Customer Reviews

Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando - Armor Walk Around Color Series No. 8

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The US Army has never really gone for Armored Cars. We did have some in WW2, largely built to fill British requests. Seems like the Brass can never decide what it wants for reconnaissance or escort missions. The Cadillac Gage V-100 was an exception to this trend. Larger cousins are now in service such as the LAV and Stryker. Those two are much larger and more expensive than this simple, reliable 4x4. Not a lot of ballistic protection here, the armor could stop a 7.62mm bullet, but that's all.

This book shows two versions of the V-100 - the turreted version which had 2 machine guns and an air force base security version which was open topped. The photos here are all of beautifully restored versions. The exterior, interior are shown to very good extent. A previous reviewer noted there is only one photo of the actual engine. That is true, but I do not make models to that extent, so that I did not even notice that.

I really like the Walk Around Series. I think they are excellent companions to books by R.P. Hunnicutt which are heavy on text and light on photos. This is just the opposite. I highly recommend this book for modelers, armor buffs or anyone who ever served on or with the V-100. This book serves a little known vehicle well, I'm glad I added it to the collection.

Squadron Signal's new book on the Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando fills in the gap between the WW2 armored cars like the M8 / M20 Greyhound and the present day USMC LAV25 and later US Army Stryker based LAV III. Several publications have covered the Vietnam use of the XM706, the US military designation of the V-100 Commando.

Squadron's V-100 Walk Around book with its detailed images is great source for the model builder Particularly with the release of Hobby Boss 1/35 M706). It is an essential complement to Richard Lathrop's "...V-100 Commando 1960-71" book by Osprey Publishing and R. P. Hunnicutt's Armored Car: "A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles" by Presidio Press.

However there is only one photo of the engine compartment. Photos of the engine compartment with the interior panels removed would allow model makers to fill in the engine compartment. Hopefully we may see photos from veterans of a working vehicle interior on the web. Follow the images bellow to different websites with images of the M706.

Thanks to my credit card for the review copy.

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My husband had been looking for a book about the vehicle that he had driven in Viet Nam for years. He could never seem to find exactly what he was looking for. I began to search the internet in hopes that I would find a book for him. I looked for a long time and then, there it was!!! I ordered this book and gave it to my husband for Christmas. He was so surprised and excited about this book. He said that this was exactly what he was looking for and it had so many pictures of the V-100 that he had driving in Viet Nam!!! Amazon does it again!!! Finding the impossible!!!

With new model kits available in 1/35th scale by Hobby Boss this book is an essential reference for building an accurate kit interior.

"I started on the book in June 2008," book author David Doyle wrote. He photographed the vehicles of Jeff Symanski in Virginia and Alan Wise at Ohio. Don Greer created the art work for the book's front and back cover. Matheu Spraggins did the line drawings that show the differences among the early and succeeding production models of the V-100.

There are three versions of the V-100 featured in the book. The first is an early model with the angular wheel corners, with double gun and view ports on the upper hull. Doyle notes that vehicles with production serial numbers before 10586 or 10619 had these multiple gun and view ports. And also that vehicles 10595 and later had raised driver and observer hatches (p.19).

A late production example XM706E1 (possibly production serial no. 10631) is finished in a NATO 3 color camouflage pattern. It has upgrades like smoke dischargers and add-on external machine gun mounts on the rear hull deck and on the T50 turret roof. This is what a mid-production model of the V-100 could look like if it were upgraded with later model parts after an overhaul or rebuild. The photo on page 20 shows the vehicle before the .50 Cal. pintle is added to the turret roof. A great feature is the scorched paint from the welding of these mounting blocks can be seen in the inside image of the turret on pages 34 and 35.

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