http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=7452
Finally someone will make the CUCV M1008 and the M1009. Yep…they may be a bit expensive but very much welcome!
Rounds Complete!!
Ah, the mileage… I never thought that I’d see the CUCV in kit form, not the most exciting of vehicle(s) but for some of us old-timers, this may be something that ya just gotta have in the stash.
To be honest, I rarely saw them in the Regular Army line units, just Jeeps (M151A2) and HMMWVs (M998 et al). When you saw one in your AO, you knew it was some VIP or other visiting life form passing through.
They were, however, omnipresent while working with the Guard and Reserve or TRADOC training units.
Ya but, I was always 2-3 steps behind and to the right. [H] At many an occasion… Keefe was ‘the man’.
The 187th (AR) had many CUCV’s.
Yep…they were not a staple with Active Combat units. Yep they were more prevalant in the reserve…but they were a considerable part of the “Army” and the history of the small vehicle in the US Army as a whole. There were a bunch of them used during ODS.
Granted it was a bad tactical vehicle…but it did fill a void. And yes…if a couple of blazers showed up at your AO…IT WAS SHOWTIME!! Some of the old gas passers remember it as a part of their history.
In any case it should be interesting…Now do you follow with an M880!!!
Rounds Complete!!
I have fond memories of the CUCV, just didn’t have them in any of the units I was in.
I met Mike Wallace of CBS’ 60 Minutes when a gaggle of them (CUCVs) appeared in the bowl my tank was broke down in during a Hohenfels rotation in 1988. He was doing a piece about women in the combat arms and wanted to talk to soldiers in the field. My crew was short-handed; my gunner, SGT Chumbley, had gone back home because of his wife’s semi annual false labor/false miscarriage episode (always occurred right afer gunnery and he never made it to the manuever box with the tank). I had the best gunner in the battalion, but I don’t think he ever made it passed Grafenwohr on any one of our rotations.
Any way, my driver, Cpl Cox, and my loader, PV2 Servello, and I were replacing the track (3 blocks), a support roller and road wheel (we threw track badly) when they pulled up. Bunch of antennas on the trucks and cameramen (CBS civilian types and Army photographers) escorted by PAO officers in starched BDUs. Ever try replacing the track with just two guys and a scrawny 18 yr old private who weighed maybe 120 soaking wet? Not an easy chore, plus we hadn’t slept the night before because of the 3+ hour road march from Graf to Hohenfels coupled with us throwing track as we pulled into the AA.
When the dog and pony show started, that’s when the rest of the platoon crawled out of the woodwork to see what was going on. Sorry SOBs couldn’t come out while we were struggling to get the track back on.
One of the Spec 4s mentioned to Mike Wallace about the sexual tension women would bring to the combat arms. Mike jumped all over that remark. My platoon sergeant, SFC James K. Bell (the only Nam vet in the company), gave the PC answer that you’d never know until you gave them the chance.
Being the only line officer around (besides the starched escorts), I told Mike that I played football in Jr. high school and high school, wrestled since the 5th grade, into college and was on the Mannheim free style wrestling team as well. I’m not a big guy, but I am far from being a wuss, and this tanking stuff was kicking my butt. I went on to tell him that there may be some women who could do this, but they would be the exception rather than the norm. Even Servello hadn’t finished growing and gotten big enough to provide real help (we had him in the driver’s hole) and we were doing only minor field repairs.
We were covered in grease and hydraulic fluid, hadn’t slept in days and were wore out from getting the track back on. I asked him if he wanted to help toss the broke track blocks and tore up road wheel up on the fender. He gave the road wheel a slight tug to determine its weight and declined.
Never did see that episode. Between being in the field and the sporadic way AFN carried US shows, I missed it. Some of the wives said they saw us (including me) on TV but that’s all I know.
My only other time with CUCVs or the pickup version was when I was a team chief for the old Readiness Group Redstone. I spent the summers doing evaluations for Guard and Reserve units during their ATs. I would be given a truck by the evaluated unit to visit them in the field. That was my turn to be a starched officer in an old CUCV or pickup.
I can remember driving one from BBQ to BBQ as I went from one company/unit AO to the next.
I bought 'em both!
Fantastic quality kits of subjects that I’ve been collecting kits and parts for in 1/25 because I didn’t think anyone would make these in 1/35.
Box art
M1008 CUCV kit contents
CUCV M1009 kit contents
Thanks Gabor!
Not sure about the Army but the Marine Corps had plenty of these especially the 1009. During ODS they were used in great numbers in the rear and occasionally ran back and forth to the front lines for many different task. State side I saw these driving around almost everyday by both Active and Reserve.
Rob
^^Ditto^^ for the Army. I even had one attached to my unit in the initial invasion of Iraq in '03. It carried our civilian Logistics Assistance Rep (LAR).
Received my M1009 this week.
It is a TOTALLY OUTSTANDING KIT. Not a gel anywhere. Tremendous body molding. Laser cut brush guard. Cast metal axles. Nice Photo Etch. Good decal sheet.
It is worth every penny…outstanding kit…cannot wait to dig into it.
Rounds Complete!!
Thanks Redleg. I was already salivating from the website last night. Now I’ll be in trouble with the wife for buying one…all your fault man !
The things have worked their way through the surplus market pretty well, enough that I see them at the shop ( I have a small off-road shop) and can only pity the guys who had to keep them operational. Slow, funky electrics, slow, noisy, and did I mention slow? But, people want the pickups for the running gear (specifically axles), and the Blazers are on ranches all over this part of the world.
BTW, the kits look really nice.
FINALLY!!!
A chance to build m’ BOC (Battery Operations Center for you non-redlegs) diorama! Then, I’ll have to build that damned generator trailer too… 'Course, I gotta get two 1008s, since FDC used one as well… Then there was one in the Maintenence Section, and Smoke’s 1009… So that’s three -8s and a -9… I KNEW not buying all that Dragon and Trumped-upeter stuff would pay off…
Thanks for the tip, Redleg!!!
Oh, HELL yeah…
Another thing about that 1008… When I was using NVGs, tere was a light source under the dash that I never could track down… Could only see it with the NVGs too… Never figured out what it was from… Speaking of which… Ever wearing NVGs and switch to 4WD without first taping that damned light ?
Hans, I thought you don’t buy anything more than $20-$25? Temptation finally got you this time… [6]
I usually don’t… But some kits are MUST HAVES, and these two are they… Them… It… Aw hell, you know what I mean…
I doubt they will ever appear as injection-molded kits (until two weeks after get these)… I’m just happy they’re 1/35th… Otherwise, I’d still be SOL…
Hans…these are nice kits…the windsheld is only a clear sheet you have to cut but that is the only minor drawback.
he includes a laser cut paper brush guard…Frule molded the axels in cast metel, the resin casting is the best I have ever seen…perfect…includes a photo etch set…the only thing missing is radios. The PE set has the antenna mount. You will need an antenna base and mast along with radios inside. Put a chain welded to the floor and a log book on the front seat and you are all set
Enjoy
Rounds Complete!!
Thanks, Mike… I’d also have to add the 10 or so PASGT vests I cut up and added to the floor, door panels, side-walls, and seat-back, lol…
Been a long time since I had a 1008… IIRC, I had three matching units… Since there’s a PE mount, that’d be easy enough to use as a pattern to make the rest, I reckon… As for the radios, I cast gobs of copies of the one from the Tamiya M151 kit… I need to find a photo of the radio rack as well… I dug through my pictures of me from back in the day, and of all the ones taken of me or other other two guys that lived in the BOC, not ONE shows the entire rack, lol…
OK…last but not least…do you still have a key??? The old common ignition key!!
LMAO…I will have fun with this one!!
Rounds Complete!!
Doesn’t everyone? [whstl]