Well, I finished the lead truck. It will be close to the viewer in the diorama so I put some extra time and effort into it. The co-driver will be standing on the seat, through the machine gun ring, waving at some G.I.s in the tank column crossing in front of them.!
I chose to use a Combat series brass ring with .50 cal. mount.
I scratched the remainder of the mount, brass rods, plastic tube and sheet plastic.
The Combat series came with an aircraft .50 cal. machine gun. It had a barrel similar to a .30 ca. but longer. I replaced it with a standard plastic barrel.
I like the Combat series products because they are usually more detailed than injection plastic as you can see here.
Here is the finished GMC CCKW 353 Cargo. The canvas cargo top is an old VLS product that was sculpted by Gordon Stronack. Gordon was the guy who created all those Planet websites years ago, Planet Armor, Planet Diorama, Planet Figure and so on.
I have went through so many books on this vehicle. One thing I learned is that some have the rope tie downs on the exterior and others have them inside and not visible. I have never seen a
model of one with the external tie downs so I added them. I used micro thin solder wire, Used a pencil, wrapped the wire around it, then tied a knot. After slipping it off I made some cuts and then pulled the entire knot until it looked like it would hanging from the loop on a truck. I drilled tiny holes, painted them black like grommets and ran the wire into them. I think they look pretty realistic! I painted them with Vallejo Desert Sand.
A shot from the rear.
Ditto!
The right side.
Left Front.
The brass .50 cal. shell casings are real brass!
Worm's eye view
And, finally a worm's eye from the rear!
I have one more Duece to build. It has been painted in subassemblies, but, needs a figure and detailing. plus U.S. insignia. After that, the rest of the 35 soft skins just need driver figures and I can wrap up one more thread. Then it will be three to go!
Thanks for looking in!
Bob
