1/35 m35 m55 quad

Wow, man, that's looking great already! SOme serious detailing going on!

I just found your build today. I would like to follow it closely so I can get some ideas and maybe help with my Quad build.  Several years ago I was looking for parts for my 1942 Jeep I was restoring and while looking for a specific part was sent over to a fellows shop near my moms house in East Texas. From the outside it was a construction company, but after being shown inside I couldn't believe my eyes. There was everything from real .50 cal 's., M1's, mortars, swift boat weapons, artillery pieces, etc, but a actual working Quad 50. I forgot all about the part I was looking for and spent hours on a tour of the place with the owner. Great guy and like me a veteran. Some place I have photos of the quad and will try to find them for all to view.  Thanks again.

Mike

thanks for you support! but yeah this project is coming along great! When you find those pictures please post them up! I am scratch building sand bags right now and they are looking a lot better than expected! here are the new updates

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I need to come up with a name for it.. does anybody have any catchy names or know of an actual truck like this that has the same configuration as this one? I dont wanna create another nancy truck haha

See my post at Armorama.  I gave you a link to the US Army transportation Museum Guntruck page.  It list names and shows pics of actual trucks.

The model is coming along great by the way.

Call it "The Wooden Spoon". No other kitchen implement struck fear into the hearts of us siblings and kids as when the wooden spoon came out. It even crossed familial lines as parents in our neighborhood learned of its effectiveness as a disciplinarian tool. When you saw the Wooden Spoon coming....hell, just the mention of its name, and you got yerself runnin' outta there as fast as your feets could carry ya!

Tremendous work on it so far, by the way!

Haha i do like that name! i guess the art work going with the name would be a wooden spoon cracking on someones ass, its definitely better than nancy.. i still wanna look around for other ideas..  Anyways i just got the quad 50 completed and mounted.  The majority of work is pretty much done, now its time for weathering,decals, touch up and all that fun stuff.. here are more pictures ... feedback is always welcomed

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why arent the pictures posting again!?!?

For some reason, when you put them in the initial post, they come up as links.  If you add them in a edit (the pencil at the lower left after you post), they come up just fine.  It is weird.  I have resorted to posting the initial post with just a period, then coming back in an edit and adding the pics and body of my message as a workaround.

Hello!

Sorry to post so late - I found your thread just now.

Let me post a link to my quad 50 build - maybe it could help you some:

www.vietnam.net.pl/M55en.htm

As fot your build I like it very much. You already packed a lot of great details in your build. Things to watch on the quad would be:

- the trailer tow bar - would most likely not be present on a setup like this - especially if the wheels are gone, too. There are two pins to disconnect it and then just a length of tube stays with the gun base. The dragon kit even has a detail that hints at those pins.

-the sight - while handy for shooting fast moving flying targets, it breaks easily and wasnt used for shooting at ground targets. Tracers were apparently enough to aim the quad adequately.

-the power loader - the little engine that loaded the battery constantly should be of newer design (sixties). The older power loader, like shown here: www.vietnam.net.pl/M45quad.pdf was no longer used in Vietnam.

As for the truck - from what I heard, the M35 trucks (deuce and half = 2,5 tons) were considered too light for the job. A 5 tonner - M54 would be a better match. But of course there were some M35s used, too.

Hope I could help you with the above - good luck with your build and I hope my gun truck will turn at least as good as yours when I finally get to build one... Thanks for sharing and have a nice day

Paweł

thanks for the tips paul! i wish you came a little sooner haha!  I did think about the tow bar but decided to keep it cause i saw it in a few other builds and i decided i looks cooler with it on.  But i could imagine the crew taking it off because of weight issues, like you said, m54's were more ideal for the job cause the m35's couldn't take the extra weight (i did some reaserching haha). i did take the wheels off and the jacks (i can imagine they made good trip hazards and maybe even impalement issues if fallen on or caught in an explosion)

What part of the sight broke off? cause i would definitely take it off

what does the power loader look like for in the 60's era?

i been doing a lot of  looking around to see if i can replicate a model... but couldnt find anything.  But i finally thought of a catchy name.. Saigon Spartans!! with the front of a spartan helmet painted on the front of the can and the back of the helmet being painted on the metal metal protecting the gunner.  What does everybody think? stupid? clever? let me know

Hello!

Like I wrote - sorry to report this late in the build process, but I just didn't notice this thread...

As for the sight, it was a complicated electro-mechanical device meant to calculate the lead necessary to shoot at fast moving targets. When you shoot at slow moving targets, the stream of tracers is enough to aim the guns. So, given the effort to keep the sight operational it was often omitted in Vietnam, and the photos show that.

Let's take this one:

It shows the sight taken off. It also gives you a cool name just after a few seconds of googling! At the same time it shows the tow bar taken off (lower left corner of the picture).

As for the power charger - that's a much more complicated question. I found this picture for you:

One thing often seen on Vietnam-era Quads is that control box over the power charger. I don't have much more on this thing - but you could try asking at the NDQSA (National Duster Quad and Searchlight Assosciation) - they helped me a lot.

As for the name - my take would be to find the best documented machine out there and go for the realistic name. If you're lucky, you can even contact people who served on the machine and ask them some questions - makes the modelling a very special experience, because then you are dealing with live history!

Hope it helps - good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł