I finished up working on my Welcome to the Nam piece this past weekend and wanted to post up some pics of it. It's an AFV club M35a2 that I back dated to an a1 for the Vietnam period. I removed the stack and built my own exhuast to run to the back and exit out between the rear duals. Also changed out the marker lights with some that I modifided to resemble the period correct cat eye lenses. And did the same with the rear stop lights, and added a seperate black out stop light to be correct. I also scratch built a soft top frame and bows for the cab, and a rear cargo strap across the rear. Added the bridge weight plaques to the front grill and passenger side door also. The truck was painted with real US Army period correct FS#24087 semi-gloss OD paint that I used for restoring the real thing. I also placed period correct stenciling on the truck with dry transfers. The figures are a mix of Dragon and Tamiya. Enjoy, there are more pics in my gallery.




And the real deal I finished restoring this last December.

the real thing is impressive. man..you have good hands to build this one. red ribbons for the winner!

same with the 1/35 version. the red tierra gives the truck a distinctive weathering.

Looks pretty good. Couple pointers though. On the front indicator lights, they should not be orange, they weren't turn signals. They are black-out marker lights and were clear. Best way to represent them is with horizontal black lines, one top and one bottom with the bottom one being shorter. Same is true for the rear. Only the upper oval on the left side was red. The bottom is a black-out marker. Right rear has a blackout stop indicator on top and a blackout marker below, two horizontal lines like the front. Looks good overall. Might want to add straps to the weapons for some more detail. Good looking M35A1.

Looks graeat, and the restored truck also looks awsome....my congrats

cheers

A very nice example of an old work horse. I like that you used the markings of the 363rd Truck Company. I drove in a few convoys with these guys. Good outfit. Thanks for sharing.

Are the figs supposed to be Vietnam, or WWII, or both?
I'm not asking to criticize, it's just that I'm planning to add them to a WWII dio, I don't want them to look out of place (although they would be placed inside a truck, we would not see them so well...)

Actually they should be orange. The front marker lights have an orange cat eye lense that shows during normal driving conditions, and a small slot under them that shows a dim white when driving under the blackout lighting. The orange section has 2 bulbs behind it, one for driving marker, and one for turn signal. Here is an example of them that are mounted on the front of my restored 67' M715

The rear have red cat eyes above a single slotted blackout marker. They have three bulbs in the housing just like the front, that light two behind the cat eye red that are service brake light and service marker light and one behind the blackout slot that shows the blackout marker when in the blackout mode. The blackout stop light is in a seperate round housing mounted next to the passenger rear brake/marker light. It works as the brake light under blackout mode.

I have the actual service manuals for both the M715 and M35a1 and it clearly shows the lighting set up in both of them as I described them. Not to be nit picky, but full sized restorations of military vehicles is one of my areas of expertise and I have done lots of research on them.

I found a picture on the net that showed a convoy of trucks from the 363rd. It had the lead truck with the cab canvas off and just the frame and bows. and several GI's in the bed standing up and "sight seeing" as they passed through a village. I used this as my insperation for my scene. It might have even came from your pics that you have in your gallery.

Very nicely done! Nothing like having the real thing as a reference. The red clay color looks good. It could use a little more on the tires for my taste, but I really like it.

I stand corrected on the lights. All that I have seen did not look like the orange and red lenses. Guess I have seen faded ones or something. Thanks.



Looks like the figures he used are mostly the Vietnam era Armored Troops from Tamiya. These are not suitable for WWI figs since their uniforms are Vietnam specific, not to mention gear and weapons. Italeri has a WWII allied truck crew that includes driver, passenger, and some guys for the back. It is an older set and has soft details, but is still usable. There are lots of resing truck driver and passenger/rider figures out there that are much better though. Depends on how much money you want to spend on them.

Yep, 30 years in the sun can greatly fade the lenses. The ones on my M715 when I first got it were severly sun faded. The rear lenses had turned a light pink in color and the fronts had just a tint of amber left to them.

Yes, most of the figures are Tamiyas armored cav troops. They were just about the only ones I could find with seated Vietnam era troops. The figure standing up is a Dragon figure with a helemt instead of the cav hat, and the the one crouching and the driver and co-pilot are all mixtures between Tayima and Dragon figures. They are all Vietnam era troops. The hardest was painting the Mitchell leaf pattern camo on the helmets.

Really nice work on the M35 and the scene. Nice to see another finished entry for the Welcome to the Nam campaign.

The truck looks cool to me, Dave. Just a couple of things about the dio, though. You might want to press the truck down into the mud a wee bit as it looks as if it's light as a feather right now. And try and work some mud up those rocks and some light weathering at the base of the bushes and grasses. They look as if they're just stuck on right now. Really like the red mud.

I was going for a dry dirt road, not a wet muddy one. That's why the truck is weathered to look dusty not covered in mud. I wanted the road to look well used so I put some tire marks down it. I sprayed the road bed with a clear flat but I can see that it does still look quite shiny like wet mud. I don't want to waste that much mig powders to dust the whole thing. Does anyone have any good sugjestions on how I can get the road to look dry & dusty?

I use model masters flat clear. It is really dull. I would spray the tires as well. I also thought you were showing it in wet mud. I still like it...

I used MM spray flat on them. I don't know if it's the flash from the camera or what. But I do feel I need to find a way to get a more dry dusty feel out of it.

very nice,
my only suggestion would to add grass around the foilage.it would give you more of a road look and help to make the plants look to grow out of a fertile area.
nam dios are my favourite.keep up the great work.