Bill Coleman, Minnesota City, Minnesota
Bill writes: “My scratchbuilt/kitbashed dual .50-caliber trailer-mounted antiaircraft gun doesn't represent any actual trailer-mounted units made for the military. Rather, it’s one I saw that had been cobbled together by soldiers. I used a damaged 1/32 scale New-Ray ‘model’ half-track, a toy, really, equipped with a quad .50 caliber that I tore down, accurized, and decided to make a dual .50. The little gas motor with tank was scratchbuilt with bits of various kits. The gunsight is the control stick and an undercarriage part from a Zvezda 1/72 scale Russian IL-2 fighter. The sight mount is a piece of sprue with a parts-number tag. Cable ties with pieces of styrene glued on the ends made pretty convincing jack stands. I dirtied up the tires by painting the treads and part of the sidewalls with Testors flat tan enamel, allowing it to dry a few hours, then scraping and wiping it off while it was still tacky. It even caused some awesome cracking and graying of the once-shiny black tires. I like the results: Cheap materials + spare parts + junk-drawer goodies + a lot of work = cool model!”