The box art show 'em kinda green. There are some different painting instructions on the back of the box… one of the being what I find online as “Desert Storm Camo” like the helmets. Tan, brown bands with white spot that have black edges. Wondering as long as I do that camo it will work.
There were four camo patterns in DS. Some gear, as with the vests here, was in 4 color woodland. Uniforms were initially in 6 color chocolate chip which was found not effective and was replaced with 3 color, sage, light brown and tan. The last was a dark green with very small black lines creating a grid with somewhat rsndom filled squares which was supposed to lower the IR singnature. IIRC, the last was reversable.
Note the “white” is more like radome tan. The pattern had two shades of light green and light brown with black shadows which did not always fully surround the lightest color.
These figures do represent ODS troopers. The guys in woodland camo and overall green are in MOPP chemical suits. There were no desert camo MOPP suits at that time, so the woodland ones had to be used. The kneeling soldier probing for mines is in the 6-color “chocolate chip” Desert Camo Uniform (DCU). Here is a great link to a tutorial on painting both Woodland BDUs and 6-color DCUs: www.armorama.com/modules.php
As a side not, the 3-color DCUs didn’t come out until after Desert Storm when the “chocolate chip” DCUs were found o be ineffective.
Actually, it’s a DBDU (Desert Battle-Dress Uniform), rather than a DCU… The DCU is the three-color pattern. The MOPP-suits are of two different types, the OD one that’s 2nd from left being the older CPO (Chemical Protective Overgarment), the other two depict the Woodland Camo BDO (Battle-Dress Overgarment)… The figure that’s second from left also has the M-9 Chemical Detection Tape around his upper arm, wrist, and ankle.
Many thanks for the info. When i am not on the mobile sight i will have to digest all of that and check out what each looks like . What about equipment? Appropriate for 1991?
Yeah, it looks pretty good as far as “Battle-rattle” and weapons (should all be M16A1s w/30-rd mags)… I can’t be sure, because I can’t see any, but the Protective Masks should be M-17A1s in their respective carrier… The boots are a question-mark though… You’ll either need to paint them as black leather " 'Cruit-Boots" or OD & black jungle-boots… The tan Desert Boots weren’t in the system yet…
The sand played hell with the black boots, taking most of the “black” off at the toes in a couple days… Had to put some polish on them every day if you wanted them to stay black…Same with the leather portion of jungle boots… I personally had issues with the jungle boots as the drain-holes in them allowed a lot of sand into the boots…
Roger that, although it’s purpose was to reduce the effectiveness of ambient-light amplifying NODs rather than IR… It was a Night Desert Battle-Dress Uniform, however it was only issued as a parka, not an entire uniform…
The Marines kept their standard BDU’s…
Man I wish I had kept my issue parka.
Yes, the figures are made to represent troops from ODS . They camo out right after Desert Storm in the early '90s. The weapons and gear are appropriate for the time. The two M16s are actually M16A2s, which were used by some units, while some units still had M16A1s. The other two weapons are an M203 (M16/ 40mm grenade launcher combo) and an M249 SAW light machine gun.
Hans, I still have a Parka that I was issued in the early '90s. Itstill looks pretty nice. [Y]
Here’s a few ODS shots for you…
Medic in the camo MOPP suit
Marines in the “Chocolate Chips” DBDU
Battle of Khafji- one Marine in DBDU, other Marine in camo MOPP suit (MOPP2)
And you will even find some Marines in British NBC suits… note the K-pot and M-16A2 with DPM camo hooded Brit MOPP suit
And the OD MOPP suit worn
man that picture is so intense…brings back lots of memories of that war for me.
Not having been in the serivce… when I see pics like that I think that not getting shot was sometimes easier than just “living” through it all.
And thanks for the reminder that many folks here in this forum did live through it… while others didn’t.
Thank you all for your service.
As far as the info on the uniforms and gear … battle rattle… I like that one… Got a plan and just need to figure out how to paint 'em.
Did I seen somewhere that someone makes camo decals for figgies?
Yes it is. It was not the bloodless video game that some people seem to think about that war.
Yup, Shinsengami Decals:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p4340.m570.l1313&_nkw=shinsengumi+decals&_sacat=0
Hand painted ones still look better to me though.
I wrote piece a few years agoe on using a printer to make camo-uniforms… Did it for some Waffen-SS camo… I’ll see if I can even find that post…
Basically, I printed out a scale (more or less) picture of the camo-pattern, then disteressed the paper until it was really, really flexible, and them glued the pieces I cut from it onto the figure… I’d use decal paper now, but at the time I didn’t know one could print decals on an ink-jet printer…
Uhhh, no, we didn’t…
WingNut
I’m not sure what the Army was using at the time, but, as someone pointed out already, it looks like you’ve got at least two guys with M-1A2s and a SAW (and maybe one -A1). The M16-A2 and SAW were the TO weapons for a Marine Fireteam by that time period, so, depending on what you had in mind for these guys, you’ve got a good base to work with.
For some reason, I have it in my head that the Army didn’t adopt the M16-A2 as widely as the Marine Corps, but you’d have to ask one of the doggies about that… [whstl]