The review copy was provided by WarWheels sponsor Casemate Publishers.

Humvee (American Multi-Purpose Support Truck) is volume 6 of the ‘Land Craft’ series published by Pen & Sword Books, Ltd in England. The author, Ben Skipper, is an RAF veteran, author of other Pen & Sword editions and a model builder. His time served in Kosovo and Macedonia inspired him to begin a writing career where he has combined his interest in history and model building.

Over the years, there have only been a few books published on the Humvee and very little has been targeted to the model builder. One of the great things about the Land Craft edition 6 Humvee (American Multi-Purpose Support Truck) is that it combines a summarized developmental and technical history of the HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) with an overview of products available to builders of Humvee models with three Humvee model projects showcased in detail.

Overview

Humvee (American Multi-Purpose Support Truck) is a soft cover publication in the Imperial Octavo (8-1/2 inches wide x 11 inches tall) format. The book contains 64 pages of text and color photos that are divided into 8 chapters. The chapters in the book are:

1. Introduction (pages 1 – 2)

2. Design & Development (pages 3 – 18)

3. Humvee in Detail (pages 19 – 24)

4. In Service & In Action (pages 25 – 28)

5. Humvee Variants (pages 29 – 32)

6. Camouflage & Markings (pages 33 – 40)

7. Model Showcase (pages 41 – 52)

8. Modelling Products (pages 53 – 64)

Introduction

The two-page introduction is a summary of the geo-political climate in which the Humvee came into service and talks vaguely of operations.

Design & Development

This section starts out discussing the complicated wheeled vehicle fleet that the U.S. military had in place in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The author does a pretty good job of condensing the complicated development history of the HMMWV into the 15 pages that make up this section. You get a summary of the TACOM requirements, development of concepts/prototypes by Teledyne, FMC, and AM General. Enough historical and technical detail is provided to keep the content interesting. I found the information provided about some of the testing done at Ft. Greely in Alaska informative. The bulk of the section walks you through the various HMMWV versions up through the legacy model ‘Recapitalization Program’. There is brief mention of the some of the armor variations and the ECV (Expanded Capacity Vehicle) models currently in use.

Humvee In Detail

This section is supposed to highlight some of the technical differences among some of the HMMWV variants. Brush guards are vaguely mentioned. They illustrate only one of roughly four variants that I know exist. There is some discussion of differences between early fabric doors and the armored doors. There is also a discussion of ‘Key Modelling Essentials’ which is a summary of 11 points of technical detail consideration for someone that is aiming to build an accurate model of a Humvee.

In Service & In Action

This section provides the reader with a basic overview of some of the significant operational uses of the Humvee family. The discussion begins with Operation Just Cause in Panama which was the combat debut of the Humvee family. Discussion then goes to the brief engagement in Operation Desert Storm in the middle east. Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, operations in Yugoslavia and Bosnia as part of SFOR and IFOR, and Iraq are very briefly touched upon.

Humvee Variants

This section gives an overview of some random Humvee variants. I struggled to read this section because it was very vague and additionally, some illustrations were incorrectly labeled for a variant the image was supposed to represent. For example, on page 30 there is a section that is discussing the SOCOM HMMWV Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) but the accompanying image is the General Dynamics Flyer 72. The author does include the mention of the M707 Striker variant which is often overlooked in publications.

Camouflage & Markings

There isn’t any discussion in this section of the book. This is simply 8 pages of color plates of various Humvee versions. Although there are some good camouflage depictions, the reader doesn’t get any substantial reference for manufacturer or DoD technical data plates/markings that are present on the vehicle. One color plate that I did find interesting was the first one which depicts an M998 used in Operation Restore Hope (Somalia) in 1992. You typically don’t see vehicles from that time frame represented in publications.

Model Showcase

As mentioned in the opening paragraph of this review, the Model Showcase focuses on three well-built Humvee model subjects. The first model subject is an early M1113 based Special Forces GMV that was built using the 1/35 Tamiya M1025 Humvee kit with details provided by Def Model, Live Resin and Legend. The GMV is probably my favorite Humvee subject and Jim Wechsler did a great job with this.

The second kit in the Model Showcase is the 1/35 Bronco M1114 Armament Carrier. Brian Richardson did a great job building this kit also which is mostly built out-of-box but did have a couple of parts added from an E.T. Model detail set.

For the third Model Showcase feature, the author subjected himself to the building and detailing of the venerable 1/35 Academy M1025 Armament Carrier kit. The details on this old kit are rough and pretty basic but Mr. Skipper did a good job making the kit look presentable. He finished the kit off with a very well-done UN winter camouflage.

These three projects will provide both novice and experienced model builders alike with some inspiration for future projects.

Modelling Products

The Modelling Products section will be found useful by almost all model builders. I even learned of new products when I read this section of the book. This section is divided into the following sub-sections:

1. Model Kits

2. Photo-Etch and Resin

3. Mixed Media Detailing

4. Resin, 3D kits and Detailing

As with the other sections in this book, this part is not all inclusive. Some kits are not discussed, and some aftermarket items are listed from companies that are no longer in business. The strength of this section is that is provides the model builder a broad range of products to consider and to look for, either in the hobby shop or on-line secondary market, for their next project. A couple of brands that I learned about in this book which I did not know existed were Hobby Den (1/72 model kits) and S&S Models (1/72 white metal and resin kits). Some of the more well-known brands that are discussed are Tamiya, MR Modellbau, Legend, and Voyager, just to name a few.

Summary

This book is a great ‘starter’ book for someone that is fairly new to the historical and technical details of the Humvee family. There is enough information in it to create some additional interest in the subject and perhaps give you direction to focus future research. Someone like myself, who has studied the Humvee family for years, can still learn something from this book as well. It is a solid addition to any reference library and is good for a quick reference option if you are not trying to go ‘deep in the weeds’.

Pros: Good source of basic information with high quality images. The book provides a large amount of content compared to its smallish size and strikes a good balance between not getting too technical but still providing good information and value. The author provided some key dates, contract details and vehicle information which could have been easily left out.

Cons: As with any publication effort, there is likely going to be some errors and this book was no exception. Some images were incorrectly labeled and some technical reference was not accurate. Overall, the number of errors that I identified was less than ten. I feel it is important to keep the intended target audience of the book in mind. I believe the target audience is the casual fan of the Humvee who doesn’t have significant knowledge of the vehicle like I do and is looking to get additional vehicle and model related information.