The unOFFICIAL 2011/20012 Veteran's Group Build

Dupes, I am glad to hear that the 1037 is complete and I look forward to the pics.

Deattilio, congrats on the marriage and retirement. Wow! That is two big steps in a very short time span, I completely understand. I'll raise one in your honor the next time I have one

Ski, that Huey looks great and the 1st place is well deserved.  Looking forward to seeing the completed pics of your M1037 Dupes.

I have not made any progress on my build in some time; my hobby schedule has been put aside for major events causing a bit hectic scrambling recently.  I got married and the next day retired from the Marine Corps and for the next week will be entertaining family visiting from Houston.  Once the dust settles I plan on catching up for lost time at the hobby desk and will post progress pics as I accomplish various stages of the build.

I had been planning the retirement and the post-retirement celebration long enough to collect ample amounts of proper Scotch for a proper toast:

A gift from the Marines at my unit:

Hey Stik - haven't been on in...a couple of weeks (or more?). The M1037 is done, I just need to find some time to take/photoshop/upload pics of her. Weather here this week is crap, so hopefully I can bang them out for you in the next day or two. My apologies for the late finish.

Beautiful work Ski and congrats on the 1st place at IPMS She is added to the front page.

Anybody else still here working and near the finish line?

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/ UH-1N Winner by usmcski, on Flickr:550:0]

Finally finished my Huey this past Thursday, just in time to enter it in the IPMS San Diego Model Expo.  She took 1st place in the Helicopter category, not bad considering it was my first competition!

Waiting on better pics to get emailed to me, so this one will have to do for now!

Semper,

Ski

Ski, a Friday extension for you is approved.

Just finishing up the weapons mounts on my UH-1N, and hoping to meet the Monday deadline!  If the weather holds, I can knock out some airbrushing this weekend, but any chance of pushing the deadline to Friday???  Hopefully I'm not putting a dent in anyone's plans!

Semper,

Ski

Roger that, My Appologies.

I just noticed that I was sending to wrong person, as well as violating polocy.

OK fellow Vets, Veterans day is this coming Monday and we still have multiple completed builds MIA. Who all needs more time and what point are you at for me to gauge time needs? I know that the good weather and other late spring activites have hit and cut into out model building time...

Ninja Viking, please contact Ski back channel and not on here with an advertisement of a product you make. It's against the FSM regs to post such and this is my Group Build to ramrod. Thanks.

To  usmcski        

 I have been looking at your collection of LVT's on the box lid.

Maybe you'll be interested in an Item I manufacture for my line of model kits.

This is a "conversion" kit for the Dragon LVT(A)-4 Kit #  7388

Please PM me if you are.

I definitely will need more time as preparing wedding and retirement has taken precedence over time at the hobby desk.  Sitting in waiting alongside my B-36 LOWRIDER has made little progress since my last posting.

Ok Vets, two weeks left here. Does anyone else need more time?

No worries there Ken. Take your trip, have fun then come home and finish up that buzzard for us here.

Sad to say that this is about as far as I'm gonna get before the deadline.     The resin and plastic came together quite nicely and have a coat of Tamiya liquid surface primer applied.  Just received the final topcoat paint in the mail today and am leaving on a two week trip, so this puppy isn't gonna be completed until sometime in June.  Any chance of an extension on the build?    If not, I'll post the final stuff in the Berny Memorial GB later.

Thanks for a nice GB Stik,

Ken

Brother, with my luck it will be a Dragon kit... they did the last few...

If you do tackle the mesh armor at least it is a fairly simple affair and given the lack of wide spread and readily available data/information it is unlikely to run into a rivet counter that would challenge any measurements or its looks.  Plus as soon as you start I’ll keep an anxious eye open for it in kit, resin or PE form.

I will be in Chino this weekend for the Planes of Fame air show but will double down on my AAV after that.

I wondered why you did not see much of that stuff. And now that you mention it, I vaguely recall seeing the mesh over drainage ditches at Pendleton when I was visiting down there a couple years back. You guys are like Eskimos, nothing off the carcass goes to waste!

I was thinking of attempting to scratch the stuff somehow for a Desert Storm Amtrack, but I have very few photos of the stuff. But then again it took me almost 20 years to finally get all the info and stuff I need for a  DD Sherman- the only thing holding me back now is I just know that if I start that project, somebody will announce that as a new kit as soon as mine is almost done. That always happens to me.

OK Vets, we have four weeks to the cutoff date of Memorial Day... the finish line is just over that hill

Ruck up!

I never had to deal with the mesh appliqué armor — mounted on tractors anyway.  From stories from those that did deal with it said it was two-points shy of total uselessness.  I was told that the Marine Corps purchased the modification against the recommendation/advice of the test branch who recommended solely purchasing EAAK.  When I got onto Tracs, modifications were still ongoing to install EAAK and bowplanes, which resulted in zebra-striped tractors for welding the EAAK mounting bosses.  The old mesh mounting bosses were removed without finesse and the scars of grinding wheels are still apparent on the hulls today.

My interaction with the mesh armor were in roles that was never intended to fill.  There are cement ditches, which were probably drain ditches in less-environmentally aware times.  These ditches were covered by cut sections of the mesh armor.  Every Thursday we had to move the mesh and sweep/clean the ditches, and even in cut sections they were quite heavy.  The second use they were commonly employed as — BBQ grill screens.  The units use to cut old 55-gallon drums and the mesh screens for use as homemade BBQ-pits.  I will be putting that on my VA paperwork, I ate quite a few burgers from these grills over the years.

The pictures I have of mesh-armored tractors were saved from the archives of the test branch.  A person that did not appreciate maintaining old documents for history, and still does not, was purging the unit of old items and managed to force a paperless archive.  Few items were saved, many photos, manuals, reports and original videos that were considered useless were destroyed.  One photo is with armor and the other without that shows the mounting bosses.  The weight and its effect on the stance of the AAV shows how absurd this idea was, she probably couldn’t of made it over a speed bump without “kissing” the steering wheel.

The last couple pictures are of the project in ‘92/93.  Although the turret was no longer mounted, the ring was still mounted.  It also still wears some of the mounting bosses for the mesh armor, while some have been removed.  A major upgrade it underwent post-turret was installation of the Bradley suspension which finally made it to production/modification on the AAV in 1999 with full fielding in approximately 2006.

Just curious, but do you have any info on the mesh applique armor that was used on Amtracks during ODS?

From what I have read it was an experiment for the Navy who was investigating the low-velocity 105mm canon and the LVT wound up as the platform.  I imagine it wreaked havoc on the vehicle’s CG, especially for waterborne operations – to the extent I have yet to find any photos or reports of it entering/operating in the water.  Of course that is not to say that it did not conduct waterborne tests/operations, I just have not come across any documentation.  Fortunately, I have a buddy that works at Barstow who volunteered his services to attain measurements/dimensions of the LVTEX there so that I will not have to guesstimate the modified bow/nose of the vehicle.  This will be a slow project to fill times when I am waiting on paint/glue/putty to dry on other projects as I foresee mandatory breaks to avoid frustration backdating in 1/72.

More recently, several years back an Elbit remote turret was mounted atop an AAV.  It was an impressive set-up and I had the opportunity to observe the turret on the range while mounted atop a 6x6 LAV — most impressive!  I must admit it was not as impressive as watching AC-130s unleash on Fallujah though, thus vulcans and bofors are thoroughly entertaining when afforded the opportunity to appreciate their effectiveness.

deattilio, that is gonna be one wild looking Amtrack after the conversion is all done. I had never heard of that before. I presume this was an attempt to give some direct fire firepower able to swim ashore on its own with the other Amtracks?

and I'll tell you what, laser light show has nothing on a 20mm Vulcan at night... If only I had known how to hook my walkman into the vehicle intercom system back then....

That M1037 is looking good, I too hope to get some quality time on my build this weekend.

The duck hunter looks sweet.  Never had the opportunity to see one of these in action, only the basic M113 locally and abroad along on rare occasions the M901 and the square-backed Med-Evac and command vehicles.

I finally attained the last kit to start a long wanted project.  In the 80’s a low-velocity 105mm cannon was mounted into an M551 Sheridan turret and placed atop an LVTP7 — with considerable modifications.  I am using the barrel from an Esci M-60, turret from Airfix’s M551 and Dragon’s AAVP7A1.

The first challenge is backdating the hull to an LVTP7 which includes major surgery to the exhaust plenum’s upper deck, reshaping the pontoons, cutting down the troop commander’s cupola, repositioning the cargo hatch supports along with a laundry list of other tids and bits.  Oh yeah, once again all in 1/72.  I am using Hobby Boss’ 1/35 LVTP7 and AAVP7A1 RAM/RS for measurements to scale various components and their placement to 1/72.

There is limited data/information readily available on the LVTEX-3.  I have a couple shots of the vehicle running around Camp Pendleton, sans turret, I snapped while at AmTrac school in ’92, couple pictures sourced from ebay and pictures I took of another LVTEX at Barstow more recently.

Your 1037 looks great so far dupes! I have spent more hours/days/weeks in those things than easily counted...

Well, I am calling my duck hunter finished. Dedicated to the men of 1st Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery, 5th Infantry Division (Mech).They always provided a great light show after dark on live fires

Great looking Vulcan, Stik!

Succumbing to peer pressure...felt I HAD to throw up a pic of some sort! I'm way beyond this stage right now, but at least it'll give you guys something to look at. Hope to have the M1037 wrapped up this weekend.

Ken you're well on your way to an ugly bird... not quite X-32 JSF ugly, but still ugly...

Well today I got the last things attached that are gonne be attached: antennas on their bases, folded cots tied down on the top deck, a rifle and some binos (fairly hidden) in the turret, and the gun optics and drivers periscopes painted. Just some final weathering and I will call this one done. I was thinking of adding some figures, but if I do, they will hide turret interior detail...

stikpusher

Dupes, whats teh maximum effective range of an excuse? C'mon troop, let's get some pics posted!  I am just looking forward to seeing a 1/35 1037 with a shelter...

Ken, nice progress work on the TF! But boy does that conversion make a sleek beautiful bird look kinda homely...

Homely indeed - I just hope my model turns out to be half as ugly as the real thing. 

Ken

Dupes, whats teh maximum effective range of an excuse? C'mon troop, let's get some pics posted!  I am just looking forward to seeing a 1/35 1037 with a shelter...

Ken, nice progress work on the TF! But boy does that conversion make a sleek beautiful bird look kinda homely...

Have made a little progress on the TF-102.  Added some reinforcement and alignment bars to join the resin piece to the aft fuselage.

The pit's in and the inlets  are attached.  Not glued together yet, but it's starting to resemble an aircraft.

Ken

Howdy! Almost done with my M1037...haven't been very good about taking pics. It's so close now I think I'll just wait until I'm done.

Had a couple of (over) weathering snafus, but I think it looks halfway decent. Update soon!