Thats looking really awesome!
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Thanks buddy!!
Hi, I think it’s looking great! I love that type of “civilian stuff” loaded on a military vehicle. /Erik
Thanks Erik, appreciated!!
What a fantastic painting and detailing. VERY GOOD
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Looks pretty good. I would get rid of the oversized soda cases in the rear though. I am assuming they are Trumpeter items, which are way oversized. They would hold like 48 cans in each box. The one next to the passenger seat in the front looks like a proper 12-can pack, like below.
The most common size is the 12-pack case, which is much smaller.
Even the old 24-can case, which I don’t think you can get anymore, was much flatter. It was still only one can high.
There was a 24 pack cube too, but it is still smaller.
Thanks Mikael!! I’m glad you like it.
I have no idea what manufactures are those boxes. A very good friend of mine sent me a pdf and I only printed it. It was supossed to be 1/35.
I can make more 12pack if it’s more accurate. Or resize the pdf.
Thanks Gino!!
I’d do away with the Coke and Mountain Dew completely. We never loaded it into our trucks. It takes room away from mission essential items.
Remember, back in '02 and '03 the only folks getting cases of soft drinks lived on FOB’s, not firebases.
If we and when we did have access to them it was locally purchased. The ANA used to get a boiled egg and one of those little short cans of Pepsi for breakfast every day. I’d have breakfast with them many times, and would rat**ck the MRE’s for stuff they liked. THAT is what you would find - the half cans. And always Pepsi.
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So Coke and Mountain Dew off from the cargo. Copy that. What about the water bottles (the big ones, don’t know its name in english)??
I think I have some beer and pepsi cases to replace the coke.
Thanks Rob!!!
I won’t say those large water bottles weren’t seen early on, but we never saw them. Our gun trucks were specially outfitted to carry four five gallon cans in racks, two on either side of the bed. Either water, fuel, or a combination. Our water was Emirates. I even took a few of the boxes home with the express purpose of making my own in 1/25 scale, which worked well. I believe there is a company that has since offered them in 1/35. You are welcome to use this image and print your own.
Gun Truck Fuel/Water Storage:
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Load er up!!
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Great, Rob. I’ll print these water case for the cargo. I’ll leave the 1.5l bottles but I’ll remove the big ones. I have also got a beer cases pdf to print (Bud, Corona, Corona Light, Coors, Heineken…) So I guess Heineken is the one you’d load into the vehicle, right?
This is the pdf I’ve found to print:
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The beer isn’t something we carried around for all to see. For one thing, there was General Order Number One, which prohibited sex, porn, and alcohol in theater. I said to my company commander , who was Mormon, “No sex, no porn, no alcohol? Damn sir, I could have stayed home and had that!”
The other thing was cultural. Islam forbids the consumption of intoxicants. We didn’t exactly advertise that we had alcohol with us, although to establish rapport we never declined a request for “Wodka” which was pretty much their word for any liquor. (Some great stories resulting from that as well)
That said, if you really want to incorporate the beer into the vehicle you can. Just put it under a tarp, with a rather peeved looking officer (let’s make him from the 82nd, for reasons known only to me) lifting the corner of the tarp and discovering the beer. Not that he could have done much about it - we lived under big boy rules - supported by the very same Mormon CO: Do what you need to do, but if you get caught in a drunken fracas or wreck one of the vehicles, you will pay like anyone else. Strangely, we never had any alcohol related incidents on our deployments, but were constantly hearing about them from other units who strictly adhered to Army policy.
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Hi there guys!
There’s no new updates. Now I’m in a full stop for a while. I’m quite busy at home with some other subjects. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for some addons on its way, so when I get back on the diorama, I’ll be able to add some new stuff.
Take care buddies!!!
It’s looking great. Everything is very well done.
One small thing I forgot to mention - you can find examples of VS-17 panels online for sure. We used them at first. But never cut up. I’m sure you found a photo that shows that though, which is why you did it. And it’s probably held in place with glint tape. I’ve posted photos of my black Tacoma (Black Beauty) sporting the whole panel. That’s how we fell in on our gun trucks when we arrived. But in the above photo taken later in the deployment, Goldilocks no longer has the panel attached. Here’s why:
We had a pilot give us a class on ECAS in Afghanistan once, and he told us a few things:
At a higher altitude from which they can drop precision guided munitions, the panels mean nothing - they can’t even see them.
At lower altitudes, they’re still going to make positive ID ten ways from Sunday to insure we don’t get hit, and even if we’re not school qualified to to guide them in, they will talk us through it, and be writing information on their canopy, leg board, whatever they can. So the conversation was not “See the black Tacoma with the orange panel? That’s us!”
It was more like, “We are 100 meters west of the mosque. Make your run from north to south.” Or you could say “We are west of the Mosque, at a distance that is five times the height of the mosque.” They like that better if possible because it wasn’t always easy for them to gauge distance, but a height to distance ratio was something they could visualize."
So they pilot walked around with his arms out like a kid pretending to be an airplane while we worked through several scenarios. Sometime during the course of this he mentioned we use far too much glint tape. It creates a bloom that can make it difficult for them to see clearly. I can see where that might be a bad thing. Told us a one inch square is sufficient for them. So lesson learned for us. We removed the panels early on and put tiny squares of glint tape on the top and sides of each gun truck.
Perhaps other SF units did not, but in our battalion it became standard practice. Not as colorful for modeling purposes, for sure, but you will not be wrong in keeping the cut up panel if you have a photo of it.
From tacticool to praticool so to speak.
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Rob, I love your answer. A good masterclass of how things are done over there.
That’s the picture from I took the refpic for the panel
And the link to the website: https:/www.americanspecialops.com/photos/special-forces/special-forces-gmv-training.php
I liked it how the panel was fixed, and I though it was a nice touch for the model, instead of the big VS-17 panel.
Anyway, I’ll look for glint tape pictures and I’ll see if I can place any on the GMV.
BTW, I’ve seen recently that there’s a new SF’s GMV on youtube. I’m not sure if I like or dislike it… 
Take care buddy!!
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No, if it was in a photo, like I said, use it! Although I’m baffled by their usage of the small panel. I doubt you can see it from 500 ft AGL. Especially since it’s obscured from the rear by the roof. If you’re going to keep it I’d put one one the rear somewhere as well, for all the good it would do them. They are wearing ACU’s so this is way later in the game - I guess they haven’t visited CALL - Center for Army Lessons Learned. A lot of good institutional knowledge goes wasted when all of us old guys leave. May they needed their own pilot to come and “fly” around with his arms out…
However, you can see small pieces of glint tape on the top of each front fender held in place by hundred mile an hour tape, so at least they’ve learned that. And the sizes are appropriate.
Edit:
Ah, now it’s a little clearer. That place is in New Mexico! I’ve got photos of those very vehicles. That is Victor One. We trained in them as well. Here are Victors Three and Four:
Look a little familiar? 
ID numbers made from hundred mile an hour tape.
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It’s like in airsoft reenactment: If there’s a picture, you can use it 
Maybe the small panel is because they’re in training, I guess. I didn’t know the small pieces over the fences were glint tape. I’m on time to make them!!!
Those Victors are too clean
Hi gents!!
Finally I could ride back on the humvee. It took almost 4 months to retake the work, but now I have some more spare time and I’ve got a good mood for modelling. I didn’t shoot pictures of the steps I made, but nothing interesting. I finished all the weapons, changing the initial M249 for a Live Resin M240 instead. I also added the ammo belts as I did on the .50.
The loading bay is also finished. I put some water cans and added the spare wheel. The 4 tyres are also finished as the 2 crates on the rear. Leave some pictures (not a good ones)
A very quick shot of the Humvee on the dio
And this is what I was painted yesterday, soldier’s face.
Take care!!!
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