Is the M109A6 Paladin used currently in Iraq?

Thanks,
Evan

They were at least present at Camp Victory during the summer of 2007. I don't know who they belonged to, but there was a line of them in a motor pool on the north side of the camp.

They were also seen in Tal Afar in May of '08.

OK cool, i am thinking about building the Italeri kit

How is it?

Evan

The Italeri kit is pretty good. There are a couple corrections to make it up to date. Italeri used the older hull from their earlier M109 kits, with some incorrect fittings.

The biggest issue is the boomerang-shaped raised area in front of the turret opening on the hull top. This is an armored cover for air lines from a former flotation system. It is not present on the Paladin (or any other M109 since the A1 version). To be accurate, it should be removed. To make it less noticable, since most of it is under the turret overhang, trim down the outer edges that are raised up, and leave off parts #53, the end pieces with the connections on them.

The driver's hatch should have a thin piece of spaced armor on top of it. It is the same shape as the hatch and raised off it about 1". 0.020 sheet styrene with a couple 0.020 squares at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions under it work great. The two handles attach to it in the same place as well.

You should also drill out the exhaust and add a small piece of screen over the opening. You can add the drain hose for the radiator on the front of the raised engine compartment area too. There is a piece added to the stepped part of the front of the engine grill, attach the hose here (see pics).

On the turret's left side, there is a round vent on the door for the hydraulic pump. The lip on the vent should not be there. Remove the lip and drill 3 small holes at the 10, 2 and 6 o'clock positions. On the door to the right of the vent door is a horizontal handle. The instructions have you put it on wrong. Turn it over so the pins that go in the holes are sticking out. These are stops for the handle so it is only allowed to go to the horizontal when lifted up. There is also a collar missing on the barrel about 1 inch forward of were it attaches to the mantlet. It can be made by wrapping a piece of 0.030 styrene around it and adding 6 boltheads to it.

The kit tracks are stiff, but can be used. To get a better look, use a set of the AFV Club (formerly Skybow) T-136 108/M109 tracks. They are not totally correct for a Paladin, but close enough. They look awesome and give you a few extra to add the tracks on the front battery boxes (not shown in the kit instructions). The access covers on the left front of the hull should have two individual tracks, and one set of two tracks connected on them. If you use the kit tracks, there are a couple runs of extras, just cut one apart to get the individual ones.

Check out Prime Portal for some Paladin referance pics too.

Also check out this build article at Missing-Lynx on the Paladin . Disregard this part though, " I omitted grab handles from part 91c, the armored cover for the auto fire control, as I have not seen these on real vehicles. " The handles should be there and are on actual Paladins.

Good luck.

There's a lot more you'll need to do to make an accurate model from the kit. Some are very noticeable, some are not. Thankfully, none of it is difficult. Bear in mind that these suggestions are only if you want to go whole hog. I'd at least change the big ones.
First off, those handles mentioned in the build log - the reason the guy didn't see them is because there are a lot of Paladins out there without them. I'll get the nasty "photos of photos" out of the way first. This has no handles:

You'll probably want to choose a specific vehicle to model, and go with its differences in details. I left the handles off of this one:

And added them to this one:

You'll also notice in the actual photo above a large squarish object in the middle of the frame. That is the speed counter. On my first build, you see it, and the second, just the mount. At a minimum, you need to drill a hole in the mount. You can also see the collar on the barrel, and the weld on the sleeve prior to the collar. You'll have to add those.
The next big change is the bore evacuator. It should look like this: (I hate to use a model as a reference, but unless you want more photos of photos, these will have to do)

The next thing is the arrangement of stowage boxes on the back. The kit retains the older layout, which is incorrect for the Paladin: (Last photo of a photo)

You'll also notice in the above photo, the bar above the towing pintle. That's the primary door lock. Without the spades in the way, the boxes should look something like this:

Or this:

Now for the more nitpicky things. In this photo, the hatch on the left has a raised lip in the kit. You'll have to sand off the lip, and scribe the hatch outline. The other hinged hatch on the right flips rearward. It needs a bump stop and locking latch. Note location:

Now note the location of the bump stop and locking latch on this one, also correct:

As for that flotation gear collar, you may as well remove the whole thing. First, fill in the back side with CA and hit it with accelerator. You don't HAVE to do this, but it helps:

Use a barrel shaped steel cutter and remove the collar. Finish with a sanding stick made from plexiglass. The entire process, start to finish, takes less than five minutes. (honest!)
Add bolt heads, and ventilator intake. One PE set actually has a replacement intake:

Here's the additional hatch armor. You can also see extra detail on the recuperator housing in the background, with a lot of extra bolts and hinge detail:

There are still a few more changes you'll need to do. On the front of the hull is small round plate. Remove it. On the gun crutch mount there is a small notch to fit around that plate. Fill it in. You can also add thinner rubber mud flaps in front, grease fittings, etc...
Also, the is quite a bit of detailing you can do to the commander's hatch and gun mount. There are also precut non-skid panels which I made from wet/dry paper. Pics of these last items can be seen in my Armorama gallery, but it's too tedious to try to post them directly. You'll see them if you look. I hope this wasn't too much at one time. One last tip though, when it comes time to paint the rubber tires, mask the wheels off with loose leaf paper reinforcers. They are the perfect size.

Thanks for the help,
Evan

I found another detail I haven't seen anyone model. (not that is hasn't been done) Thought you might find it useful. The track connectors really chew up the aluminum hull on the M109 series:

Gino and 18Bravo--this thread is a keeper! Thanks for taking the time to explain the changed needed to make a more accurate Paladin. I've got the kit in my stash and will bookmark this thread for future reference (it may be a while until I can build it).

1st AD used them in Baghdad during OIF 1 (May 03-Apr 04) and An Najaf from Apr 04-July 04

They unit was 2/3 FA from Giessen Germany

Friendly bump for a member with a question.