Tamiya 1/35 M151A2

Overall it looks good, but you seem to have intermixed a few details. You've got the full USMC style front bumper (should cut off the ends and not add those side U-shaped shackles), but have the US Army exhaust pipe end (the Marines use the deepwater fording exhaust).

You've also installed the rear bumperettes upside down, the tabs should point down and not up. There's also a couple of mounting pins above the left bumperette that were for the 5 gal can holder that should have been removed.

Other than that, it appears to be a good, solid build.

Thanks so much for your observations Rob. Darn it, this sounds silly but the reason why I missed the orientation on the bumperettes, is because in the instructions, that step (2) the chassis is upside down    will fix ASAP!

The kit came with 2 shovels, there is no way I can fit one of them where the instructions say the should go ??? The U shaped shackles have been removed as I type, they fit without glue so no mess was left. Darn upside down chassis, I'll take care of those pins asap too ;o)

It looks nice! Could you please say what's it gonna be - US Army or Marines vehicle? Also, while you're at it, maybe you would like to try to replace the bumperettes by ones made from sheet metal - they would look a lot better (1:1 they are made of sheet at most 1/8th of an inch thick). And at the risk of repeating myself - in case of an OD US Army vehicle, the hood star should point forward (my personal crusade ). Good luck with your build, have a nice day

Paweł

The regular postion for the shovel is where the relocated spare tire now sits. The "extra" shovel is mounted on the right front fender because of this.

El Taino, thanks for the kind words. Your TOW jeep looks great. I have two critiques-1) The windshield should probably be down, you can see how it interferes with the launch tube when its up, 2) that radio (a VRC-47) you have on the floorboard between the pedestal mount and the left side rear jump seat should not be there. The vehicle already has GRC-160 mounted on the shelf behind the drivers seat. It has no need, or antenna mount, for a 2nd system. Your weathering looks pretty good, I really like the spatter effect.... especially on that windshield.

And back to my personal crusade! See the photo Rob posted? Our German friends restoring the TOW Jeep also went against the TB for painting the hood star. This is a very confusing subject and reversing the stars happens all the time onrestored vehicles and models. So please watch it (the TB from 1956 specifies the national star on horizontal surfaces should point FORWARD). Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Heres a good shot of one in Vietnam...

Yeah! Excellent!

Busy day yesterday, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day.

Thanks Pawl, Rob and Carlos for coaching the finishing touches here. I must admit that I didn't do any research on this subject at all being a ''simple'' build.

Rob, that picture helped a lot. I knew the shovel was supposed to be on the fender, but the instructions shows it from the driver's side, so the drawing wont show that literally the shovel's handle would go on top of the lamp. I did cut two thin stripes of .010 styrene as straps. Currently waiting for the glue to do its job.

Stik and Pawl, are you guys suggesting that the model should have the star?

Thanks again guys.

Not as you've got it painted, mainly with the lusterless black markings. That scheme existed mainly in pre-positioned stocks or National Guard shared motor parks where multiple units would draw vehicles when they trained in the summer. Sort of a generic looking vehicle that could be camouflaged quickly in the standard MERDC scheme for whichever region the vehicle would be sent to.

On these vehicles, the bumper markings are normally temporary. Green duct tape (aka 100 mph tape) would be applied to the areas of the bumper and stenciled on either by spray paint or magic marker and removed after the units' two week annual training.

I saw a lot of vehicles marked like this at North Fort Hood, Camp Shelby and Fort Drum when I trained as an enlisted man or evaluated as an officer.

Your markings are for the 2nd Infantry Division (the US Army's main ground force in South Korean for the last 40+ years) though. It would have been in standard 4-color MERDC scheme and probably not in overall solid green.

I also noticed you added the extra radios to the floor of the rear compartment. Those radios are for a command version of the Jeep and wouldn't be with that vehicle let alone left on the floor. The radio you do have installed is basically the vehicle version of the standard man-packed PRC-77 and is proper for a TOW Jeep.

No white star. Once the vehicle markings got away from white bumper codes, the large white stars also disappeared. At best you may find a small black star on the front bumper and sides, but not on any upper surfaces.

Here we go guys, corrections and a new set of pictures.