Bolt Action – Humber Armoured Car Mk II / IV

Along with A Gentleman's War, Warlord Games relelased two new plastic vehicle kits of armoured cars for the British and the Germans, covering a Sd.Kfz. 222/223 and Humber Armoured car, the later we're going to cover today.

This is a new 28mm hard plastic kit by Warlord Games, that formerly only was offered in different variants as a resin kit. The one we're covering today was a pre-release that Warlord Games send to me prior to the official release, thus lacking the boxing, etc. and minor tweaks might be done until the actual release outside the themed starter kit for North Africa.

Being one of the most widely produced armoured cars of the second World War, of the Humber Armoured Car 440 units were build of the Mk II and about 2,000 units of the Mk IV, both of which can be represented with this plastic kit. It was in service from 1941 until the end of the war by the British and Canadians, all across the theatres of war in North Africa, Europe and Burma. After the second world war it was employed among other nations by Egypt, Burma, Ceylon and India, being used in conflicts like the Arab-Israeli War, the Annexation of Goa and Sino Indian War.

The Humber went into production with the Mark I, as the Guy Armoured Car Mark 1A, armed with a 15mm and a 7.92mm gun, the Mark II had changes to the turret and better armour around driver and radiator. For the Mark III a larger three-man turret was installed, with provisions for a wireless operator, freeing up the wireless operation tasks of the commander. The Mark IV was uparmoured with either a US M5 or M6 37 mm gun, replacing the 15 mm BESA. To implement the larger gun, the third crewman was removed from the turret, and the hatches were re-arranged for the new gun and crew layout. There was a AA variant of the Mark I, from 1943 to 1944.

I assume that the final product will be 21 GBP RRP, covering the two sprue kit, instruction leaflet and usual additional material like the data card and smoke / damage markers. The sprues were produced by SK tooling, made in the UK, and not Italeri. This means we get the broader frame structure of the sprue, we know from many products from the Lead Belt. Casting is done properly, minor mould lines and the sprues are well used with next to no unused space.

You can build either the Mk II or Mk IV version with this kit. Magnetising won't be an option, as the budy / hull is different as well. I don't have an armoured car for my British North Africa project, so I looked up which options I had with my theatre selector (1942-43 - Tunisia) from the Duel in the Sun campaign book, and the answer was the Mark II.

So I began building the turret. The internal brackets to align the individual pieces could have been a bit sturdier, as you have a bit of play and newer modellers might have a bit of a problem for a clean assembly.

The instructions from A Gentleman's War don't offer the clearest information on some of these parts, so I had to look up the product pictures and images of the real Humber online. A lot of small pieces added, like the guns, hatches that can be assembled either open or closed in case you want to add a crewman (not included).

Next is the hull, which is pretty straight forward. You glue the turret on a second disc to the armoured car, so later removal is not possible, but you can turn it. This was the only step, where I had a bit of a fit problem, as the sides need a bit of attention to properly align with the angled top and front piece. It tends to be a bit longer than the sides, so you need to hold it in place until the glue settles for a proper fit.

To close up the cabin and further add stability to this vehicle, we add the lower front and back plates and bottom to the build.

The axles are added next, along with the suspension in the front. As the parts are not numbered, it is important that you do a dry fit before glueing them in place, if they properly fit.

The wheel housing are very dominant on this vehicle and need some preparation. Unfortunately there is an error in the instruction, stating that this step is required for the Mk IV, when it actually is needed for the Mk II of the humber car. Drill a little hole from the back through the cover, so that you can add the lighting later on.

Now further stowage boxes and the mirrors are added to the vehicle. In this step I noticed the error from earlier, so make sure to check everything.

The wheels are added, these are two sided, fully casted and not just "one-sided" like in the Puma (I am aware of the challenges of injection mould casting, but it is still weird that they went with that decision).

The sprue covers a lot of stowage and additional, optional bits and pieces that you can add to the Humber. If you still have the need for more, there's the Allied Stowage set, and another Commonwealth set available.

You can add a crew member to the turret, if you want to. This kit doesn't cover any themself, but there are options available by Warlord Games, a set of 4 different British tank commanders, or third party as well.

A brief comparison of the Humber AC next to the Daimler AC. The Daimler is an older resin kit by Warlord Games and assigned to my Burma project.

And the final assembled Humber Mark II armoured car, ready for primer and desert paint.

Conclusion

Interesting kit and a fitting addition to the Gentleman's War kit. While covering two options, the Mark II and IV, it covers a broad range from mid to late war and as such being an interesting addition to a lot of different theatres of war, even for those settings post the second world war.

I heard quite a bit of harsh critique on this kit, while I was building it and to be honest - I can't agree to that extend. Yes, it has its flaws, mainly the instructions that are partially wrong / unclear, but if this isn't your first kit, it is not that much of a challenge. And even if it was your first kit, you could have picked a lot worse. You get a multi-variant plastic kit, with optional pieces, the only thing you could argue that is missing, would be a commander / crew member, but beyond that, it is pretty much complete and widely available through the Warlord Games trade network.

I gave them feedback after building this and the other kit, and from the customer service by Warlord Games, I am pretty sure that they will do something about the errors in the instructions. Beyond that, these usually cover a bit of history on the vehicle, a spread out on which parts are which (a bit more work than numbers on the sprue, yet helpful) and some colour schemes. So take my critique so far with a bit of salt, as there's still time until the release of the final, individual product.

Bolt Action is a brand of Warlord Games.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.