OK,simple (?) question- 2003 OIF US tankers personal weapons and the best possible sources in 1/35-what are they and who makes 'em? I have the vague idea of M4s,M16A2s,M9s etc but I want to be sure that I'm looking in the right direction.

been looking at Live Resin in particular and drooling at the choice but obviously want to be spending what little i have on the right stuff......

thanks in advance

It depends, sorry, no easy answer. Each tank has two M4s as BII assigned to it. The other two crewmen usually had M16A2s assigned to them, sometimes M4s, sometimes just their M9s. All 4 crewmen usually wore M9s as well.

thanks for the confirmation Gino,not looking for specifics as in which tank had what,but just that I'm in the right area.

Now,any recommendations?

Tank and Live Resin have good resin ones. Dragon's plastic ones are nice too.

As a result of a pre-invasion shift of M4's from some armored crews to the Infantry, some armored crews were all issued full size M16A2's. These were the least desirable back-up weapon due to their length.

I provided several captured folding stock AK's of various types to 1st Armored Division tankers for use in place of their A2's. The A2's were still carried but were typically secured inside the vehicle.

You can get weapon sets from Trumpeter they aren't bad and give choices of sights and accessories to put on each weapon whilst not as good as live resin they're still a good buy.

Cheers Ben

BII?? What is that?

BII = Basic Issue Items

H.P.

Not to completely sidetrack the discussion, but....
When did armor crews finally stop carrying the M3 "grease gun"? I know it's technically been out of service for 50+ years, but I've heard it was carried "unofficially" for quite a while.
From people I've talked to, it was a fairly desirable weapon - .45 cal.,moderate rate of full-auto fire, minimal muzzle climb, and very compact.
Just curious.

Tankers in my unit in Germany in the late '80's still had them. Beyond that I was in grunt units, USAR and with the Marines after I joined the Navy.

The M3 Grease Gun went the way of the dodo in late 80's/early 90s as a "crew" weapon on the M60 series tanks and M88s. The crew weapon for M1 was a single M16A2, which was replaced by two M4s in the mid-late 90's. For OIF, the tank crewmen in the 3ID tank battalions, in most cases, had the M9 pistols for each and one or two M4s per tank. There was some redistribution of M4s between tankers and infantry as there was perceptions that the infantry needed the M4s more, that was before there was several hand to hand fights on the top of turrets between tankers and Saddam Fedayeen...

John

Thanks, John W & John C.
Looks like usage started dying out when the M1911 & the .45 cartridge were replaced. Makes sense.
Still, a long run for it.

thanks everyone for your help,took the plunge and ordered LiveResin's M4 carbines with rail cover (figured all the add ons would only get in the way for a crew issued weapon,but could be wrong......)

Thanks!!