David, that's awesome. I'm extremely proud of my fathers service. I've been wanting to build him a tribute model for either ODS or IFOR when he served in Bosnia.

Thank you very much for your service, David.

Best tread I ever started. Glad to link your guys up incl. your father Dustin. Thank you for your service.

So is the Tamiya basically a M3A1 externally?

No, it is a straight M3. The M3A1 had the larger rear turret basket, blanked off firing ports (not even visible), rear top periscopes on the top hatch as opposed to the rear deck, guards over the driver's and TC's periscopes, two periscopes on right side of hull removed, and a few other smaller changes.

M3A1 from 24 ID, ODS '91. It was painted as an OPFOR vehicle from stateside.

No, it is M3. You need to make some changes to make it look like M3A1. M3A1 didn't have the machine gun port "balls" at all on sides (in M3 they were still in place, just plated over). M3A1 had new style of TOW loading hatch, with periscopes on it (M3 had periscopes on the hull top behind the hatch). M3A1 had tiedowns and straps on front turret plates (M3 had grenade storage boxes bolted there). Late batches of M3A1 had new turret bustle rack with vertical wall, but earlier batches used earlier style rack, as in M3.

Thanks for the quick feedback, guys! Really appreciated it!

The early M3A1/M2A1s still had smaller basket:

Bravo Co. 3-15 Inf. XO's vehicle...this was taken at the Victory parade in Washington DC June '91.

I've never seen that OPFOR scheme before. I like it!

What would be an appropriate color for the periscopes on a M3A3?

They are coated in an anti-laser coating to protect the crew's eyes. The coating appears red/purple/dark blue from different angles. To represent it, I paint the optic black first, then a couple coats of clear red (turn signal red), and a couple coats of clear gloss. This gives them depth and allows the color to change as light hits it. They look pretty convincing.

Thank you, Gino.