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M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage Part Two

Field Mods

Now here’s the first place I’ll modify and stray away from the basic USGI official configuration of the vehicle. This is a field modification, as seen on many M16 vehicles in Western Europe. Crews often mounted an additional machine gun over the passenger side on the roof brace. This gun could be either an M1919 .30 cal or another M2HB .50 cal. Since a lot of M16s did more ground combat than anti-aircraft work, due to their wicked firepower which could devastate bunkers and gun positions when applied with full force, the extra MG provided offensive / defensive firepower to areas away from the line of fire of the primary guns. As these vehicles were very often assaulting fortifications deep into enemy lines, the enemy could pop up in unexpected places and this could screw up a crew’s whole day. The ability to shoot big bullets in two directions at once had obvious advantages.

For this gun mount, I sourced the Academy US Machine Gun kit. I’m no big fan of this kit, finding most of the .50 cal stuff just wrong, but it does have the gun cradle I need. For the mount pintle socket, I sourced an old Dodge WC kit from AFV which I have scavenged from before. I cut the socket off, carved out all the styrene on the gun cradle which is wrong, and it’s then pretty close to the real thing. A bit of OD green shows I’m on the right track. I’m pretty happy with this gun mount, so I’m moving on until I have a nice K59 M2HB to mount in it.

Since it was now time to mount the cab to the chassis permanently, I lined it up with the rear fighting compartment and then committed it to the chassis, without gluing in the rear compartment just yet. Now the rest of the winch was assembled. Because the winch driveshaft goes through a hole in the front armor, this can’t be assembled until the cab is there for good. Once it is assembled, I did a bit of light rusting and bare steel, the idea being that this winch gets some considerable use in the combat environment. At the same time, while I’m brush painting steel and rusty colors, I finish the tools off, replicating metal that has first been painted in OD then worn bare by use, with a haze of scratches and light rust. Testors Wood color enamel gives me the handles. In their holders, the tools make me smile a bit. When I add the tie straps to this later, it’s going to be really cool, I think.

I’d left the rear body loose as I’m using the Griffon PE bulkhead instead of the styrene one at the front, which is super detailed and the correct scale thickness for that piece of sheet steel. Brackets, bolts, nuts, straps, and the folding jump seat, all had to be done at this stage before the rear compartment was attached permanently. You’ll see in my photos how well this all fits together and I was so impressed with the interface between Griffon and Dragon; the PE parts are very nice, and they fit. They fit. I added the steering wheel now, and the doors, then mated the rear compartment to the chassis, being careful to match the front edge of the compartment to the rear edge of the cab correctly. I even began to position the rear compartment ammo magazine rack and the radio rack, deciding to cement these in place now and spray them with base color to prevent problems later. As can be seen in my last photos: the cab interior is complete, the seat cushions painted, steering wheel in place, basic painting done, and the field expedient additional machine gun mount is in place. I’m very excited about how this is going together.

In the next episode…Part 3…I move into the fighting compartment, where serious business gets done. Lots of ammo mags, tools, supplies, details, PE galore. A nice radio set… and of course a large gun turret mounting 4 x M2HB .50 cal. heavy machine guns. The opportunity for super detail is everywhere… I’m excited.

If you missed the first instalment of this feature, click here: M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage Part One