This is the Gecko M76- a weird little Duck - "Otter" but apparently it was effective and was well liked by its crews.



I decided to make this a post-Vietnam vehicle, after seeing these 1/72 M76 kits. (The Scalemates links show other pages):

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mil-mod-mm-072-131-m76-otter-plus-second-waterline-late-type-usmc-vietnam--1457984


https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mil-mod-mm-072-121-m76-otter-early-and-wrecker-other-users--1457981


The wrecker and cargo hauler versions are tempting, but I haven't found pictures of the real vehicles and in any case, they seem like major surgery. I'm leaning towards something like the yellow or red vehicles.

The kit has a fair amount of tiny PE bits, but it isn't at the Hobby Boss or Bronco level of annoyance.  The assembly is rational (unlike Broco/HobbyBoss) and they are nicely detailed and marked in sequential order on the sprues (there are a LOT of sprues, though)

It took a while to get to this point. The tires are plastic and not vinyl (yay!) but all those wheels took a while to assemble and clean up:



One issue is that the prop should be angled up when not in use; I'll have to break the joint and angle it.

The kit has an option to add radios (which are pretty nice). After I built and installed them, I realized that they wouldn't be a good fit for my civilian version so I took them out.

Some of the PE is ridiculous, though - like these wingnuts in the driver's compartment:



I've knocked a few off, but luckily have only lost one.

Here is where I left it today. Some of the parts are just press fit in place. I'll paint it before attaching the tracks; I checked and they will fit in place with the rest of the superstructure in place:

Liking this mate 👌 👍
Thoughts have crossed my mind about getting one and seeing what I come up with 
But I shall sit and watch how yours goes 😏

Quirky little thing, be good to see what you do with it. 

What a strange little device, but it looks very versatile. Those wingnuts are just CRAZY! 

It's an interesting looking little thing 

Quote from: PR19_Kit on April 19, 2025, 03:30:33 AMThose wingnuts are just CRAZY! 

They certainly are Kit,

The kit builds nicely despite the sometimes ridiculous PE. The wingnuts could have easily been made from plastic; I used a plastic wingnut (from a Bronco kit, ironically) to replace the missing wingnut and it looks better. I may just replace the next set (there are 4-5 more in another location) with some stretched sprue.

There was one small strip of PE that was supposed to go in the engine compartment - there's no engine in the kit and no way of displaying the hood open - that they wanted you to apply after the section was glued to the lower hull. I passed on that task.

It looks just right for a snow cat vehicle. I'll be watching this one!

That's a cool vehicle (esp. in the SAR variants/liveries), and I have never heard about it!

These were used quite alot in the Vietnam War but they did keep having one annoying problem with em ...punchers.
The tyres keep getting punchers from shell splinters as they are just like a normal pickup truck tyre.

I'm making slow progress on this. I started with the link and length tracks, but what really bogged me down was putting together the tiny plastic parts for the steering mechanism in the driver's compartment. The otherwise excellent instructions are vague in this step.

I painted the interior white (some vehicles showed OD interiors, but a couple of original vehicles show a white driver's compartment). I painted the whole interior white, since this is going to be a civilian vehicle (or at least not front line military).



Detail of what took forever to assemble. About 15 parts (including the pedals) in that tint space:



There are a couple of loose cat hairs and I noticed one of the wingnuts almost got knocked off.

There are always cat hairs, even in houses that have never had cats, & of course every wingnut has to be a separate piece! 

Looks to be coming together nicely! 

This is looking pretty good so far Frank ..lovin the details 

Now in the weeds with adding small details and PE parts. One issue with this kit is that the walls are very thin - usually commendable - but the engineering tolerances are very tight. In some sections, it feels like you have to test fit large sections of the model just to make sure one part glues down correctly, since 4 or 5 other parts depend on it being within 0.5mm of its exact location. The engine cover/side panels/interior engine walls are particularly sensitive to this. I had to pick the least annoying spot for a gap. The very front seemed the least bad. Hopefully the gap will be gone once I remove the excess putty:



Getting it this far has been difficult, with clamps, gluing down small sections at a time and even using CA as a clamp in some spots just to close some of the gaps (which I hate to do):



Note: The decals for the placards on the radiator/air intake have very poor adhesion, even after using a decal softener. This may be a problem with the rest of the sheet. I noticed that one of the placards on the other side had fallen off, so once I reapply it, I'll have to coat all the placards with a clear satin coat to keep them on:



One set of decals that did come out nicely are the instrument panel dials. The dials have a clear coat, so they're sealed in:

Coming along 

Good work, Frank! 

Of course you steer your (very) light armoured vehicle with bicycle handlebars!