Yeah, a little hard to see but what I can see really nice work. She's shaping up into a great little model there. 

Thanks Gamera. It really is a nifty kit. Last night I removed most of the was excess... still need to hit the wheel hubs again and the ammo cans.

Looks like a nice little kit there, coming along really well.

Bish

Looks like a nice little kit there, coming along really well.

 

Thanks... just about ready for final painting. 

stikpusher

Today I applied a wash of Burnt Umber  using oils. But it really is hard to photograph... it shows up better in person.

 

I'll be right over then. Looking good and esp on the tiny ammo.

SprueOne

  

I'll be right over then. Looking good and esp on the tiny ammo.

 

Lol! Thanks... Come on over anytime. We always love to have company.

Nifty little build Stik, so used to seeing them mounted on a halftrack never gave it a thought that it was a towed unit. I like it.

stikpusher

 

 

SprueOne

  

I'll be right over then. Looking good and esp on the tiny ammo.

 

 

 

 

 

Lol! Thanks... Come on over anytime. We always love to have company.

 

You my friend are always welcome. 

GMorrison

 

 

stikpusher 

Lol! Thanks... Come on over anytime. We always love to have company.

 

 

Hold that thought. I could and would.

 

 

 

Ok, I'm edging up to the finish line now. I dry brushed some highlights a little while ago. Now all that is left is a top coat, final assembly, and last detail painting- tires and lights/reflectors.

Looks good, i like the subtle dry brushing.

Thanks Bish. The US Army in the 50s was a very "spit and polish" army. So I'm keeping the wear and weathering to a minimum. 

Looking very good! 

Are you mounting her on a base or maybe hitching her behind a vehicle? I'm with Armornut, it does look funny not mounted in a halftrack.  

Actually, looking at the FM that Pawel linked here, I'm probably gonna put in the bed of a Deuce and a Half. That's shown in the manual for transport. I'll have to scratch up some ramps. But it's not gonna be a Vietnam gun truck.

If you look here, you can see how they are in the bed and have the ramps attached to the sides.

stikpusher

Thanks Bish. The US Army in the 50s was a very "spit and polish" army. So I'm keeping the wear and weathering to a minimum. 

 

Good idea! I've seen set piece howitzer builds that are over the top weathered. In reality, sections took great pride in their piece and spent quite a bit of time cleaning and detailing them during down times. Obviously part of that is the bouts of boredom that can set in occasionally. Diesel fuel made for a nice wax like shine.

Beautiful work on that kit.

Thank you Glenn. If you look at any photos of US Army stuff not in Korea in the 50s and you will see it was very well maintained. Especially when not in the field on exercise. They had to set a good example as the stood against those godless commie Red Menace hordes from the east...

Looks good--I can almost smell the gun oil, the grease, that hint 2-stroke smeel from the power unit.  Cool stuff.

In the 50s it might be appropriate to use a 1 1/2ton truck as the prime mover.  And given that the M55 was meant for airborne use, an M-38 jeep would not be out of line.

Just a thought.

True... but the photos of my dad's unit show M34 and M35 deuces, so a M35 it will be, since the layout of the bed in a M34 does not allow for the trailer to fit. The same as in the photo that I posted above. My dad was in the 7th Army in Germany in the mid 50's in an ADA unit, and this is one of several builds I will do dedicated to him.

stikpusher

Thank you Glenn. If you look at any photos of US Army stuff not in Korea in the 50s and you will see it was very well maintained. Especially when not in the field on exercise. They had to set a good example as the stood against those godless commie Red Menace hordes from the east...

 

You can see an example in that stellar 155 towed build by Pawell. He stumpled on a pic I took of a gun showing that typical pride at a FSB near the South China Sea. Wish I had the patience and talent you guys have.

I'll have to go look for that gun of Pawel's.

Hello!

I think I have to clarify that... I think Glenn means this build, by redleg12:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/153324.aspx

With Glenns photo right on top.

Then there's my build of the Quad - and it's here:

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/M55en.htm

Essentially how it would be on a truck, just on a bunker :-)

Stik -good luck with that truck mount and have a nice day

Paweł

Oh, gonna look cool with the M34!

Looking forward to seeing how you pull it off.

Gamera

Oh, gonna look cool with the M34!

Looking forward to seeing how you pull it off.

 

It'll be a M35, as the wheel cut out in the bed of the M34 interferes with bulk cargo loads like this. 

But if you go to the manual that Pawel linked early in this thread, there is the load plan in there. Pretty much just what the photo I posted above shows. I'll be using the AFV Club M35 in my stash for the truck. 

stikpusher

 

Gamera

Oh, gonna look cool with the M34!

Looking forward to seeing how you pull it off.

 

 

 

 

It'll be a M35, as the wheel cut out in the bed of the M34 interferes with bulk cargo loads like this. 

But if you go to the manual that Pawel linked early in this thread, there is the load plan in there. Pretty much just what the photo I posted above shows. I'll be using the AFV Club M35 in my stash for the truck. 

 

Whoops yeah you said M35- I misread your post...

Lots of progress in the past couple of days on my Quad .50. Yesterday I airbrushed on a top coat of Humbrol Satin as I wanted the OD to have a slight sheen, but I was not happy with the result. It ended up a bit too shiny/reflective. 

So today I airbrushed on a coat of Humbrol Flat

Much better now...

Then I did more some painting- the tires and a metallic background for the reflectors and tail lights

And then I glued the .50s onto the turret

Now all I have left is to add the ammo cans and paint the reflectors & tail lights...

That's looking really good. I really like the technique you used to paint the M2's. Sweet 

Thank you sir. It's really quite a simple technique for painting the .50s. And the look is just how I remember them.

    ... and we are in the home stretch now heading in to the finish line...  

first up, if I was to fault any part of the kit instructions, which Dragon is notorious for, it would be right here, where the gun and ammo can assembly is shown....

but there are couple things they do not mention... first, the little nubs that are on the end are also attached to the mounting stub for the ammo cans, but look like a natural cut off point for the excess plastic nubs (whatever those things are called). I cut off two and filed the support ends flat before I realized the fit into the slots on the ammo can.  

the other thing that needs caution is the little part between the guns and the ammo cans that have the rounds molded onto them. it seems only natural to push them in as far as they will go to match the widened end right up against the ammo can.

But that is a no no. Do that and you will have a gap between that part and the guns as I found out.

That part is best painted and left loose until you mount the guns and cans on their support arms. Live and learn... so I ended up scratching up some extensions to the ammo feed trays

trimmed to fit

last night I painted up the gunner's sight, and today I glued that in place

and then I painted the tail lights and reflectors

and as this is typed, the ammo cans are drying after I glued them in place a little while ago...
the build is now complete! 

A nice little build.  

Someone above mentioned French use in Indo China.  The US Vietnam-era Gun Truck was pretty much the same thing: massive firepower in the event of ambush - 2,000rpm or so.

In typical fashion German prisoners - who thought nothing of using single and quad 20mm FlaK in the ground role - whinged about US use of the quad 50 in the ground role. For some reason they never cottoned-on to using their own 13 and 15mm MG in the ground role.

I caught a clip on a WW2 history TV programme of the twin-gun version of this mount emplaced on a British coastal defence in a concrete pit.  Presumably stripped from a half-track, as we didn't use the AA versions supplied but converted them to other things.

Someone above also mentioned trajectory.  Depends on a number of factors, but in a previous job I was tendering for some 0.50 anti-materiel rifles and Barrett stated the drop with standard ball to be 300 feet at 1,500 yards for a similar barrel length.  That's like lobbing it 100 yards in the air!  We wanted decent accuracy out to 2,000m but struggled to get it and find scopes that would compensate past 1,800m.  But with auto fire and tracer you can "walk" your fire.

US Navy had their own take on this idea.  The ELCO Thunderbolt, used on some PT Boats. Started out as 6 x 0.50s but ended up as 4 x 20mm, in a flat row.

Perhaps surprisingly, we Brits didn't make any ground/land use of our naval quad-50 Vickers mount.  Put that on the back of a truck instead of twin Bren/Vickers K or a single 20mm.