Great pics, thanks. I am still waiting to paint this one. Weekends have been busy and with the early sunset, I don't have the right light to do it in the evenings. Hopefully I will get to it (and the M983A1) soon. I am also waiting to get all the ammo sets in to fill up the flatrack. I have built a few wooden pallets for the propellant and fuze cans. I found some laser-cut wooden pallets that were very cheap on eBay by Shadow Hobby. They look great and were easy to build.

Sorry H but that comment about the hook probably won't work to identify the two vehicles. That secondary snatch block (hook with pulley) is most likely an accessory item that the operator can fairly easily pull out of a storage box somewhere on the vehicle and rig into the crane when the load demands.

I did notice that the PLS utilizes a heavier duty Groves crane with a four section boom rather than the regular three section. Also the Patriot missile service vehicle uses a double knuckle crane to allow more clearance around that longer missile case.

Gino can you offer any more info here?