Long story short. My father in law was Leyte Gulf in WWII. He took part in the assault of the Shimbu Line. My brother in law had a completely restored deuce and a half that was painted up with my father in laws unit symbols and ID numbers (1st Cav). My brother in law would transport my father in law in Veterans parades and such in the 2.5. Brother in law just sold the truck and I can tell that it affected ny father in law. He is 86. I would like to build a replica of this truck, mount it to a plaque and present it to my father in law as a gift. The problem is that the original truck was Vietnam vintage and I would like to build one WWII vintage. Which kit would be the most accurate without alot of modification? Also if anyone knows, where would I get decals for 1st Cav?

thanks in advance
Mark

It depends if you want a hard top or soft top cab. The only hard top option in plastic is the Italeri (ex-Peerless) kit, quite old but from what I've heard its not bad. For soft top plastic kits you have the Tamiya and Heller models. For ease of construction, go for the newer Tamiya kit. The Heller kit is not bad, but the build up chassis will need carefull construction or it could cause alignment problems (same goes for the Italeri kit IIRC), also I've heard that the rear body has some post war mods to the side ribs to allow for water drainage.
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Geoff gave you the best idea of the kits out there.

I've built the Tamiya kit, and it is a great kit. While a number of things were added here, most notably the Tamiya addon kit specifically for this truck (it contains the canvas doors, .50cal mount, and the bumper jerry can racks), and pretty much the rest of my WWII spares box, the basic kit it simply beautiful. The kit comes with limited stowage and an internal engine with options to display the engine vents open or closed. There is also a decent interior. Construction is smooth and orderly, and fit is excellent with some annoying ejector holes on the underside - which by the way shows a busy underside.



If you have any other questions, let me know.


Jeff

Thanks gentlemen, I really appreciate it. I will probably go with Tamiya as I made a call to the LHS and he happens to have one in stock.

While they did release several ex-Peerless Max kits, Italeri actually tooled their own hard top cab deuce and a half before they acquired the Peerless molds. I have the Peerless 2 1/2 ton truck kit as well. The Italeri kit I have from the 1980's is their own mold (finer detail, better fit, and the Peerless kit was the only version depicting the banjo axles instead of the split Timkin rear axles. The Peerless kit also had vinyl tires, while Italeri's had styrene. I haven't opened Italeri's recent "limited edition" kit, but if they have rereleased the Peerless version, it would be a step backward. Italeri's soft top cab version was also nice, though I haven't seen it lately.
The Heller kit is a respectable release, and includes a decent canvas tilt for the load bed.
Tamiya's has the best tooling and is a very easy build, being the most recent, but it depicts the alternative wooden cargo bed, rather than the steel Budd body in the other kits.