Hi All'
Just got the Tamiya M1025 weapons carrier. I've noticed that the 2 figures have older style body armour, would this armour have been used in OIF? and if I was going to add some add-hoch side armour to the vehicle how would it have been fastened to the doors and sills etc.
cheers in advance
Tom

Older PAGST body armor is not worn any longer (since about late 2002) or in OIF. Tamiya fixed this in their M1046 kit by giving you new torsos with IBA on them. For a fix, you could get a set of either DML or Trumpeter USMC OIF kits and swap out the torsos. For the vehicle side armor, most were/are either bolted on or welded on, either way is correct.

Warriors makes a great set of figures for the Humvee. A driver and a guy to man the turret weapon. Both have the corect IBA and are very well molded. Check them out.

Melon

If you want, you can always modify the figures a little. It was common for interpreters or ING going out on patrol with the U.S. to wear the old style body armor, since it was common, and we could pretty much give it away. Change the head, keep the DCU's, since we have interpreters wandering around in them, and stick him in the back seat. Combine that with the figures with the IBA, and you will have something I think no one has done yet.

I deployed to Iraq in May of 2003 with PASGT body armor. In my battalion, It was not replaced by the interceptor vest until October/November of 2003.

Here is a cheesy posed photo for my wife that was taken in June:



There were two additional battalions from the National Guard that were in my area of operation that had PASGT vests as well up till the same time of replacement.

Even after they were replaced, we kept the vests. We draped them over doors, laid them in floor boards, put them under seats, etc. to provide as much additional ballistic protection as possible.

I simply fixed this by sanding off the detail and making it look roughly like an IBA. This is for the driver only. It looks pretty convincing when one factors in the camo breaking up the lines and mistakes and the fact that the driver looks pretty dark inside an enclosed Humvee.

Jeff