Difference between M35 and M54???

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

OK it’s a bit embarrassing having been in the Army and around these things for a few years. I still to this day cannot identify the difference. The only way was that the fuel tank was on the driver side on the M54 and it also had a huge exhaust thing??? on the passenger side. Was that a muffler or turbo charger???

Those can be made from scratch(I hope), it’s the beds that looks different. The M54 bed looks longer and has 4 supports, the M35 has 3.

Can I use the bed from the Italeri M923 kit for the bed? Are the tires the same as the M35 or should I use the ones from the Bigfoot?

Basically can I turn the M35 kit into a M54 by bashing the M923 kit and use the front from the M35 so I can make some Vietnam era gun trucks. I don’t feel like spending $150+ on the kits from Real Model unless I have to.

Even then there were SO many versions I might just end up buying those eventually too. There were M35 gun trucks, M54 gun trucks, M-37 and M151 gun jeeps too…everything had a 50 or M60. That’s why I love Nam era modeling.

Help…[*-)]…thanks.

2

Here’s a photo I took of a deuce, old 800 series 5 ton (successor to the M54) and the old 900 series 5 ton. Similar in appearance but much different in size and details. Not a great photo, but it give you the idea of the variation size wise. The deuce is on the left in the top picture, followed by 2 900 series trucks to its right. Those same two trucks are on the left in the bottom photo with the 800 series on the far right.

3

Though the two trucks are similar in appearance, the M54 is some 11% larger than the M35 Deuce. The sheet metal is of similar design - just larger in most places.

I’ve been converting the AFV Club M35 model kits into the M54 5-ton trucks since 1991 or so. This calls for stretching the Frame Rails, Cargo Box, Cab Fenders, etc. I have also modified the Italeri M92x model kits too. Neither one is a “quicK” way to go - but doable depending on the level of detail and accuracy you want.

I recommend the AFV Club route because you can use more of the kit in your conversion, where the BMY-style Cab in the Italeri kit is not appropriate for the conversion.

Hope this encourages you to go for it!

Jim

4

Yes I am encouraged to save some money and buy the M54 gun truck kits and forget about that much scratch building. I know I can do some but not that much, I just don’t have the skills to do that much.

Adding on some armor and weapons is one thing but to actually do that much rebuilding is far beyond me.

Oh well, there were plenty of M35 gun trucks, some with weird armor.

I really wanted to do King Cobra, it’s a 5 ton with a M-113 hull and 3 50 cals. The cupola armor has an American flag on it. Very cool…

Maybe some day they’ll come out with a M54…I think some of these model companies are not run by business men. When there’s a niche for something fill it and you’ll make money.

5

Real Models does make an M54 conversion if that is your goal.
http://realmodel.cz/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=64&category_id=14&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=79

Plus just about every guntruck there were photos of http://realmodel.cz/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=11&Itemid=79/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=12&Itemid=79/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=14&Itemid=79/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=35&Itemid=79

6

As stated above, you can build the larger M54 5-ton by combining parts from the Italeri M925 (not the M923A1 since it has the wrong wheel/tires) and AFV Club’s M35 trucks. The conversion isn’t really that hard to do. Here is a build tutorial by Dave “Animal” Willet that explains and shows how to do it.

If you can’t find a 10-wheeled m925 kit, the tires are available in resin from Tank Workshop or Real Model. You can also use the tires out of an AFV Club M59 Long Tom or M115 8" gun, with the wheel centers from the M923 or M925 kit added.

Also, the large drum-shaped item on the right front fender of the M54 is an air cleaner.

It can come out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Here is my M54A1 “King Cobra” Guntruck.

It isn’t perfect, but looks pretty good. At the time (about 10 years ago), I missed that the front of the hood/grill should be flat across (as opposed to bowed like an M35), and that the frame needed to be shortened by 1/8 inch. Other than that, it is pretty much correct.

Good luck.

7

I saw that article and I was wow, that’s a little out of my league.

I think what I am going to do is buy some of those gun truck kits which use the Italeri big foot as a base and use that to also help me make other conversions. Like the King Cobra.

Your king Cobra looks great, I hope I can get even close.

But the one I have a picture of didn’t have a 50 cal gun shield. I read that many times they upgraded armor and weapons, even changed their names back and forth. Even once destroyed rebuild another one with the same name.

That’s one reason I love the Nam era, a lot of documentation.

8

Yup, while researching for my King Cobra build, I saw it in a few different forms as well. Some had the gun shield, some didn’t. It had a few different paint versions too. Some had the red/white/blue cupula while others didn’t. Like you said, there were lots of variations.

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Well I opened my bank account and went a little crazy. Real Models had a sale, 15% off.

Hopefully within a few months I’ll have built my first one.

I’m still not set up yet to start building again. Once I am, I will start with something simple to hone my limited modeling skills. I have to get an air brush and compressor, I sold my other one a few years back. I don’t even have glue, except for the stuff I use to fix guitars. I’m also going to start using oil paint which IMO looks better when weathering a model and trying to make it look realistic to scale.

For those who understand this; Damn it Jim, I’m a guitar player not a modeler…the only thing I do well at this point in my life is play blues guitar. I’m disabled due to spinal issues so I can’t do much of anything other then play my guitar and hopefully sit and make some cool models and dioramas. There’s really nothing on TV and the way sports are covered today I go crazy with the BS nonsense and commercials.

I returned to modeling because I can no longer do what I was doing as a hobby, building guitars and guitar amplifiers. Which is actually easier. People that build models at a high quality are true artists. I hope I can be one also.

I have a concept I call scale texture. What that is to me is the fact that even painted or dyed every material has a different texture and sheen to it even if it is the same color or painted with the same paint. I know this about Armor I was a Cav scout in the 1/11 ACR. The seat in an armored vehicle is the same green as the hull but both look completely different. How do you get that difference in scale? How do you get the human mind to see it as though it were real but in 1/35 scale? This is the artistic endeavor for me…

So far I have to thank y’all a million times getting me were I am now. I will be asking a million questions so I hope I don’t become a PITA. I hope I can help some who are building stuff I fired, carried or drove in the Army.

Honestly I have yet to see a true scale M-60 GPMG look right. They were a funny color, a dull grayish, blackish blue phosphate and black with some sheen to the edges like the feed tray cover depending on how old it was, same for the 50 cal. It was NOT black or gun metal, it was a funny phosphate color and some had hot dog shaped barrel covers not holes, some had handles and cone shaped flash hiders most didn’t. You screwed the barrel in, backed off 2 clicks and tried your go/no go gauge to check head space and timing. I see a lot of modelers get little things like that wrong. I can’t even count how many, M-60s, 50 cals, M1911s, M-16A1s, M203s and even M-3 grease guns I cleaned. Yeah the M-3, I carried when I was in HQ Troop, again it’s a weird color I never saw before until I joined the Army. Does anybody make gun metal phosphate color?