WWII US Army GMC 6x6 2-1/2 Ton Cargo Truck

[Old Marine]

Here is another model from the collection. This one is the old 1:35 scale Italeri kit. This kit came with the .50 cal gun ring and the cab had the opening for the gunner. I wanted to show a simple supply truck, so I closed up the cab. From what I remember it was a lot of work, sanding and finishing, but I am satisfied with the end result. I also squished 2 figures in to the cab, that was a lot of back and forth sanding in order to get them to fit .

 

The kit comes with out the tarp. I created the bows from brass strips and then covered that with tissue paper, washed with watered down white glue. That method worked pretty well, but what I didn't take in to account was that it would shrink. That's why, if you notice the front and read bows are slightly pulled inward. Oh well, you learn.

 

The Redball sign is taken from that photo with the MP standing in front. I can't find that photo now but if any of you guys have it can you post it here? I just recreated the sign's graphics on the computer and made it in to a custom dry transfer. The sign is just bass wood with the dry transfer applied on the front.

 

Thanks for all your nice comments.

 

Dennis

 

Ok enough talk.

 

[Old Marine]

 

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Old Marine]

[Johan Willaert]

The Redball sign is taken from that photo with the MP standing in front. I can't find that photo now but if any of you guys have it can you post it here?

 

Here you go....

 

[Old Marine]

Thanks Johan! That's the photo.

[OD MAN]

WOW, you are really great at this.

[General Apathy]

 

Here is another model from the collection. This one is the old 1:35 scale Italeri kit. This kit came with the .50 cal gun ring and the cab had the opening for the gunner. I wanted to show a simple supply truck, so I closed up the cab. From what I remember it was a lot of work, sanding and finishing, but I am satisfied with the end result. I also squished 2 figures in to the cab, that was a lot of back and forth sanding in order to get them to fit .

 

Dennis

 

Dennis, fantastic, fantastic, fantastic, I just wish that that was sitting in a spot in my house right now, really like the way you have weathered it and returned it back to the basic truck without the .50 etc.

 

I ran one of these for ten years 1980-1990 and it was just superb to drive, closed cab, wooden steering wheel, long wheel base, no winch, no .50 cal. the exhaust tone just has to be the best of all the WWII military vehicles. :thumbsup:

 

I have been looking for a ' minichamps ' metal model of this truck but it was limited edition and no longer in production.

 

A big cheers, :thumbsup: Lewis

 

Apologies the drawing was too large for the scanner

[The Meatcan]

another sweet job! Its always good to see a softskin - and yours is a pretty nice build :thumbsup:

Terry

[M1Marksman]

Nice job on the deuce & a half. I have the same kit unbuilt & plan on doing it with the .50. I bought a built deuce off ebay with plans to redo it, but so far it's just sitting in a display case half-built. It's the soft-top version with winch. It came with a driver, but I had to do extensive surgery to position the arms correctly. Unfortunately, most kits that include a driver need alot of work to make them fit properly. The occupants of your truck look pretty big compared to people from 60+ years ago, but look good none-the-less.

 

Makes me want to resume work on my WW2 vehicle collection. Got quite an assortment...

[mpguy80/08]

I've got the Tamiya soft top CCKW almost complete... I am trying to get a good assortment of cargo to put in the bed before I photograph it though... Great job!!!!

 

Wayne

[hbtcoveralls]

Nice job on the deuce & a half. I have the same kit unbuilt & plan on doing it with the .50. I bought a built deuce off ebay with plans to redo it, but so far it's just sitting in a display case half-built. It's the soft-top version with winch. It came with a driver, but I had to do extensive surgery to position the arms correctly. Unfortunately, most kits that include a driver need alot of work to make them fit properly. The occupants of your truck look pretty big compared to people from 60+ years ago, but look good none-the-less.

 

Makes me want to resume work on my WW2 vehicle collection. Got quite an assortment...

The figures aren't that big, the real cab is kinda on the small side, I had one for about 7 years and it really is fun to drive. Great model, the canvas cover is very realistically draped.

Tom Bowers

[General Apathy]

 

The occupants of your truck look pretty big compared to people from 60+ years ago, but look good none-the-less.

 

Makes me want to resume work on my WW2 vehicle collection. Got quite an assortment...

........................................................

 

The figures aren't that big, the real cab is kinda on the small side, I had one for about 7 years and it really is fun to drive. Great model, the canvas cover is very realistically draped.

 

Tom Bowers

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Hi Dennis, hope you don't mind to me adding the following relating to the truck,

I have saved the photo's of your model and added them to my GMC file.

 

Relating to the two comments above M1's mention of the size of people, and Toms comment that it's a small cab.

 

In reality the actual metal cab of these trucks originates from a pre-war quarter ton two seat pick up about the size of a small average car. When the war came along it was a quick expediency to adapt this cab and add to the truck, the original hood and wings were discarded from the design and a military style hood and wings were designed for the length of the straight six engine which replaced the civilian four banger.

 

For me under six feet it was a comfortable cab, but for anyone six-two or six-five their heads touched the inside lining.

 

The attached photo above is a Corgi model, metal cab, plastic tarp and rear body, all the weathering was already done, I simply removed the front winch, the .50 Cal cab mount, and moved the jerry cans from off the side steps to the rear of the metal wheel arches as it was on the truck I owned, not perfect but fun to look at now and again.

 

Cheers Lewis

[doyler]

Dennis another great build

Looking forward to seeing the "rest of the collection" :thumbsup:

RON

[Black Devils]

Dennis great stuff - keep posting please! :thumbsup:

[Old Marine]

Thanks for all the positive comments. Lewis, I have no problem with you adding anything to this thread. I am glad to hear the input, especially from some one that actually drove and worked on a real one. That Corgi model is pretty nice. I'll keep my eyes open for that Minichamps model, you never know what will cross your path tomorrow.

 

When I built this, about 10-12 years ago this was the only kit available with the commercial hard top. As I said, this kit came with the .50 cal gun ring but I wanted to show just a plain old army QM truck so I had to cut all that off and patch up the cab. For a long time the model companies only produced the most popular and interesting kits. That has changed now and there are a lot more kits of almost everything available. Back then you could get a kit of every version of the Panther tank, King Tiger, and I think there were 3 or 4 different Maus kits available and only 2 of them ever really existed. But there were no kits of basic workaday trucks like this even though there were thousands and thousands of these trucks used during the war.

 

When I built this I wanted to depict the basic, plain jane army truck hauling supplies. Another thing I like about this version is that it is basically a commercial, civilian truck adapted for military use, much like the guys in the cab. These trucks really were the life blood of the army, they carried everything imaginable, and with out them the army would have ground to halt.

 

As for the guys in the cab, I agree the figures are a bit on the big side, but I don't think they are too distracting. Fitting figures in to a vehicle like this can be a tedious process, back and forth fitting, sanding, fitting, sanding. At some point you just declare victory and move on. To get the figures in the cab I had to build the cab top and bottom and then fit the figures. Then I finished the inside of the cab, paint, weathering, added the partially rolled down windows and painted the figures. After that was all complete I had to seal up the cab with the finished figures, and window glass, mask it all off and hope that I didn't overspray OD in to the cab. If you notice this is the only closed cab vehicle that I have built. It was a pain, but I think it looks ok.

 

Thanks again for all the comments.

 

Dennis

[General Apathy]

 

Thanks for all the positive comments. Lewis, I have no problem with you adding anything to this thread. I am glad to hear the input, especially from some one that actually drove and worked on a real one.

 

Dennis

 

 

Dennis, thank you very much for kindly allowing me to add into your very interesting topic. The closed cab is my preference on this model of truck, with the rounded design of that cab it is the epitome of late 1930's American automobile styling. Look forward to seeing some of your other work,

 

The photo attached is I believe a WWII or there about wooden model of the GMC truck, not a great detailed attempt but it's the lack of refined detail on it that gives it that austerity look. Sometime I need to repair the hoops for the tarpaulin.

 

Up until the fall of the Berlin wall the French army had storage warehouse's of these trucks ail over the country ready to roll if WWIII had started, along with DUKWS and the French post-war version of the WWII Jeep. After the wall was knocked down and the threat of war diminished all this stock was sold off to civilian dealers, and then there ended up fields of these trucks waiting for collectors, quarries or logging firms to purchase them. Eventually all the unsold ones ended up being crushed and smelted, a sad end for a glorious workhorse. :crying:

 

A little story for you about my truck, the horn stopped working and a week later I was booked into a local vintage vehicle show so I needed to repair the horn. It works by grounding a feed under the horn button to the metal steering column, I took off the horn button in the centre of the wheel to de-grease and clean the grounding connection, under the button is a large threaded nut that holds the wheel on, so I removed this and then the wheel.

 

On completing the cleaning operation I replaced the wheel on the splines but could not find the securing nut, and it was not anything I could purchase from any local garage, American thread, size of thread hole and off a forty year old American vehicle, so basically the wheel was in place on the splines but no securing nut, something I would have to find at a military vehicle show later during the coming summer.

 

Well the Sunday of the local car show came up and I took a calculated risk of getting the few miles to the show as the wheel was on the splines and as long as I kept downward pressure on the wheel all should be o.k.. We got to the show early and entered the showground to get parked up before the public arrived, a parking marshal pointed to where we had to park and we headed across the ploughed field as we hit a particularly deep furrow the wheel came flying off in my hands we then had to come to a stop to replace the wheel. Not wishing for that to happen again I did manage to find someone a week later with a spare nut from a GMC broken for spares.

 

The stupidity of youth when risks are for taking.

 

Cheers Lewis

[hbtcoveralls]

 

 

 

The photo attached is I believe a WWII or there about wooden model of the GMC truck, not a great detailed attempt but it's the lack of refined detail on it that gives it that austerity look. Sometime I need to repair the hoops for the tarpaulin.

 

 

 

 

Hi Ken,

The model is indeed WWII, and was an old wooden kit. I had one new in the original WWII box. The maker was "aristocraft" and they also made a Jeep kit which is highly sought after. I ended up selling the kit to my friend Daryl Bensinger a few years ago. I figured I sold my truck, I didn't need the kit.

Tom Bowers

[tsweeney]

Dennis

I knew you had some gems hidden in your stash Keep sharing them with us

 

Tom

[zotig111]

Great job! Nice touch with the driver and helper SSIs.