I have started another project. This one will be a US Army convoy escort guntruck in Vietnam. It will be one of the quad .50 armed guntrucks known as “Easy Rider”.
These guntrucks were modified M54A2 trucks with an M55 Quad .50 cal ADA trailer mounted in the bed. They were used to escort and defend convoys against ground attack.
“Easy Rider” decals are available from Star Decals.
Not this time. While I may be a glutton for punishment, but not usually when there is a ready-made option. I did make my own stars on a blue field “decal” (printed on fine paper) for my King Cobra guntruck conversion about 20 years ago. The red and white stripes, along w/the King Cobra markings, were all hand-painted though.
I also made the armored box that goes into the bed. I used the templates on the Star Decals sheet for the angled side pieces. I also added a radio on the rear wall, bars to hold the spares, and a pintle for an M60 MG.
I have completed the M55 quad gunmount as well. It is the Dynamo kit, using the 3D printed Vietnam-specific parts (dark grey). I also used the templates on the Star Decals sheet for the armor for the gun turret.
Hello Gino,
I really enjoy following your modeling builds especially this one since I have a great interest in Vietnam war subjects and Guntrucks in particular.
I was wondering if you were going to build this subject to an accurate level for this subject and address the cargo bed issue of the AFV club kit. The kit provides the later M54A2C drop-side cargo bed, but Easy Rider has the early standard M54A2 cargo bed with the tool box mounted under the driver side front. Both cargo bed styles have the same interior dimensions, but the canvas cover bow support channels are located differently as well as other visual differences.
Regardless, I’ll keep looking forward to your progress!
I have pretty much completed construction on the Guntruck. I added styrene angle iron mounts in the armored box to secure the quad mount. I also added bolt heads to show how it is attached. I took some thin sheet styrene and made circular holders for the quad mount tires as well.
I was able to get some paint down this week. The truck is overall Tamiya TS-5 OD Green, which replicates the darker, post-WWII OD Green well. The ammo cans and some of the other smaller items are NATO Green (Tamiya TS-61) for a little variety. The armored box for the bed is flat black from a rattle can. The blue and white on the quad mount are hand painted.
I was also able to get it up on it’s wheels. I used the Def Model M54 wheels. They are excellent and fit the AFV Club hubs w/no issues. The two spares are from the kit. The multi-direction mud tires usually look very rounded at the edges, while the kit tires look too squared off in the shoulders to me. They work as spares, but don’t look right as in-use tires, hence why I replaced them with the Def Model resin ones.
I used the Def Model Military multi-direction mud tires on the rear.
Next up is decals. The Star decal sheet provides all the decals for the gun truck. The quad kit decals have a bunch of extra ammo can decals, so I will be adding some to those in the bed too. I will probably add a few various placards here and there as well, we shall see.
I won’t have an update for a while. I am off to VA this weekend for my youngest granddaughter’s 2nd birthday. So cake and fun for a few days and no work on the model.
Really nice gun truck build. lots of thought and extra detailing going into this one. Like the huge amount of ammo armour boxes on the bed floor … looks great.
