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My Quick Custom Humvee Labor Command Car


Mechamaniac

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OK, so I was lucky enough to come across this yesterday...

Bandai made a 1/35 Command Car to go with their 1/35 Patlabor models, but it was very limited release, and they can't be had anymore.

So, yesterday, I came across a Motorworks Humvee at Wal Mart. It was priced at $11.00 on clearance, but then then they marked it down again to $7.00 as I stood there.

Originally, I wanted it just to put the labors in scale with something I had personal experience with. The scale difference calculates out to less than a foot, and the labor pilot fits exactly into the drivers seat, so I think it is really closer to 1/35 anyway.

So using some spare paints, and spare decals from my 3 1/35 MG Labor Kits, I made this....

Im000725sm.jpg

Since Patlabor takes place in the not too distant future, it is quite possible that they would use conventional military vehicles, after all, they do in the movies. So, I think it works quite well.

Here's a link to the larger image....

Larger pic.

and here's what it looked like PRE-modding.

Pre-Modded hummer.

A little about the hummer... for $7.00 this was a steal!. The top is die cast metal, the tires are rubber, it has real suspension, the turret rotates, and the hatch opens, the hatchback opens, as does the tailgate, and the engine cowling opens as it should.

Now, if I could just find someone to paint the figures for me. I suck at that.

Hope everyone likes it.

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hi mechamaniac,

great idea for the command. by the way, this might give you some more idea

http://fichtenfoo.home.comcast.net/02Giant...02a-Ingram.html

that guy did some kick ass work with his Ingram. if i could get some of those Cheap, i might to a SAPD custom or maybe even a Macross City.... :p

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hi mechamaniac,

great idea for the command. by the way, this might give you some more idea

http://fichtenfoo.home.comcast.net/02Giant...02a-Ingram.html

that guy did some kick ass work with his Ingram. if i could get some of those Cheap, i might to a SAPD custom or maybe even a Macross City.... :p

Yeah, I have seen his site before.

That d00d has some l33t m4d 5kill5 when it comes to modelling.

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That's awesome work. I kinda like the Humvee and the figures white like that.

I was staring at those Patlabor models at the hobby shop yesterday.  Could I afford to get into collecting another series?  Whew... :unsure:

sure....there's not a lot of kits/toys for this series to buy.....

Edited by dyowelb
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Whoa!! that looks bad @$$!! Good job on improvising! So your saying that you can't find that model bandai made? I could've sworn I saw a bunch of those in downtown LA. If your still looking for one, I'll see if they have anymore. Again, good job on the humvee! :p:D:lol:

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hi mechamaniac,

great idea for the command. by the way, this might give you some more idea

http://fichtenfoo.home.comcast.net/02Giant...02a-Ingram.html

that guy did some kick ass work with his Ingram. if i could get some of those Cheap, i might to a SAPD custom or maybe even a Macross City.... :p

Yeah, that guy who did a custom on his Ingram kicks a$$.

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hi andy,

before painting the humvee did you remove the paint or clean the car or just paint over it ? anything that you did before painting it?

thanks,

d

I disassembled it, it was held together with several phillips head screws.

I then removed the interior detail items (the front seats, gear shift, emergency brake, steering wheel, windshield, and tow rack), These were very lightly glued in place, and came out pretty easily with some gentle persuasion from my xacto knife, and small screwdriver.,

I could not get the rear seats out so I masked over them, I also masked over the silver floor plate under the turret, the instrument cluster behind the silver floor plate, and the instrument cluster on the dashboard.

I used some very fine grit sandpaper to rough the surface of the existing paint, and sand off the decals. I did not want to go down to bare die cast on this since I then would have had to sand or prime the metal or both.

I wiped it down with a moist cloth, let it dry, and then just spray painted it.

I used a flat white primer paint that I got at Home Depot, and some leftover MG decals. It really helps to have built all three of the MG Labor kits prior to this, I had tons of leftover decals, and dry transfers. I opted for the decals on this as opposed to the dry transfers, I don't know why.

The sirens I added to the front are pieces of an old 1/144 scale Gundam kit that looked enough like sirens, that I painted them with some gloss red paint, and glued them on.

All in all, a very easy conversion. Start to finish, took me about 6 hours.

Hope this helps.

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