I am looking to kit bash a Gun truck that I found a photo of. What I need to know is , the base truck is an M35? Is this correct, and who makes 1/35th scale models of this kit. I know that AFV has the Nancy truck but are there others? Is the Heller CCKW an M35? This is not a subject I am familiar with but I have just began my research and I am having trouble. Thanks,

Nancy is a M35a1 and the M35a2 can be backdated to an A1 pretty easily. the truck really depends on the timeframe of the war. as the 2.5 tons would break frames ash the trucks got heavier.. alot of later war trucks were 5 tons.

Which truck are you wanting to build? I can help you out if I knew which one it is. The AFV Club M35 series kits can be used to build over 200 different gun trucks of the Vietnam war. The Engineers still used 2 1/2 ton M 35 series trucks up to the end of the US involvement. Plus a lot of the larger base camps along with the Air Force used the 2 1/2 tons.

By the way the Heller kit is from the WW II era truck and were not used in Vietnam during the war. Unless you are wanting to build one of the French trucks during the Viet Minh war (Indo China War) of the early 1950's with the French.

Howdy SGT Fubar,

I don't doubt that you will shortly be inundated with very healthy information and assistance for your GunTruck build....we just happen to have some of the BEST buggers on the web available here at Armorama when it comes to building GunTrucks!

They'll be along shortly..........

In the meantime, maybe a helpful question would be; Which type of GunTruck did you have in mind building? Meaning, which timeframe, conflict, etc. Because, even though the vast majority of GunTruck enthusiasts concentrate on the 'Nam era GT's, the premise and design of the 'GunTruck' goes back much further than that......

Tread.

EDIT:.........see what I mean..... ;-)

BTW, our good and learned animal {above} is one of those "buggers" I was talking about.

EDIT #2

And, just as a bit of a 'tease' regarding pre-'Nam era GunTrucks, here's a quick pic of a somewhat earlier example......



Pretty cool huh? Especially the early version of what appears like the 'mickey mouse ear' camo paint....

Now, if one could only find the proper base kit for this........

I would like to do one of the M113 types. Like King Kong, or Cobra? I like the combo of the two. Those two names seem to be the most common on the web but if anyone has other pics or links let me know. Thanks.

Hey Jeff,

For inspiration, you need to look no further than to click on animals 'My Photos' button at the bottom of his post.....

Tread.

BTW Dave, I completely missed your 'Canivore' build.......must have been while I was away........nice.

the M113 based ones were 5 tons........ ans the 2.5 tonners had frames break!!

https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/301 5 ton conversion article here will help!!!

To build one of the APC gun trucks, you will have to convert the AFV Club cab or find a five ton conversion kit to make the five ton M 54 five ton cargo truck. You will also need the Italeri M 925 shelter kit for the cargo bed, chassis and wheels. I did an article on converting the AFV and Italeri kits to represent the Vietnam era M 54 truck. Here is a link to the article...

http://armorama.com//features/301

Here is the url to the additional photos of the conversion. As you can see there is a lot of things that must be converted.

http://community.webshots.com/myphotos?action=viewAllPhotos&albumID=103902828&security=XhMXhO

Here are some of the APC Trucks from Nam.

http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/13870


One of my best friends served on this truck as a gunner. This truck saw a lot of action before it was deactivated. in 1972.



If you decide to build a 2 1/2 ton truck instead here is the link to photos to a lot of different trucks to choose from.

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

Wow, good stuff so far! I really like the artwork on King Kong, and King Cobra. I think it may be one of those. Thanks Animal for the links to your site, those pics will come in handy for reference.

I will start looking for more so if anyone has any links let me know. Thanks again!

Here is another link to gun trucks.
http://academic.uofs.edu/faculty/gramborw/atav/gunpictures.htm

I also have many actual photos and first hand knowledge of these trucks.

Hi Dave,
Any updates on the Vietnam decal project?
Regards,
WalleyV

Still working on it. Waiting on some new soft ware programs.

Animal, If you have some other photos that would be great! I have decided to go with King Kong, But if you have more photos of King Cobra than that might be the better choice. I will shoot you a msg with my email. Thanks in advance. JDM