Some Vietnam War vehicle works in progress

Great work .Ive done most of those as well but not the trucks.excellent from me

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Very nice builds, details and weathering are spot on. Well done!
I do have a question for someone with more knowledge of vehicle markings than I have. I noticed the hood stars on all the trucks here are oriented with the point toward the front. My (possibly faulty) memory of our M35’s in Germany was the point of the star being towards the windshield (this was 1969, and our stars were black). I looked at some photos I took in RVN in 1970, but no hood stars were visible. I then went on line to look for US Army vehicles in RVN, and period photos exist showing the stars oriented both ways! (So the models here are 100% correct). Does anyone know what the regulations at the time called for? Small matter, but I’m kind of curious. Again, to be clear, the models shown here are beautifully done, I’m questioning why the real vehicles were inconsistent with the hood star orientation.

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Check out Pawel’s website about the star orientation in the 1964 Technical Bulletin 746-93-1 about vehicle markings :

https://www.vietnam.net.pl/TB746/Section3.htm

Here’s one of the included drawings

(Post edited after I realized I had misreaded the text I was refering to…)

H.P.

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Thanks for your reply, I did find a 1969 photo of our Motor Pool in Germany, taken from a 2nd floor, of course it had snowed the night before and all the hoods were covered with snow!

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Typical model builders luck, must be a subsection of Murphys Law:
When you finally manage to find a reference photo from the correct angle
the detail you are looking for will be hidden by something.

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@Frenchy @SFCJJC - I’m so glad my web page could help you here. But I respectfully disagree - if you follow the link and scroll down to 11e you will be able to read the following: “On horizontal surfaces the star will be applied with one point directly toward the front of the vehicle or equipment. On vertical surfaces the star will have one point directly up.”. So that’s fairly clear.

Now people with experience in the US Army told me, that it wouldn’t be SO unusual for an officer to come around, take a look at that hood star and order it to be painted the other way around because it looked strange to him. As a private, would you argue? Then again privates can make a mistake, too - I heard they are actually expected to… So if it wasn’t caught, then you would have the hood star “WW II” style. This mistake is also very common on restored vehicles.

But on the @OpRN s models they are by the book.

Hope it helps - have a nice day!

Paweł

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Thanks for that info, as I mentioned in my original post, @OpRN’s models are 100% correct according to photos I saw on line. My question was why I saw them both ways in some of the period photos. As a former Platoon Sergeant, I can think of some guys in the unit who might have been a little fuzzy on definitions of “horizontal” vs “vertical” :slightly_smiling_face:, so that might explain some things. Vehicles weren’t my job, so I never paid much attention to what was painted on them (now as a model maker, I wish I had). Again, thanks for the research, I appreciate it.

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Some very amazing pieces; especially the M132 and the 5-ton tractor pulling the ammo.

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I purchased the M123 from TWS a long time back, and coincidentally picked up a copy of a then-current Military Miniatures In Review (MMiR) that had a build of the very same truck. It was a guide that addressed all of the fit issues and missing details that were needed to build the resin kit. Sorry I no lomger have that particular MMiR copy.

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Thanks, I probably have the MMiR issue in my dusty stash. However, it’s already built and I have the brain lesions and bald spots to prove it! :grin:

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All the builds look excellent.

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