Short History

Land Rover is synonymous to mobility in the British Army as Jeep and Humvee are to the US Army. Land Rover Defender was the main vehicle type for the British Army and the armies of the Commonwealth for many years, and in 1994, Land Rover created a new variant - the Defender XD (eXtra Duty) to replace the older vehicles in service. The XD is powered by a 300Tdi engine and was produced in 90 and 110 inch configurations.

These XD Defenders were called the 'Wolf' and these can be equipped with hard tops or soft tops and where needed, could be fitted with a Weapons Mount Installation Kit (WMIK). WMIK vehicles could carry a 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine gun on a gun ring in the rear or the MILAN ATGM launcher. Gun mounts for squad weapons are provided for the driver and commander as well.

The Kit – What’s in the Box

The kit is molded in desert sand styrene consisting of 250+ parts on 7 parts trees plus one tree of clear lenses, one set of rubber tires with spare tire, and 1 photo-etched tree. Length: 138.2mm Width:60.9 mm

Hobby Boss has released another interesting kit that has not been rendered in plastic before, the Land Rover Defender XD. This kit is the top-less WMIK configured variant, and it is likely that Hobby Boss will release a few other Defender variants as well. Accurate Armor produced this kit in resin.

The kit is very well detailed with a complete chassis, drive-train, engine and a full exhaust system. The suspension front and back is complete with all of the correct linkages. The frame itself has suspension and cross bar attachment points with parts.

The kit includes inner and outer fender sections as on the actual vehicle. It also has the full roll cage and scarff ring mount for the heavy machine gun. In addition to the heavy machine gun for the cargo mount, there is a lighter one to fit on a swing arm in the passenger compartment. The photo etch parts make up the radiator screens and mesh carrying container on the back of the vehicle.

Getting Started

The instructions are laded out in a good order, and are simple to follow.

Everything on this kit simply drops in place; there are very minor seam marks and no ejector pin marks on any visible areas.

Assembly of the kit starts with a very detailed turbo diesel engine, once completed you will probably want to have the hood open for display.

The frame rails, reinforcement arms, 4x4 drive train and differentials are next, building the chassis from the ground-up.

The body is next, this goes together fast there are only 5 parts to assemble here, along with the 2 side compartment doors.

Now you can add the seats, mesh storage rack on the back and gear shift sticks. I recommend that you paint the base color first and assemble the seats separately so you can paint them, then add in later.

The roll cage and gun ring assembly are next. Everything fits perfectly in place. Here I painted the roll cage separately as well. I didn’t glue it place until after I weathered the truck bed area and then added the rear seat.

The rubber tires are nice and have a lot of details in the treads.

Next comes all the small detail parts like the lights, axe and handle, antenna mount and machine guns. The machine guns are all highly detailed.

Painting and Decals

Paint options:

• Wolf, 2003 Iraq War, British Army
• Wolf, standard service (green camo), British Army

I chose the desert camo scheme and used Model Masters “British gulf Armor Light Stone” for the base coat.

On the lights make sure you reference the “Marking and Painting” sheet, there are several orange lights on the front and rear end.

The decals went on without any issues. You basically get 3 choices for the front and rear license plate decals, also get the interior driver side gages and some warning plaques for the radiator fan.

Weathering and Detailing

The weathering starts out with a good clear coat, and then you can start adding the dinks and scratches. Next I used raw umber for the base wash (this acts like a filter) and lamp black artist oil wash to bring out more details. Then I sprayed on a light flat coat.

Next was a light dusting of desert color pastels and last I used a carbon pencil to bring our wear marks and scratches.

Conclusion

This kit was a joy to build everything fit nicely together. The details are sharp and the molds are clean of any flash or seams.

I would recommend this kit to all ages and skill levels; the photo etched parts are easy to manage.

I would like to thank Hobby Boss and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to conduct this review.