Modelling the US GMC 2½-ton Dumptruck In Afrika you may have noticed that the 2½-ton trucks available to your divisional Armored Engineer platoon are slightly different looking in the diagrams. This is because the engineers have dumptrucks. So to make your engineer’s trucks look different from the run of the mill GI’s truck we will convert a normal 2½-ton truck into a dumptruck.     As dumptrucks they have a tilting tray for unloading loose cargo like dirt and gravel for road repairs, ditch filling and many of the other various task engineers find themselves doing. Visually the dumptrucks didn’t have canvas covers over the tray, they had a higher back on the tray at the cab end and a cab shield over the cab roof to protect the driver when the truck was being loaded with lose material.

Step 1. You will need a sharp craft knife, superglue (gel is best), a ruler, and either some 1-1.5mm plastic card or cardboard. Take a normal 2½-ton truck (US430) and glue on the wheels, windscreen and cab roof as per the instructions you get with the miniature. The only other parts you will need are the two tray sides and driver. Also keep the blister card; this will come in handy as well. I find when gluing wheeled vehicles together the best method is to glue on three wheels and then place the vehicle on the flat surface. Place some glue in the last wheel slot and align the wheel on the flat surface while pushing it into its slot. This should stop your vehicle wobbling. With the truck I glued one of the front wheels on last.

Step 2. Next glue the tray sides to the tray with the lipped edge facing the cab. These should easily line-up on top of the shorter sides that are already part of the resin. Step 3. You will only need two extra parts to make the dumptruck. They are the tray back and the cab shield. The dimensions for both can be seen in the diagram (right).

If you print the PDF you can simply use that as a template to cut out the parts. Cut out the template and trace around it on the card your using to make the bits. I just used the blister-backing card. Now use the knife and rule to cut out the parts.

Print the PDF...

Step 4. The tray back is now glued behind the cab on top of the existing resin tray back, long side down. You may have to slightly squeeze the tray sides in to glue them to the tray back.

Step 5. Now grab you cab shield and glue one long end to the top of the tray back, when gluing it on tilt the cab shield slightly towards the back of the truck so it’s on about a 5° angle. And now you have a Combat Engineer dumptruck! All it needs now is some Olive Drab paint!

For added detail have a look at the photographs of the real thing above. For more of a challenge you could add some hinge and support detail with thin strips of card or modelling putty. Enjoy! Wayne