautifully well done.

[Quax]

some really clean building going on Tomcat especially with the levers etc, part A19 looks horrific and would end up in about 6 bits if I did it The detail in the kit is really nice even if Bronco do take lessons from Dragon sometimes

Paul

[Tomcat64]

I don't understand what's going on but Man Alive, it looks clever

Me neither - I just keep chucking parts at it in the hope that something vaguely afvish turns up at the end

I just re-read the thread and realised I'd missed something. In the list of those credited is Jim Burrill - I've known him a few years now - a real nice guy and he has a FB account. If you need to know anything for the build I think he'd be happy to answer any questions and he has a number of photos that may be of help.

Thanks Neil - I did wonder if you'd crossed paths with any of the guys involved with the project

Thanks TC , it does indeed look a little fiddly. However you hammered it into submission beautifully well done.

Thanks mate

some really clean building going on Tomcat especially with the levers etc, part A19 looks horrific and would end up in about 6 bits if I did it The detail in the kit is really nice even if Bronco do take lessons from Dragon sometimes

Paul

Thanks Paul - yep it's definitely a challenge in places

[Tomcat64]

So with the wonders of a four-day weekend I was able to get some decent bench time in amongst other stuff and made some progress on my Humber...

Build Part VI

First some notes on building up the right hand side of the lower hull... Someone had a brain fart with the part numbering, and my notes are in red in the following pic but to summarise: Part C45 should be C44, C52 is C53, C54 is C55 and C56 is C57


As with the left side I left off some of the parts & assemblies for painting separately. I also found out that the PE in this kit is quite brittle and as a result I broke P4 while trying to get the appropriate bends in...


Both sides were then given a coat of Ultimate grey primer, followed by White-Grey for the interior section and light stone for the lower section (below the chassis line). This was then weathered in with a mix of dry-brushing & stippling with German Grey followed by AK interior wash


The same weathering was done with the fighting compartment floor, and the seat was added. The steering arm & wheel is missing here as I knocked it off trying to dry fit the walls


Underneath, the running gear, drive shafts & exhaust were all fitted... the latter was also knocked off later during some dry fitting attempts


So here it is with the hull sides fitted along with the lower front armour plate


Unfortunately with the front plate in place there is a gap between one of the hull walls and the chassis parts... given this won't be seen when it's all buttoned up I'm going to leave it, but it's worrying that this isn't aligning correctly...


Here's the lower compartment with all the rest of the bits installed... including the reattached steering column


including the reattached steering column


I then dry fitted the upper hull and made two discoveries... first it's slightly twisted (the upper hull of the Bronco Comet had the same problem so don't know if this is a regular issue with Bronco)


Secondly it fouls on this part of the lower hull assembly which prevents it from sitting properly


So as a result I've sanded back the arrowed panel as well as the inside of the upper hull and can now get it to more or less align at the front. I'll then work down the walls bit by bit to secure it in place.

Anyway... talking of the upper hull the instructions call out several holes to be opened up...


Being a trusting soul I started opening them up and then decided to take a wander through the instructions... and couldn't find any corresponding parts that fit with the holes so I've stopped after the first three... the ones arrowed are the only ones I can find that make sense, the one on the left to take the spare wheel (if you're fitting it) and the two that aren't actually indicated in the instructions are required to be opened up to take a shield later on.

There's only a few parts to be fitted to the inside of the upper hull


but be careful because locating points are almost non-existent and it's easy to foul some of the fixtures & fittings in the lower hull...


Skipping ahead a bit I also decided to add the arrowed assembly to the rear of the hull as it'd need painting up at the same time as the hull top


No real dramas here although the mounting point again are a little vague


Finally I built up the engine cover assembly


From the top


And underneath... as you can see I managed to lose one of the small parts while tidying it up


But then got lucky as I was finishing up and spotted it on the carpet so here it is installed!

So finally feeling like I'm making forward progress, next up is to weather the deck with some dirt/sand combos and then paint & weather the inside of the upper hull before trying to get that glued in place.

Thanks as always for looking

[Kevthemodeller]

More lovely weathering and detail work there Neil

[digger303]

Lots of good work happening in the last 4 days and some great photography.

[Stokesy44]

Coming along nicely. Cab area looks very smart. Shame about the warping on the upper hull. Time to warm up the elbow grease and brute force machine! Mine gets a runout at least once a build!

Nice save from the carpet monster too. Good to know you sent it scurrying away with its tail between its legs.

[BigWall]

The interior is really looking nice! I'm sorry the kit is fighting you but it looks like you're whipping it into shape.

[Tomcat64]

More lovely weathering and detail work there Neil

Lots of good work happening in the last 4 days and some great photography.

Coming along nicely. Cab area looks very smart. Shame about the warping on the upper hull. Time to warm up the elbow grease and brute force machine! Mine gets a runout at least once a build!

Nice save from the carpet monster too. Good to know you sent it scurrying away with its tail between its legs.

The interior is really looking nice! I'm sorry the kit is fighting you but it looks like you're whipping it into shape.

Thanks for checking in guys

[Tomcat64]

Just a quick update from the weekend's adventures

Build Part VII

First we dirtied up the carpets in the fighting compartments; this was done with a mix of MIG Earth Effects plus African Earth & Sand Pigments. This was dobbed on fairly roughly at first and then worked back with some AK thinners (both brush & cotton buds). Also the engine compartment was given a wash of Starship filth just to grubby it up a bit more


Then onto the upper hull & engine cover components we built up last time around; these were all treated the same way as the engine compartment with a Ultimate Grey primer followed by Model Air White Grey main coat which was then weathered with Germany Grey wear & tear followed by interior and starship washes


And then it was time to invoke arcane powers to try and get the upper hull mated to the lower...


I'd sanded back the mating surfaces to use TET for this one... then bound it all up and walked away for a few hours...


Overall it wasn't a bad result although as expected the front right corner will need some more attention to get that to play properly


Otherwise there's a couple of other slight flaws that will need a little attention with filler or CA


And the same for the other side

So that's it joined up at last If I get chance this week I'll continue working on those seams to get the tidied up a bit more and then start attaching the hull components and building up the wheels before moving onto the turret assemblies.

Thanks as always for stopping by

[Stokesy44]

Nice work. The interior staining of the white really looks good. As for the joins, they'll be a doddle with a bit of careful elbow grease and some decent sanders.

Onwards and upwards Sir

[WordenB]

Love the weathering on that interior, beautiful. I'm doing a Ryefield Tiger with interior, if I can get it to look as realistic I shall be very happy.

[Quax]

blimey, more arrows than Agincourt !

The interior is very nice Neil with some great weathering going on, its such a shame that it all disappears.

Paul

[digger303]

That's the way I should build and paint them....with skill and finesse.

[Stokesy44]

Love the weathering on that interior, beautiful. I'm doing a Ryefield Tiger with interior, if I can get it to look as realistic I shall be very happy.

Dude!

You're doing a RFM Tiger with interior? Get it on the forum Sir, get it on the forum!

[Tomcat64]

Nice work. The interior staining of the white really looks good. As for the joins, they'll be a doddle with a bit of careful elbow grease and some decent sanders.

Onwards and upwards Sir

Thanks mate - yep the joins are nowhere near as bad as I initially feared so should be easy enough to tidy up (famous last words )

Love the weathering on that interior, beautiful. I'm doing a Ryefield Tiger with interior, if I can get it to look as realistic I shall be very happy.

Thanks for checking in and commenting - and as Stokesy mentioned I'd love to see the way that Ryefield Tiger is coming along if you get chance to share it!

blimey, more arrows than Agincourt !

The interior is very nice Neil with some great weathering going on, its such a shame that it all disappears.

Paul

Thanks Paul & Yep plenty more arrows to come I suspect

That's the way I should build and paint them....with skill and finesse.

Not sure about "skill & finesse" I think it's more bodge it and hope

Love the weathering on that interior, beautiful. I'm doing a Ryefield Tiger with interior, if I can get it to look as realistic I shall be very happy.

Dude!

You're doing a RFM Tiger with interior? Get it on the forum Sir, get it on the forum!

Hear hear!!

[Donkeywalloper]

Holy Moly chap, what a great build , and thank you for detail on Instructions and placing of parts. I have one in my stash and this is a Gods Send the information provided.
Well done,
DW

[digger303]

Holy Moly chap, what a great build , and thank you for detail on Instructions and placing of parts. I have one in my stash and this is a Gods Send the information provided.
Well done,
DW

Me too I only hope the search engine is going well by then and I can find it again.

[BigWall]

Very nice! The interior paint/weathering is beyond excellent. It looks great!

[Tomcat64]

Holy Moly chap, what a great build , and thank you for detail on Instructions and placing of parts. I have one in my stash and this is a Gods Send the information provided.
Well done,
DW

Me too I only hope the search engine is going well by then and I can find it again.

Very nice! The interior paint/weathering is beyond excellent. It looks great!

Thanks chaps - hopefully my fumbling through the instructions might save you some pain when you come to build yours

[Tomcat64]

Here's another quick update from a couple of good sessions at the bench this weekend - with more bonus arrows for Quax

Build Part VIII

I decided it was time to tackle the wheels and the remainder of the under-danglage


I had hoped that the way the wheels & tyres were separate parts might make painting easier - but nope the centre inserts include part of the tyre sidewalls so it was painting & masking as usual.

And while I was there I decided to build up the spare as well - and as you can see from the scrawl on the instructions it was another visit to Bronco's whacky world of misnumbered parts


Here's how they turned out - I left the back assemblies of the front wheels off for the moment in the hope to make them easier to mount (more on that in a moment)


Then it was over the page to see how the running gear was to be attached


Nothing too much to do down the back end although I did drill out the appropriate locating holes to make it easier to fit the skinny rod


Up front was a little more fiddly though - first I realised that I'd fitted C97 (back in section 18) in the wrong place so that was carefully unstuck and put back in what I hope is now the right place


The right hub was attached the axle and then joined to the repositioned C97 using the linkage C31 - this was a little tight but definitely easier without the main wheel/tyre assembly getting in the way


Then the steering arm (I think - A64) was put in place with the appropriate pair of linkages - the instructions show to heat these into place, but I've chosen to use CA and then clipped off the excess pins instead


Finally the front shock absorbers were installed and the wheels were dry fitted (although the wrong way around for the moment ) to see how it was coming together

So that's where we are now - next up is to build out the hull sides which involves lots of fiddly looking PE

Thanks as always for looking - I'm off to watch the rugby & F1 now