M706 Armored Military Police Convoy Escort
"The Road Runner"

Having left modeling gun trucks and convoy escorts from the Vietnam War for so long, I made an oath that for every subject I model in 2004 - I'd also build one gun truck or related subject. Verlinden Production's #360 V-100 Armored Car has been around for a long time. It is one heavy, solid, chunk of resin onto which you mount small detail parts. This one has been sitting on my shelves for a long time and I thought I'd bring it out and turn it into a weekend project. To get it together properly and detail it literally takes just one weekend - even at my leisurely pace. The next weekend could be devoted to painting and finishing the kit.

Though Hobby Fan of Taiwan produces a 1:35th scale miniature of the V-150 (complete with interior), Verlinden Productions' V-100 Armored Car is the only widely available model kit on which to base a M706 upon. It features a heavy, solid, chunk of resin for the body upon which you hang small, delicate, detail parts. Though identified as a V-100 by the packaging, careful consultation with references will show you that the miniature more closely resembles the later M706 Armored Car.

Of the scant references on the series of armored cars, I found R.P. Hunnicutt's ARMORED CAR by far the most helpful and informative in replacing and adding details missing from the basic Verlinden kit. The reference book will help you dress up your M706 effort even more - and I took photos of the details I added along the way to help you out.

This is a basic resin kit, and calls for a little experience and comfort with this media. There is warpage and pinholes throughout. The kit is carelessly packaged - so there's some damage when you receive it. In all the V-100's I've purchase - no two were ever damaged in the same places! The kit as presented is basically accurate for a mid-production M706. If you count the 5-ton axles included in the kit - then call it mid-to-late production M706. It is not, however, a V-100 in the strict sense - and the Hunnicutt reference will quickly show you the differences.

The example I purchased came delivered pretty beat up. The massive body had worked itself free of the protective bubble-wrap and wreaked havoc inside the box during shipment - crushing pieces and knocking detail off itself. None are too difficult to replace or remodel, however. Here, the nearly-finished model is sitting up on blocks and rails - to help gauge wheel alignment for the end assembly. The wheels are kept in place by using double-sided tape.

Mirrored .005" thick plastic sheet from Edgerton Enterprises is used here for the rearview mirrors. Punched out with a #6 bit from Waldron's Precision Punch & Die Set, nothing beats this product for modeling reflective mirrors - foil doesn't come close. Note the reflection in the photo below. Though Verlinden provides nice copper wire for grab handles, I used .015" solder instead. However, this makes handling the heavy model tricky as the solder will warp with ease if grabbed hastily.

Above, Greif #025 M60/M48/V-100 Headlight Units are used in place of the Verlinden supplied parts because the light sockets are drilled out already to accept neat lenses. Missing from my kit, I added a Greif M113 Siren to the front hull. Likely the Verlinden Siren got lost in shipment due to careless packaging - like the .30cal Machine Gun barrels for the Turret. The replacement are Verlinden items swapped from another detail set.

More missing parts, I fashioned my own Lift Rings for the corners of the rear hull. The Jerry Can Holder is an item from Accurate Armour, and the Pioneer Tool Rack is an Eduard photoetch detail accessory with a .015" solder loop for the shovel. The Rear Door Stop bracket is made from .020" foil.

Fine brass mesh was used here in front of the Headlight Units. This detail was added in the field after convoy drivers began to complain that the lights were too bright on these vehicles. The mesh did cut down on the glare effectively. In retrospect, I wouldn't use such a fine brass mesh in future models - it is easy to get paint and a buildup of gloss or dull coats to clog the mesh.

Verlinden supplies crude axles more reflective of later production M706 Armored Cars, where the early 2 1/2-ton truck axles were replaced with 5-ton truck axles. Wanting to better represent the mid-production M706 I decided to fit a pair of AFV Club 2 1/2-ton axle assemblies to my model. Bonus here is that the AFV Club front axle is steerable, allowing the tires to be posed and enhance the character of the miniature. They're not too difficult to employ for a project like this.

Using them requires sanding down the inner hub faces on the Verlinden resin tires. Sadly, these tires are slightly warped in different directions, making alignment a pain. The huge resin pour gates mar the tires in removal too. I used a horizontal bench wet grinder to sand these tires down - saving a ton of elbow grease. The resin dust kicked up, however, necessitated wearing a mask and employment of a vacuum to clean up afterwards.

Missing from the basic Verlinden kit, I added another Antenna Pot made from trimming a length of brass tubing to match the rearward one cast into the hull. I added .010" stainless steel wire to the wheels to mimic air valve stems. Drilling out the lightening holes in the thick Verlinden tires was a thought that only lasted three seconds...

Above the rear tire, I swiped an external Fire Extinguisher Box from a M60 model kit. Verlinden Productions does not provide this detail in their kit.

The Lift Rings on the Turret roof are plastic items from Grandt Line - excellent for this application. You could try to knock yourself out in adding detail to the Verlinden kit - but there just isn't a whole lot to add.

Painting and weathering commenced the following weekend. Over a base coat of Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, I painted the model Tamiya XF-61 Dark Green. When glossed and dulled back down, the overall tone mimics the appearance of the vehicle in photos - kinda like black with a few drops of green mixed in.

Below, the model is still glossed to take on and blend in the decals. The National Symbols are Italeri waterslide decals. The Military Police banners are homemade by printing the legend in black on white decal sheet trimmed to fit. The codes and lettering are Railroad Scenics Gothic White dry-transfers applied to scrap decal sheet. I sealed the scrap sheet with MicroMark Decal Fixative, and cut them out to apply like a traditional waterslide decal. The Tire Pressure legends come from Archer Fine Transfers - applied to scrap decal sheet and applied in the same method.

The 'Road Runner' cartoon logo was drawn by hand and scanned into my computer like I did for my gun truck "Nancy". I then reduced the image to the size I needed and printed it out on white decal sheet. One detail I noted in color photos of the real "Road Runner" M706 - the crest of 'Road Runner' is red. The Warner Brother's cartoon character's crest is dark blue like it's wings. I just changed the color to what I saw in the photo to match. In the future, I think I'll create the image with a larger outline in black. This will aid in trimming out the image from the white decal paper.

While the decaling and glossing the body was going on, I began to weather the lower hull and wheels. These are three colors from Alphacolor's Earth Tones soft pastel pack - great range and easy to use. They're locked into place with a light misting of dull coat lacquer applied with an airbrush. This takes practice and a light touch not to blow away all of your efforts here. I also refrained from using straight orange pastels like most modelers of Vietnam era vehicles resort to. Orange and Brown are used sparingly here - and do show up well in the finished product.

The pastel work is done in the wheelhouses at the same time to match the work done on the wheels.

Dried mud is done with pastel chalk and fine dirt applied with a damp paintbrush. I let this set for a few minutes and then applied the dust and kickoff from the tires with plain pastel chalks used in weathering the tires the day before.

The pastels keep the effect in scale, and convincingly convey a M706 trundling down a dusty road, somewhere in Vietnam. There are good photos of the M706 in Vietnam to check out the way the armored car weathered while in service. The antenna is a resin item from Verlinden Productions with a .010" brass wire for the aerial. The Tow Chain is from MB Modellbau. Vision blocks are picked out with 5-minute epoxy tinted with Tamiya Clear Green. You really can't see this effect unless the light hits it just right. The four Clevices do not come with the Verlinden kit. I swiped these from a couple of Italeri M925 5-ton cargo trucks awaiting conversion into M54 gun trucks. These were simply painted white and attached to the armored car. The twin .30cal Machine Gun barrels in the Turret were drybrushed with a 50/50 mixture of Silver and Ivory Black oil paint - same effect as graphite chalk in half the time.

Simple brush strokes are enough to convey dust and spray from the big tires on the sides of the armored car. This was actually a fun and relaxing thing to do - and remember, a little goes a long way. It's easy to overdo - so go light and buildup the colors in layers until you get the effect you sought.