Chris - good to hear from you again, maybe I should advertise more [:D]
Wayne - thanks for the comment, you have a very valuable info for me! Now that trick with the beer or C-ration can almost went into the popular culture, because you can see it in the movie “Apocalypse now”, the PBR crew uses it a lot. Now I have a picture to clarify what I want to build, it looks like this:
Source: “Armor of the Vietnam War (1) Allied Forces” by Michael Green & Peter Sarson, Concord Publication Company 1996 Hong Cong
For some reason the quad’s crew decided to replace the standard ammo box on its tray with a cut down jerry can welded to the remains of an old ammo box tray. The belt support seems to be integral to the quad. Now if somebody of the old hands could describe better what we see in the picture, that would probably help me even more. In the meantime I think I’ll try to look for more pics and build something like this in 1/35. Please stay tuned and have a nice day
Pawel
PS. Today [11.11] is a Polish national independence day! Greetings from Poland to all![#toast]
And it looks like you could have gone with the bug repelent in the helmet band. But I can’t quite make it out, are you going to paint Mitchell Pattern on yours?
the C-Rat can was used on the M60 to correct a design error in the feed ramp. Some guys also used an orange juice can as well. They have both ends opened up, and then the can is wired to the reciever so that it’s a little higher than the ramp.
Why these guys are using a cut down gas can is kind of baffeling! What they should be looking for is the large ammo can used on tanks. Also they look like they are firing the top guns most of the time, as the bottom ones have the smaller ammo cans.
That makes two of us who are baffled now that I’ve seen a that photo! That seems to be a lot of trouble when a large ammo can would work. It’d be kinda tedious transferring those heavy belts into and out of cans wouldn’t it?
Chris - yeah, I’ll do that, the gunner will have a bug repellant on his helmet, and the helmet’s cover will have camo “leaf” pattern on it.
Gary, Wayne - that’s very interesting. I also have this foto to look at:
I can’t be sure, but I think those guys put even four gas cans on their quad. So I thought it wasn’t that uncommon, but your reaction makes me think. Now I have at least three options:
Regular .50 ammo box on tray - best covered by my fotos
Strange cut down gas cans - looks most interesting
Big “tankers” ammo boxes mounted directly to the quad - as indicated by the experts
What would you model if it depended on you? I’d appreciate an advice - thanks in advance and have a nice day
when you retrived that photo; what did the caption have to say? Looks like the extreme west on of a place I was at once.
In the photo you will notice the negative position of the gun carriage when it’s on high ground. As for the gas cans being used to hold ammo, I’d go ahead and do it if that’s what your after. I never seen anything like that, but sometimes it’s what you have laying around that works best for you. One other thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve quads without the flash supressor as well as with them.
I just got the 30 & 50 Caliber Ammo Boxes from AFV Club, number 35035. It will come really handy in the dio and also has 8 of the big boxes, it says they were intended for 40mm ammo. This would link the big boxes to M42 duster units, often operating close to the quads. But I already decided to go for the cut down gas cans.
I also checked the PM, and decided not to install the platform, TM says platforms were only installed on quads mounted on M16 SP’s
I’m still looking for an idea on how to make/where to get the flash suppressors.
When talking about US equipment, TM means Technical Manual. There are different kinds of TM’s, operator’s guides, repair & maintenance manuals and even lubricating charts. Many of them are very interesting to a modeller. They also have a lot of fotos and drawings in them, hence TM foto. Hope it helps, have a nice day
There is another source of “in-action” footage of the quad-50 mount. It played an important part in Waterworld, mounted on an attack barge. Even as a what-if it was pretty awesome!
Unless the M42 Dusters were mounting 40mm Mk19 beltfed grenade launchers those boxes were for the 40mm grenades. 40mm AA gun ammo was way larger in size.
For the M55 Quad the Technical Manual is TM 9-1005-208-xx. If the xx = 10, that is the operators manual, =20 the direct support maintenance manual, =20P the parts manual and =35 depot maintenance manual
For most work the -10 is good to have. The -20 will give more details.
Pawel, you don’t want to use the big cans. They are for 40mm belt fed grenade ammunition. The AFV set is a great set. Just use the 50 cal cans
Ken - interesting idea, makes me want to take a look at the movie!
Mikeym & Redleg - Thanks for clarification, my mind was too deep in AA to think about 40mm grenades [:)]. Now I’ll stay with the idea to use cut down gas cans for ammo containers, as my foto references show. Gary and Wayne were saying the “big boxes” were more typical and I thought they ment the 40mm boxes - is this right or is there some other box type I missed?
In the meantime I’m working on the gunner and on the ammo feed system, I’ll post fotos soon. Thanks in advance for your comments and have a nice day
The 40mm boxes are useful for small parts stowage on AFV’s like the M1A1/A2 Abrams and the M2/M3 Bradley IFV’s. I think they stick tools in those boxes which would probably explain the lack of pioneer tools on the Abrams?
Thanks mikeym, I also like ammo boxes for storage, I keep my CD’s in .50 boxes, they fit just perfect. The theory for now is: The WWII “tombstone” magazine held 200 .50 rounds, the .50 box (officially called M2A1!) only 100 rounds. As larger boxes were probably unavailable at that time, the Quad 50 crew welded some cut down gas cans to old ammo box trays and created cheap and voluminous ammo containers. Now to do it in 1/35…
First I had to part with the “tombstones”. In the kit, there are two sets of 4 “tombstones”, one set that attaches to the mount and one set of spares. The attachable ones have a bracket molded on them, and I need that bracket and only the bracket. I saw two options: first: file the bracketout of the magazine. Tried it - not effective enough. Option two: fabricate out of copper sheet metal. It turned out to be easy. I made four brackets and glued them to the mounts. Here’s what it looked like in the end:
Now I’m looking for details on the ammo box tray, y’know, the part that normally connects the gun with the ammo box. The tray itself has a nice feed ramp, and I have to take a closer look.
Please stay tuned while I go on, I wish you all a nice day
well I actually keep 12 guage shotgun shells in my .50 cal cans I also have a couple of hard plastic 25mm ammo boxes that I still have to clean out they still have cosmolene in them for lubricating the rounds going through the bushmaster 25mm and I also have a 40mm bofors ammo can “Big honking box”.
Looks like you’ve found the perfect “odd ball” subject Pawel! Look forward to seeing how this one turns out, it will have a unique feel in the end I’m sure. [;)]
Mikeym, Bill - thanks for your comments, please excuse me I took so much time to answer.
Mikeym - I sure would be interested to see the “big honking box” as I also have plans to build the Duster - which is armed with twin 40mm Bofors. So maybe it cold have such a box around.
Bill - sometimes I get the feeling it’s enough to “not be WWII” to look different in our armor forum. Well I sure also am curious how this one turns out.
And it is slowly turning. I converted the wheel attachments to correctly depict the wheels taken off as in the firing mode. Here’s what it looks like now:
And I also have the gunner ready, or at least I’m close. You can see the separate thread on the gunner HERE. And now I tried to depict the dust that would surely deposit in the insides of the mount and test-seated the gunner in. Here’s what it looks like:
I’m going to sand the boot tips of the gunner in order for the front shield to fit the mount.
Well I’m really not sure about the weathering, maybe you have a suggestion for me? Looking forward to your comments and have a nice day
It’s been a long time, but I’m movin’ on with the build at last. I started building the .50s. Here’s what we get in the kit:
After the mendatory cleanup, I drilled the cooling jackets a bit and then went on to build the flash suppressors, so often seen on Vietnam quads. From what I heard it’s a post WWII feature. Maybe somebody knows more about it - if so, I’d love to know it too! Anyhow, here’s what the guns looked like before painting:
Then I started painting. First covered all the recessed detail in Humbrol black (33). Then after the paint settled a bit, which took about 30 minutes, I went over the raised detail with Humbrol gun metal (53). And you can see the effect below:
And that would be it for now. Happy modelling and have a nice day
well I for one am glad to see that you are still here, and looks like your doing very well as well. By the way that photo I asked you about is taken on the far southwest end of LZ West. The ridge line directly behind the fellow standing is the Hiep Duc Ridge Line. The area at the base on the right side is Hau Duc (another garden spot), and strait behind the ridge line (almost directly in front of the fellow standing) is the now famous place affectionately known as Siberia. The guy standing is a classmate of mine!
