I’m currently working on Academy’s M60a1 Rise/Passive with Eduard’s PE set. The Academy kit can be built as either an M60a1 or an M60a1 Rise/Passive. Eduard’s set includes PE for both also. My question concerns this one piece of PE. It’s on the turrent basket in the center and seems to be a placard of some sort. Here’s the pic:
The Eduard instructions says that the square should be painted yellow and, using a mask, there should be an octogon painted black in the center. The roman numeral ‘II’ with a ‘1’ in white should be painted within the octogon.
Is this correct for an M60a1 or an M60a1 Rise/Passive? I’m during mine as a Desert Storm tank.
Desert storm had M60A1 rise passive with ERA armor. Look at the tanxheaven website for a lot of photos on the Desert Storm M60A1’s. I was there and we never used those tactical signs. We bolted the spare road wheel in the center of the bussle rack. Greg
If my Concord Magazine recollection is still good, I think they use this for tank identification. During excercises, they have geometric signs on it and sometimes a letter to designate unit affiliation.
As stated above, this type ID panel was usually used for exercises. It was to ID the unit from a distance. Each side and/or each Bn had a different number and shape combo to ID it. They were not used in ODS on USMC M60A1 Rise/Passive tanks.
Thanks Gino. I was pretty much thinking it wasn’t used in ODS. All the photo’s I’ve seen of M60’s from ODS don’t show that panel. I just thought it looked cool and decided to check with the experts.
We called them Tac Boards, short for tactical board. They were a semi-permanent fixture to the tanks through the 1980s. The outer shape of the sign designated the battalion within a division, the inner shape (square, circle, triangle or diamond) represented the company (A, B, C, D respectively). Inside the painted shape had a Roman numeral I, II, or III designating the platoon.
We stopped using this system in Germany in 1989 when we went to the 2 digit/chevron system. This is the one we used during Desert Storm, but the Marines may have still used the old system. I am not sure.
