One of my newest projects is a model of the OIF Gun Truck Ace of Spades. This truck is on duty in Iraq right now. I used the Italeri M 923 Big Foot model kit as the base. I am using Evergreen Plastic stock to scratch build the rest of the conversion. This truck was named in the honor of the truck and crew that served in Vietnam. Members of the Gun Truck site got together and helped to design this type of Gun Truck. It has been adopted and will be used as a standard convoy security vehicle. The armor add on ons can be installed on a truck in about four hours. So even if the truck is destroyed the armor can be removed and installed on another truck quickly. The last photo is of the actual truck in Iraq

Great job! Looking forward to se the finished result

Erik

Absolutely awesome though I should expect nothing less of you. I was wondering if someone was ever going to make an OIF guntruck (a true guntruck, not a light uparmored HMMWV), and again am not suprised that you are the first that I have seen.

Few things I have questions about:

1. Is the M2 and the 2 SAWs all its armed with?
2. What are the glass extensions in the cab bed? Modified ballistic glass? "Surplus" hood windshields?
3. Are those just "etched-in" boxes of .50 cal ammo or are you going to add 5.56mm SAW ammo boxes? You might want to take one of the SAW ammo boxes, make a mold, and copy more of them for adding along the interior walls near the 2 SAWs.

Very good job thus far. When finished, this is going to be a supurb, award-winning model. Keep us updated.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff and Eric.

As far as I know these were the only crew weapons installed. I am sure they had a 203 and their personal weapons aboard. Some of the other trucks have the Mark 19 also. I have some of the Saw ammo cans that I will be adding to the truck as well. They have a rack along the side walls to hold a few cans. The ballistic windows in the back of the gun box are supposed to give the gun crew some added protection while allowing them to observe the areas around the convoy. Although I like the idea, but I can't help but feel it will hinder their field of fire. As far as the weapons used on this truck . Like in Vietnam you use what you can get your hands on. Remember these are Transportation Corp vehicles. In the early days of the trucks in Nam we were lucky if we had one or two M 60's on our trucks. I have seen other photos of other trucks that have a couple of 50's and a Mark 19 on board. As time goes on the Army will equip these units with better weapons.

A Ma Duece and two SAWs? Thats it? Man, you'd think with the firepower the Vietnam ones had it would have a couple miniguns on there! :-)



Great model dude, and the story is really cool too!

That looks sooooooo Cool Dave! I really like it. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see it finished

Looks great as usual Dave. I am collecting the parts and pics to do a modern M900 series Guntruck as well. Yours is definitely inspiration to get going on mine.

I forgot to answer this question. The floor is covered with a black ballistic material and not ammo cans. It is all part of the "kit" to armor up a truck for security duty.

Wow, that looks realistic and awesome ! Do you plan to add some figures with the model as well?

I don't know of any OIF guntrucks that sport miniguns. I suppose the Iraqi desert is so open and spartan that one doesn't need a spray of bullets because one can see where the enemy is, not like the dense jungles of Vietnam. Also in a semi-rural setting, one doesn't want to spray bullets from a high-fire minigun unlike the unpopulated jungles of NAM.

The glass is ballistic and intended for the soldiers to stand behind and observe or shoot around the edges. Of course in intense firefights, the soldiers can just drop down and sit in the box out-of-sight.

There are so many modern U.S. models that can be made by plastic and resin companies besides the typical Humvee, Sheridan, M1, M109, and M60.

Looks great Dave! Might want to add one to my collection one day too!

Gunnie

That is a real good technique. Let's just hide from the enemy and let him lob rounds at us. That works well. The idea is that most of your body is protected by the side walls and glass areas and you fight it out. Not cower down like a scared little kid. American Soldiers fight, not hide.

Once again Dave another sweet looking Guntruck. This one has to sit on some sort of a base, can't wait to see it finished.

Question, was that the only photo you had to go by.

I have a few more photos, some showing the interior of the gun box.

Great looking conversion, just as Mother said: Sweet! And a nice way to put the italeri big foot to good use, making something really interesting of it

Happy modeling!
Pedro

Another interesting model Dave.
Nice work....

Howdy Dave

As I went through the 'latest posts' threads and came across this "OIF Guntruck...Ace of Spades" thread I thought cool...finally, our troops over there have decided to christen their rides ala 'Nam style!... And I couldn't wait to see pics of this beast.......but then, I see someone's actually built up one of these babies.....then I see it's one of yours......needless to say Dave, I'm very happy to see not onl;y the subject being brought to fruition, but even more happy to see another "animal' masterpiece.
As usual your attention to detail, your skill at scratching up precisely what you need, and your personal 'accuracy' is a joy to behold
Keep it up good buddy!

Tread.

Oh, ....and Dave. It's really good to see an OIF Guntruck with more than ONE source of armament!.......because from the vast majority of photos I have seen coming from that theatre of operations, a single piece of semi-heavy weapons station is all that most of the vehicles have generally implored.......odd I thought..........but then, I'm assuming most of these vehicles have close quarter's, inner city street's as their field of operations......

The kit looks great, like seeing the Nam era GTs updated to the 21st Century.

BTW, are your front bumper numbers correct? It reads 3rd Armor Division, 5th Cav.

Excellent! It is kinda weird seeing miniguns and grenade launchers on a Nam truck and only a few MGs on the newer truck.

Good call Rob. I used an older model to convert. It won't have the unit numbers on it after it is painted.