Some nice ideas there Peter, thanks. I will definitely look at some of those in more detail, especially the Dvrs door area…
I had already done a mesh area for where you have the yellow part, just forgot to show it…it was an off cut from the Cr1 PE basket mesh which fitted perfectly into that area 
The fever dream is staring to take hold. An old Skif T-55 kit, @165thspc Dragon wagon parts and old Tamiya LVTA-7. Cannot find my old academy m113 spare turret parts so the LVTP one works with the .50 cal and mk.19
The cabin will be chopped on the bottom to sit flash with the T-55 hull. Plastic to cover the wheel well, T-55 turret etc. add some side shirts for fun to protect the running gear. I am thinking the windows will sliding armor on the inside and some opening in the front engine intake for personal weapons in the front for the close in targets.
Any other suggestions besides I need to be drug tested?
Excited to see where you are going with this. No suggestiones to offer, as I’m just really curious to see what you come up with.
Nah. You’re way beyond drugs. This indicates deep seated mental illness…
If I have time (ha), I still want to turn one of the M26 cabins into some kind of craft….so you do have a point with the mental illnesse. 
Wibble …
I have been toying with the design of what I will be entering. I was thinking along the lines of the armoured trains in the AMTRAK series of books and maybe add a steam vent defence system or flame thrower.
Ryan, I am assuming you will not be using the T-55 fender fuel cells as the original tank has them? Instead of just filling the wheel arches, have you thought of adding a storage locker across the M26 sides? Or maybe make a large fuel tank and compressed air tanks for a flame thrower that comes out the old M26 intakes?
You could make a 'box inside an armoured box" for this, or even use the T-55 fuel cells fixed up to the M26 wall and have a protective armoured box around them. A mesh lid to the box would allow ‘fuel vapour to escape’ and access to the fillers, and it would also let you see inside the armour protection box and add some visual interest to the build.
I hadn’t gotten that far with the fuel.
I did think about an internal tank with a M113 flame thrower but after not finding the parts gave up on the idea.
Doesn’t have to be the fancy spherical tanks… a simple box made from styrene is just as good.
What is the back story? What problem does this vehicle solve?
Interesting, I had the Mi-24/17 internal tank as a thought.
Not 100% sure, was thinking maybe mid 50’s world governmental collapse where some one/group had access to leftover equipment and combined them for transport/patrol. The change from T-34 to T-55 and adding LVTP-7 turret kinda throw most of that into disarray. Granted I could move the timeline to say the 90’s and equipment wise it would work.
Was also thinking of adding blade/dozer or something similar on the front nose to move objects out of the way.
How much of the Tamiya AAVP are you willing to use? There are large sections of the hull that would be perfect for makeshift armour plate or for your dozer blade. The long hatch covers would also make ideal add on armour plates.
The folding section at the front could be the start of a ‘Dozer blade’ that you could add sides to. The rear hull and hatch might be able to be used to fill the back of the M26 Cab.
The old girl is my paint mule but I can use other parts from her and sheet styrene to make up the rest. I do like those ideas, thanks.
Drug test? Good idea, more is better. I’m off my tits on prescription happy pills and still want to build stuff like this…
Cheers,
M
You should see this thread:
Got it.
On an improvised gun truck, the cab needs lots of armor to protect the driver. The crew probably wants more armor on the belly to protect against mines. The turret provides all around fire, which is good, but for additional firepower, an open top box surrounding the engine deck could fit two more guys with machine guns. Maybe they carry a single shot anti-tank weapon back there as well.
A dozen blade makes sense for breaking through barricades.
You could add spaced armor, or cage armor filled with sand bags, or even bar armor for protection against light anti-tank weapons.
Maybe the cab has a machine gun station on the passenger side. Smoke dischargers might be useful. Maybe it tows a fuel bowser. Hanging fuel tanks on the side of a gun truck seems extremely dangerous to me.
Pookies had these crazy all around shotgun things for defense. That would make an interesting addition.
I really need to stay focused on doing the part I started lol …I was building up the cab side armour and extra roll cage parts … but somehow started building the winch for the front 
.
First off was cutting the ends from the vehicle bumper level with the sides of the chassis frame. I then added a cut section of strip, shaped at one the front to mate up with the new bumper which will be U channel cut to length.
Also added some MENG bolt heads to show how it’s secured to the chassis.
New bumper added.
Will also be adding some bull bars to each end or similar…
Next started on the winch. Used an old kit battery for the housing with a side cut out, and a cut section from an old Panther side skirt which it will be mounted onto.
Will be adding some details on each side (end) of the housing and also wiring etc for the power inlet
