Just fresh from airbrushing. M8A1 Cargo tractor from Chinese company Bluetank. Also used was Airwaves PE and AFV Club tracks. Rubber pads will be glued in after basic weathering is carried out on the tracks. All comments and critic are welcome.
This is my third "modern" vehicle in a row (M113 fitter and the swedish S tank were the other 2). Time to clean off some dust from the WWII stuff again.

Nah, with the roll you are on, keep up the modern stuff, we need more of it.

As for your M8A1, it looks supurb. For a company I have never heard of before, the detail looks great (the PE and tracks just add to it). I noticed you left off the .50 cal, despite the mounting tray still there, nice touch as most either go all or nothing. For an unlikely subject, you did a great job. Congratulations.

Jeff

Your looking good, but a question; did the M8 have rubber road wheels? I looks like you gave them rust.

Roger

I think thats red dust, common in parts of Vietnam.

Great looking model so far.

Impressive job there Frank, on a dog of a kit.

Hi Guys. Thanks very much for your comments. Some answers .....


Hi Jeff. This is not finished yet. The kit machine gun is a blob with a short shot. I will be adding a machine gun later from the spare parts, along with stowage and load. This is just the base model.


Hi Roger & Chuck. Yes the M8 had rubber road wheels. The base for this truck is based on the M41 walker bulldog, but extended with another road wheel. The kit supplied roadwheels are very poor ... when painted they´ll look like low profile tyres as theres no rim at all. My painting method has probably thrown you guys a bit here. The tyres are not painted at all, yet. The whole lower hull is one piece, tub, wheels and track. Firstly I spray the lot earth brown ... a suitable base for the tracks, then I airbrushed the green of the rest of the vehicle, including the roadwheels. The tyres will be hand painted later. But as Chuck mentioned, there will be loads of red dust added later to hopefully hide the poor wheels.


Hi Dave. Welcome back .. hope you´re feeling better again! In one way its a dog of a kit and another way its not that bad. With a bit of clean up and some small filling and tidying up, the actual kit is not that bad. Replacing the tracks was important as the kit tracks are rubbish. After that, the shape is there and builds decently enough. Ive built a few dogs where parts needed re-construction and doctoring to fit .. Dragon´s scud missle launcher and Maquette´s SU76M (also released by dragon). These could definately be classed as dogs. This one is a puppy at worst :-) :-) .

I think this kit will come into its own, when weathered and its dressed up. Ive got a nice figure from Legends as well for the scale effect. I think this campaign runs until the end of may, so Ive still got some time to get it together. Cheers.

I like the idea of battle damage, but maybe in the sense of wear and tear more than enemy action. I would cater a guess that the blade was used a lot to clear foliage.

Jeff

I seriously considered this at the start ... was even going to relace the wooden sides with real wood (chickened out), but will just be giveing it a good heavy weathering. The thickness of the plastic, and the relief of actually getting this together, didn´t give me any encouragement to go the extra step and start ripping it up. I might actually add a few bullet holes though .. good idea.
Regarding the use of this vehicle, and the blade for that matter, ... I have no reference as to what it was used for, how many of them there were, or how deep in they were.
Anybody know anything about this vehicle?

The M8A1 was originally designed by the Buick Division of General Motors in the 1940's. Allis-Chalmers produced the tractor from the late 1940's through the late 1950's. It's most commonly remembered/seen as a US Cold War era vehicle. The tractor was upgraded with a new powerplant - changing the designation to M8A2.

Both versions towed artillery weighing up to 39,000 pounds, or could haul a cargo load weighing up to 17,500 pounds. They were commonly seen equipped with a removable dozer blade to help prepare firing emplacements. They could make 40 mph and had a range of 180 miles - in both engine installations. These are pretty rare vehicles, some 480 high-speed tractors were produced.

The platform on the rear of the high-speed tractor could be removed. When used as a Prime Mover for Artillery pieces, two ammunition boxes mounted on the bed and a hydraulic hoist was fitted to raise and lower power generator sets used in conjunction with the artillery gun.

The M8A1 and A2 could be used in all climates and could be equipped with a radio. The co-driver had equipment allowing partial control of the tractor, as well as access to a ring-mounted Machine Gun.

Gunnie

Thanks Gunnie. Appreciate this info. At least if somebody asks me about it now, I can pretend to know something
Its amazing how little reference of this, there is available. Vietnam was pretty well documented. Any idea what happened to those that survived? Do any exist today, in museums etc.... have only ever seen some small b&w photos of it. Cheers

I've never come across one in a museum or private collection - yet - out here in the Western US. I think there are some out there that survived service though and are in private collector's hands. I'm always looking to get to one to take photos. . My impressions of the history of the tractor lead me to believe it served faithfully and well into the 1970's before being removed from service.

At one time in the mid-1950's the M8A1/A2 was even briefly considered as an all-terrain transporter/launcher for the M4 LaCrosse Guided Missile System. The idea stayed on the drawing board, but Aurora Models produced a model kit of one of the concepts - equally as rare as the real vehicle.

Your model is very, very, nice at this stage. That old puppy calls for patience and heart to bring out it's lines. A shame that it wasn't kitted by a more skilled manufacturer like Italeri or even Tamiya...

Gunnie

Thanks again Gunnie!


Agreed. Eventhough, Im more interested in WW2 vehicles, and everybody was laughing at this kit when I bought it ... the trader give it to me for around $5. I knew I had a job on my hands. Its easy enough to build from the box. Although I replaced the tracks, I would recommned anybody who wants to do a serious job of this getthe AFV Club wheel and torsion set as well. (problem here is you would need two sets to cover the extra road wheel) Im actually regretting I didnt. The AFV Club tracks are excellent ... best set Ive used so far ... full set can be assembled and placed without glue andt hey come already removed and cleaned. The wooden sideings could easily be replaced with balsa.
The Airwaves set, could be easily forgotten .. most scratchers will do better. But the question is ... where do you stop?
Think I´ll concentrate on trying to do a good paint and weathering job instead.
Cheers.

Frank,
Great job your doing there......I know the kit's a nightmare.........did this one about 8yrs ago

tough but enjoyable.......(only 3 pics to work from)

Keep going you mad fool :-) :-) .....its all in the mind or you wouldn't do it.
aye,
BARV

Howdy Plastic,

What can I say?........nice work sir. Your build is looking superb. And I know, I began wrestling with that wee beastie myself for this Campaign. Not sure if I'm going to finish it or not, but I will enjoy yours just the same.

The M8A1 'Cargo' Tractor came in a small variety of related configurations. And if I may be so bold as to add a wee bit more to our Gunnie's already superb 'intel'......

As Jim stated, the original version of this 'Cargo' Tractor dates back to September of 1944 in the form of the T42 Cargo Carrier.



This lighter, original version could only carry a max of 10,000 pounds of cargo, not bad considering the vehicle itself only weighed 37,000 pounds empty. This vehicle eventually went on to become the M44.



Of the other variants built from this base chassis, was the up-powered M8E2 version which sported a supercharged enhancement designated the AOS-895-3 upgrade with 500 gross horsepower. The picture below is one of these upgrades of a specially equipped T8E2 wearing a T8E4 hydraulic bulldozer kit. It is additionally outfitted with the T53 Body Kit which was a slightly more effective configuration of the kit-supplied version of the cargo crane. It featured an extendable gantry boom and block and tackle for handling the ammo tray loads.



Finally, there's this monster. This is the T44. As you will notice, this vehicles chassis has been extended another road wheel, for a total of seven road wheels per side. It is still based on the M41 tank chassis, but an engine from an M47 Medium Tank (an 810 HP Continental V-12) has been stuffed into it's engine compartment to handle the increased load handling abiltity. It weighed in at a whopping 102,000 pounds. The oversized track had built-in grousers and measured a massive 36 inches wide!



With any luck, my wee bit of additional info helped you better understand this rather unique vehicle........

Tread.

EDIT: BTW barv......I've looked at your Gallery of builds and I must say I just love your work! Great subject matter ya bugger, especially for somebody who probably wears a miniskirt (kilt) ta work..........;-)

Sorry to disapoint you..........re-tired now kilt has been hung -up...till next time.
Keep up those type of comments and I'll upset every -one by doing a "tartan"-coated (tartan army) tank........ that should get the "rivet-counters" utterly confused :-) :-)
Thank s for the nice words .......I do try...honest
Frank....... ? Are you going to try a wrecker to go with the carrier
Aye
BARV

Steve/Gordon. Thanks for your input Guys. Great to get more background info.
Love your models Steve..... very inspiring.
Have you made any progress with your M8 yet Gordon?


Wouldn´t think so! I generally model WW2 vehicles. And scratching is not my strong point either. To be honest, If I had the time, some time in the near future, Id love to attempt something like this again. Love the vehicle. If I ever go this route again ... I´d try to attempt replacing all the wooden slats with real wood and rebuilding parts using the kit as a reference.
When Im tempted to go modern its usually a fitter or engineer vehicle that results .... or the occasional oddity.
So far this year Ive done the IDF M113 fitter, swedish S tank and now this ..... not bad for somebody whos main interest is WW2:-) :-)