HobbyCraft 1/35 Armor

I bought two of them at Hobby Lobby during their current sale. They are the
AS-90 and M1A1 with mine rakes. They are Trumpeter kits, just in the HC boxes. The insides of the lower hulls have the Trumpeter logos. I have built the AS-90 in KFOR markings and used the sale as an excuse to buy another to build and finish as a vehicle serving in Iraq. FWIW, the AS-90 was a good build and I have read good things about the Trumpeter M1's.

Glad you asked that Demon, I saw the same ones at Hobby Lobby today but was'nt sure about getting them. Might have to pick them up now.

THanks for the clarification, kaleu. That clinches it: there's a couple of armor kits with my name on them!

demono69

pick up some extra sanding sticks..... the flash is a tough, firm plastic and its eating up my sanding sticks!!!

I have the M1A1 Army model with mine plow. Kit includes the hull with trumpeter markings and also has the chain, tubing and small details for the mine plow. Some parts of the instructions are a little vague, but nothing that you cant figure it out by scratching your head and making grunting noises. So far the M1A1 is coming along pretty well, it is going to be my first USA piece since I have been stuck on a german armor stint. I'll post pics if you are intersted.

The figures included are kinda weak but I am going to try to use them.

I bought my kit for about 20 bucks. If it looks good when finished them I am going back to buy the T-72, Pickup truck with recoiless gun, and the BMP. Then its diorama time

Hey muzzleflash,
Be careful when it comes to buying the T-72 and BMP. I've seen the Trumpeter T-72 and it is a cheap repro of the Tamiya T-72 and while the BMP has some nice upper hull detaill, it has the motorizing holes and some heavy detail on the turret and wheels. At least the kit I looked at wasn't anything to write home about.

No prob! Versus the Abrams its gonna be a steaming pile of sh@t in my diorama anyway :)

Do they come as cheap as Trumpeter's boxes?

Do they have rubber treads or are the treads in individual plastic pieces?

Hi Martian, welcome to the forum.

My M1A1 Abrams kit came with rubber/vinyl tracks AND also came with some individual tracks with some larger pieces already assembled.

I bought a couple of Hobbycraft LVT 4's (?) a while back, ex Nitto, ex MPC, etc. and the tracks in them were for more of an APC than LVT (even the bogie wheels were screwed up, which they weren't when MPC put the kit on the market with a nice set of correct tracks!). Since the LVT track is fairly unique I wasn't very happy about it, especially about the messed up wheels.
The kits are still in their boxes on the shelf and will most likely never be made. I've not bought from Hobbycraft since then... probably never will.

Ron.

Thanks for the welcome.
I'm fairly new to armour and I was planning on building a couple for my dad [retired Army]. Since they are cheap I'll buy a couple hopefull he won't notice the treads!lol Luckily he really just wants a Hummer any way. How are Hobby Craft's Hummers?

QUOTE: Originally posted by MartianGundamModeler Thanks for the welcome. I'm fairly new to armour and I was planning on building a couple for my dad [retired Army]. Since they are cheap I'll buy a couple hopefull he won't notice the treads!lol Luckily he really just wants a Hummer any way. How are Hobby Craft's Hummers?

I hear these are the poor copies originally done by C.C.Lee.

Excuse my ignorance but who is C.C. Lee?

QUOTE: Originally posted by MartianGundamModeler Excuse my ignorance but who is C.C. Lee?

A Chinese company that made crude copies of Tamiya and Italeri kits and used the real company's box art on the cover.

I'm probably getting names confused, but wasn't there a Lee model company in the US during the 1950's that produced military vehicle models also? A 105mm M101 artillery piece and an Honest John missile launcher come to mind... I just looked on ebay and found the CC (Carbon Copy?) Lee company, but not the other.

Ron.

Dude... Don't get any Hobbycraft!!! I just got an M2A2 Bradley by them ( the sprue says Lee- ACK) and it is possibly the worst kit I have ever had the misfortune to buy; Too much flash, ejector pin marks, pieces with cookie bites out of them, poor fit, rudimentary at best instructions (If you get one of their kits, go to the LAST page of the instructions to see what parts aren't to be used... Too late for me...)

Rob (Hi Sir) is right, to call it a poor copy of Tamiya is an understatement...

Anything from HobbyCraft deserves a BIG Caveat Emptor....

Poniatowski, i have a problem-I buy to many kits-so if you were to just loan(give) me those kits, you would be rid of them!