M109A3 shop van questions on maintenance & communications versions, photos needed

Armor/AFV Cold War
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1

Cracked open the box of the AFV Club M109A3 shop van and now I’m on the hunt for some interesting reference pictures to help decide how to finish it.

Most of the photos I’ve come across are static motor pool photos or restored vehicles. I’m looking for “in action” type photos in the field or ones with some cool field modifications. (Found a Gulf War era truck with an M105 trailer and an extended exhaust. Another with some pallets on top of the cab hard top roof…that’s the kinda stuff I’m looking for–not really concerned about the timeframe–something simple to add a little life to it).

All of that begs the question, how were these deployed? I’m imagining seeing one of the maintenance trucks deployed under a camo net with all sorts of gear outside, a la the Italeri field tool shop. Though that may be more of a “Verlinden Way” fantasy.

I’ve seen a few trucks with four or more antenna mounts on the outside, I’m assuming this a communications version filled with radio gear. Not knowing the designation, I haven’t been able to find much on that variant.

Thanks in advance for the input.

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What sort of gear and deployment would depend on the unit which had the vehicle. In our FA Battalion in the early/mid 1970’s we had one assigned, but it was used as the control center for the Battalion’s AN/MPQ-4 radar and would have had not only one AN/VRC-46, but all the scopes etc for the Radar.

Our Batteries had a Maintenance 2 1/12 truck, but it was NOT an M109.shop van. But that didn’t stop us from having a large plywood shelter built on the back which was made to look and act pretty much as an M109 van would have. There’s an example in my thread on the 1st Bn 2nd FA in MASSTER, plus a separate build log.