So a few of you saw my post about my absence after my wife died but in all the craziness after that I did manage to complete my M60A1 that showed previously so I thought I’d share the final results!
My goal was to show a crew reloading and refitting sometime during the first Gulf War. Kit was Tamiya, accessories and gear is a mix from ValueGear, Tamiya and who knows where else. Figures predominately Tamiya and my first attempts at modifying figures to which I found a bit more challenging then I expected.
Paint was was Vallejo’s US desert paint set over MERDC, hair sprayed over the green brown black, then all my desert gradations then back to chipping for the wear. So it’s subtle but up close I think the effect is solid. Weathered with oils and generic pastels ground down. Base is that purple insulating foams, plaster and then Woodland Scenics ballasts. Low wall out of clay to block the corner. Signs from Verlinden. Air panel is tinfoil and the magenta from Army Painters War Colors (my daughter paints D&D minis). Markings were kit and some Verlinden dry transfers.
Only misstep was the uniforms, my initial was a lot brighter and unfortunately the wash I used darkened it up way too much. I tried to lighten after the fact with some oils but just decided greasy sweat stained was my story.
And the story. New TC arguing with the crew on what order and how he wants it loaded. Bandanna Joe is sitting there going “seriously, we got this”.
OK, first off, my condolences about your wife.
Great job on this! Looks suitably busy, with lots of action going on. From what I can see, the uniforms look fine; sweat, dirt, grease, and grime are real!
A couple of personal observations, you can do what you want with them.
The blue tank ammunition is training ammo, it would not be used in combat. I would repaint it black.
I personally would never leave tank ammo laying on top of the tank, too much chance of it falling and getting banged up. Damaged ammo may jam up in the breech or cause other problems. Other people may have different opinions about this.
On all the crews I was on, the loader determined what ammo goes where. He is the one who has to grab the correct ammo when called for and know how many of each type are left.
Ken
Just an odd aside. My tank company crewed M60A1s in ODS. We crossed the boarder in the wee hours of the morning. We crossed two mine fields and had a couple of tanks go down clearing the lanes through the mine field but we got the job done. We slooowly (OMG) moved forward as the grunts cleared some trenches. Past the trenches we shot up some dug in tanks and vehicles. Visibility wasn’t bad that morning. As the day progressed we kept creeping forward, collecting POW’s as we continued to move. We stopped shooting the abandoned vehicles and started saving the ammo incase actual threats were encountered. By the end of the day we circled up and a single 5 ton truck came into our site with ammo. That was not nearly enough. We asked where the rest of the ammo was. What they said was that was all that was allotted to us after the first day because we were expected to have 85% casualties, so only a truck load was needed. Sh_t… We cross loaded what we had to balance everyone’s load for the next morning. Sorry to dissapoint…
As an after thought, it all makes sense if you are in the Corps for any length of time. We were given two clips of 9mm each, two grenades for the tank and two magazines of ammo for the onboard M16. You would think…going into battle you would get more but that’s the Corps. We were not near any army unit to improve our ammo allotment, so we went with what was graciously given to us.
