Howdy,

One of my Facebook likes id the Recon Military Photos site. This was posted recently.

Original caption; “Repairs that are beyond the skill or equipment of unit mechanics are made by maintenance companies. The tool and bench shop truck, shown above, part of the equipment of a maintenance company stationed in England, supplies mechanics with the facilities and tools need to perform major repairs on tractors.”
GMC 2 ½ ton “truck Shop, Motorized” along with mechanics repairing a Caterpillar D7.



Brian Riedel

Posted this morning on FaceBook. Comes from the the military website Olive-Drab.com

I have a 2.5-ton 6x6 Jimmy in my collection, (among many different variants) with the CALIBRE 35 Machine Shop Truck Conversion. It's a different but highly-pleasing alternative to the basic 6x6 Jimmy...

Have you guys seen MIRROR MODELS' "Future Releases" that they'll be doing a 1/35 Cat D7? YAY!!!

With the Deuce and a Half dualeys up front are always appropriate. Don't just swap out a rear set of tires though, you need to maintain the correct front wheel hub. You will need to sand the bolt heads off the standard front tire, glue on a spare tire and then add bolthead castings to the spare to replace the ones you sanded off. That way the original front wheel hub still shows through.

That will be a GREAT seller!

And of course there was the large office/shop shelter body here used as an ambulance.

There was also a Mobile Surgery box body!!!

Hi
Great load of info & pics on this thread.
just wondering if anybody knows what type of truck is used in the War Film They Were expendable with John Wayne.
The scene I'm thinking about is were the PT boats are handed over to the US Army. You just get a very short glimpse of a truck pulling away with the Pt Boat on a trailer. As there are 70ft long wondering what would have been used. I've gone frame by frame & still cant work it out. it's got No hard top or Hard doors. Any info would be great.

Shaun

Very interesting and very rare postwar Deuce:

Not so much a deuce and a half, as a half a deuce:


John

Excellent post (and excellent turn of a phrase on the headline.) I have seen photos of this armored Deuce several times but this is the best by far!

Thanks Michael,
This whole thread is great. We rode in Deuces when I was in the artillery with towed M2A1s (we called then C1s), so I've always had a soft spot for them.
I'm going to have to do a kit bash of this one, though!

John

Thanks John and thank you for your service!

I already have a spare scout car in the stash. Anybody see any reason I couldn't use it for this conversion?

Here's another medical GMC :

Large Mobile Optical Repair Unit and special Trailer belonging to the Mobile Optical Section of the 12th Medical Depot Company (attached to the Fifth United States Army, Italy). The picture was taken on August 9, 1944 in the Volterro area, Italy :



(from this interesting website )

The trailer is based on a CCKW chassis...

John's picture reminds me of this :



(more info on WarWheels.net )

H.P.

Hi, All! Does anyone know whether this interesting mutant Deuce 2.5 was just some kind of a single field-expedient vehicle or what? Just when I'm thinking that the Germans were the only ones building "one-off"-weirdos, this thing comes up!!!

In any case, I'M GOING TO HAVE TO BUILD ONE OF THESE THINGS!!! Good chance that I'll use a couple of spare TAMIYA M16 & CCKW353 kits to do this weird-but-wonderful vehicle!!! I may even build one of those 6-wheeled Jeeps that come up in the books every so often as a companion piece! Was this Jeep an actual 6 x 6, or was one of the rear axles a "dead" one

WOW, a conversion very interresting. .thank you John and Frenchy for sharing
steph

What to do with a surplus 10-ton semi trailer and a half-track :





H.P.

In the case of the 1944 Half-track/GMC Deuce combo found in North Africa: It is reasonable to consider that if so many GMC parts were available, due to war damaged scrap, this vehicle would also have installed the GMC transfer case which would have allowed it to maintain the original wheeled truck's 6x6 abilities.

HALF A DEUCE AND MORE

OK, - IF - we can trust measurements taken off a model to be correct. (not) Then frame rail spacing on the half-track is wider and slightly taller than that of the GMC Deuce.

If these measurements hold true for the real vehicles that would mean: Cut the GMC frame just ahead of the driver's seat and cut the half-track frame just behind the driver's seat. You would now have two sectioned frames that would slip (telescope) one into the other to overlap, splice and weld together.

All engine, tranny, brake, clutch, steering, front wheel drive components AND the armored front body would remain mounted to their original half-track frame. At the same time the transfer case, rear driveshafts, suspension, axles and rear load box would still retain their original GMC frame mountings.

Assuming two battle damaged vehicles you could cut both of them while still fully assembled, slide them together until the correct cab to load box distance was achieved, true everything up one final time, throw in some scrap frame parts and a good welder could have a complete new vehicle back together in no time at all.

All that remains then is to have that same pro welder create a custom short driveshaft to go between the transmission and the transfer case. While he's busy doing that, reconnect the fuel line, the rear hydraulic brake line and the rear wiring.

In about 18 hours of steady labor a GOOD five man heavy maintenance shop could have a brand new vehicle for the General, ready to run.

Easy-Piezy Sheldon! Ba-zinga



I'm trying to get the shop crew to work overtime right now!

Not try'n to be a show off but I just wanted to prove a concept (and clean a couple of model boxes out of the stash.)

I chopped and then spliced/telescoped the two frames together. All mechanical and body components will mount using their original mounting points and the only special built item will be a short custom driveshaft running between the White Motors transmission and the GMC transfer case.

Sorry I did not get more done, I had a busy evening tonight. Considered pulling an all nighter but just could not get the shop guys to do it and still work a full shift tomorrow.

Ba-Zinga





Used an Italeri frame b/c it builds up out of actual C channel for a better, more detailed look. Used a Revel of Germany Scout Car for the correct front fenders and headlight guards and I am not sure just who made the load box.

The back wall of the cab is giving me some trouble. I am going to use the armor plate from the rear wall of the scout car but things just are not coming together on that score. And yes, this vehicle needs TWO spare tires b/c it has two different sized tires front to back.

I suspect the driver was under strict orders never to put this vehicle into front wheel drive unless they were stuck in sand/snow/mud. I get the feeling the gear ratios were still different between the front and rear drives.

Check out this recent announcement for the upcoming White 666 heavy US truck in 1/35th plactic.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/209654&page=1#1760927

Some postwar CCKW pics :

Air transportable truck in Korea :



(another preserved one )

French armored trucks in Algeria :



H.P.

John, Frenchy, Anybody, HELP!

Would anyone have any more photos of this great little converted Half-track from North Africa? I have done a fairly extensive internet search and cannot even find the one photo John has already posted here.

Maybe it is just that rare!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Mike