¹⁄16

Trumpeter M16 Halftrack

Rear (fighting) Compartment
The rubber rear “fenders” (mud flaps) should be installed, along with the taillights and sponson covers during step 18. I gave my mudflaps a “beating” by chewing them a tad before installing. Other than nasty, unused screw holes, the inside of the rear wall is devoid of any detail. The screws in the rear deck are counter-sunk, but I hid them with a smear of putty. You will now notice the fold-down flaps of the rear fighting compartment are molded as part of the walls, and the joints are not represented on the inside walls. You will have to scribe a straight groove. Most wartime photos show these flaps in the down position. Much time will now be devoted to carefully removing molded –on detail from storage bins and the tailgate before replacing it with various PE clasps and straps. The taillights are well executed, having clear lenses which can be painted with transparent red. I next constructed all those ammunition containers. The seams in the “tombstone” ammo cans (J1& J2) needed much filling and sanding. I found it annoying that four of the twelve ammo cans (parts J5 and J6) are moulded so as to have no visible seams. Why couldn’t they all have been moulded seamlessly? The carry handles are moulded-on, and no ammunition belts are provided. Four of the spare ammo cans fit into a very nice PE tray (Step 30). Two types of .50 caliber gun barrels are included. I removed the carrying handles from four gun barrels and mounted them as spares on the rear compartment walls. The fuel tanks are moulded into the rear compartment interior. The filler cap detail is also moulded-on, but looks fine after painting. The metal shroud that covers the fuel tanks could stand to be replaced with thin brass, or the like. Radios fitted to US half-tracks were either SCR-510 or SCR-528 units. What is given in the kit resembles neither, so I spent a weekend building a 510 unit from balsa wood and spares. A real unit is shown below: