With restarting the one Bronco M1114 from 2018, I had started the second Bronco M1114 seeing both will be in the same overall sand camo. After starting the second Bronco M1114, I had decided to start an Academy M1151 as well which would also be in the same overall sand camo. While on a roll doing those three HMMWV kits, I decided to start a fourth which was the Tamiya M1046 but that one will be in the NATO camo. While still rolling along with those four HMMWV kits, I had started a fifth. This time it was the Zvezda Special Forces Stinger HUMMER kit. It is actually a rebox of the Italeri kit.
Unfortunately, the Zvezda/Italeri body and hood were horribly warped.
I tried fixing the warped parts but no matter what I did, they stayed warped. I used hot water and a hair dryer but to no avail, they kept bouncing back to being warped. So, after testing my patience for a few days, I needed to find replacements for the body and hood. Unfortunately I couldn't find any Italeri replacements but I did find on Ebay the Academy M998 body and hood.
Test fitting the Academy parts on the Italeri chassis. The rear alignment pins lined up perfectly but the front alignment pin was off. Other than that, the parts fit quite well.
The version I am doing is a USMC Force Recon from OIF, 2003.
For the .50 cal, I am using the Legend version with the pedestal mount specific to the one in the reference photo above.
That specific USMC Force Recon HMMWV has the later style hood vent. I am using a Legend resin one to replace the kit hood vent. The Legend part was made for the Tamiya kit and was just a tiny bit smaller than the Academy part. Once I cut out the Academy part, I had to glue in some really thin plastic strips on the sides of the cut out area for the resin part to fit properly.
As usual, the body and hood are only test fitted to the chassis for easier painting. The seats are from the Tamiya M1025 kit. I scratch built the radio rack from sheet plastic.