One of my best friends dad was an MP in Vietnam for one tour in 1970. He escorted convoys in the central highlands between Pleiku and An Khe’ on Highway 19. He was luckier than his predecessors becuase the army addopted the Caddilac Gage V-100 as a convoy escort instead of a jeep with a .50 cal. The V100 had hardened steel armour that could handle small arms fire, up too light machine gun fire, and was pretty nimble… He, friends dad, was telling me about going through the Mang Yang pass in Pleiku and how they drew fire almost every time. It was a dangerous place. The French got beat up there just before the end of the first Indochina War. I decided too build, as close as possible, his M706 and I am going to give it to him as a gift. He gave me a bunch of pictures and I’m doing my best. His original M706 was named the “Sceamin Deamon” but after his buddies M706 “Armageddon” got wrecked by a RPG his crew renamed theirs “Armageddon II” in tribute. It’s not going to get finished anytime soon but I’m far enough along to share. I like telling the backround story more than descibing what I am doing as far as construction. It’s straight outta the box for now. The PE set I got from Eduard is more trouble than it’s worth and I will use a few pieces. Also I’m not paying for the tires with sag in them. Really?
Very cool, always more interesting and more meaning when there is a personal story/connection to the subject. Looking forward to the progress. I have several of these in the stash and one of these days I’ll get time to tinker on building it as an LAV150 of the Philippine Marines. Kit - check, supplies - check, time - negative.
Modelling while having a person aroung who’s “been there done that” is really great - that’s almost the best reference there is. I like those wartime photos a lot. Looks like you’re doing great with your build - good luck with it and have a nice day
And I , I try to reproduce "beep beep youras " of 720 MP with turret XM182 .
would not the friend of your father have photos of this one , please ?
I’m going to follow your assembly .Little gift , LEGEND produces wheels but I find tires not rather wide and mark DEF MODEL has to make it with sagging .
I am using the Legend Vietnam AFV crew for the driver and turret gunner and I think the quality is poor. Voids in the thin areas and huge injection marks. I mean huge.
The wheels and tires that come with the kit are quite nice. I don’t see any sag in the photos :0
I don’t mean to hi-jack this but is that kit for the Air Force Security Police version still available and where would I find one? I’m trying to convert that V-100 kit into one of the 706s that I used to drive and that conversion kit would save me a lot of time and trouble.
I already have the panels installed over the wheel wells and the engine is sealed off but as I go and refer to some of my pictures and a walk around book I found, it gets more complicated.
This was the Air Base Defense version:
As fast as they were, sometimes it just didn’t help:
It’s a shame that Verlinden went cheap and molded a tarp over the parapet shields and blast doors. That’s something nobody would do on the real vehicle.
Oh well, back to looking at pictures, measuring and cutting plastic.
Something I just remembered, each wheel had to go on a specific location. The tread pattern was set up to allow the vehicle to swim. If they were in the wrond spot, water performance would be decreased by quite a bit.
griffin25 , thank you also to have to ask the question of photos , I would give you my e-mail adress in private message so that is easier to send them to me .
Already , I am great satisfied to have photos of a veteran , they will be precious .
There’s something that I just noticed on the instruction sheet. On the last page they show a chain comming out of the winch housing. We carried a heavy duty cable and hook that was enough to pull the pig out of most of the situations we might run into.
There was a small chain used to secure the two fuel caps to the vehicle so they couldn’t fall to the ground or be stolen that easily.
Then there was a patch of rough metal that served as a sort of non-skid just below the driver and assistant’s side view ports.
Also, they give a piece for the left side to the rear of the side door that is the bilge vent. If tou look at the picture you can see where the second one should be. As far as I can tell they left this one off completely but it will be directly opposite the other one. I’ll have to build a second one and maybe even replace the first. I also cut away the bottom of the kit part to make it look like a vent opening instead of a solid block.
I am in the process of restoring a Cadillac Gage V100 that was delivered to Vietnam in 1969 and served with the 504th MPs. I have been in search of photos that may have captured this V100 during it’s service there and so far chaven’t found any. I’ve found my way here as modelers are known for their attention to detail and often these details are gathered from photos. Attached is a digitally enhanced image that shows the nose art “Blood Sweat and Tears”
This vehicle was purchased via private sale in 1988 and began the journey towards restoration then. As of December 2021 I was handed the torch from the gentleman that purchased it and also did all the heavy lifting while he owned it. Also there was a pretty neat artifact found inside the hull when he began cleaning it out in 1988 and will soon be reunited with the young soldier who lost it in 1970.
Anyway I would appreciate any help in locating photos of this vehicle while in Vietnam. Thanks in advance for your contribution!
