RPM 1/72
Mack AC 'Bulldog' Truck Type EHC (1919)

Background

The Mack truck was one of the mainstays in early motorized transportation. The Mack AC Bulldog series were workhorses with serious hauling capacity that second only to ships and railroad transportation of the day.

During WWI, the Mack truck was pressed into military service, and variants of the truck were used for everything from tank hauler to supply truck. The HC3 was a three-ton capacity vehicle!

One of the unique features of the Mack trucks of the day was their chain drive that transfered power from the transmission to the rear wheels. The transmissions of these trucks weren't attached to the rear of the engine as with today's powertrains, and the rear differential was not yet available. Instead, the transmission was attached to the engine flywheel via a drive shaft, and the transmission itself resembled a differential. At the end of the power shafts from the differential were sprockets and larger sprockets were on the inside of the rear wheels. Over these sprockets were what looks like oversized bicycle chain.

The Kit

This kit shares the same contents as the other three RPM Bulldog kits reviewed on this site. You get the same two parts trees and decal sheet.

So, what is different? Only what you use…or don’t use off the parts trees and decal sheet.

In this case, you pretty much repeat what was done with the French version Type EHT kit. You use the wheels with the lesser spokes vs. the ones with 16 spokes, omit the 4 x 4 beam used for a front bumper, add the wood cargo bed sides and the canvas cover. You use only one of the large headlights vs. the two that you would use for the Type HC3 kit.

This kit, like the other three Bulldog kit offerings from RPM, comes in a end-opening type box. The back of the box has a color scheme for only one vehicle. It is overall green and has no markings whatsoever shown. So, we don’t get to know what outfit this is depicting. I assume from the OD paint job that it’s probably a U.S. Army one? There are the same color swatches below this illustration labeled with Humbrol’s H numbers. Like the other three kits too an illustration of the decal sheet appears in one corner here too. A side panel on this box, like the other three kit boxes, has full color box arts for other kits in RPM’s 1/72nd armor line.

Conclusions

This looks like it will make up nicely as a companion kit to the other three “Bulldog” kits that RPM markets in this scale.

For a look at the kit built-up, click here.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample.