Iraq Patrol

I really liked what you have done!  Well done!   The only thing I noticed that may need little more work to make it even better... the road doesn't look right to me.  Add some dirt or smaller rocks?  It is too smooth to be a road especially in Iraq.  Of course I haven't been there but watching alot of TV news it seems there are alot of dirt or cracked roads mainly. 

Again, well done especially the hanging electric wires!  That's my favorite part...

Cool build.

That building to nice for a Haji structure.

Nice job, I like the work on the  three color camo.

The US figures suggest Desert Storm, i.e., BDU's and standard M16's. Were these still in use in 2003 or had the troops transitoned to DCU's and M4's? I'm not sure. If not, did the Humvees in DS have the armor upgades?

Also, becareful about decalling. Lay down a gloss coat before you apply your decals..there's some silvering still visible.

I was deployed in Feb. 2004 to Iraq in DCUs, but with a BDU body armor and an M16A2, just like this diorama. The guys deployed in later 2004 got the DCU body armor, then the ACUs came out around 2006.

Most of the 1st Cavalry Division active duty had M4, but almost all the National Guard and Reserves had M16.

The Striker guys were wearing DCU colored ACU in 2004-2005 as an experimental uniform.

The Humvee has a fiberglass turtle shell, but with the up-armored doors and rocker panels. These were used a lot in 2003-2004 until more M1114 were built.

iraqiwildman

I was deployed in Feb. 2004 to Iraq in DCUs, but with a BDU body armor and an M16A2, just like this diorama. The guys deployed in later 2004 got the DCU body armor, then the ACUs came out around 2006.

Most of the 1st Cavalry Division active duty had M4, but almost all the National Guard and Reserves had M16.

The Striker guys were wearing DCU colored ACU in 2004-2005 as an experimental uniform.

Thanks for the info and for the service.

Decent job overall.  The figures are interacting well.  For improvements I would suggest more dust everywhere, and make the rubble match the building - the building appears to be concrete block, and the rubble looks like gravel.

Very nice but I thought of thinking making the whole diorama more vibre. Maybe the building shall be painted in desert yellow with some grafiti? Just some personal suggestion. 

I like it, I do agree with the comments about the road being a bit to smooth. Also, to me there is something about the red picture frame that just seems a bit out of place to my eye. I really like the arresting fig and his suspect, thier poses look really good.

I don't know a thing about military stuff, so I can't offer any  comments on that front. However, I would suggest that the frame around the edge of your future dios not rise above ground level. It cuts into the scene and is a little distracting. Keep building!

One thing that I noticed is the power pole.  The Iraqis' don't have wood so that pole would be made out of concrete poured from a square form with rebar.  The top would come to a point.  The crossarms would be metal.  That is the way they were at Kirkuk, Nov. 03 to March 04.  I was in charge of the AF Civil Engineering Electrical section, maintaining the old Iraqi distribution system on the Army side of the base, which truly was the 'Dark Side".  You could throw some comm wire up there on the pole as the Army's Signal people ran it everywhere, and then wondered why it was sparking, even close to a 11 KV line.

Thanks everyone for the good suggestions.  The pavement will get more dirt and some cracks.  As for the building, I think the photos washed it out more than it looks in person so I'll leave it the same color, but I like the idea of maybe some graffiti or a sign on on eof the walls to add some more visual interest.  The pole is finished with a metallic sheen and the crossbars are rusty metal not wood, but I hadn't appreciated they were often concrete and pointy on top.  Nothing like eyewitness accounts to shore up the details!  I'll look for some images of poles like that and see whether a change is feasible. 

Thanks also for the compliments, I arranged and rearranged the figures over a couple of weeks until I arrived at a layout that seemed right.   I'll post some updated photos in a couple of weeks after I've had a chance to get back to this one (and the Berlin '45 scene posted separately).  

ajlafleche

Nice job, I like the work on the  three color camo.

The US figures suggest Desert Storm, i.e., BDU's and standard M16's. Were these still in use in 2003 or had the troops transitoned to DCU's and M4's? I'm not sure. If not, did the Humvees in DS have the armor upgades?

BDUs (the tricolor NATO fatigues)  were still in use during Iraqi Freedom--not all units had made the transition to the ACU's (Army Combat Uniforms--the digital stuff you see on TV all the time), especially the Reservists (but not all are slow, take Colorado for example--our reserves all have ACUs). Heck, BDUs are only just being phased out in the last year or two. Mostly, however, you would see the mid-90s desert camo (Light tan, brown and pale green blotches) instead of BDUs; it is the desert after all. 

The Humvee Rhino armor suppliments, the add-ons, are a recent development, developed in the last three or four years due to overwhelming losses of Humvees to RPGs.

M-16s, meanwhile, are still in the arsenal, mostly used by Reservists. Regular army troops recieve ACUs and M4s.

To clear up the above post...

The 3-color Desert Camo Unifoms are called DCUs.  BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) are Woodland Camo uniforms.  DCUs were the main uniform in the early days of OIF and up until about '06-'07.  Some BDU items were still mixed in with the DCUs by Reserve and National Guard units in the early days as well since there were not enough DCUs to go around.  Also, most IBA body armor was in Woodland Camo in the early days as well.  DCU pattern IBAs came around in about '04-'05.  The digital pattern ACU uniform (and IBA, along with most other uniform items - canteen pouches, ammo pouches, ruck sacks, butt packs, etc.) began being issued in '06 to Stryker units deploying.  By '07, most Soldiers deploying had ACUs.  In April '08, the ACU was declared the only uniform authorized for wear by all US Army Soldiers (Active, Reserve, and National Guard).

The Humvee ASK (Armor Survivability Kit) (not Rhino armor) was developed in the mid '90s and was added to HMMWVs in Iraq in early '04 as IEDs became an issue, not RPGs.  It will not (and was not intended to)defeat RPGs.  The ASKs were installed as a stopgap until more M1114s and M1151s could be built and fielded.  Most ASK HMMWVs were gone by '06.

Not all active duty troops receive M4s.  I last deployed in '08-'09 and went with an M16A2.  There are still a good mix of M4s and M16A2s in the active force as well.

The dio looks good.  I agree on the telephone pole.  I made a square, concrete on for my OIF On Patrol dio.

 The barbed wire looks a little too shiney as well.  Maybe hit it with some dullcoat to tone it down.  Good job overall.

In 2004, the Stryker Brigade at Camp Cooke / Taji had an experimental ACU style uniform that was in DCU colors. They did not have the velcro on the sleeve pockets or the front.