Doing my M925, made me looking for ref pics on the net... while doing that I came across a LOT of pics of guntrucks, I am (still) a modern builder and I know there not using them anymore but it made me curious on the story behind them... why, when, etc...
Anyone who can tell me? (I know you can!)
Thanks

(NO I'm not switching over... I'm just wondering... )

But they are still using them. In fact there is a gov't contractor that is going to be building the armored gun box's in a kit form that can be shipped and installed in the back of the800 and 900 series five ton trucks. James Lyles and Larry Fiandt, AKA Guntrucker, spent the past week in Va at Ft. Eustis consulting with this company on behalf of the US Army. They were working on the trucks and armored up HMMV"s too. We should have a bunch of new subjects to model soon. I for one can't wait to see some of the photos. If I am privy to some of them I will post them here if I can.

The gun truck concept was born in 1967 when a lot of the supply convoys were being torn apart by the ambush's that were occuring on a daily bases. We did not have enough Military Police Units with the V-100's or other suitable armored vehicles available for convoy security duties. The Transportation Commanders took it upon themselfs to come up a way to protect the troops and supplies. The gun truck was born. http://www.eustis.army.mil/DPTMSEC/MUSEUM/convoy_operations.htm Go to this url and it will explain the reason and needs a lot better than I can.

This I believe are photos of one of the last guntrucks. Now I would like someone to fill in the details of this vehicle. Lovely subject for a model though....Jim

LOL.......animal's already done it!!!!!



....and it's superb!

Tread.

So you mean this is Gov. issue?
And what about the drivers? Looks like the early ones (before the m113 fitting)didn't really protect them... what's about that?
Are there any action pics of them?

These photos are of a defunt project that never was finished. This truck was going to be called the Alabama Slammer. The concept looked good on paper but did not work in reallity.

So animal how come and u havent yet done the Alabama Slammer? It seems really nice, or maybe its not too bad for you to make it (i mean it doesnt look very agressive !!)

Animal, in my images, I've got pics of a partially built Alabama Slammer, is it yours by any chance? If so, I would love to see some more...especially the finished article...Jim

I finished the model of Alabama Slammer for the T2k campaign. The real truck could work and could protect the crew serving on it if they do what we did in Vietnam. They will have to install an inner wall of 1/2 inch thick steel plate with about 4"'s of airspace between the inner and outer walls to protect the crew from RPG rounds.The round will penitrate the outer skin of an APC and will explode. But the inner wall will stop the blast. We learne this trick the hard way in Vietnam. Now the Army and rethinking the concept. Who knows we might have a whole fleet of these vehicles some day.

I already said animal did one in my earlier post above!! Gotta read the whole thread #:-)

Tread.

hey animal,
Great job on that new GT. Is that all scratch done, kit bashing or is there some kind of confersion kit for it, I might like of take the job on.

This one is scratch built and kit bashed fro the Italeri M-925 series kit. Thecab hood and fenders are cast resin supplied to me by a friend and the air canister is scratched. The APC shell is from the Italeri M-113 kit. The res of the body work and complete interior is scratched.