New 1/35 Tamiya: M561 Gama Goat

Ah CSC... that's a name I have not heard in a long time... Crazy Horse!

saw a pre-issue of this. looks nice except for no canvas, cab or back. would have to make a small base in order to really show the articulation. could do a swim dio but swimming my gun tracks was scary enough. will break my no new model vow and get this when iy comes out.

I just got a Mule by Dragon. It's also a different looking vehicle.

Somebody tell Mr. Tamiya, I WILL buy the Goat.

I have a buddy with one sitting in his shop, he says it wears him out after about an hour, both with the noise and the steering, but it's nifty to see it coming through the woods. He can't use it for a hunting rig cuz the deer hear it and won't come back till next season.

never used one of those vehicles but did wear the OD fatigues (pickle suit) when I first got in back in the early 80s.

Hobbymodelbau Schmidt did a vacuform years ago. This will surely be an improvement.

Fond memories of these rattletraps. The National Guard Armory where I grew up had one of these on display at their open houses for years.

hey spaltro3

you're about the only person with fond memories of the goat.

Tamiya has an image up on their website now for this- 82nd Airborne Field Artillery unit markings. Looking good to my eyes. BTW, they are also doing a M151A1 jeep in USMC Vietnam guise, and re issuing their M151A2 jeep with couple new figures and a .50 mount in a "Grenada 1983" boxing. Looks like Tamiya is doing a little work in the area of late Cold War softskins. Oh yeah!

stik, Getting this on your last two entries:

Nice... I will have see if I can find and post those images from elsewhere...

Interesting... on my tablet, I get the message for bandwidth. On my desktop those images show up fine...

but here is another go at them from another site

Tamiya kit 332 M151A2 Grenada invasion 1983

Tamiya kit 334 M151A1 Vietnam War

And since this thread is about the Goat kit after all...

While the subject is very welcome, looking at those sprue shots it would be nice for Tamiya to step up their detail level to other companies.  I am still seeing 1980's details like molded on grab handles, tool straps and tie downs, one piece clunky drive-train and solid engine grills.

An open grill with a seperate radiator on the 151 would be nice. Academy did it on their 151s, although those are all newer mold kits. Seperate grab handles would be ok, but seperate tie down points and tool straps are overkill for many modelers. Those tiny finicky things are best left to the AM folks. Tamiya for the past few decades has been about engineering and fit/ease of assembly. Heck, as you see, the other manufacturers arent even touching the Goat. And those 151 kits date back to the early 80s originally.

Are there more sprue shots of the M151A1?  Did they correctly change the suspension for the A1 or is it another half ***ed "update" like the Academy M151A1?

That was the only sprue shot on that website. I could not answer you about how much they changed the suspension. I see new parts for that on the sprues, but having never been under an A1, let alone driven one, in person I can not vouch for the accuracy.

My old man used to hate those M151s. He said that one of the bad things about it was when it would break down, you would get your boot stuck in the grill when you kicked it.

Oh I loved driving them... maybe that's why I have had jeeps for the past 15 years. But I would have sure hated getting my boot stuck in the grill. I did miss being able to push start on HMMWVs...

Bronto

Are there more sprue shots of the M151A1?  Did they correctly change the suspension for the A1 or is it another half ***ed "update" like the Academy M151A1?

Based on the above pic, the A1 rear suspension parts are all there.  They are the two pieces below the grill on the right side.    From what else I can see, it looks like they did a pretty complete rework to make an accurate M151A1.  I will be getting a few to se how correct they are.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I like this photo. Looks like the wire cutter hadn't gone out of style in 1983. I believe this is an A2.  82nd AB.

No, the wire cutters could still found occasionally. Interesting photo- M-16A1 with K-pots and Kevlar vests. Modified grill... BDE HQ-6 bumper codes, Beret flash from Brigade/Division HQ troops, the RTO  climbing in the back... that is a brigade commander's ride, Yes that is a 151A2, the amber lamps on the countoured front fenders are a feature of the A2

Interesting photo- M-16A1 with K-pots and Kevlar vests.

This was standard for the 82nd in Op Urgent Fury (Grenada).  The K-pot was just issued and only the 82nd had them.  M16A2's were not really in use until the late '80s to early '90s.  Some active units still hade M16A1s when they deployed to ODS '90.

I was always under the impression that the 82nd had the M16A2 for Grenada and were the first to use them in combat. But looking at photos now, I guess not... I know that my old mech unit, the 4/6 Inf, had M-16A1s in Panama in 1989.

I have 2 Gama goat kits here, one almost done  and the other waiting to see what appears from the aftermarket boys.

Does anyone know what the fs nos are for the 4 colour scheme on the Goat?

It can be posed in such a way as to show it's off road capabilities but I would have liked to be able to had the front and rear axles steering.

Pete

Here's a link to my camouflage manual from 1976. There are some color samples on the pages.

gallery3.kitmaker.net/.../14775

Here you go.

gurth.home.xs4all.nl/.../merdc.html

This article gives you all the different color combos for MERDC camo and many popular hobby color equivalants.

Good luck and be sure to show us when you are done.

Thank you Gentlemen.

Pete