U.Ｓ. Army Cargo Truck 2.5 ton 6 X 6 Italeri 1/35

There used to be one of the resale items of the Tamiya Italeri original box in Japan. It is a 2.5-ton truck from the US Army. It looks like the 6-wheel drive, as I checked on the backside. Wonder if it is out of product already…

Since the chassis assembled from a frame structure grips small parts into two large parts, I cut them out like a picture and assembled them at once. I’m laying it on the table as I am confused about the parts assembling.

A total of 8 tires are rear wheels; parts are different between inside and outside. Including spare tires and front tires, There are 11 and 4 types of parts. Before assembling the parts, half of the tires were gone off from the runners, around in the box and rolling, assembling them while checking which parts were proper.

Because the rear wheels are unstable when glued and fixed with twisted, I adhered while adjusting all the tires on a neat flat surface such as a glass table.

There are an Italeri logo and a stamp of Made in Italy on the backside of the front fender.
(21-Mar-2017)

I attached all the tires, including the spare tire, and installed the front fender. I think assembling the chassis was completed.

It is the loading platform assemble.

I started to build it freely; the truck needed painting inside the driver’s seat. Now the painting process is here, so I cannot paint all later like a tank model.

The loading platform is glued to the chassis, and the driver’s seat and the upper machine gun are installed. I am painting the driver’s seat before that.

The driver’s compartment and the meter’s decal are attached.
(03-Apr-2017)

You can choose either with or without a winch on the front. This time I attached it and replaced the metal chain.

Adhesion of the bonnet and front fender to the chassis frame was fixed with the strength of tightness using plastic adhesive and instantaneous adhesive in combination. Especially since it fitted neatly without using putty, it was a pleasant surprise, as I intended to fill the gap with putty from the beginning.

Recently there have been a lot of multi-material kits, and this Italeri kit is all plastic. I replaced it with a metal chain. Finally, move to painting.

I am going to add more chips to the one-color olive drab painting. After using the hair spray, I’ll peel off the water-based paint so it is coated with gloss black.
(05-Apr-2017)

The whole is painted with acrylic olive drab. The dust was blown around the suspension.

The aqueous acrylic paint was peeled off to expose the black surface randomly. The timing is difficult to stop the peeling.

It is the 2.5-ton truck produced in the United States during the Second World War, which is famous for its large number of productions by GMC. It was called by the nickname “Jimmy, ” a common name in the United States. There was also sometimes called “The Work Horse of the Army.” A truck of this type was produced during the Second World War with more than 800,000 units other than GMC, including Stude Baker, etc.

The transport system with a truck called Red Ball Express was the logistics route for refueling, ammunition, repair parts, food, etc., to the units that advanced inland after the Normandy Landings. This truck played an essential role in establishing this system.

I think that the wooden part was also painted in olive drab, but this time I tried finishing with grain woody texture paint with oil painting. Since hundreds of thousands were used, various tracks would have been gathered, and one of them was like this work. It may be fiction.

Unfortunately, the attached decals are getting too old, the margins of the stars are whitening, and the finish is not good. So I used the Cartograf and Tamiya decals from the kit which I made previously. The yellow circle on the front seems to be a Free French Army marking. I used it for a good accent. Although it is just a transportation truck, it is somewhat getting better looking around the end of the marking.

It is equipped with an M2 machine gun on the roof. I think that the mold is pretty good for the old kit.

I used Tamiya Texture Paint to make the mud of three-dimensional effect. Also, painted mud on the back of the front fender and feel as natural as possible. It is an exciting point of AFV modeling.

The cargo beds were painted to various weatherings such as mud, rust, scratches, dry mud, and dust.

Since there are not many parts, it is a lowered hurdle model for beginner users. But I did not compare it with the Tamiya kit; maybe Tamiya is easier to build.
(12-Apr-2017)