Warren D Posted June 21 Posted June 21 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. 2
stavanzer Posted June 25 Posted June 25 Man, the guys who manned the real thing were Crazy. I'd not have gotten in that thing for Convoy Escort. Having driven an M37's cousin (the M43 Ambulance) I shudder to think of what it was like to drive that thing. You model really captures the essence of these little rigs.
Warren D Posted June 25 Author Posted June 25 On 6/24/2025 at 12:52 PM, ksnow said: Keep em coming. Love seeing these builds. 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" 21 hours ago, PappyD340 said: Very nice! Thank you 15 hours ago, stavanzer said: Man, the guys who manned the real thing were Crazy. I'd not have gotten in that thing for Convoy Escort. Having driven an M37's cousin (the M43 Ambulance) I shudder to think of what it was like to drive that thing. You model really captures the essence of these little rigs. 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. 1
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