Hi all!
I´ve seen on the new war news some vehicles with what looks like a venetian window on the side of the turrets, I´d like to know what is it and what they are for?here is a pic of an M1 kit with this kind of "window" on the side of the turret...

Thanks on advance!

As far as i know they are identification panels that can be seen at night by infra red.

Thanks...
Does anybody knows how it works?
Cheers

Had to Edit this sorry!!

Hi Paulo,
It is made of between 4 to 7 aluminium slats which cool the device down more than the surrounding area and shows a dark spot (COLD) on thermal imaging devices.
The slatted panel is supposed to be a white colour so the modeller here is wrong.
The slats are supposed to face downwards so at least he is correct on this point.
[edit] There should be IFF panels to the front and rear of the turret also.

I thought this was the real thing. Is this really a model? Look at the texture on the hull top! [snip]! It fooled me!

Not supposed to hide profanities in our posts.

It does look good, but the end connectors are all facing the wrong way. They have been installed upside down.

hey sabot,
how does it things works?
Could you tell us?

Thanx to the MOD.
This shows the slats and their styles, slats pointing DOWN
HTH

These are not so much devices as they are panels with slats. They are not elctric or anything, they just have vanes in them that cool them slightly more than everything else. They are for a thermal environment, not an IR environment. Since they are just slightly cooler than the surrounding tank, they show up as a big dark blotch in the middle of a big bright blotch on the thermal viewer. This makes the tanks identifiable in a thermal environment. As I have said elsewhere, I don't think there is a wrong way to mount them (up or down). I have several pics of them mounted up and Martin has several pics of them mounted down.

I have just added a few pics to my webshots folder that show it pointed up, and Martin has provided several that show them pointed down, so it is probably dictated by unit. Martin is also right that many of them are painted white curently, and I think this does have to do with infra red, although I see a lot where the are Desert Sand with a vehicle identifier painted or taped on. I think the current trend is white though.



Rob

the thermal angel on this is correct, as is the way they work. they also can be mounted either way, and in any place attachable(if that is even a word) Units will stick to the same mounting scheme . left rightn,or bustle,or combination of the three.

Theres one more thing I dont understand. What is the reason behinf the half diamond shape found on all coalition vehicles.

Thanks

It does just that, identifies coalition vehicles. They all have them on them, and I believe Kuwati vehicles also have three vertical white stripes to the side of the chevron. There was also a piece in either the Osprey or Concord book about the M1A1 that shows how the rotation of the chevron as well as additional markers can be used to identify which division and group the tank is from.

I can't speak for British vehicles, but on U.S. vehicles those panels are painted to match the overall color of the vehicle they're on (at least the ones I've seen in photos and IRL).