Has anyone built the guntruck/M-113 combo? If so how does it sit on the truck bed? On regular tracks? I am going to build some trucks in the near future and was wondering also if the Legend GT conversion kit is a good investment to upgrade the AFV Nancy kit. Thanks guys!!!

As far as I have seen on pictures the complete running gear (tracks, wheels etc) was removed when a M113 hull was placed inside a truckbed.
Maybe some of the guntruck guys can give you a more detailed answer ? !

good luck,
Marc

hi Wade,
please see this link
this is a diorama of Steve Lucianetti, Italeri M923 5t converted to M54 5t and Tamiya m113 placed on the truck.

I have built several of the APC Gun Trucks. On the photos of the trucks that I have seen and built the wheels are removed and the engine and all unnecessary gear is stripped from the shell. You can see more photos of some other APC GTs here https://armorama.kitmaker.net/photos/showgallery.php/cat/12306/ppuser/1742 The ligends upgrade kit is good but I can show you how to make you own conversion withiot spending any where near the amount that it will cost to build the resin conversion.

I do have a Legend Conv. kit.(got it cheap on Ebay) The 2.5 & 5 ton conversions aren't all that dificult to do as Animal has Pounded them out left and right!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way the APC gun trucks are M-54 five ton trucks and the M-35 series is way too light and small for the APC shell to sit on. It would have broken the frame in no time. The reason that most Transportaion Units converted to five ton trucks is because the 2 1/2 ton trucks would all have frame failure in a short time. It was because of the extreme weight of the armor plating. We used to use sand bags between the wall of the armor plate and after a while with all the rain we got over there the trucks got waterlogged and the frames would snap. The 2 1/2 ton trucks like The Duece is Wild, Mafia and Kings of the Road survived because they had single layer 1/2 inch steel plating and no sand bags were used with the exception of the cab floor boards. The use of empty ammo cans were used filled with sand for the cargo floor. These would seal watertight andsolved the problem of water weight..

Here is a photo of the model OutLaw that I built for the Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis Va.

Here is my King Cobra Guntruck.


It is also a converted M35 cab on a M925 5-ton chasis.

Greywolf, your statement,


Is incorrect. That is simply an M923 Big Foot with an M113 placed on the back. not accurate at all since the M900 series was not even introduced till the early 1980's. They weren't even around in Vietnam and I don't believe they ever had the M113 placed on them as Guntrucks. However, this is not a bad idea for current ops in Iraq. I believe Animal was actually working with the US Army to give them some pointers on doing this for Iraq.

Gino,
this is not my fault ,please see the link of that guy.

I had seen this model before. It is true that it does not depict a true M-54 but the builder tried his best. I give him credit for trying. By the Way the U S Army is working with a contractor to build gun box kits to install into the back of the current five ton truck in Iraq. My good friend and the author of the Hard Ride, James Lyles are working with the contractors to make sure they are built correctly. We may be old but we do know what works to secure our fellow transport drivers from harms way. I havae posted a lot of photos of the gun trucks of Vietnam. They are posted in my gallery. Feel free to down load any that you would like. You can check with me and Gunnie for infomation on the different trucks that you could build on teh 2 1/2 ton models with out any major mods needed.

WOW!!! Finding armorama has been an answer to all my modeling prayers. You guys know your stuff..Thanks guys!!! So If I understand correctly there isn't a truck kit out there right now that i can put the M113 on???

What about the paint jobs??? I havent found any decals for GTs..so do you paint the names on YOURSELF???? And is it me or do most of the GTs have a gloss or semi gloss looking finish??

You will have to go the conversion route at present to model the Vietnam era five ton. Either by converting a 2 1/2 ton kit or by buying one of the after market resin conversion kits. But there were a lot of 2 1/2 ton gun trucks. OUt of the over 500 known gun trucks in Nam, at least 100 were 2 1/2 tons. We are finding more each day as the crews who served on them appear on the many Vietnam Veteran web sites. They have been supplying new unknown photos of trucks that we didn't even know existed. Plus there were a lot of gun jeeps and three quarter ton gun trucks as well. Ther were several dump trucks converted to gun trucks as well. Our Gunnie is working on one of these hybrieds now. It will be a beauty as all his projects are. As far as color goes in the begining all the trucks were grenn of course (early 1967). Later on the trucks were painted all Black and colorful graphics and catchy names were painted on the sides of the trucks much like the art work on teh nose of aircraft in WW 2. towards the end of the gun truck era, an order came down to remove all graphics for the trucks. There were some very heavy bounties placed on some of the trucks and the Viet Cong and NVA's were actually letting most the convoy get through and target the gun trucks themselfs. So the Command decided it would be better to remove al known names. As far as the graphics go on my models I used dry transfers from woodlan scenic of archers fine transfers. the art work is hand painted or generated on the computer and transfered to decal sheets. The finish on the trucks was determined by the paint on hand. If it was gloss the truck was gloss. Flat it was flat. Most trucks ended up flat because they faded very quickly over there.