This will be the first part of a diorama I’m building from a time when I was in the Army in the late 90’s. I don’t see many diorama’s that depict the support side of things. When we would go to the field at Ft. Stewart it was always called a field problem. So that’s what I’m going to call my diorama. In the Armament section of Bravo Company 26th FSB we tended to go to the field a lot. We supported two M1A1 battalions and a Bradley battalion. The kilo section that I belonged to had a M934 Expando van and a M109A3 van. I’ll be building these in the parked and set up position with the M998 visiting with the chief. The Expando van will have it’s generator trailer and the M109a3 may or may not have it’s trailer. I will have some soldiers in there as well. I can remember most of the names of my fellow soldiers so I will add their names to the windshields of the trucks. I’ll post the builds of the trucks in this post and will probably start a new post for the diorama build. So now on to the M998 build. We used this vehicle for pretty much everything. We just called it the Hummer, it’s official name was Bravo 210. I drove her during many field problems, DISCOM duty and Battalion duty. We would use it as our life line during gunneries for food and shower runs. I plan to build this thing dirty and more dirty. Ft. Stewart is built on basically swamp land. Lots of mud and gray sand. Well here is a few pics of the start of my build and of B210 herself. Not the best pictures but it’s all I could find. One more note, I’m not what you would call a rivet counter. As long as it makes my memory of events happy then I’ll be a happy camper. Now I think I’ll make a paint run to the local hobby shop.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mark



I plan on using a couple soldiers from each kit along with some of the supplies from the tamiya kit. The wheels are from Tank work shop

the kit has 3 main parts trees and 1 clear

I gave the parts a soak in some dish washing soap and then placed them on paper towels to dry.

I went ahead and assembled most of the suspension components together. I have seen the depot level guys paint at Ft. Stewart and they pretty much just sprayed everything. I don't think they knew what tape was.

I gave everything a quick coat of aluminium followed by some black and medium green. I remember lots of scratches where the old green and black would show through. A lot of the scratches would go all the way to the bare metal. Hopefully I should get some get variations in the scratches.




Again thanks for stopping by.

Mark

nice Project, and you have choisd good kits.
good luck and waiting for next steps...

Mark,
All of the suapension and frames of the older HMMWV's were flat black. Fuel tank was white, transfer aluminum along with the transmission. Spent over 12 years working on them.
Tom

Mark - Although I currently build WWII armor, your "M998" title caught my eye. I drove one of the first HUMVEES our Scout Platoon got at Ft. Lewis in 1986. The 1st Sgt.s ride was the pick-up type without the full cover. I will follow your build with interest.

Mark- your project brings back many great memories of our daily drivers. My time in the motor pool gave us tons of time driving . including my own HHC-5 the XO's truck.

Ditto on the frames...flat black , and VERY dirty...and leaks everywhere!!

also served at Stewart-in the late '80's. I'll be watching! Dan

Hey guys thanks for the comments. I read the post about the flat black underside after I had already applied the tan over coat. I remembered driving the green Hmmwv's in Kuwait and now that I think about it they were black underneath. Well kinda a sandy flat black. It won't be to seen to much underneath once it gets put in the diorama and covered in Ft.Stewart mud. I thought I would try my hand at the hairspray technique. I gave the frame a coat of clear flat and the a layer of hairspray. I gave it a coat of tan I mixed up and let it dry.

I then went about brushing with a wet brush and a toothpick scratching it all up. I may have a went a bit overboard and rubbed through to the plastic in some spots. Even though I do like the way it came out. Gives a good effect that dry brushing doesn't do.




I know there are a lot of missed pin marks missed. I'm not to worried about it on the bottom. They will get a good coat of mud. Thanks for reminding me about the white fuel tank. There was a time at NTC where the fuel gauge didn't work. We would shine a flash light into it and shake to truck to see how much fuel we had left. If you looked close you could just make out the fuel level. Well thanks for stopping by and comments are welcome.

Mark

Good luck Mark...

Wow I usually don't build this fast. I guess being on vacation helps. I've done laundry, dishes, shopped, played with the dogs, put some decals on the F-15 and worked on the 998. The latest step i've done is assemble the body and gave it a coat of aluminium and some splotches of green. I finished with a coat of clear and will let it dry overnight.



I'll really try to keep the scratches to the bed area and around where the boots beat up the floor pans.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mark

Well got the hairspray on and the top coat of tan. I scratched up the bottom and the bed area. Gave the floor pans a good beating and brushed on the first coat on the seats.




Thanks for stopping by

Mark

Today's little project I thought I would add the SincGar rack to the interior. I picked up the voyager model Blue force tracker & sincgar unit. I'm not going to use the blue force tracker part because we didn't have anything fancy like that when I was in. The rack that came with the set was different as well from what I remember. I used pieces from the kit and made one that looked more familiar to me. I'll probably add some wires and a mic cord to it. I remember a time that we took the rack out and painted it so I probably won't chip this up to much just add some dirt. Maybe get make a little map and a MRE to put on the shelf. The kit comes with the GPS to go in the pouch. We just started using those about half way in to my time in. It wasn't much more than a toy for us. We actually had to read maps in those days.

Ever since I got this kit memories have been coming back to me. I remember we used to roll the back flap up so we could see when backing up. The plastic windows would usually be foggy to see through. Plus since i'm going to be loading the bed with gear for 3 soldiers, it would be nice to be able to see in there.

I used a scribe tool to cut out the flap. It actually came out pretty easy.

One of my wife's candles to heat the plastic and roll the flap up. I didn't worry about the window hole, we would roll it up with the window down some times. I used some tamiya tape to make some straps. I think it came out okay.

I got the body attacked to the frame. Still have some things to paint down there. Most of it will be covered with mud anyway.

I'm going to be filling the inside with gear for three. A lot of the times when we would go to the field the Humv would act as a cab.

It's kinda starting to look like a Hummer now. The load looks about right to me. We where never great packers.

And look what the nice mail lady brought to my door today. I'm really excited to start this kit.


Thanks for stopping by

Mark

Mark, Great Job .... I like much your chipping effects.
waiting for more pictures

Nice work. I'll be following along. How is the cab detail or have you got to that part of the build yet? I take breaks from treads every so often and have been itching to do a humvee for quite a while.

Nice build! I'm looking forward to the finished diorama.

The cab really doesn't have that much detail. The typical gauges and the shifter and parking brake. The pedals are molded in to the floor pan. They are not going to be seen once the driver is in place. Thanks for all the comments it helps keep me motivated. Looking over the M35a2 kit there is a lot more to it than the humv. I can do a lot of paint chipping on it. That truck probably hadn't been painted since desert storm.

Just a quick update, had to go back to work so progress will slow down a bit. I got the windshield glass in, I must say far easier than on the real thing. I can remember getting it almost installed and then CRACK!!! I also got the hood and wheels installed. I almost sits perfect, I could probably file down one of the tires and it would sit perfect. But since it's going to be mounted in a diorama i'll hold off on that. One thing I wanted to ask y'all is how do you get the tires to look like rubber? I was thinking about mixing a little gray into the black to lighten it up a bit.

I also started painting the gear that's going in the back. Not so sure about the ruck sacks, i still have to paint the tan. Maybe i'll revisit them.


one thing that really stands out in the picture is the color of the hood is different from the body. Our Chief was a picker of sorts and would always come in the shop and tell us to go put this on 210. One day he walked in with a freshly painted hood. I think i'm going to wait to do the weathering until all the trucks are built and do them all at once.

Thanks for stopping by.
Mark

Well I finely got the gear all painted and glued down in the bed.


I think i'll start working on the two guys that will be sitting inside. I got the driver put together. Still got a work to do on her. She will be standing beside the driver side with the door open talking to somebody. I'll have another guy getting out of the passenger side and another one sitting in the back seat with the door closed.


Thanks for stopping by

Mark

Well haven't gotten much done on the build with work getting in the way, but I guess that's a good problem to have these day's. Was able to get a bumper put together and the Unit and vehicle markings on. I think the markings might be a little big but its the smallest I had and I think it looks okay. I even put the names of the Driver and TC on the windshield. The figure was my first attempt at painting people this small. Hopefully i'll get a little better. The camo is a little blobby and one of the eyes is a little sleepy. But not to bad i think, she looks much better with my eyes than to the camera's eye. I've got it planned the the hum-v will be backing up to the other trucks. It will have 3 people inside and one person ground guiding it back. As always thanks for stopping by to take a look and have a great day.

Mark

Well I finally got the crew painted. I must say that people painting is not the best friend of my eyes. tried to make so that their heads would be looking towards the mirror's like they were backing up. I'll have another soldier ground guiding them back. The guy in the back seems to be complaining about being out of water, he probably had kool-aid in it. That would be plenty to complain about. Now it can button it up and maybe finish this up before the end of the month.

Thanks for stopping by comments are welcome.

Mark

awesome work there.

Nce work so far can't wait to see how the truck goes together.

paul

well the doors and top are on. Can't really say i'm happy with it. The top fought me from front to back. Got some glue spots and peeled paint. I got them fixed as much as I can. Good thing I don't build to win shows. I few minor things and it will be ready for weathering and lots of mud. Thanks for the comments up above and for stopping by for a look.

Mark