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Finally got out to the barn. My backpack radio is a PRC 10. Looks like it may have been made in the ‘50’s. The truck mounted radio is a RT 524. The antenna mount, which is important for accuracy, is the MX-2799. The first section of antenna is AT-1096. The second section is fairly common...
Here’s the antenna and mount as a setup. It’s zero balance with this vender but you’ll have a visual of everything you need.
https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/us-military-surplus-vietnam-era-mx-2799-at-912-vrc-jeep-antenna-and-base-used?a=2210061
Perforated steel plating. It is/was used to quickly create aircraft runways and parking ramps. Very handy stuff. It can be used in a bunch of different applications. When used in the context of the gun trucks, they were added as reinforcement to sand bags.
For now it’s single walled. I have sections of PSP that I plan on installing as the inner wall. Some of the pictures in various trucks, especially the earlier ones, show PSP being used.
The side wall is layered. Outer layer is thin sheet steel, it’s backed up with 1/2” plywood. All around the...
I’m a Marine as well. The beautiful thing about gun trucks is no two are exactly alike. Each truck NCOIC made adjustments, added armor and weapons as they saw fit. For my armor I used 1/16th (IIRC) thick steel plates. I backed them up with 1/2 outdoor plywood. I painted everything black which...
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I didn’t notice that. It’s good you have shots of both sides. Every bit of info is priceless especially when you want to recreate one of these trucks.
After much searching, I found two photos of Marine Corps “war wagon” gun trucks. One is in “Have Guns will travel” be James Lyles and the other is in David Doyle’s book called “Gun Trucks”. On page 71 of “Gun Trucks”, there’s an excellent photo of one of the Marine Corps war wagon gun trucks...
That HEMTT is nice! The refueler was the last vehicle I was trained on. If only I could afford a real one… you do outstanding work, thank you for showing us your artwork!
The last book, Have Guns Will Travel should be the one with the Marine Corps trucks. I dug out my small stack of gun truck books. I’ll search them for anything helpful.
I found the reference for modern day gun trucks. It’s a multi service document and applies to the four services. The Coasties and Space Force are not included (when they need gunners on the space shuttle or space station, I’m volunteering for that!).
The reference for the Marine Corps is: MCRP...
I need to dig around in my dungeon, I mean basement, for all the books I’ve got on the subject. The one book I don’t have is the Marine Corps manual on converting vehicles into improvised gun trucks.
Beautiful truck! The hardest part of building a Marine Corps gun truck you already have, the ring mount. The gun box sat a couple feet aft of the cargo bed forward bulkhead. There was an antenna and a weapons mount sticking up out of the bed. I need to find my books to jog the old brain housing...
There’s at least one picture, maybe two, in the book that shows the Marine gun truck. As I recall, all Marine Corps gun trucks were called “war wagons”. If they also had more personalized names, I don’t recall seeing any.
My gun truck “War Wagon” is modeled on the 359th TC gun truck by the same...
The Navy inadvertently left a 20mm machine gun unguarded. It ended up on an Army gun truck. There’s pictures of quad .50’s on 2.5 and 5 ton trucks. The quads were leftovers from World War 2 and the Korean War. If I could find the parts and pieces, I’d build a quad .50 truck. Imagine driving that...
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