Not sure if this is in the right section, I looked in the auto section but it was all civillian cars so…
Anyways, I’m looking to see if there any kits of M931 series 5ton US army truck kits out there, I usually look when I’m at the LHS but come up empty. I’d like to get a couple of them, especially tractors. I spent a climbing on, underneath and all over these trucks, plus a bunch miles behind the wheel. So I’d like to build what used in the army. Thanks in advance.
What scale are you looking for? You could probably convert one of the Italeri M923 or M925 into the M931 in 1/35. The cab looks the same, you would just need to remove the bed and scratch build the coupling hitch area. I have no suggestions for other scales…
That is exactly what you can do. Italeri does both a 6-wheel M923A1 and a ten-wheel M925. These need a bit of work to bring them up to speed as far as details go and at a minumun, need the tires changed out for resin ones. The kit tires are horrible.
hereYou can see more of mine .
M923A1Here is an I super-detailed that shows what work can be put into them.
And the completed truck:
More here.
Good luck and let me know if you need any advice or help.
Not really to concerned about scale considering I’m a WWII 1/48 aircraft builder.
Where would I find a resin fifth wheel? Or the resin tires?
In the end I’d like like to come out with a M931A1 tractor and an M923A2 cargo to make a gun truck. I spent 2004 in iraq with transportation company hauling fuel all over the place. All we had were 5ton tractors and a few cargo trucks plus a small handful of humvees. This was at the time when we made our own armor, before the up armor kits came around. I’d like to build models of the trucks we drove.
Heavyarty, nice work on those trucks, I could swear I could smell GAA for second there when looking at the pics.
I’m gonna look into the italeri kits and see what I come up with.
Thanks for the compliments on my trucks. They were fun to build. I have a couple more in the stash and I plan on building one as a gun truck as well…eventually.
1/35 scale is your only option since it is the common scale for military ground vehicles. As to the 5th wheel, Real Model (I think) does a bobtail resin conversion set. I took the 5th wheel from a 1/32 snap-tite tractor for mine. One of the set for the wheels that I had came with a fuel tank too, so I had an extra tank for the right side.
There are many options for new wheels. Here is an article by Vodnik that shows most of the wheel options. It is a little dated ('03), but will give you an idea.
Vodnik also did an article on improving the truck that has a lot of helpful info in it.
The resin upgrade and wheels sets can be found at most good hobby shops, on-line outlets, and usually on eBay as well. You just have to look around for them.
Ok, did some digging around And some shopping today. Got my hands on the 925 shelter truck, which looks the parts for a 931, except I would need differant wheels and tires for what we used on our trucks. We had road tires, not the sand tires in the kit and not the super singles (bigfoot tires). I found the tractor conversion from real models, but at $55 or so dollars and not that much in the kit I’ll pass on it. I’ll figure it out and convert it myself.
As for the gun truck, I’ll get one of the 923 cargo truck kits for that one, and a et of the aftermarket wheels for it, probably the cam resin wheels. Might end up with 2 sets of them seeing as how I cant get the correct wheels for the bobtail.
Arty, thank you for all the links, I apprecite it. There is some good info there, especially for an aircraft guy.
There’s very little difference between the M925 kit and the M923A1 kit. Virtually the same kit except for wheels and some detail parts. Even the S-280 shelter is sold separately and just plops in the back as an optional cargo.
I believe they’ve been reissued recently. As Gino says, decent kits that need some work to be accurate.
As Rob says, the truck kits are about the same. Real Model has road wheels too. You may have to email them though, as I’m not sure they list them separately. Their Vietnam-era guntrucks come with the road wheels on them. For the 5th wheel, see if you can get a cheap 1/32 snap tractor kit off of eBay or something.
Ok, productive day today on this. I picked up BOTH truck kits today. Spent a good chunk of the day looking up parts etc for these kits.
I’ve found 3 differant sets of super single wheels, CAM, CMK and TWS, (tank work shop). And 2 sets of civil pattern road wheels (duals) which is what I want for 925 I plan to convert to tractor. Plus eduard makes a PE set for these trucks.
So I’m figuring that I’ll convert the M925 shelter truck into a tractor by scratching most of the parts, adding a 5th wheel from a cheapy kit like arty says.
The M923A1, I’m gonna get a new set super singles for it and do a whole bunch of scratch building to make her into a guntruck. I’m gonna see what I can find for modern weapons for the gun truck.
Since you were with a Transportation Company hauling fuel here is an option:
1/32 Monogram Mack with Tanker.
It has recently been reissued. It would give you the 5th wheel and you could modify the tanker to be a military version. I have the tanker and it is pretty good.
Thanks for that!!! I’m gonna be on the look out for that kit! The tanker look’s about right, just needs some OD.
Hello!
Nice subject, I’d love to see a WIP on those two trucks. Good luck with that and have a nice day
Paweł
Ok so I’ve got the 2 trucks now, plus I ordered these for the gun truck: http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=TWS0078
And these for the tractor: http://store.spruebrothers.com/135-real-model-wheels-set-for-us-5ton-truck---civil-pattern-1-a35199-p19754.aspx?utm_medium=cse&utm_source=googlebase
I’ll get around to finding the eduard PE later on for these, I’ve gotta get the 2 B-17’s off my bench and then the 2-3 F-86 “sabre” jets built too. Sabre is in quotes for reason, hockey fans should get that.
Those wheel sets look good and should fit the bill. I’m looking forward to seeing these trucks come together. Keep us posted.
Let me expand the scope of the question…anyone know of any 1/35 scale kits of the M818 series 5-ton US Army truck/tractor and M127 series 12-ton S&P trailer?
Curt K
Let me expand the scope of the question…anyone know of any 1/35 scale kits of the M818 series 5-ton US Army truck/tractor and M127 series 12-ton S&P trailer?
Curt K
The only ones available are in resin by Real Model; both the truck and trailer. Each sells for about $150.
Real Model also does an M800 series cargo truck, an M54 cargo truck, an M52 tractor, M54 and M800 series wreckers, and an M900 series wrecker conversion. Besides the Italeri M900 series, there are no other 5-ton kits in plastic (except the ancient 1/32 Renwall/Revell M54 wrecker).
Unfortunately, post WWII softskins are not very well represented in plastic.
I’ll add that while I havent built one of their kits, I probably wont, mainly because of the high price. I did recently pick up a set of their civil pattern 5 ton wheels/tires, not very impressive. I guessed between the 2 sets they have and I’m sending them back, hopefully I’ll get it right this time.
But they didnt look all that good, I expected better considering the price of most of their stuff.