¹⁄35

M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage Part One

introduction

This being my first submission, I’m not quite sure if much space should be dedicated to my background and history in modeling, but to be brief about it, I am now in my mid ‘50s and have been building military vehicle models since I was in my early teens. I am a huge fan of well made plastic kits, and my favorite subjects are WW2 armor and support vehicles of the USA and the amazing variety of German vehicles available in kit form. So, I’ve been building for a long time, I like high quality kits, and I like WW2. I am a professional freelance graphic artist and illustrator by trade and am fortunate to have some spare time to dedicate to my passion of building highly detailed miniatures. I am also a military veteran, US Army, an ex-Armored Tank Crewman, and have had my hands on many of the pieces of equipment represented in these plastic models. I also collect WW2 weapons and have extensive knowledge of their look and finish.

For this particular big project, and this is a fairly big project considering the level of detail and accuracy I am aiming for, I have chosen the excellent Dragon Models kit #6381, M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, in 1/35 scale. Having built over the years the old Monogram 1/32 and Tamiya 1/35 kits, this Dragon kit is, in my opinion, the best representation of this vehicle ever put on the market. The Dragon US halftrack kits are a quantum improvement over any which came before, and I am actively determined to collect them all. Their M16 kit is simply excellent, and would make an amazing model even if just finished right out of the box, with no mods or added parts.

That said, there are some compromises, some misrepresented parts, not to mention a few inaccuracies here and there, so as we go we will source some accessory kits and add some photo etched parts. These will be shown and described as we proceed with the build.

There is one other thing I think I’ll address right from the start: weathering, wear and tear, the effects of the environment, and my outlook and philosophy on those. I’ve seen a lot of great models. There are some truly gifted builders out there and a lot of them post here on Armorama. I have an issue though with builders who go way out overboard with their weathering and wear. I’ll explain…

These are military vehicles. I have been in the military. I knew people who were in the military in other countries. They all believe in maintenance. Equipment is regularly inspected and serviced, everywhere. Even in wartime, minimum standards are upheld. Now when I see some WW2 vehicle models, I am shocked at the level of wear and tear and weathering on some of them; they look as if they were in a scrap yard for a hundred years in acid rain. It was WW2, ’39 to ’45, so most of the equipment can’t be over 6 years old. If we’re talking US equipment from D-Day onward, most of it is brand new factory fresh. Every Army does maintenance. Every Army cleans their gear and vehicles occasionally, otherwise some heads roll when the General drives by. So how can vehicles only 6 years old at worst, much newer on average, and under constant crew maintenance, look like a chipped up, worn out, rusted piece of junk? Well of course, they would not. That said, let’s begin.