My old buddy Henry 1968 M35A2

[Ted60]

Attached is a picture of my old buddy, Henry. He's an M35A2 that was built in 1968 (two years before I enlisted into the US Army), he was completely REBUILT by the Government and retired and surplussed out a year later.

I bought Henry with 12,000 miles since his rebuild. I bobbed (or shortened) him ... and installed the bed from a M 105 trailer to replace the stock unit and painted him as you see. I also pulled out the right side buddy seat and in its place installed another drivers seat in its place AND a steel storage box between the seat as sort of an armrest.

I named him Henry after an old song that was popular during the time I was in the Army. He is my daily driver. Although he only gets between 12 and 15 mpg's ... Henry has a multi-fuel engine that runs on any petroleum product. I run him on old motor oil, trans fluid, hydraulic oil which I collect, filter and turn into fuel.

I regard him as my old Army Mule. We're great buddies ... we hum as we go down the road.

Well ... I hum. Henry hums ... but he also roars rattles and clanks as he motors along.

Although I've been building models since the early 1960's ... I've just started building card stock models. I'm really enjoying this new addition to my hobbies ... especially the price, since I'm now retired. I also collect 1/18 scale die-cast model cars.

I've just found that Modelik has a model of the M35A2 in 1/25th scale. Although they have many of the details wrong, I'm thinking about buying one, scaling it up to 1/18 scale, correcting some of the details and painting (or other) to match my truck. I think it would look great in the cases with all my die cast.

Hey ... I LIKE this forum and intend hanging around for a while.

Thanks

Ted

[DeadlyTedly]

I remember driving these beasties from our motor pool when I was stationed in Mannheim, Germany back in the late 70s. Good freight & personnel haulers. Enjoy "Henry"!

[Vermin_King]

I'd sure like to see that project work out. A photo with the model on Henry's hood would be great

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Ted:
Please do a build thread on this project and point out the model problems verses the real Henry.
Interested,
Miles

[Don Boose]

I love Henry.

During my early years in the Army (I ended up spending 30 years, beginning in 1962), all the deuces were M35s and M211s, so this brings back a lot of memories.

Don

[Ted60]

Originally Posted by Miles Linnabery

Dear Ted:
Please do a build thread on this project and point out the model problems verses the real Henry.
Interested,
Miles

Thanks for the interest. That's something I might consider.

I've had a chance to read a thread on this forum about a build of this kit ... the builder did quite a nice job.

Because everything on a Deuce is so big, square and clunky, I think this should be an easy-to-modify kit.

It's not like I haven't done it before.

[Ted60]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

I love Henry.

Most folks do. A lot of collectors and purists do not.

To each his own, I guess. But it's not like there weren't a lot of them built. Ever been to Fort Hood?

A lot of folks don't know that the Army experimented with the concept a long time ago. The truck was called the XM381:

XM381


Yeah ... I'm kinda fond of the old guy myself.

[whulsey]

Put a few miles on some of those myself. But never had the urge to want to buy one since even the farm trucks I'd drove before were easier riding and faster. But definitely will follow the thread with interest.

[Ted60]

Here's the build thread I mentioned: M35A2 of Modelik 1:25

Nice clean build.

I think this kit would build up into a neat Vietnam War Gun Truck:

https://www.vetfriends.com/militaryp...m?picture=8216

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Ted and friends:
I to say DUH and OMG, From the first picture of Henry I thought it is one of those cute dodge powerwagon thingies the military had have to chock it up to lack of scale in the picture. I too have a story about the wonderful Duce and a half. Had to have been 1967 summer, I was a Boy Scout camp councilor at Worth Ranch Scout camp in the middle of Texas the camp had a surplus Duce and on the first week of camp on Wednesday night the local drivein had $1.00 a car load pricing on the nights movies that's right two movies. Well we split the staff and about 15 scouts put in folding chairs tables several sheet cakes and USDA Pints of milk all in uniform and away we went top down you should have seen the looks and squawks at the box office when the driver reached down with a Dollar bill, Ended up going with 25 cents a boy scout drove in and backed into the space of 4 cars hooked the drivein car speakers to the sides of the Stake bed and we had a great time.
Had not thought of that in a long time,
Miles