Hobby Craft Hummer/Humvees

I just picked up a couple of the Hobby Craft Hummer "Liberators" [standard 'fast back' hard top with machine gun mount] from the Iraqi Freedom Line at Hobby Lobby for $6.49 [which may have been a pricing error on their part]. I mainly bought it to see it there was a diff between this kit and Hobby Craft "Commando" version in the same series. From what i can tell the only diff is that the Commando version has an extra sprue with the canvas top and a diff set of decals.The Liberator has decals for at least 3 versions though. I see no purpose in selling the two kits in different boxes. They just might as well add the decals and the last page of the Liberator instruction book [for the hard top] to the "Commando" kit. Where kit makers get their marketing ideas is beyond me!
Anyways, I bought these kits to make the whiteUN version that has been floating around in pics on the net. I keep hearing bad things about this companies armor [which I don't doubt because I know jack about armor] but as far as I can tell I see no problem with the Hummers. I'll admit I have yet to build the tamiya Hummer [I don't have $35 bucks to blow on a hummer] but I have bult the Italeri Avenger and I feel that the HC kit ranks just below it. The plastic quality and sharpness isn't as high as the Italeri but you get pretty much the same result when you are dome. I only noted two bits of flash in the whole kit.
I have heard a lot of complaints about a lot of the non-tamiya companies but beleive it or not we armor guys [yes, I'm still a rookie but I consider myself a tread head now!] have got it made. The quality of most of the military kits I have built so far greatly surpases that of the sci-fi kits [with the exception of some of the better Japanese ones I've worked on] and model cars I've worked on. Heck, I thought all models had flash and "not-so-great-fit" till I came over to "The Dark Side". Being a father and modeler on a budget I'm glad these "low-budget" kits are out here [even if a few are head bangers!LOL ] or I would'nt even be able to afford this hobby. Anyway I just want to add that I see nothing wrong with complaining, because most of the compalints are warranted, I just felt that everyone should just reflect on whats good as well.
I'll step off my soap box now!LOL
But just a word of warning about the so-called "Commando Hummer". The box art is misleading. It depicts what appears to be a hard top with a box-shaped rear and clearly displays a machine mount [I believe a .50 cal] on the roof. However, in the box all you get is a standard square canvas top [which of course you cannot mount a machine gun on] and an optional standard slanted hard top with machine gun mount and optional .50 cal or M60 machine gun. It appears they just "doctored" the box art for the standard "Liberator" Hummer by coloring in the slanted portion so that it looks like a boxed hard top but didn't bother to "erase" the machine gun mounted on top. Go figure...