Gun Trucks Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Here's the latest monograph from Ampersand Group and author David Doyle - this title looks at Vietnam-era gun trucks, those improvised armed and usually up-armored vehicles used to escort convoys between bases in Vietnam. The title starts with a survey of the trucks that were used as the basis for these gun trucks including: the M35 2.5 ton 6x6 truck, M54 5 ton 6x6 truck, M151 Mutt, and the M37 4x4 truck. Also highlighted is a favorite weapons system for gun trucks: the M55 quad .50 caliber gun mount.

Next the author looks at each of these vehicle types in their modified gun truck roles and how they were modified for convoy escort. One of the more interesting modifications was based upon the 5 ton truck chassis with the shell of an M113 armored personnel carrier mounted onto the rear frame. Other versions created walls of armor plate around the truck bed with gun pintles added in various locations to mount the .50 caliber machine gun, 7.62 minigun, and other suitable weapons.

This title is well illustrated with the vast majority of the images printed in full color and many coming from Vietnam. There are also good photos of each vehicle type complete with shots under the hood and under the chassis to provide the modeler with excellent references to either build a gun truck kit or to take a standard kit and modify it into a suitable gun truck. The array of photos depicting the artwork carried by many of these vehicles add to the great resource this title provides.

With the nice variety of truck kits and M113 APCs on the market, this title will help you replicate a variety of different Vietnam-era gun trucks with great visual resources to render those details. Definitely recommended!

My sincere thanks to Ampersand Group for this review sample!