Small Scale Military Headquarters

I finally got around to opening my XD M3 halftrack and have 3 questions about it. This is the first issue one from 4 years ago-ish.

1) what are the four green scissor like things that came in a seperate little plastic bag? They are each about an inch and a half long and fold in the middle.

2) my halftrack only came with 2 .30 cal machine guns but there are holes for three. Am i missing one? Also, what would be a typical armament for an M3 personnel carrier in Europe in '44?

3) it came with a bunch of rifles and i have a feeling there is a rifle rack inside the halftrack but not sure where and how the rifles would be stored on it.


Any and all help appreciated.


fin.

Aferg, here are the answers.

1) The 4 scissor things that you speack of go on the back where the luggage trays are. The pegs on the trays can brak very easy.

2) The M3 for some reason only came with two .30 calibers even though there are three slots. (I would ask TTT for the armor, he know most about WWII military vehicles.)

3) The rifles stand up in the two back compartments. There are rivits, however, the rifles seem to always fall out of them. The land mines go under the two bench seats as the seats lift up like a compartment.

Aferg,

There is a Rack behind the seating for the weapons.

Yes there is only 2 .30cals. You get to choose wether either flank or flank & rear.

Lastly,the pieces in the bag I believe are for the rear of the M3. They are the support arms for folding up & down.

If i`m wrong on any of these I & you will quickly find this out LOL

Ja
Steel bonnet

thanks gang.

just need triple T to give me the typical armament skinny now.

I've seen in most pics the guys are standing up in the halftrack. Did the seats fold up? There doesn't seem to be much room between them for a bunch of guys to stand.

OK enough questions, now put it back in the box, once every 4 years to air it out is plenty

DH

I have an old TOE I copied from an AFVG2 magazine from the 70's. It shows the infantry squad's M3 carried the 50 Cal mount in the "pulpit". The Heavy weapons squad's halftracks monted one 30 cal on each side of the crew compartment and one pulpit mounted 50 cal weapons.

aferguson wrote:I've seen in most pics the guys are standing up in the halftrack. Did the seats fold up? There doesn't seem to be much room between them for a bunch of guys to stand.

I've seen similar pictures, too. I'm not sure about folding seats, but in case the seats didn't fold, I would imagine the soldiers could stand in the middle part or on the seats themselves.

The rifles store vertically behind the rear seats in the notches. The land mines, M1A1, are stored outside the HT in the rails that run the distance of the rear compartment. Just below the mousette bag on the passenger side. I owned a 1944 White M2A1 for several years. Now own a 1941 Dodge 1/2 ton WC-12. I have have lots of HT reference pictures for M2A1 if anyone needs any.........John

I've been doing a repaint on my halftrack.
Are the 'mudflaps' made of rubber, and if so, possibly could be painted black. Or are they metal and should be green?

Everything you ever wanted to know about TTT's favorite vehicle:

First:
The rack at the back of the track was a field or division mod to hold canzas, tents, anything. Half-tracks did carry canvas tops that covered the entire open top. If empty the racks were folded up against the back but they were NEVER empty. The sissors bars just let the rack fold up flat.

Second:
The empty mg socket was used for anything the squad could come up with, like an extra .30 cal, used when the squad dismounted.

Third:
The bench seat never folded up. They were fixed with storage inside. The seat tops lifted up to access the storage. Spare parts, rations, anything.

Forth:
The land mines were always carried outside the track. To carry them inside the track was sucide, if a heavy caliber bulet, or a snipers bullet from above set a landmine off, rare, but it did happen and everybody inside is history. If exploded outside the track the explosion would go out and away from the track.

Fifth:
GI's riding in half-tracks sat down. If you see guys standing they are standing high up on the seats and are beautiful targets and rough ground will throw them off. Look at the pics, you will always see they are on paved roads if they are standing.
The interior space is 18" between seated troops. 18" is not much room for a guy, dressed and with canvas gear. Legs are spaced between the oposite guys legs. Everybody is all legs and elbows and all are very friendly.

I have a ton of pics, from above, side, any whichaways you want. Let me know what you want to see and what model half-track you want pics of and I'll post them Friday. I'll be busy all day tomorrow, that stinken family of mine with their promotions, like he couldn't get promoted just any old day.....My son just called, he had a big fire today and got burned on the neck and face, but if he goes to a doctor, he can't be promoted on sick leave, so he suffers. He's a tough kid, just before he got "on the job" he had a tire blow up on him, rim hit his arm and he had bones sticking through his skin. Taking him to the hospital, he says "Dad, I'm hungry, how about stopping at BK for a whopper." Yea, like I was gonna do that?.. Kids....Jeeeez.

TTT

Sorry Tankduel, mudflaps were a very hard rubber, usually painted green, the color of the rest of the track, but black is possible.

In actual operation, the front of the mudflap was covered with dirt and mud in no time.

Remember, in WW2, vehicles were painted with spray guns, one each side, the vehicles drove up and everything got painted the same color. If gear was tied on, it got sprayed. Green or white in the winter, if it stands still, it gets sprayed.

Old Army expression, "if it's a butt on the ground, pick it up, if it doesn't move, paint it".

TTT

Thanks TTT

thanks for the great info triple T.

Hope your boy's ok, sounds like he's a chip off the ole block..

When you say it is a series 1, is the the pure green with no weathering at all? If so, please take a picture. It's a missing item on the SSHQ db.

Hope you guys don't get tired of these requests.

Actually, there is no scissor (sissor) action to the bar at all. It is flat and has no joints whatsoever. When the lower part of the rack folds down, the bar swings out and attaches to support the weight of the lower rack.................You're welcome!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/ ... 0_0992.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v392/ ... 0_0991.jpg

Could the rack support bars possibly be a production variation?

Ooh, ooh, I have another question
What's the roller for? I really can't figure that out.

roller was for ditches...to help cross them if they were a bit too wide for the vehicle itself. The roller would act like a wheel and the tracks would push the vehicle across the ditch.

Great, thanks.

I haven't seen any pics showing these rear storage racks as being a factory item. I would think not with the number of pics showing all different kinds of racks.

I won't bet the ranch on that, but even the common racks as shown on the 21C M-3 and Jbell's great pics were used and appear to be the same, I believe they were a field mod.

I'll check around.

TTT

Good Morning, I get the impression, from talking with others interested in HT's and veterans, the major field modification done to the racks was to remove them completely because they were so noisey. Thats why we don't see many racks on restored tracks. They just aren't to be found.

TTT, What other MV's do you own? Nice WC!..........John

So have there been four halftracks released, or five?

S1 Green (no weathering)
S2 OD with "Rust" weathing and Airborne Figure
S3 BOB (snow weathering) with MB Driver
S4 OD with light weathering (out in stores now)

Now that I am over the shock of learning that Andrew had never laid his hands on arguably the best 1:18 vehicle ever produced... ...I can say that S1 did have some weathering. S2 was the winter. The one with the AB soldier came next and it might have had some brown (mud) highlights - anyone?
The latest (no figure) seems to be very much like S1 and perhaps not even worth calling S4 for simplicity sake although it is unique in having no figure. I guess this goes back to what we were saying about later runs of apparently identical pieces having slightly different shades - somewhat of a judgement call on whether they are truly another series.

A bit off topic, but Ill ask anyway,

Did the Russians have any halftracks?
I cant seem to remember any

And Digger, I hope you dont die from this ....
I saw, and held the Winter M3A3, and did not buy it.
I dont have anything winterized WWII, so I didnt take it, im waiting for the new Quad .50, hoping that is in temperate climate paint

Moth,
I don't know about any of their own Halftracks, but they used many lend-lease ones from the US. I believe they were M2 over the M3s and that they had the version with rounded corners which I believe are the M2, but don't quote me on any of this. TTT could add to that or correct me if I'm wrong.
momaw nadon