Armored Marine's model pics are up

[Manic Moran]

http://www.clubi.ie/exalted/ammodels.htm

 

NTM

[Paul G]

Looks good, especially like the gun truck. Hope sometime to get my M109A5 and M548 gun section posted.

[EvilTommy]

I've never heard of or seen a 'Gun Truck' before, but it looks like an RPG magnet. Did we actually deploy many of these guys?

[Jason]

In Viet Nam they were quite common.

 

[Edited by Jason (18 Jan 2002).]

[The Swede]

Can anyone tell me why they hauled up an M-113 on the back of the truck instead of using it on it's tracks?

Or did they use M-113s that was not running for this vehicle?

[Paul G]

Gun trucks were mostly 2.5 ton trucks with scrounged armor plate and machine guns. Somtimes a Quad .50cal AAA mount would be placed on the back of a flat bed. The trucks were used by non line units for convoy defence, usualy with a platoon of Armored Cav attached. The M113 on the back of a 5ton was most likley one of a kind thing, making use of a nearly totalled vehicle.

 

Here are some examples...

 

http://www.kkreate.com/par/gunnew.htm

 

[Edited by Paul G (18 Jan 2002).]

[Gennady I. Beregovoy]

Damn good models! And the photos are superb! I especially liked the LVTP5 and the M1 shots. Hot dang wonderful! I love the weathering on the LVTP5 - ultra-realistic! Fine wonderful work!

[Chris]

Here is the BEST site dedicated to Gun Trucks and related themes: http://academic.uofs.edu/faculty/gramborw/...av/default.html

BTW: I make photo etched parts in 1:87 scale for this conversions and have build a lot already.

 

Cheers

 

Chris Exner

[Armored Marine]

Originally posted by EvilTommy:

I've never heard of or seen a 'Gun Truck' before, but it looks like an RPG magnet. Did we actually deploy many of these guys?

 

ET;

The idea of the Gun Truck happened during Vietnam. The US Army had depended heavily on supplies which often were transported to the combat troops by trucks. These convoys soon became a target for NVA and VC troops. During the war, transportation units did not have very much combat capability. If they were ambushed enroute, they were to call on reaction forces. Unfortunately these forces were minutes away and by the time they reached the site, the damage was done. Also, various armored vehicles were in great demand, in various combat roles, and were not available for security purposes, like protecting convoys. To prevent losses, the transportation units began to equip themselves with weapons, and they began to train for ambushes. The Gun Truck was part of the plan, which was called; "Hardened Convoys". The idea was to equip every other truck with armor and machineguns. If an ambush was attempted, these trucks came speeding to the site of the ambush and opened up on the enemy with everything they had, allowing the other trucks to escape. The idea became very successful.

Most of the eariler Gun Trucks were built on an M35 chassis. These trucks were armed with anything from M60 mgs to quad .50 cals, to even miniguns. The huge problem with the M35 were that the trucks became overloaded with a combat load. Many units switched to M54 5T trucks when they became available during the war, yet as M54s became available, supplies for armor plates, which the bodies of these trucks were made of, began to run low. One thing was discovered with the M54s. The bed of the truck was just big enough to carry an M113 ACAV. Using a battledamaged M113 was the ultimate recycling of the vehicle, and it made for an instant Gun Truck.

Ed

[Jacques]

Very nice work...look forward to more of your stuff in the future.

 

As for gun trucks with M113's, they used 113's that had some sort of suspension damage, so all the running gear could be taken off. As I recall from reading the article in the old squadron book on guntrucks, they did pretty good at beating off VC and NVA attacks.

[John Eary]

Yes, nice models! The Abrams is especially striking. Great weathering and the background effect gives a full-scale look. I'll be studying THAT technique.

[Armored Marine]

Jacques:

The M113s were vunerable to anti-tank mines used during the Vietnam war. And many were damaged this way. Often whenever they hit these mines the vehicles would have their tracks and suspensions blown off. Often the bottom of the hull was penetrated, but besides that, the rest of the vehicle was intact. It was no real problem to have a hole in the armored bottom of the M113 since it would be sitting in the bed of the truck. What they were interested in was the armor and weapons. To the best of my knowledge they didn't use hulls that were engulfed in flames or had RPG holes in the sides. To make them lighter, the 113 chassis were stripped of the engine and tranny.

Ed