Small Scale Military Headquarters

What type of German cargo truck is the 1/18 Indiana Jones Truck, if not an exact match what type is it closest to??

Anyone know??

Is it this??

I think the Indy truck was made to look like the ....
Mercedes-Benz Ga3

The Indy truck was a mock up built on a American CCKW 2 1/2 ton truck frame. Plenty of CCKW's to wreck in the world these days but just not that many WW2 German trucks to play with...... and none to damage.

TTT

Im listing this on Sunday on eBay and I would like to call it a more specific name than "Custom German Cargo Truck"

I think the cargo rack on top ruins it for me.

Maybe the real ones in the war had them. But the rack makes it look toyish in my eyes.

Otherwise a great job

Actually it really looks like the Einheits Diesel truck, just make the rear tires to single wheels instead of double.

http://www.german.o5m6.de/einheitsdiesel.html

Panzer wrote:Actually it really looks like the Einheits Diesel truck, just make the rear tires to single wheels instead of double.

http://www.german.o5m6.de/einheitsdiesel.html

I think you nailed it Panzer! Im going to go with that. It looks very close!!

The pic you included in your first post was a pic of a Henschell 33. The front bumper gives it away. Henschell built locomotives and the bumper was a copy of what they used on locos.

The only other 2 rear axle heavy truck the Germans used was the KrupTypL3H63/L3H163.
They both look similar, neither has the "roof rack" as both were soft top.

Both did not have a driven front axle so they were limited to road travel.

I had a write up about the Indy mock up which included what the customizers were looking for but I can't find the link. The net is so cluttered with junk, it is a shame.

TTT

Cool! but what's with the bread crumbs?

Dauntless wrote:Cool! but what's with the bread crumbs?

???

Well after allot of searching there are many close trucks but no perfect matches so I stayed with "German cargo truck"

Just listed it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0605745322

i remember when this thing first came out i found a german truck that looked exactly like it and was the same size, scale-wise. The mercedes mentioned above was too big. The only difference was the fenders over the front wheels blended into the step under the cab doors. I can't remember what it was called now but if someone can dig up the original indiana jones truck thread, it will be there.

The Hasbro Indy truck is a copy of the movie prop truck which is a figment of some prop man's imagination, based on a CCKW body.

No heavy German truck had the four piece windshield. No heavy German truck had spare tires on the hood sides. No heavy truck had hard cab tops with a rack over the cab. They all had canvas cab tops. The only heavy trucks with hard tops were specialized trucks, usually with radio or maintenance vehicles with hard bodies and they looked nothing like the Indy truck.

The only heavy German truck with a fender that flowed into the running board was the 3 ton Opel Blitz, which looked nothing like the Hasbro Indy truck. The Opel Blitz 3 ton only had one rear axle.

The Germans only had a few models of heavy trucks.

The source for my info is: "Standard Catalog of German Military Vehicles" by David Doyle. It deals exclusively with 1930's and WW2 German vehicles.

The Hasbro was just not a model of a realistic truck...... but then Hasbro was never too concerned about realistic vehicles.

TTT

i remember that the truck i was speaking of wasn't a heavy truck. It was a medium sized truck, which corresponds to the size of the hasbro offering in 1/18 scale. All of the german heavy trucks were also a fair bit larger than this one, like the one in the movie was. The hasbro toy is not a 1/18 scale copy of the movie prop, it's just a copy of the movie prop, probably around 1/21.

Its based on the Mercedes-Benz LG3000.

As I said, besides the few I mentioned, the only double rear axle German trucks were specialized vehicles. The MB LG3000 was a Fuel truck. The bed was entirely filled with a fuel tank. A canvas cover was often used to disguise the fuel tank as an ordinary cargo truck. The only pics I can find, of this truck as a cargo truck are models, drawings. Not actual pics of the truck as a cargo truck.

I still say the Indy truck existed only in some prop mans mind, made for the movie.

TTT

http://www.autogallery.org.ru/m/mblg63.htm

here's info on the lg 63/3000 series. As TTT pointed out windows are wrong but it doess look like the truck in the movie. The hasbro truck less so plus it's too small.

Besides the soft top these two shots look close:

I wouldn't say it's a ton smaller though... That's really close. The very tail end seems a little shorter, the back doesn't seem as high, and the space between the cab and rear wheels is a little shortened too. Really that's pretty neat though for what the movie prop was... They did seem to want to base it on something anyway. Hats off to them for trying.

We will never end this thread. The last pic posted by Jnew.., I think does show the MB fuel tank truck with a canvas top over the bed. Notice the high clearance between the rear wheels and the bed. That tells me the fuel tank was empty and if filled the entire bed would settle down.

Anyway. The movie car site has this quote about the "Indy truck":
"It was a rebuilt GMC, a well known UK military vehicle collector bought it when the Lamanva company closed down (Lamanva used to supply military vehciles for films). He displayed it at the War and Peace show in Kent about ten or fifteen years ago before selling it on to Disney. The cab was all made of plywood the wheels were the originals with most of the holes welded up and it ran like a total dog."

The Germans had only a few different heavy model trucks that they used. The biggest was 4.5 tons, where we (U.S.) had many different trucks bigger than standard 2.75 ton German trucks. We had 4.5 tons, many different 5 ton trucks, 6 ton trucks, 7 ton trucks and 10 ton trucks. But then we did have the "Arsenal of Democracy"..

TTT

Threetoughtrucks wrote:We will never end this thread. The last pic posted by Jnew.., I think does show the MB fuel tank truck with a canvas top over the bed. Notice the high clearance between the rear wheels and the bed. That tells me the fuel tank was empty and if filled the entire bed would settle down.

I dont think so TTT, all the tankers I have see have the curved rear fenders and utility boxes on the sides. If you look closely at the rear of that photo there is a rear door that is partially open which would not exist on the tanker. It is possible that it was at on point a tanker I guess that was retrofitted.

Im planning on making the fuel truck this year.

Great lookin truck Jnewboy,post some pictures in the custom & mod section in the indy jones truck & troop car & other soft skin thread.

1958Zelda wrote:Great lookin truck Jnewboy,post some pictures in the custom & mod section in the indy jones truck & troop car & other soft skin thread.

Thanks! Ill try but for now you can see it at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :MESELX:IT

No matter what the "Indy truck" is attempting to look like, all the trucks it is close to did not have 4 piece windshields and none had the hard top with the luggage rack on top. All had soft tops.

As usual, your custom is a nice looking truck.

TTT

Threetoughtrucks wrote:No matter what the "Indy truck" is attempting to look like, all the trucks it is close to did not have 4 piece windshields and none had the hard top with the luggage rack on top. All had soft tops.

As usual, your custom is a nice looking truck.

TTT

Thanks, and believe me I wish that one of the major companies had put out a good German truck. You would have thought that 21st Century Toys would have made one as they made a number of American soft skin vehicles. The indy truck may not be perfect but Im very glad we have it.... Soft top must have been cold in Russia....