Hi all,
Just finished my Gamma Goat.Short build,thanks to the old Tamiya quality.Nothing bad at all to say about this.Everything fits nicely,instructions are great and the driver actually fits with only a small amount of trimming.I wish other companies would include a crew figure or two that were made to fit their vehicles.It was very nice to see Tamiya come out with something totally new and not a rehash of an older kit.Hopefully it's only the start.I need to weather more and touch up the paint.The Grenada camo I found difficult to do.I'm OK with the airbrush,but doing the small black and buff camo with a brush I just couldn't get it to look good.Beyond that,it's a great kit and I recommend it for a stress free build.

Tom

It came out looking great. I like how it looks. The driver does fit well. I may have to get one myself.

Very nice job. The cammo turned out great. It brings back nightmares. If the build was stress free then that's the only stress free thing about that pig.

Totally agree!!! I watched one get crushed by a Sheridan during a heavy drop on Ft. Bragg! What a mess! It was interesting to watch how the Gama Goat was turned into a crushed beer can. LOL

Great build! While these vehicles were never as well known outside the Army as say the Humvee is, to me, this will always be an "iconic" vehicle of the US Army in Germany during the 70's.

I wish that somebody would come out with a line of figures for the US from that period. Other than one grouping of 4 figures that came out with the M577A1, I don't know of any figures that are not either WW II, Vietnam (not really the UNIFORMS worn in Europe) or the BDU/Kevlar era.

How did you get that merdc pattern to look so good?

Steven,
Is that what it's called?
Are you being sarcastic,because I really wasn't that happy with it.
Anyway,the base was RAF green and then desert yellow,airbrushed.Next was deck tan and nato black using a brush.All are Tamiya.
I'm working on the New Mutt from that era and from what I've seen from the Tokyo show the deck tan can be a little thicker so I'll airbrush that next time then only have to worry about the black.

Tom

Not at all Tom, that looks like a awesome job. I thought maybe you used a stencil on the black and tan. I was going to ask were I could find one if that was the case. Honestly that is a very good merdc job. On the subject merdc was a pattern that had a number of different colors in the system and depending on location in the world and terrain there were a set a of 4 colors in which the vehicle was paint the first two colors would cover 45 percent of the vehicle each. The purge two colors would cover 5 percent each. Here is a website for you. http://gurth.home.xs4all.nl/afv/merdc.html

Thanks Steven.

Tom

very nice job on the goat,im going to take a stab at
mine soon I hope.great job.

Hi guys,

Instead of starting another post I figured I'd just add to this one.I now have a matching set.The M151.
Once again everything went together perfectly.This is straight out of the box except for the antenna,strapping on the front and shovel and I switched the packpacks to something I liked better.
The new figures are are quite nice.Exellent fit and well sculpted.One drawback is the generic Tamiya driver.Although he fits very well in the seat,his head is noticably larger than the new guys.There's 6 helmets provided but they're to small to fit him.I didn't want him to be wearing a Nam era helmet so I used a resin one from the parts box.The decal covers for the headlights are a little tricky and need setting and softning solution.I didn't want to use the 50 cab,but with the mount support the gunner wouldn't fit correctly with a smaller gun.The instructions only show the 50,but you have another option on the A sprue.Too late for me,but keep in mind if your building one.

Tom

Tom,
That's a nice pair. I agree with you in how easy the construction of Tamiya kits can be, particularly compared to, well everyone else! I think they could market the Gama Goat as a weekend build if they wished.
Cheers,
Rick

Looks really good. I like how the Tamiya M151 goes together. The new figures do look pretty good. It looks loke you forgot the white squiggles on teh M151 though.

Hi Gino,

The squiggles I used deck tan.I wasn't real happy with my brush painting on the goat and looking at the box art on the M151 they weren't that small so opted for the airbrush on that color and only brush with the black.The photos don't really show the differences in color very well,still figuring out this new camera.The best spot to see the paint job was actually on the hood which of course got covered.
By the way.Exellent feature you did on the Tamiya M151's.

Tom