I have Tamiya’s M151A2 shelfqueen’d and I want to get this done.
But I am struggling with what colours the MUTT would have. It will be shown as one belonging to the rangers and the few images I have seem quite dark; too dark for MERDC anyway.
I am leaning toward olivgreen with black stripes and sand/light green patches?
Like this, eve though these are Marines & Army.
Op like this with brown?
Good photos from Grenada are difficult to get online. My books show M151A2´s painted in Winter Verdant MERDC, and so I painted mine.
Blame poor quality photos taken in the field. I used to use an Instamatic hidden in a book. HH nailed it.
IIRC our gun jeeps in 2nd Batt were painted MERDC, forest green was the base color, I could swear I can see the cans of paint - forest green, field drab, sand and black, but it was over 40 years ago… Of all the things I’ve lost in my life, my mind is the one I miss the most.
A mix of steel pots Kevlars?
I also see some ERDL uniforms, which I also wore, and that had been phased out by Big Army by that time.
Interestingly, I found more videos of Urgent Fury that pictures. Wasn´t 82nd Airborne the first to field Fritz helmets?
They were. They were considered the “premier” unit in the Army at thre time, with SF still smarting from Eagle Claw/Desert One. It it did ultimately lead to the formation of USSOCOM though.
The Ranger MUTTS in the photos can be ID’ed by way of the flex mounted M60 MG on the right side (in addition to the pedestal mounted guns), the absence of windshields (removed as superfluous and to allow extra storage on the hood), and the crews all wearing jungle fatigues (not ERDL or BDU). The “steel pots” are worn because they were required for the parachute jumps.
At that time, the MUTTS had been configured for “airfield seizure support” missions. IIRC, the next mods coming later would have been the ROPS (Roll-Over Protection System, aka, roll bars) and running boards on the sides for personnel to stand on. I seem to recall being told that most were painted solid black to serve as night camouflage since the mission profiles all called for night jumps supported with immediate follow-on C-130 “combat landings” or LAPSE with the MUTTS.
The KEVLAR helmets (K-pots) were issued first to the 82nd because they were the US Army’s CONUS based immediate reaction force (always keeping one BDE ready to deploy at all times). For years (and maybe still), there was an example of a K-pot in the Division museum that had been hit in Grenada square by an AK (7.62 x 39) round which only stunned the wearer. The round splintered and smashed part of the helmet, but didn’t penetrate all the way through.
As to SF getting K-pots late, I still have the steel helmet I was issued at Ft. Devens in the early-90s which the installation CIF didn’t want back when they did issue us K-pots. (Heck, we spent about a week getting our gourds measured to make sure that CIF even had enough of the correct sized K-pots to issue out to us.) SF was among the last units to get the K-pot simply because we never wore helmets in the field. We only ever wore them for jumps and to satisfy some extra-SF, Big-Army live-fire and demo training regulations. In other words, we just didn’t need (or even want) them. Our K-pot issue came so late in the fielding that the Army didn’t even want our steel pots back - too much of a hassle to inventory and surplus out via DRMO.
The pictures give a lot of ideas for figure companies. 
Also of note, the sand jeep (below) was from 82d ABN and had just returned from
a Bright Star Exercise in Egypt. The unit didn’t have time to repaint their vehicles.
It is also the vehicle Tamiya based their M151A2 Grenada kit on, even though they mounted the wrong gun. Above has an M60 mg mounted.
Thanks for all the info and input, gents!
So if I understand correctly the MUTT’s colours would/could be olivgreen/olivdrab/sand/black and I need to add an M60 on a side/dash mount + loose the windshield.
One final piggyback onto the jeep colors. IIRC, during Urgent Fury, one of the Ranger battalions in Grenada had their gun jeeps painted in overall flat black, and the other in standard MERDC temperate fall camo
Then I guess that this one was one of those black ones for night ops.
Nightsight (VPS-4?) on the 60, blinded/taped lights, very dark overal colour.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone build that yet. You should do it.
Yes lots of figure ideas as well as diorama / vignette ideas.
The guy in the front passenger’s seat also has a different weapon (M16 with M203 IRL, M60 in the box art) and the stowage on the vehicle in general is different. I’d say the box art was inspired by the photo rather than trying to faithfully copy it.
Also:does the vehicle in the photo have sand tyres with little profile? Or is the profile blurred because of movement, but at a shutter speed that’s just right to make the holes in the hubs appear static?
Is that the one where they added bigger wider tires? I have a conversion set from Kirin in my stash I think…… some great pics there which are giving me ideas!
It’s not what you roll in, it’s how you roll…
Exactly
If the yellow vehicle just came in from Egypt, then sandtires would make sense.
