Some ages ago I saw a pic of a British 2 pounder mounted on the back of a truck. It was in the N. African desert during WWII. I'd like to find out which trucks took the portee mounts.

Any body see that old picture or know?

Welcome Aboard Haywire,

I believe the picture in question shows one of the many Chevy variants with the bullnosed hood design, sort of reminiscent of the thirties and forties styles. The LRDG Truck from Tamiya would give you a good starting point. The 2 pounder would have to be from a smaller maker, I know there are one or two out there somewhere. I used a scratchbuilt gun when I did the one I made a few years back, I got my info on the gun from an old British Periodical from the fifties, the picture you saw was probably in the Infantry Guns Book that was a paperback from the same company only a later publication.

Anyway you get to do some scratch building to come up with a shortie stake body without the stakes, sheet plastic in .060 was the material I used to create the steel framing that made up the bed framework. I know that all the rest of the construction was wood, I used to own a stakebody 1940 Chevy one ton, just like the one depicted in the kit. You can sub in Balsa, easiest, or basswood, harder but more durable and easier to finiish. Stretched sprue or if you want to get fancy a couple of different sized small plastic rod will furnish you all the hold downs and long shanked rivets that held the wood down to the frame, trapping the metal framework in between the 4X8's that made up the runners mounted to the frame and the 2X6's boards that made up the floor of the bed. The gun was mounted on to big blocks of wood and strapped down to the bed with metal strapping and sandbagged for extra security. The big blocks of wood were spiked to the 2X6 bed boards. The only thing that they did to modify the gun in any way that I could see was that they took the wheels and tires off. they used chain over the gun trails to help hold it down on the bed and frame of the truck. Pretty much a field expedient that they used to get the immediate job done, they needed SPG type weaponery to chase the Italians across the frontier before Rommel arrived and played see saw with them for a while. I've also seen pictures of the British Quad with a six pounder in the Portee mount as they called it. I believe the Quad in question was a Canadian Fat Four type with a wooden flat bed, the Italeri one is a good representation to start with.

That's about all I know about the Portee 2 pounders that the British used in North Africa, you might check out 'Desert Rats At War' by George Forty, and 'The Guns, 1939-1945', a Ballentines Illustrated History of WW II, Weapons Book #11, and Time Life's WW II Series volume "The War In The Desert" for more info. I have found lot's of the old Ballentine's Illuastrated History of WW II in local second hand book stores here iun Las Vegas, most public Libraries will have a copy of the Time Life series or two laying about.. You might also check out the different site links that we have I know The Bovington Collections are reporesented there and surely they have a picture or two of a 2 pounder Good luck on an interesting and fun conversion project that us old timers like to call "kit Bashing" for obvious reasons.

.

most of these trucks were the Canadian Military pattern Chevs and Fords. the LRDG Chev by Tamiya was not used as such. A starting point would be either the Tamiya Quad gun tractor or the OOP Italeri Chev 15CWT. I do have a few photos taken from other web sites of this type of vehicle including some British D series Canadian Dodges as well as Australian and Canadian models. Most of these trucks were fitted with 40mm bofers rather than anything else. try the following site. www.oldcmp.net/. you will find a wealth of info on these and other CMP trucks.

Sovereign makes a great 2 pounder kit.

Grizzly

Thanks for the info. That is enough to get me started in the research dept.

The picture in question is definately a two Pounder Anti-tank Gun with it's wheels removed and mounted on the back of a Morris CS 11 30 Cwt 4x2 truck. The truck body has been chopped and removed a steel / wooden frame built to carry the legs of the gun’s original mount.
I may be mistaken but I believe that the 7th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment carried out the changes whilst on duty in Cyprus May to August 1941.
This is not my area of speciality however.
By the way the cabins of the vehicles had open tops and were thus open to the elements, there are some signs that makeshift tarpaulins were used.

Hi,

AIRFIX had a model 1/35 of a portee but, I'm not sure if it's a 2 pounder or a 6 pounder gun.

I have it at home and I will check, if you need I can scan the instructions sheet for you.

In the Squadron/Signal 'DAK in Action' there are at least one photo of a portee captured and used with german marks by the DAK.

Hi Haywire,
I have a kit, by Peerless, it's a Bedford QL gun portee with 6 pounder and crew, in 1/35. Looks like a nice kit
Mal

WELCOME ABOARD HAYWIRE

ROBERTO

Thanks Tuga. I have the gun and a Tamiya Chev 30 CWT and an Italeri Bedford. I am justgathering the info to make the right choice for the build. Everyone has been most helpful. Many thanks to all!

I have this kit re-issued by Revell - don't know how long they listed it for tho.
Its' moulds have seen better days, but with work it should build up ok

brno465, out of curiosity, does the kit still include the 6pdr gun? I know that Italeri split up the Peerles/Max CMP 15cwt & gun into separate kits, and I was wondering if the same thing happened to the Italeri/Revell Bedfords. The box art never shows a gun, and last I heard the gun was being done by Zvezda.

ukgeoff, the gun is included. The box art shows the 6 pounder mounted on the tray of the Bedford, firing at something behind them while the truck is moving forward at high speed. Must have been an exercise in precision, co-ordination and timing - or great imagination and poetic liscence on the artists part perhaps