My entry will be a WW2 Ordnance Machine Shop on the GMC 2-1/2T chassis.
I have established a "Wheels" album in My Gallery where the bulk of my pix will go.
http:/photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/15725

Kits are:
Tamiya 35218 GMC 2-1/2T cargo Truck
Calibre35 35015 GMC 353 Shop Van Body
Aber 35058 GMC CCKW-353 Detail
CMK 3031-33 Lathe, Drill Press, Grinder(2)

The initial production was the ST-5 Van Body, mounted on hard & soft cab trucks. By 1943, the ST-5 had been replaced by the ST-6 which could be collapsed to cab heigh for shipping. Also more production went into the soft cab. There were various shop sets mounted on the van.

Although the Calibre35 kit appears to be an ST-5, I can't see too many differences and am going to call it an ST-6. II have a hard top conversion, but choose to do a soft cab. The Aber PE is great & obviates the need for the Eduard or Verlinden sets (IMHO). The machine tools from CMK are really nice.

I could build this:


But will build this:


I'll discard the floor from the van kit as it has wrong cabinets and remake the floor from wood with home-grown cabinets. The lathe, drill-press, and 2 bench grinders will be the basis for the tools and I'll probably have to hack a couple others.

I'm waiting on a 2-1/2 TM and an ORD SNL on the Load B configuration of the M16 Machine Shop Van to settle the interior.

I had pix of the kits & parts, but a computer glitch is forcing me to work from an alternate machine. I'll catch up later.

John

Cool! I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

On a side note - I love the way you've titled your campaign entry threads! Thanks so much! Easy to identify and track. You 'da Man!

Gunnie

I agree with Gunny, this will be interesting to watch. A little ambitious, but very achievable. One thing you might want to add is the Tamiya 2 1/2 Accessory set. This contains those soft doors and some jerry can holders - plus a .50 and mount, but I don't think you need to worry about that on a vehicle such as this.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

Jeff

Jeff:

Thanks for reminding me -- I have the Tamiya Accessories & might borrow the doors. I'm not gonna put a ring mount on this or much else ...

Anyway:
Today I spent a couple hours studying the truck frame, the van body, the floor, and an "under floor" which has frame rails & the underside of the wood floor.

The van body doesn't fit tightly on the floor/under-floor which is no big deal as I'm going to rebuild the floor from scratch. I also decided the under-floor doesn't quite align with the truck frame as intended, so the best option is for me to scratch that also -- then I'll be sure I have a floor assembly that fits the van body and the truck chassis. I want to check some refernce material before I start ...

So I think my build will be in 3 parallel parts.
-- the basic Tamiya kit, with Aber PE, all the way up till the cargo bed steps.
-- the van body & flooring
-- the tools & benches & tools & etc that go in it
Then I can put 'em all together ...

John

Interesting project John

Cant wait to see some pics

Ian

Spent more time on the van body & floor and have figured out they may not have represented the wheels wells very well -- more reason to build my own floor.

So I started that today. I also started on the truck chassis, trying to get as many sub-assemblies done up as possible ...

Glad to see there are so many other 2-1/2 projects in this !!!

John

Your right, the Deuce seems to be the safe bet, but I am happy that most builders aren't doing straight trucks, but adding a little something more.

Jeff

John I just know your shop van is going to be good. I look forward to seeing more progress photos as you go on.

Cheers
Cliff

OK, finally I got past the 1st hurdle -- redoing the floor of the shop van & fitting it to the chassis. So I am on the way, but not sure where I'm going ...

My Gallery has a Wheels album with more pictures - here is a link to it:
http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/15725

I tossed the Calibre35 subfloor andfloor/cabinet pieces and built my own. Note also that I have added the wheel wells that Calibre35 didn't have. If you look at the real pix, you'll note the van floor sits even with the top of the tires, but there is a well above for mud & etc.





Test fitting indicated a new problem -- the van body & truck chassis don't fit together quite right. I finally decide that I needed to cut 5/32" length out of the truck chassis and did so, half in front of the rear axle and half behind. You'll barely notice ...



And so, here it is, in a test fitting ....



But all is not well. The calibre35 van is one style (there were about 9 major variations of the van, and 6 different machine shop configs) and the interior appears to be a European modification. I worked on the front wall as best I can but some allowance will have to be made. I decided not to cut the whole wall off & rebuild it ...

More significant is that the machine shops carried the generator inside the van in the right front corner. Fine I build a cabinet to hold one -- but there is a grated door on the exterior (see gallery pix) which is not on the van body -- so I have to figure how to do that. The roof obviously needs straightening.

The CMK lathe, drill press, and grinders are probably European civilian - they'll have to do -- they sure are nice little kits. I started them already. Big problem will be fitting the lathe along the left side -- I had envisioned it going along the back, but that isn't the way they were.

See my gallery pix (again) there are two pix, one of Load A & the other of Load B -- the two standard machine shop interiors. I'll be doing a "Load-A-ish" interior .... assume the troops did some field modifications to the setup. I have the ORD SNL for each .

Another hurdle -- I got the 2-1/2 TM but it doesn't cover the van body configuration -- so it is "BMJ" (best modeling judgement) on some details ....

With this step out of the way, I can:
-- work on the 2-1/2 chassis, cab, etc
-- work on the machine tools
-- work on cabinets & etc
-- work on van body details
And join 'em up sometime.
I'm using the Aber PE and will probably add a few scratch details into the chassis & engine compartment, but the bulk of my creative efforts will be inside the van ...

Anyway, long post, but you had to be there ....

John

John I see you have discovered that the resin body is in fact a post war Modified Swiss Army one. This is the main reason I did not purchase one when they can out.

Your work as usual is excellent and it is nice to see it coming along.

Cheers
Cliff

'Roo,

Thanks, I didn't know the Swiss part.
Fortunately, the basic van body is useable.

I'll sand off the door & detail on the outer side front left of the van. The inner back wall, as I said, isn't right. I scraped down the knobs & gauges. I'll build a lump over the center to represent the heater. There are two panels (or something) on each side that aren't right but I'm not going to scrape 'em down -- I'd break something. I figure I can fake a few breaker boxes on top of 'em & it'll look allright.

John

If you look at the test fit pictures from the 15th, you'll see that the van body roof has a distinct curvature problem and fixing that was today's project.

Because of the raised detail on the inside & outside of the roof, I placed balsa wood spacers between & then a flat surface top & bottom -- that made sure I was applying all pressure on the flat roof section & not ruining something.

So here we are, all blocked & taped up & sitting in a pan of hot (not boiling) water for 4 minutes. It'll go from here to a pan of cold water for an equal time. That usually seems to be enough to fix the resin memory. Note the the good use of Hamilton's weighty tomes ...



and it turned out real nice ....



Working on the machine tools and the truck chassis ...
I am finding that the Aber PE set instructions leave a lot to be desired -- just what mods to kit parts must be made and under what circumstances a PE part should be used -- they make no distinction between with/without winch for example .... anyway, I am spending a lot of time inside the 1-1/2 TM to double check things ...

John

Hi:

Nothing much new, but I did want to note my computer is back from the shop, the hard drive survived & I now have posted my un-butchered kit-part pictures to my gallery -- here is the link http://http:/photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/15725

Right now I'm working on the main shop tools to go inside the van, and on the van body itself. This breaks down into several smaller problems:
-- modifying the shop tools to fit
-- making the work-bench/cabinets
-- makiing a generator & cabinet and the mods to the van body for doors, intakes, etc
-- making some semablance of the electrical system & heater parts
On the off days I fiddle with the truck chassis & cab ...

I'll post pix in a week or so

John the photos look good. It will be a real nice model with those CMK tools in it.

Cheers
Cliff

AAARRRGGGHHH !!!! $%&**)&%$@#$

I've been working the interior.

I modified the van body for the generator in the right front and a few other things. I painted the interior & thought it looked OK until I noticed the paint had puddled up under some wires. So I thought I'd fix that & have been repairing the damage for a week now ..

The tools are going OK, wasn't happy with the color & put a wash on to fix that up -- I hope ...

Started the work benches & built the basic tops, sides, & back. Went to mate 'em up to the floor I had made (see pic previously) & found it had warped !!! How & why I do not know but I have to figure out how to fix it, 'cause I'm not making another one !!!

So I guess all this is a sign of progress ....

^&^*(*)&^#%$

John