Tamiya mortar crew question

Hello!

Those uniforms are kinda funny - looks like those are pre-vietnam uniforms. But with a little fixing they could be converted - you'd have to paint the boots to represent jungle boots, ad cargo pockets on the trousers and the rear pockets. In Vietnam the shirts were also worn on the outside. Here's a link where I convert Tamiya figures from a similar kit (scroll down a little):

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/M55mod2en.htm

Hope it helps, have a nice day

Paweł

Is the one guy wearing a flak jacket? I think you're right. Late Vietnam through 1985 probably. Someone who is a webbing expert will probably have a more defined answer. 

Definitely early 60s.

The figures are actually supposed to be late 70s to early '80s and are wearing OG107 Type III Fatigues.  OG107s were non-combat fatigue uniforms worn from the late '50s until replaced by BDUs in the '80s.  The Y-back LCE suspenders make them post Vietnam as they were not fielded until the mid-70's

OG107 Fatigues

Right Gino. We had this convo a few back, you pointed out the Y web gear. Thinking you also said the original TaMiya M113 crew and command sets had the same era uniforms

WHen I was over there in the Air Force, we were issued pairs of jungle fatigues, jungle boots, and cammoflaged fatigues.  On occasion, but not very often I would end up wearing my stateside fatigues and leather boots, normally it would be during a cooler period or if the hooch girls fell behind in their work for some reason.

Sometimes we were lucky enough to come across the current issued suspenders, but very few of us had them.  Some of our guys actually went and bought whatever they could find for equipment, some of it left over from the previous war.

One of the hot items was to be able to come across a aircrew survival vest.  These could be stuffed with all sorts of things, ammo, food, day/night flares and so on.  It just depended on how that particular vest was set up.  Some were modified to handle a ammo pouch for an M-16 or had a holster attached on the lower right side.  It just depended on what you found.

There were times we would have to raid the salvage yard just for basic equipment like ammo packs or canteens.

Here ya go, circa 1969 

glenn sandbags fsb1 by Glenn Hanson, on Flickr

Given that the LBE are buckled up, this would have to represent a training situation, as almost every mortarman I've ever seen (particularly back in that erea) wore their LBE unbuckled as a matter of style.

The box art is bit off for the color.  This image shows what the fresh from manufacturere look:

Note that each of the parts was likely to differ in hue from each other, and then would fade differently, too.  Some bits would get a pale greeen, some had a color similar to zinc chromate green. 

The lmetal loop & button belt buckles were replaced--in front line units around 1979 with the green plastic "click" buckle seen above. 

Now, to be fair, the OG 10 utility uniforms and the 1975 LC-1 web gear were still in National Guard use well into the 80s.

If you use google image search, remember that the other name for this mortar is "four deuce" from the 4.2" caliber the 107mm tube has.

Oh, as the four-deuce also wants a lot more sand bagging than that.  (If you want to add a detail, add some of the folded green vinyl sandbags.  ref:

CapnMac82

Given that the LBE are buckled up, this would have to represent a training situation, as almost every mortarman I've ever seen (particularly back in that erea) wore their LBE unbuckled as a matter of style.

In tracks, most mortar maggots did not even wear it... 

CapnMac82

Now, to be fair, the OG 10 utility uniforms and the 1975 LC-1 web gear were still in National Guard use well into the 80s.
 

in '84 they were still authorized on active duty, but with the BDU cap instead of the beetle bailey style cap...  and I could swear on my first NTC rotation in summer '85 that some guys wore them instead of BDUs when we were not in MOPP...