Part 2: The Interior

Bottom Line Up Front Yeah, I know I'm not finished, but here's my impression so far. The Bronco Humber is a high quality kit of lots of detail -- except the instructions, which I can only call "interesting". Less than 10% of the Eduard Interior Set consists of new detail or corrections to kit items; leaving 90% as simply more detailed replacements for that already in the kit. Whether you use the Interior Set is a matter of taste, need, and how you intend to display your Humber. The relatively low-cost of the Eduard Interior Set compared to the kit makes it an affordable enhancement. The Eduard brass is excellent -- very thin with crisp detail on both sides where needed and with well-defined fold marks, etc. The attachment points are very thin, making parts easy to separate with minimal distortion. The folding scheme is simple and, in most cases, obvious. I probably "hand-folded" over 80% of the parts, using my Hold & Fold less than 20% of the time. The Exterior Set is slightly thicker than the Interior Set, but that makes no difference in the preceding remarks. Having the kit, the photo-etch sets, and the references on the workbench summons the AMS demon -- we have had several ear-bitin', eye-gougin', groin-kickin' sessions already ... Starting off I decided my build plan would be to make as much of the Interior Set as possible, attach the main pieces to the unpainted interior, paint the interior, then add all the boxes, straps, and other details before closing it up. I also decided to treat the engine compartment from the Exterior Set as "interior". I decided that I would use all the brass, especially on the interior, whereas if I were doing this for myself, I probably wouldn't have used half. Because of this, I decided to build this with most everything opened up, whereas I might not normally do so. As I worked, I realized there would be issues with the open vision ports and painting, so I closed the rear side and end ones, the latter because I'll have the hood open.

I'll not go through either the Bronco kit or Eduard detail item-by-item -- if you've studied both sets of instructions, it'll all work out with little real fuss. I will cover some of the things I came up with. Notation I am using: Parts identified A#, B#, C#, F#, or P# are kit parts. Parts identified I# or E# are from the respective Eduard Interior and Exterior sets. There are no "I" parts in the kit; there is only one labeled "E" and that is the roof so there shouldn't be any confusion. The Service Instruction Book (SIB) and/or the Capricorn book are most helpful to identify parts and to clarify their function and location. I also used the shaded black-white drawings as an indicator for painting. Compartment Body Batteries: Bronco part A2 represents two batteries as a single piece; Eduard doesn't address this piece at all, probably because it is mostly hidden behind the gunner's seat. AMS kicked in and I made two batteries; can't be seen but I know it's there. Seats: The Humber has a crew of two, but can carry a 3rd in an emergency. The kit has a driver's seat, a gunner's seat, and the emergency seat. Eduard adds a lever to the driver's seat and provides high-fidelity thermos holders for the gunner's seat mount. The gunner's seat can be installed in the up or down position although neither Bronco nor Eduard makes any mention of this. The kit provides the emergency seat (two pads on the floor) in the open position and the strap that forms the seat back. Eduard provides a better looking strap and related parts. But it is an emergency seat, and really should be folded forward and the strap stowed away -- which is what I have done. Radio: Kit part C60 consists of two side brackets and a shelf for the radio. Eduard provides a "molding" (I1) which appears to go behind C60 - I left it out as not necessary or visible and possibly obstructive. Concerned about the height of the radio, I cut away the shelf at an angle, leaving just enough for the radio to sit on. Also be sure you know the height of the radio before you install the Eduard brackets and boxes above it. The kit provides a nice photo-etch radio guard that Eduard replaces with an even nicer one. Front Axle: Nothing to do with Eduard, but be sure you understand the proper location of all parts and the interaction of them as you go through the assembly, or the front tires will never sit upright. Also recognize that much of that detail is hidden under the floor pan. Miscellaneous: · Eduard says to leave off a kit bracket (P15) which is clearly shown as present in the SIB. · Eduard correctly adds a bracket (I28) to the front of the driver's compartment. · Eduard adds what I believe to be the Inspection Lamp holder (I60-61), but there is no Inspection Lamp for it. · Be careful with the two hatch handles (C38,I49) so they don't appear to prevent the hatch from opening/closing when in the desired position.

Compartment Roof This is the big "Why?" of the Eduard sets. The kit part (E) has structural detail on the inside of the roof top. Eduard wants you to scrape all that off and replace it with a half-dozen brass parts which might be more accurate and look better, but given how little one can see, is it worth it ? You judge -- I would normally not have bothered. But it does look nice. If you do add this detail then fit and clean up the vision port frames (B8-11) before you add the detail to the roof just to avoid bumping the detail later.

Bronco and Eduard both have the driver's port mechanism covered. Bronco provides photo-etch parts for the mechanism on the 5 smaller ports (4 sides, driver left side) -- Eduard did NOT provide replacements for these parts which is surprising and a shame. Neither provides parts for the rear port. The kit port opening mechanism consists of 5 tiny photoetch parts. The front port is slightly different than the 4 side ports. The assembly drawing for both can be described as "and then a miracle occurs". The side port drawing points to only 2 of the 4 side ports -- there are enough parts for all 4. The kit photo-etch comes with just enough parts (P8, P9, P22, P25, P31; P3, P11, P14, P25, P30) to do the assemblies so be careful. On the other hand, the photo-etch sheet contains many similar looking parts (P2, P7, P26) not used anywhere that can be spares. Also note the instructions for the 4 side ports are right side up, but you will be working upside down. Frankly, I faked it and then used some of the extras to fake a similar mechanism for the rear port. Other items: · Eduard correctly adds a fire extinguisher holder (I21, I39, and I50) to the roof of the fighting compartment but erroneously places it on the rear wall rather than above the right rear vision port. · Eduard adds straps (I43) to hold wire cutters and a machet (machete) inside the roof, but of course no parts to hold in them. I scratch built some wire cutters and used a grossly oversize bayonet from Tamiya's Universal Carrier as a machet. · Eduard adds a "block" (I29) on/over the hinge plate of each vision port frame (B8-11), but I'm not sure what that is meant to represent, nor do things fit well once they are in. I folded them flat rather than a "U". Engine and Compartment Bronco gives you a really nice engine, plus a radiator, fuel tank, and starting crank. As I'll note in the next part, Bronco doesn't give you a hood to raise to display these parts. Anyway, Bronco gives you a decent 30% of the engine compartment detail. Eduard adds another 30%; the rest is up to you if you want. Eduard provides a wiring harness, a corrected crank holder, a radiator fan, caps for the fuel tank and radiator, an oil can holder, a couple brackets, and parts E53,E92, which after studying the SIB prove to be an oil filter (I originally thought it to be a jack, but it isn't). The Bronco engine is just fine, except the fan belt assembly (B66) has a single grossly over-thick belt -- I carefully sanded/trimmed that down, but didn't try to split into the correct two belts. I am surprised this was not an Eduard replacement part as it is one of the few items in the kit that needed replacement. It took a while, but it finally sunk in that 3 parts were missing from the kit -- two radiator hoses and the air cleaner hose -- but by missing, I don't mean from my kit -- they just don't exist!! They are shown on the instructions, but with no part number -- a clue something is amiss. I searched the sprues for similar parts to no avail. So I made radiator hose from wire. The missing air cleaner hose, if it had been provided, would have been too small so I would have had to remake it anyway. After I did all this, I found a review that suggested the clear line attached to the windscreen was supposed to be used for this, but I don't think that would have been easy or even looked right. Building the engine-radiator assembly is challenging; it starts held together by the fan shaft while you try to put the (non-existent) radiator hoses on. After having this collapse a couple times, I built a small .010 card floor to glue the engine and radiator in position. Getting the exhaust from the header to the floor is another challenge. Study of the SIB shows there should be another oil can holder and a hand pump holder on the wall to the rear of the fuel tank. There probably should be a support arm from the firewall to the radiator also. And, of course, lots of wires and lines, but that is another level. Summary I have been having a lot of fun with this. The kit being so small and the compartment so full of stuff make for a busy and interesting little model. It's undeniable that the Eduard Interior set greatly enhances the kit interior. The boxes and bundles look better held by real straps, the Bren magazines look great in their holders, and so on. If you are going to have any hatches or ports open, the Interior set is a great way to go. If you are going to build a super-detail interior, then you're most of the way home -- with the SIB you can easily figure out what's missing. OK, we have the interior populated; I have some clean up and maybe a little more detailing to do. Now it's time to get more of the kit exterior on and ready for the next part in which I'll cover the Eduard Exterior set. The difficulty I foresee is masking open hatches and ports without damaging interior detail and all that ties into when/how I put the compartment top on.

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