Box Art / Packaging:

The Avenger is presented in a rigid top opening box with glossy finish, the box art depicts the Avenger air defense system deployed in the field.

This 100% newly tooled kit is a brand new 2026 release from AFV Club.

The box contains a normal instruction booklet with clear construction steps, instructions were easy to follow and no glaring omissions were noticed.

Also included is a glossy poster of the box art for those who like to save these, no need to save the box lid! The manual also includes paint schemes for 6 different variants.

Vehicle Background:

The AN/TWQ-1 Avenger Air Defense System is an American self-propelled surface-to-air missile system that provides mobile, short-range air defense protection for ground units against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters.

The Avenger was originally developed for the United States Armed Forces; it is currently used by the U.S. Army and previously by the U.S. Marine Corps. Some are also in use by Ukrainian forces.

The Avenger comes mainly in three configurations, the Basic, Slew-to-Cue, and the Up-Gun.

The Basic configuration consists of a gyro-stabilized air defense turret mounted on a modified heavy Humvee. The turret has two Stinger missile launcher pods, each capable of firing up to 4 fire-and-forget infrared/ultraviolet guided missiles in rapid succession.

The Kit:

Inside the box we get ten main sprues in green colored styrene, two clear sprues, two photo etch frets, 4 vinyl tires, some poly caps, and a two decal sheets.

Sprues A, B, C, D, F, K and M contain plastic parts for vehicle construction, I cannot find any mention of parts count but there are quite a few parts, the kit requires a lot of construction and took me some time to build. Rubber parts are provided for the ammunition belt feeding to the machine gun and some poly caps to allow for movement of the stinger pods.

The clear parts are limited with lights, (head and tail) as well as windscreen and windows, also the windscreen is provided for the air defense turret.

Sprues I and G contain the photo etch parts used for armor on the hood and front and steps on the rear basket as well as some additional screens and PE parts. I will say, I found the PE parts difficult to bend and fit to the vehicle, I would have preferred it if those parts were also offered in plastic so the builder could choose.

The vinyl tires provided are soft and pliable and the Goodyear brand is clearly visible on the tire. They fit well with the plastic hubs provided.

The Build:

Build was very straightforward once the instructions were closely followed, in general fit was excellent and parts were well molded and none were found to be malformed.

Some sub assembly painting is required to ensure it is not missed later, painting the cab interior, the air defense turret interior etc. Color callouts are provided for all items which require painting during construction.

Minimal details are provided for the cab interior, but the windows do not allow for great visibility into the kit anyway, so it is not a problem, the air defense pod however has a large window and the detail there is enhanced. It would have been good if there were also a figure provided to be seated in the air defense turret or operating the RCU (Radio Control Unit) in the cab.

There are 38 assembly steps, so be prepared for a lengthy build, steps 1-8 concentrate on building the chassis and limited engine detail, there is quite a large amount of complexity in the chassis assembly, but all fits well and if followed closely makes for relatively easy assembly.

Steps 9-20 set forth the steps to complete the cab, bed and cab interior offering also the choice to build and fit either a basic RCU or and Upgraded RCU. I opted for the upgraded RCU, assembly and size etc. of both are extremely similar.

Steps 21-37 contain instructions on the build of the air defense turret and its fitting to the Humvee bed. The most difficult, in my opinion, of this build was the build of the FIM-92 Stinger missile pods, I found this challenging and had some fit issues here, but this may have been down to my perhaps not playing close enough attention here during assembly, pay close heed during this step, a mistake here can be costly!

The final step, step 38, revolves around assembly and fitting of the rear basket and the additional armor placed over the doors and hood of the Humvee. And voila! You’re finished, apart from painting and decals!

Paint:

I chose the simplest scheme for painting, the 108^th Air Defense Artillery Brigade which was yellow with tar black being the only exterior colors. Some weathering was added to the finished model but for the most part it was not weathered heavily.

Included paint schemes are 1^st Battalion, 57^th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 1^st Battalion, 265^th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52^nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 1129^th Bila Tserkva Air Defense missile Regiment, Ukrainian Ground Forces, 4^th Low-Altitude Air Defense Battalion, USMC and the one I ultimately chose; 108^th Air DEFENSE Artillery Brigade.

Pros:

A nice addition to the AFV Club line, there are many HumVee kits out there, but this is newly tooled.

Excellent fit, no flash, brand new molds.

Excellent surface details with and a high parts count.

Nice packaging and presentation with clear instructions, nice PE, clear parts and excellent decals.

Cons:

No plastic options provided for those parts supplied as Photo Etch.

No figure(s) is provided manning the air defense system as depicted in the box art.

Many thanks to AFV Club for providing the kit and to IPMS for facilitating the review.

Jason Boggans.