WSUCougar's M925A1 Acquisition and Build Thread

[bigboy44]

Awesome!

 

[Rkrug]

You did not go for the real one? Haha Looks good!!

 

[wsucougarx]

M240B and M249 Airsofts...wow!!!

Got my M249 today along with the scopes today. I decided to drag out the M925A1 Gun truck prop guns for a pic. I forgot the M4. Both airsofts are full metal and plastic. I am thoroughly IMPRESSED by the details and weight of each airsoft. The M249 is dead on with weight and feel with the M240B weighing a bit less than I remember. I scoped both weapons with an M145 Elcan replica and an ACOG replica. Though the scopes are replicas, I am equally impressed by the construction and materials used for both...wow!! To add to the realism, I ordered some 7.62mm and 5.56mm dummy belts made out of USGI materials (only fitting). I opted to go for the M240B as the primary crew served weapon due to cost and I didn't want to cut corners on the authenticity looks of a cheap looking M2HB .50 cal. Both the M249 and M240B are outstanding and really hard to tell their toys
If you're considering replicas, I implore you to research the airsofts!!! As mentioned earlier, both airsofts are full metal and plastic. The feedtrays open and close just like the real thing. The charging handles both function and the barrels are removed just like the real things. So for those who want to know what they are here are the specifics:
Echo 1 M240B w/an G&P M145 4x45 Optical Scope
Classic Army FN M249 MkII w/a Matrix 1x32 Red / Green Dot Sight Scope For Airsoft w/ Integrated Weaver Rail Mount & Iron Sight

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

I've got the four legs on my M923, what are the gun rings going for nowadays? You do beautiful detailed work.

 

[wsucougarx]

Ammo Can Mount and Smoke Dischargers

Today was a good day to wrap up some loose end projects. I completed my rear tow bar storage area (sorry no pics). I still need to shoot some paint on the assembly before she's good to go. I also mounted an ammo can holder on the side of the LWS. I've had it kicking around in my garage for about 12 months and decided to get it off the floor. I made up three "L" shaped support brackets to hold the mount in place.
Also, I finally got my Stryker Vehicle Smoke Dischargers mounted on the LWS Support Legs. I have also been kicking these smoke dischargers around for about a year and finally found a spot to mount them. I figured this gun truck needed a set on them. I had to use some brackets that were laying around in my garage for the mounts. I also used four U-bolts to mount my home made brackets to the LWS support legs.
With all this stuff hanging off the front end of the truck, she will probably loose a few MPG

 

[wsucougarx]

The gun rings (Lightweight Weapon Station) go anywhere from $2000-4500.

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

The gun rings (Lightweight Weapon Station) go anywhere from $2000-4500.

Holy smokes! Guess I won't be putting one on mine! Thanks Mike. Your truck is the bomb! I wonder why someone can't reverse engineer and fabricate them, I bet they would sell at half the price and still make a good profit.

 

[ichudov]

This is truly amazing, I love the process!

 

[wsucougarx]

LWS Safety Net

This project was simply born out of boredom. Did errands all day and came home to shoot some paint. Two miles out of the town the rain just started pouring....just my luck. I looked around the garage and thought about the upcoming PNW SS Rally in July. My son mentioned he'd have to sit on the LWS ring in order to see anything. Then I thought about worst case scenarios of my son falling back toward the spare tire compartment during the parade. So after some thought I grabbed some metal stock, footman loops, and straps. I had this project banged out in about 1 hour. I just need to wait for that nice day to shoot some paint on her to complete it. It's really nothing special but definitely peace of mind. I also plan on adding some kind of safety harness as found on the HMMWV's to prevent the ejection of the gunner during roll overs. Plus this little setup will allow a guy to sit on the ring and have a back support.

 

[wsucougarx]

Well, this project is nearing completion. This concludes most of the major projects but there are a few small projects left to do:
1) Winter/Cold Weather Mask Mounting Hardware install
2) MOLLE II rack behind driver seat
3) Pioneer Tool Rack
4) Paint and stencilling

 

[Amer-team]

Mike, that looks like a great safety addition. A small piece of ballistic material to make a back rest and additional protection for the gunner would look great up there.

 

[wsucougarx]

Currahee!!!!!

Well, with the outstanding weather starting tomorrow, I will start shooting some good ole tried and true Behr paint on this project truck. While making preparations and getting some of my homemade stencils together, my son asks what unit my truck will belong to. Hmm, I thought...I have no idea. Actually it's nothing I have even thought of until now. I could put my father's Vietnam unit info on the truck (23rd Infantry Division (Americal), 11th Light Infantry Brigade, 1/20th Infantry, D.Co). However, the unit was deactivated some 40 years ago and the M939 wasn't even conceived then. I could put the unit markings from which this truck came from (555th Combat Engineers, 14th Engineers). Hmmm, what to do I thought. Then as I looked around my bookshelf. I see the book titles:
Rendezvous with Destiny
Call of Duty by "Buck Compton"
Band Of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
Beyond Band of Brothers by Major Dick Winters
Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends by Wild Bill Guarnere & Babe Heffron
Hmmm, I thought. What do these books all have in common...101st Airborne Division, 2/506th, E.Co. Why not?
So here it is, this is my tribute truck to the 101st Airborne Division. The 2/506th is an active unit. However, E. Company doesn't exist (at least right now).
This all occurred last night around 2200 hours. Needless to say, I was up until 0330 hrs using a hobby knife cutting out my stencils for this truck. That's correct! I used card stock in the inkject printer with military stencil font and used font size 120 and 240. This allowed me to achieve the 1" and 2" font size. Before cutting the stencil out, I placed clear packing tape on the front/back of the stencil to maintain it's integrity with the paint. With use, I have found the stencil will start to wrinkle up with wet paint. The tape will keep most of the paint from soaking into the paper to maintain nice straight lines.


Stencils:
The large cardboard Spade w/Currahee will go on the chicken plate. I will place a tan "2" in the middle of the black spade to denote 2 battalion.
The small spade will be on the forward portion of the hood sides w/a tan "2" stenciled in the middle as well.
The "US" will be sprayed on the Route Clearance Light padded covers I will sew up.
The NLONG2 will go on the sides of the hood, towbar, and on the inside of the driver door
101AB 2/506 on the starboard bumper and E-12 on the port bumper side
I have a ton of other stencils I've made up that are not in the pics that'll go on the truck as well.

 

[Amer-team]

Mike, if you need 1 inch stencils, all you have to do is ask. I have a 1914 Marine Corp marked Ideal Stencil machine. It pumps out one inch stencils in exactly the same font as the markings on my 1953 M38A1. the only limitation is paper length if you want it to all be on one piece. Of course you can piece it togehter.

Also have a 1920 dated 1/2 inch stencil machine of the same brand. It made a very cool D-Day shipping stencil for the 42.
See you soon, Peter

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Mike do you remember what size nutserts you used for the speaker brackets and where did you get the nutsert tool?

 

[wsucougarx]

Hi Bob, you know I got that nutsert tool some 20 years ago. It was included in my Neuspeed sway bar kit for my 1991 VW GTi. At one point I thought I had lost the tool. So what I did was drill the appropriate size hole. Then I gently tapped the nutsert into the hole. When it was 90% of the way in, I really hit the nutsert. This helped to seat the gripping portion to the hole. From there I was able to properly seat the nutsert without any issues. Once it's set, you mount your hardware.

 

[wsucougarx]

Currahee sign? Wow!

So the day I post my intentions of dedicating my truck to the 101st Airborne Divisions 2/506th PIR, I see this story was being made.

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its illustrious 506th Infantry Regiment, whose origins date to World War II's fabled "Band of Brothers," from deactivation under the Army's massive restructuring.

The Army announced this week that at least 12 combat brigades nationwide are to be eliminated by 2017 under sweeping military reductions, among them the 4th Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The long-term reorganization seeks to reduce the Army's size from a high of about 570,000 members at the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 to shrink spending and reflect the country's current military needs as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end.

The brigade traces its lineage to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, created in 1942.

The 506th was among several parachute regiments created to sneak behind enemy lines in the war. Nicknamed "Currahee," which is a Native American Cherokee term for "stands alone," the regiment parachuted into Normandy during the D-Day invasion in 1944. The regiment raced to liberate Europe amid bouts of fierce fighting in Bastogne, Belgium and then overran Hitler's famed "Eagle's Nest" in Germany.

The "Band of Brothers" book by historian Stephen Ambrose and the subsequent HBO miniseries about the men of Easy Company won national acclaim, propelling the unit to wide fame among the public. The 2001 miniseries was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and followed the soldiers from paratrooper training through D-Day and the end of the war.

Brig. Gen. Mark Stammer, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said the division wants to preserve the regiment's two battalions, along with its flags and its historical legacy.

He said during a news conference on Thursday at the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line that the regiment's battalions should be transferred to two of the division's three remaining infantry brigades.

The Army's restructuring plan also calls for adding an additional battalion, which is between 600-800 soldiers, to its remaining infantry and armor brigades. Adding the battalion was a recommendation from commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan who said it would beef up the fighting capabilities of the brigades when they go to war.

If Washington's defense and budget planners approve of such a plan, he said "the 506th will live, but it will just live in another brigade combat team."

Following World War II, the regiment was deactivated and reactivated a number of times in its history and moved to other locations as the Army reorganized in the post-war era.

The 506th deployed to the Vietnam War for four years, winning a presidential unit citation for their actions in the A Shau Valley. The regiment's soldiers served in Iraq for a 2004-2005 stint before the regiment returned to Iraq from late 2005 through 2007 in Baghdad as the new 4th Brigade Combat Team under the 101st Airborne Division. The 4th Brigade is currently on its third deployment to Afghanistan.

John O'Brien, the installation historian at Fort Campbell, said the regimental flag with its battle streamers carries the history of the unit, marking the battles and campaigns from World War II to recent times. If the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment were moved to a new unit, that regimental flag would continue to fly, he said.

"History, heritage and values ... those things provide the glue that holds the unit together," O'Brien said. "You can imagine how powerful it is to say, `I am member of the Band of Brothers."'

Jim Martin is one of the few surviving World War II veterans from the original 506th regiment. At 92, he just returned from a trip to Europe to visit locations, including the coast of France, where he and fellow soldiers fought.

Martin, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, said the Army command needs to exercise care when it makes changes to special units such as the 506th. "If you disband them, you're not going to get them back very easily."

He said the regiment's original commander, Col. Robert Sink, wanted his soldiers to stay together from their initial basic training through paratrooper training and on into combat to build trust among the soldiers. Although he admits he's not one for emotion, he worried that splitting up the regiment's battalions would be disruptive for the soldiers.

"The problem with doing that is you lose the unit cohesiveness," he said. "Anytime you move around or change, you lose that."

Joe Alexander, 67, of Lenoir City, Tenn., who was a second lieutenant in the regiment during the Vietnam War, said while he understands that the Army needs to cut down its size, but he was hoping they would be spared when the Army spread the brigade cuts throughout the country.

"We are competitive and we all want our regiments to be saved," he said. "But it does seem like they could have picked another one that had less of a history."Pic:
June 27, 2013: The flag of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were made famous as the "Band of Brothers" in World War II, is seen on a wall inside the museum at Fort Campbell, Ky. (AP)

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...to-save-band-brothers-regiment/#ixzz2Xd2BMJJT

 

[wsucougarx]

Here she is.

Today was the day I finally brought the ole girl out of her corral. Since I've had her, I have only driven her once then the project on this truck started. So she's been sitting for about 5 months now. I tell you what, she started right up with absolutely no hesitation what so ever! She didn't loose her prime and the batteries are in tip top shape. I couldn't be happier mechanically (so far anyways) and physically. She's basically done and ready to go except for some fluid changes. I went out to check the rear diffs and noticed they were a bit low. So I grabbed my 1 gallon pump container of GL-1 gear oil. The first few pumps sound great then I heard what sounded like water. Albeit it was less than a full pump of the hand pump so just a little got into the diff. Hmmm, what to do. Do I just run with the little water I pumped in there and just let it get mixed in the gear lube already in the pumpkin........ahhh, I can't do that! So I unscrewed the drain plug and to my huge surprise. I had about 1/2 gallon of water come out of the drain plug!! Talk about a blessing in disguise! I am really glad I had that little water in my GL-1 bottle or I wouldn't have know about the water in the diff. So I'll let her drain all night and hope any condensation gets dried up before tomorrow morning. Plan is to put GL-1 back in with a quart of Lucas Oil Stabilizer.
In regard to the pics, I made the Route Clearance Light and smoke discharger covers. She looked too bright with all the exposed LED headlamps. I just used some USGI nylon, some sleeping pad foam, 550 parachord, and bootlace cinching buckles to make them.
All in all, I think she turned out OK. I still need to reshoot some 383 green on some spots. Now that I have her out of the confines of the corral, I can see where I forgot to shoot a second coat of paint.
Just an FYI, I didn't mount the M249 or the M240B in the mounts for the pics. My neighbors were peaking out of their curtains wondering what I was doing now. Just thinking having anything in the mounts will really get them excited. So I'll stay a bit low key about putting anything in the mounts until I talk to them.

 

[usmarines72]

As expected, you did an outstanding job on this truck as well!! The Mods ought to make this thread a sticky with all the valuable information contained within. You going to have this truck for sale anytime soon? What's your next project?

 

[bigginstactical]

looks AMAZING! Congrats!

 

[Amer-team]

Looks great Mike. What is your overall height now?