Warren D

Thanks Bill. I know what you mean, I almost bought a 1974 M54 at a MV show a couple of weeks ago to convert to a GT. Had the Mack motor and lots of upgrades. Sheet metal was a little rough and it would have needed conversion back to 10 tires as it had been super-singled. I hardly have time for my M37 GT so I had to pass.

After some time away, I picked this build back up. It's almost ready for paint, I still need to fab the windshield armor (which will be installed in the down position). I filled the hole in the fender for the exhaust stack as the A1 variant exhaust dumped just behind the front wheel.

Thanks!

I decided I didn't like the way the mirrors looked and couldn't find any photos of them so I changed them to the stock M37 style. I also got the winch cable wrapped and removed the tall exhaust stack as I couldn't verify it's use on the M56.

Thank you! Thanks!

Thanks Jim, I'm not sure I won the good fight but the results are acceptable. Ran into a guy I know who has one at a MV show this past weekend. His doesn't have the tall exhaust stack. I may have to consult the Tech manuals and see what they are supposed to look like. The mirror brackets are a bit odd but that's what came in the kit.

This is another Hobby Link 1/35 scale kit. It's the last Hobby Link kit I have and I'm not likely buying any more. I decided to build it up while I had experience with these still fresh in my mind. Had the usual issues with warped parts. The soft top was warped badly at the front left corner and no amount of heating and bending would straighten it out. I dug out the other one from the Mr. Nice Guntruck kit (it was extra) but it had the same warp in the exact same place. I found a soft top from the Roden kit I used for "Malfunction" and was surprized it fit! It actually fit very well with only a small adjustment at the front corners. I realized after I took the pics that I forgot the winch cable, so that will get added sometime in the future. Paint is Tamiya over Pollyscale black primer. The color is my own mix, coming close to the Vietnam correct 24087.

I've bought a few Brockway cabs from him and they haven't had batt boxes nor fuel tanks. Yes, the Brockway fuel tanks are close to Mack tanks but the earlier 300 series trucks tanks look a little different than the Mack. I'm also going by the tanks and batt boxes I got from Dave at AITM which seem to look like those I see on Brocks at truck shows.

Just curious, do you have a source for the Brockway fuel tanks and battery box/airtank? My build thread for the 361 dump:

Just use the A-Car frame. You'll need to make mods to the 361 but it fits pretty well. I built a 361 with Montone dump for one of the annual build offs, might have been 2022.

I had done my Brockway COE with the Keystone Leach packer about 3 years ago: You will likely need a longer chassis than the Mack kit has or will need to stretch it. With these packers, there is a lot of empty space in the front of the body, lots of weight in the rear even before the garbage is added. Point is, you don't want too much body overhang in the rear.

Just curious if anyone has built one. I bought one a few years back and have been thinking about it (I seem to think about it every time I watch the original "Midway" movie). I think the biggest thing stopping me is where to put it when I'm done!

Came out great and I tend to agree with you regarding PE parts. I've used some that worked out well but more often the tiny little bits are just too small to work with. Any little handling error and they fly off in the never-regions of the carpet never to be seen again.

Thanks, I have plans for several more, mostly 5 ton M54's from here on out though if I can get decals done, I'll be doing one of my M37 "Boonierat" Thank you Not sure how crazy they were but gun truck duty was strictly volunteer and had a high casualty rate as the GT's became instant targets for the VC and NVA. (Many villagers didn't like us either and guys often got hit with flung dung) The M37 as a gun truck didn't really work out too well as the weight of the armor plate put it either at or over max capacity. Wasn't uncommon to see the rear springs completely compressed and with that, speed was reduced quite a lot. As you know, these aren't speed demons to begin with (30-40 mph is about it) so when you weight it down and it can only do 20-25 they really can't keep up with convoy speeds.

Thanks, most of them were field built one-offs. If something worked, it was copied, if it didn't, they tried something else! Thanks

Calling it done:

I think I'm done, you never really know as little things appear missing or break..... This is the majority of the Hobby Link 1/35 scale "Mr. Nice" M37 gun truck kit. As I had decals for Otto and needed to fab the armor box anyway, I decided on Otto. In spite of warped cab parts and much less detail than the Roden M37, it did go together rather well, in fact, much better than any Hobby Link kit I've built so far. Otto has two pair of M60's, I had to fab the two twin mounts along with the armor. Yellow headlights weren't rare, they were NATO-spec that were left behind by the French when they departed Vietnam. I have them on my full-sized M37 Vietnam gun truck (they are rare now and appropriately expensive!)

I remember that show, what I really wanted was one of those buggies! Now I have that tune stuck in my head.....thanks a bunch.....LOL!

Calling it done, minus a couple of repairs....

Calling it done (though I have to touch up the mirror and replace the missing segment of black stripe on the driver's side of the hood) (Funny what you see in photo that you don't see otherwise!) The base kit is the Roden 1/35 scale Dodge M37. The kit built up reasonably well. The armor windshield, mirror and accessories are from the Hobby Link M37 gun truck "Mr. Nice" kit. The pattern for the armor box was from the Hobby Link kit but built from sheet styrene. Paint is Tamiya acrylic flat black. Decals are Star, first time using them; not bad but the carrier material is a bit thick. The guns are a pair of M-60s. The bluish tint in some of the pics is the blue from the sky, happens when you take pics in the shade.

I recall having something similar way back when. Same cab but mine had a gravel trailer.

I really didn't have that much trouble with the Roden instructions. Could be I'm used to the less than stellar AMT instructions, or the errors I've found with AFV Club or maybe I've been burned so many times I look and think well ahead of where I'm working. I usually dry-run the instructions before the build to identify how I'll proceed so that I can get the maximum number of parts assembled before paint.

Thanks! Thank you Thanks, I appreciate that!

Pollyscale acrylic primer is on and covered with Tamiya flat black. Glosscoat for decals is next.

Paint is on, will need to figure out if I like the color before I go any farther, I may try something else.