M76 “Otter” – the US amphibious truck

The M76 “Otter” - an amphibious truck, that was produced in the 1950s by the “Pontiac Motor Division”. It was tested at the “General Motors” military polygon in Milford, Michigan. The machine was designed in the late 1940s for the needs of the army, but its interest in this vehicle quickly faded, but then the US Marine Corps became interested in it. The M76 could transport up to 8 cool American soldiers at a time. The M76 was produced from January 1951 to June 1954, although they passed the standardization process only in March 1953. Its watertight body was made of riveted aluminum sheets and was divided into engine, crew and cargo compartments. The truck was equipped with a 4-cylinder opposed air-cooled “Continental” AIO-268 engine, developing 130 h. p. power. In the first series, it was an aircraft engine. A small exhaust pipe was bent back and led out just behind the cab roof. The maximum speed on land was 50 km/h, on water - 10 km/h. In water, the truck was driven by a single propeller, which was rotated through a power transfer box in the transmission. The propeller was located on the central axis of the car immediately after the two outward-opening cargo compartment doors. The M76 was armed with a “Browning” M2HB .50-inch (12.7 mm) machine gun. The cargo capacity was 1,300 kg of supplies or 8 soldiers with full equipment. The “Otters” served in the Marine Corps (USMC) during the Vietnam War. In 1965, the first 33 vehicles arrived in Danang, which were transferred to the 3rd Motor Transport Division of the 1st Marine Division. Each infantry battalion was assigned 3-4 amphibians. They proved themselves in the battles near Daido in the Dongho sector in 1958.

A small, well-detailed and well-designed model of an amphibious truck for only medium-experienced and experienced modelers. Everything, that can be seen on a model of this scale from the outside, is detailed. In addition, the doors and the engine compartment hood can be made openable, and "real" engine compartment equipment can be installed under the hood. There is a lot of color stock, where necessary, the details are printed double-sided. From the textual instruction only conventional markings in Russian remain, but the graphical one is simply amazing. The model recreates the appearance of the M76, used in South Vietnam in 1968 by the 3rd USMC Division 3rd Motor Transport Battalion and marked with the number USMC 348034 and having the "personal name" "Cong Killer" in slightly "used" combat camouflage.