Although White Motors built most of the Half Tracks before WWII, International Harvester built 13,622 beginning in 1942. Sometime around 1990, I found this approximate 1:8 scale prototype of an M14, twin .50 anti-aircraft half track in our IH/Navistar company archive storage in Chicago World Headquarters. It was originally built to show the Army what upgrades we were doing to the White design. It was in sad repair so I convinced the IH/Navistar Corporate fathers and the Manager of Engineering to let a group of us (which included the late Bill Eichhorn) restore it in our Fort Wayne, Indiana Engineering Prototype shop after hours.

A professional restorer helped with the finish work. It is on display at the National Auto and Truck Museum in Auburn, Indiana. It is of sheet metal construction with wood turnings. All the openings and gun ports are operational. It doesn’t have gauges or an engine because those would be existing IH production parts. Bill and his Dad Andy resin cast the missing tread cleats. A similar prototype is on display at Fort Knox, Kentucky. We were very proud to have been able to save this valuable piece of IH and US Army history and to put it on display for the public to see.

INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER M14 HALF-TRACK

Produced at the International Harvester plant at Springfield, Ohio.
There were 13,622 built from October, 1942 until January, 1944

QUARTER SCALE ENGINEERING MODEL
– RESTORATION TEAM –
David Palmeter – Howard Pletcher – Bill Eichhorn
From the Navistar Technical and Reliability Center – Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Andrew Eichhorn – Pinecrest Scale Models – Jamestown, Pennsylvania
Gregg Veresh – Gilpin Design – Ft. Wayne, Indiana
Restoration Completed October, 1992