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Thunder Run

This is a Dragon 3535 M1A1 AIM kit that was built in support of the Ft. Stewart (Georgia) Army Base Museum Thunder Run exhibit that is being put together by the museum staff and supporters. Many Armorama members have built the M1A1 tanks, Bradley IFVs, and M113 vehicles that will be displayed as part of a large diorama, depicting the U.S Army Thunder Run which surged through the heart of Bagdad, Iraq, and took control of its International Airport on April 5, 2003. Many of the builds have been included as threads here, showing how the vehicles were created, from kit and after-market item selections, and tracking the builds as they went along. I came late to this group, when I wrote to Robert Burik, who is not only a builder of several of these tracks, but an author of books on the Thunder Run, which were used by many of the modelers as references for their builds. My contribution, tank A11, named “Answer To This”, was commanded by Army Lt. Robert Ball, and was the lead vehicle of the armored column on that April day in 2003. Lt. Ball provided comments and photos of the actual tank, and contributed, as did Mr. Burik, in helping me get the details right for this tank. Some details on this tank were aftermarket items, such as the Bronco tracks, the weapons a mixture of Live Resin and Legend pieces, the stowage was a mix of scratch built epoxy and Legend and Tamiya parts, and the figures were Master Box and Hornet items. Some of the details, such as the directions where the weapons are pointing, were changed subsequent to these photos, in the interest of accuracy. While many of the builds for this Ft. Stewart display, chronicled in Armorama, exhibit modeling and painting skills that far exceed my modest capabilities, I thought it might be of interest to readers to see what a relative novice in building armor can accomplish with proper references and a will to create something that will celebrate the extraordinary efforts of the brave soldiers who made this run into Baghdad another headline in the book of accomplishments of the U.S. Armed Forces. Please enjoy looking!