WT01 Humvee

[mr crispy]

Been wondering about this for ages and thanks to AdLav I finally got to try it out this week, cheers mate.

I've had a love for the WT01 chassis for quite a while now, easy to modify, make 4x4 & 4WS is well within most people means just by swapping parts. After my Aliens APC stalled I had a WT01 chassis that I'd narrowed by swapping over to TL01 suspension arms (which I believe is effectively how the new Amarok will come?) and found it was surprisingly stable when run.

What really got me thinking was when I found the wheel base was bang on 280mm... the same as the Tamiya Hummer wheelbase. Being into military history I've fancied getting one and detailing it, I started just that a few years ago with a restored TA01 chassis. But once I'd sorted it out mechanically I just didn't like how much of that chassis could be seen under the Hummer body. I blame my model making origins but it bugged me too much to live with and I ended up trading it with my brother...

(he did a great job of detailing the body though, so good it was featured in a magazine 😉)

Knowing the Tamiya Hummer chassis needed a 280mm wheelbase has had my cogs ticking for ages but somehow I haven't been able to meet up my WT01 chassis with my brothers Hummer body to test it out.

As luck would have it Adam was replacing his Hummers body and a quick deal later I had his old shell. It's a bit damaged but it'll do for me, we can rebuild it!

So as it arrived, fresh glass and all 😉

Bit of a dent in the grill... but it'll T-Cut out!

And yes it was painted purple in a past life! So first things first, how does it look on the WT01? Well TBH I was so eager I'd already set up the body mounts and drilled the bonnet holes before I could get a photo...

It fits great!

It reveals a lot less of the chassis too thanks in part to how narrow the WT01 chassis is.

I'm very happy with that 😜

[Ad Lav]

Look forward to this Nic! Two Hummers in the go at the same time

Be interesting to see what you do with it.

eBay is a terrible thing, I would never have bought that purple/grey hummer had it not been for the forums

It looks to fit really well on that chassis, good thinking batman!

I'll tune in to see how you get on.

[mr crispy]

Well today I've stolen the gearbox from my WT01 Monster Beetle project (Lord please forgive me) fitted a matching 55T motor and made up a Y link for the ESC power cables.

So it's now a twin motored 4x4 beast and it's flipping heavy! I hadn't thought of that but the extra weight of the front gearbox and motor is in just the right place and makes it behave in a very scale looking way. I was going to lightly weight the wheels but I wonder if it's necessary now?

I adjusted the shock ends and was able to get a decent amount of ground and body clearance just from the friction shocks it had.

I could try swapping the uprights for M05RA items but I'll see how this goes first. Test drive around the garden and I'm well happy with it so far. Need to tidy the wiring and then get repairing and detail that body shell. I feel a good session of Generation Kill is in my near future 😜

[Ad Lav]

You move quick!

I haven't got an esc or a radio for mine yet!

[Nitomor]

Looks fantastic!

[mr crispy]

Thanks guys. Funny as this summer I haven't really done much RC wise, been busy and generally going off the hobby a bit but this build has recharged me.

The chassis suits the Humvee vehicle a lot better with its central core and robust design, much like the real thing. These 90mm Kong tyres have a vast amount of grip compared to the hard Hummer ones and they're soft too. These have been fitted to 2.2 wheels for a couple of years but snapped right back into the Hummer 1.9's and were tight enough to do some trail running without any glue. They did slip a bit so will need gluing eventually 😏

Next job is to sort that grill out, I've got a pair of LED fog lights for the main lights but I'll need to build the others from plasticard. I also need to work out what I'm going to do about the bumpers and get a compromise between function and real life accuracy. This won't be a crawler by any means, more of a scale trail runner.

Adam we'll have to get all our Hummers together for a beach photo shoot one day, if I can actually pin my brother down to confirm a day 😏

[Nobbi1977]

This looks spot on. I wonder why Tamiya never did it, they have put every other ill fitting shell on that chassis. The GPM shock towers give a lot more room for long shocks but not sure if they will clear the body

[mongoose1983]

That's definitely a good match there.

[mr crispy]

Does make you wonder why Tamiya hasn't done it.

I doubt the GPM shock towers would fit under the body, certainly not the front end but the shorter TL01 arms wouldn't need the longer shocks anyway.

[Ad Lav]

Great idea about a trip to the beach with all three Hummers. They'll all be different as well!

What's the plan with guns/camo etc?

[mr crispy]

I'm basing the look on the Humvees from the book and TV show Generation Kill. So camo wise I need to paint it dirty green, then spray over with a hasty desert tan, just like the real ones. I'm re-reading the book and the Humvees were very run down, driving pool leftovers... exactly the sort of thing you'd want leading a major invasion [emoji6] Fun fact: the TV show was filmed in South Africa and their vehicles were in a similar state or repair and had to be nursed through the shoot by the mechanics and the 4-5 veterans of the real battle that all played extras.

Weapons wise I'd like to give mine a Mk19 grenade launcher. It's a chunky boxy thing and should be relatively easy to make from plasticard. Hold it on with magnets so it should come off should the worse happen and it ends up on its roof [emoji51]

Another good thing with this chassis is it ends apx 20mm under the window level, so I could do a bit of an interior if I really want to go mad. I like the idea of having the door windows at least partially down, with a couple of bullet holes and maybe a driver and gunner figure looking out... inspired by this real photo from the invasion [emoji15]

I find it interesting that the bonnet aircraft recognition panel in that photo looks almost pink, when id thought they were meant to be orange! You can also see how they laid camo netting on the vehicles and sprayed through it with green paint to get the mottled effect, I'll be copying that too [emoji12]

[Ad Lav]

I have a figure you can use then - the mcfarlane gunner from my .50 cal...

I have debated an aerial recognition strip like on your photo.

I think you have a lot more skill/balls to play around with the hummer than I do

[mr crispy]

It helps that this one was used and already damaged 😉 If I'd started with a new body id be a lot more restrained I think.

I thought the bonnet recognition panel would be perfect to hide the body mounts. I didn't like the hidden mount system the Tamiya Hummer uses, this way I can have good old body clips and hide them under the panel. If I attach it with bungees I can just lift it a little to access the clips.

Thanks for the offer of the figure but I also have one of those left over from my Desert Patrol Vehicle build. I wonder if his pose would make a good driver figure?

[Ad Lav]

I thought that, although he's standing so be interesting to see how he can be manipulated!

Bugs me that I had to pay so much for a .50 cal and figure sometimes!

Back to the colour of the recon panels, I have seen pink and orange ones. They changed them daily in secret as the enemy would catch on and put them on their vehicles!

[Terz1]

This looks fantastic. The way the hummer sits on the chassis, the wheel base and the wheels all fit like it was designed that way. Great project.

[JennyMo]

That looks fabulous Mr C. - and I love it just as it is in primer!

Can't wait to see the finished result...

...Just a sobering thought though, the photo below you posted - I get the feeling this might not have been the original driver of that vehicle (

Jx

[mr crispy]

He isn't but as I recall the original driver was ok.

[Ad Lav]

Awaits photo of finished model lol

[mr crispy]

Get comfy, it's gonna be a long wait 😏 Right now I'm wondering whether to bustle or not to bustle!

[Ad Lav]

Don't slack, I'll be on the beach before you

[mr crispy]

So like AdLav I have the McFarlane Coast Guard Gunner figure left over from my earlier Hummer rebuild (the 50cal is still with that truck!) and I found with a little trimming and repositioning of his arms he should work nicely as a driver in this build.

All I did was trim the folds in his jacket to allow his arms to move further part and rotated the wrists a little like he's holding a steering wheel. I'll make a bracket to mount him directly onto the chassis above the battery.

Mounting him on the chassis rather than the bodyshell helps keep the COG lower as the weight of this solid vinyl figure isn't going through the body mounts. It puts him in just the right spot too!

Ive also started working out how to arrange the stowage in the rear panel. The body came with some old Hummer tyres and an extra wheel. I'll mount one in the usual spot on the slanted rear hatch. To make it easy Ive drilled through the tyre walls so it will fit over the rear body mount R clips, holding itself in place and hiding the clips.

I'll mould the wheel face to add to the 2nd tyre and mount that on the rear right hand side. I've already got a couple of lovely resin fuel cans but I need another 2 to fit next to it, and I'll add a moulded back pack next to them to fill it out.

[Nitomor]

This is awesome, I really like it!

[mr crispy]

Thanks Nitomor. I've moulded the wheel face, this is the 2nd attempt but this reusable compound isn't quite filling all the recesses. I'm gonna fill it with milliput tonight anyway and see how it turns out.

If that fails I can always put a cover over the tyre as you often see them like that. Or find some more wheels I guess.

[Ad Lav]

Looking good!!

I gave up trying to fit the tyre to the boot lid as I couldn't work out how to fix it properly on the clips.

I may end up using the figure like you've done otherwise it's a waste.

Look forward to seeing how you replace the grill.

[appleby20]

Nice job.!!

Now you and Ad Lav are fully reponsible for my desire of building one of those Hummers