Iff infred panal us tactial afv

thats what i was told too, although they dont seem to work very well!!!!

These are vehicle I.D. pannels that reduce the thermal signature in the spot that is covered. So if you were to look through a M3 thermal that is set on "Black Hot" , meaning every thing that is hot will show up in black, there will be a white square. And if you are set on "White Hot" it would be the opposite. We use these pannels to reduce as you said the Blue on Blue or the Friendly Fire.
They work for the most part and they are better than nothing. In my HMMWV Scout Platoon we have them mounted on the hood and both front doors.
A big problem that still leads to friendly fire is the lack of cross talk between units on the battle field or guys getting lost and being out of their sector. Another big problem is that we have these awesome weapons like the M1 and the main gun can shoot farther than the sight can see clearly.
The bottom line is that you better know where you are and you better know where all your buddies are. And you better be able to talk to them.
Building the pannels for a model should be easy if you use Evergreen styreen sheets. I don't know the exact size off the top of my head but they are about a 3' X 3' square. They cover the whole width of a HMMWV door.
Hope this helps,
Pat

how deep are these panels?

seems like a good idea, i guess they should make national flags that show up the same way. or teach pilots some basic recognition , i.e 'if its red white and blue flag, has day-glo orange sheets on the roof, and doesnt look like any sort of enemy tank (assuming they paid attention in AFV recognition class) and spurts red smoke after you shoot at it, DONT KILL THEM'

or maybe they should make all armoured recconaissance troopers (like me) into pilots, problem solved!!!!

God bless the blue on blue victims

Those pilots have a tough time identifying targets. We tankers have a tough time identifying targets from a stationary tank at 3,000 meters (almost 2 miles). Imagine trying to do the same thing at high speed from 10,000 feet up. Difficult job, even when the bad guys are chucking AAA at you.

Off the top of my head again I would say it would be 3" to 5" deep. No more than 5". I'm not in the motor pool today so I'm going with my best guess:)
Let us know how it worked out for you.
Pat

I've built several CIPs for my M1A1 models already. Basically I used .080" C-Channel strip styrene for the sides, glued to a roughly 3/4" square piece of .040" sheet styrene. The slats fit nicely into the C-Channel strip and can be angled properly. My first attempts were not 100% successful, but this latest model I've done looks great. Cutting the thin sheet styrene (can't remember the thickness, but its the thin stuff) for the slats is a pain in the butt and can make or break a well built CIP panel. Lots of measuring to get the scale right, but it comes out to about 5 scale inches deep.

Thank you. The information is indeed greatly weclome.