Warren D

The replacement parts arrived today, thanks to AFV Club for standing behind their products.

Yup, but the problem is they can't drop much below level so if the enemy is below the truck and/or very close, the 50's aren't effective.

I'm getting an introduction to the AFV Club decals and it isn't fun. It's seeming like they readily adhere to the location they are placed in and resist being slid into a final position. I've been trying to put some water underneath but that hasn't worked out too well. Decal solvent doesn't seem to soften them any but does seem to adversely affect the Tamiya clear gloss. Almost done, just 4 more to go......

Love the gun tuck, great job!

While I'm waiting for the clear gloss to set up on the other 2 GT builds, I started another one. Why The Bounty Hunter? I have decals! The Bounty Hunter was a 5 ton truck in the same outfit as the guntruck Nancy. It also had Quad 50 cal's. The truck is a M54A1 and the kit is a M54A2 so a little back-dating is required. The bigger differences are the cargo bed (the A1 does not have drop sides) and exhaust location. In the pics below of the bed, the blue parts are 3D printed from ebay, the green are the kit parts and the white are my scratch built parts, mostly the armor. I still need to fab the storage box that sits on top of the tailgate but I'm happy with the progress so far. The armor is 0.020 sheet, the patterns were in the decal set. The Quad is the Dragon kit of the quad on a trailer which is what they used; they wheeled the trailer into the bed and took the wheels off. Truck kit is the AFV Club M54A2, decals from Echelon.

Looks good.

This build is back on the bench, the paint arrived and though they say it's 24087, it still doesn't look right to me, nor is it very close to me M37 guntruck which is true Vietnam era 24087. I think I'll leave it as is, with the sun in Vietnam, colors faded rapidly anyway and there was always some room for interpretation on just what formula to use for OD. It does look a little darker under indoor lighting.

I'm not so sure. At least where the gun trucks are concerned, they re-used the armor boxes when the truck they were on was totaled. I think there was an ample supply of vehicles, unlike WW2, so a bent frame was tossed. Yes, they would strip off the axles and any usable parts but I don't think they had a need to re-use everything.

Thanks, the credit goes out to those who not only made the ultimate sacrifice but those who survived. Thanks Thanks, I'm looking forward to doing more gun trucks. Thanks, they tried putting armor on just about everything they had but in the end the 5 ton trucks worked the best.

Yes, when I got to looking at the pic I could shorten the frame and use a kit supplied shorter driveshaft. I have replacement parts coming so this one will likely end up in the spares bin. If I hadn't chopped the end off, I'd have a usable M54 frame......hindsight is always 20/20!!!

As the instructions suggested, I mixed OD and black 50/50. This is the 4th try and the final, gloss went on this morning for the decals.

I started this build 15 years ago after attending a Gathering of Gun Trucks in Carlisle, PA (Photos here: https://pbase.com/baywing/gun_truck_gathering). All the guys I spoke with that day were very friendly towards someone who didn't know squat about their story. I started modelling the guntrucks I saw but never got very far. This is the only one I got a real start on, had the makings of Satan's Lil Angel but never started it. This is the Academy M151A1, I ended up with 2 kits just to get the second M60/pedestal. I found a template for the armor somewhere on-line and used that in sheet styrene. It would be another several years before DEF came out with theirs. I got as far as the decals and that's where it stopped. I had good artwork from my photos but my inkjet printer couldn't get enough color density in the yellow to cover the black. And so, it sat. Recently I found decals for Wolfman and just finished it up.

Posted in the wrong place, it's supposed to be under glass (there now)

Progress mock up, almost ready for paint.

The underside of the cab will need some material removed as shown to allow for the steering gear. Otherwise the conflict will prevent the cab from sitting correctly on the frame. Took me more than a few minutes to figure out where the conflict was....

I remember building this one also, I think I was in the 8th grade.....

The non-GT M51 dump truck showed up yesterday afternoon. The chassis is mostly together, enough so that you can see the difference between the long chassis rails the instructions call for and the correct, shorter rails that are for the dump truck. In the photo, the long rails (A1/A2) are on the top and just removing 15mm from the back clearly won't make it work. With the rear axles lined up, you can now see that the rear cab mount is too far forward as is the front body mount and front axle. Building this way leaves too much space between the back of cab and front of dump body/gun box. I received word today that the replacement parts are in and will be shipping out to me in the next few days. I'll continue using the borrowed parts from the straight dump truck kit to complete the gun truck build.

Might have been Scott Erickson, he had a GT build recently....

I made a another change, the original has an extension off the back for more ammo. I have paint on it but I don't like the color. 15 years ago I had mixed a batch of 24087 and painted 2 models. I have several jars of mix but none of them are even close. I see that Mission Models now has a 1964-68 24087 so I have that on order and the build is parked until that comes in next week. Seems I have more parked builds than ever!

My own fault for being an early adopter (aka beta tester). I hope the replacement parts show up, I haven't heard anything in 5 days (they said it would be 1 or 2). I have a plan B, I ordered the straight M51 dump truck kit. I'll pull the chassis from that for this build and if I have to, I can use the butchered chassis from this build for the dump truck. The only thing I can't fix is the front axle so the dump truck would have the axle sitting a little forward of where it should be. Either way, this one should turn out ok, I'm already working on the paint mix.

Well, they did to a degree, put a post on their FB page saying to use the S rails. Not sure if they understand, but the crossmember locations are different and there is an extra one on the M54 that is missing on the M51. I've sent notice to AFV Club, AFV Hobby and the USA importer as well as add info to their FB page/thread so I think I've done as much as I can and maybe more than I needed to. I also posted the info on Armorama which specializes in military models. Oh well, I know what I need to do...hopefully others can figure it out. I have a regular M51 dump kit coming and will use that kit to make the chassis for this build. In the event they don't send me the replacement parts, I should be able to use what I have to make a decent dump truck (the only issue will be the front axle about 4mm too far forward).

While waiting for resolution on the M51 GT, I decided to start another one. This time it's the AFV Club 1/35 kit of the M35 "Nancy" with a quad 50 cal turret. Build is going well so far, I've made a couple of small mistakes and the instructions are somewhat hard to decipher in places (I'm still trying to figure out the routing for the side exhaust). If things go well, I should be ready to start shooting paint tomorrow. I lowered the gun turret as I think the base on the one in the kit is too tall. This is based on the few photos of the actual truck I've been able to locate. James Lyles books on the Vietnam Gun Trucks are invaluable references for model builders. Quad and bed are just mocked up, I've decided to paint the bed off the chassis and mount it later to get good access to the chassis and back of the cab.

Update, AFV Club is now aware of this issue and they should be sending me replacement parts.

Here's what I know as of now. The instructions provided with this kit (35351) show how to build the chassis for the cargo truck. I downloaded the instructions for the plain M51 dump truck and it shows how to build the chassis using the short frame rails on parts tree "S". I have also found that the fuel tank and battery box locations are different as well as the front axle on the short frame is set back from that on the longer frame. This means that no matter what else I do, the front axle isn't going to look right. I've tried to contact AFV Club and will wait for their answer; I'll need 5 trees worth of chassis parts to start over. As of now, I've got a $100 box of parts....... If you want this kit, download the M51 dump truck instructions and follow them for the chassis, then jump over to the gun truck instructions for the rest (at least until they correct things which could take a while). The following is a list of errors in the instructions provided with the kit: Numbers are the same as the numbers on the instruction sheet, 1. Use frame rails from S tree, not A1 and A2. 3. Do not glue B13, let them pivot until the axles are in place. 5. Use drive shaft A12, not S22 (though this may change with the shorter frame, I still think the A12 will be the correct length) 27. Do not install R30 at this time, wait until it shows again in step 29. 32. Locations for parts S39 and S40 are reversed, the larger S40 goes on the inside, the smaller S39 goes on the outside. 35. When assembling the gun box, use solvent glue and install in the dump body before it cures. There are small locating holes on the front of the gun box that nest in the pins on the inside of the headache rack supports and once the gun box is rigid, there isn't enough give to get the box secured in the dump body.

I hope to do it justice. Looks like a brand new kit. I got mine from the auction site, came from Taiwan. I have a few more GT's in the stash and will be working on them as time allows. Coming up are: Wolfman (M151), Black Widow, Satan's Little Angel, Bounty Hunter (M54 w/quad 50's), Nancy, Untouchable, Eve of Destruction and an M-37 version that may be of my own tribute M-37 GT. There may also be a deuce and a half (name TBD).