I'm still building the chassis of my guntruck, so it's a long way off. But I'd like to know more about building double-wall sides. Were most of them two armor plate layers with sand-filled ammo boxes in between? And from the pictures I've seen, the spaces between the plates are covered in wood or metal, if I view them correctly.

Also, when did the double sheets come into practice? I was aiming for a 1966 through 1968 version, since the truck has a theme mocking Ho Chi Minh (who died in 1969).

The double walled trucks came about in late 1969, early 1970. At first some were filled with sand bags or extra gear. The wood you see on the upper edge of the armor plate was for extra soft armor and comfort. Try leaning on a thin bit of metal bouncing down a rough dirt road. Not fun. The first gun truck was built in late fall 1967. There wee no trucks set up prior to this time frame. The exception was the perimeter security trucks like the Nancy and the garbage Scowl we had at Cu Chi. The Scowl had 2x6 planks and plywood side walls and was filled with sand bags sandwiched between the plywood and 2x6's. The floor of the cargo bed was also lined with sand bags. The truck lasted about three months before the frame broke in half just behind the cab, from the extra weight of the wet sand.

Which truck are you building. There is a truck from Dec 1967 called the Ho Chi Hearse that was based on the M 35 A1 2 1/2 ton. It had a unique gun box and was armed at first with a M 60 and later with a 50 and 60.



It was later renamed the Rebel Rouser



The Sopwith Camel was one of the first double walled trucks. This truck was assigned to the 444 Trans.

My truck is a fictional one, but based on real ones, which I trust is OK because there were so many of them in existence, and only a small proportion of them are actually known of nowadays.

Mine would therefore be a single-walled truck then, which leads to a second question. As for the XM134 Minigun, when did it start appearing on gun trucks? I have several .50 caliber guns plus the minigun.

Sorry, also meant to ask what thickness of plastic or metal car I should use for the armor plates.

IIRC most of it was 1/4" Boiler Plate.... Which would be about .010 styrene

You could use the XM 134 on the single wall truck. I am not sure exactly when the first truck was armed with the mini guns but the Mighty mini, and the Mafia were early generation tucks with a single mini gun on them. As Matt has stated you can use the .010 or .015 and will be correct.

We have documented at least 300 gun trucks were built during the conflict with only one still surviving to this day. It is the Eve Of Destruction which is on permanent display at the Museum.





Here is a link to more gun trucks. I have more photos of other trucks also.

http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/12306