M109A2 and M548A1,Desert Storm, Roco Minitanks HO.
Done up to represent vehicles used in Desert Storm Rocos M109 155mm SPF and a M548 support vehicle. The diesel engine and flat car represents Army reserve railway units that staged army equipment at ports for shipment overseas.
Cool models, Robert (@roofrat). I have a couple of boxes of Roco that at one point I thought would be part of some cool dioramas, or some mini-scenes, or some stand-alone models...you get the idea. But none of it came together, so I am glad someone has run with the idea of doing something with these detailed, odd-scale models. Kudos.
Great looking models. Had to do a double take on the scale! Worked with both M109's and M548's when I served with the National Guard.
Beautiful models, Robert @roofrat.
I like them a lot!
Robert, @roofrat
These two look great ! ...and even better sitting on the rail car with the matching engine. We had these self propeller howitzers in my old Cavalry unit. Ours were the M-109A2 version, and they were part of the Howitzer battery. They made quite the impression on a young trooper when they fired over our heads. You could see the muzzle flash as they were behind us and we were slightly elevated. We watched the small vapor trails as the rounds passed overhead. You can actually see the rounds in flight...and hear them too as they go through the air.
When they impacted the earth, a good sized explosion occurred. Depending on how close we were to the impact area affected which noise we would hear first... either the firing of the cannon, or the explosion would come first. Most often we would here the round exploding first as we were often much closer to the impact area than we were the M-109's.
I had the opportunity to drive some of these vehicles when I was a member of the advanced party when we deployed to Germany. As part of the advanced group, our job was to drive all of the vehicles from storage to the various assembly areas... often by ourselves and it was done at night. This was followed by a LONG walk back to the storage depot... Prior to deployment, they trained us how to drive anything that was in the 3rd Cav. We ended up with two driver's licenses stapled together, that listed all of the vehicles we were "qualified" to drive. We could drive anything with tracks, or wheels.
Having been around these full sized versions, I can say that your work here looks very good... especially in this small scale. I don't see how you guys can build things this size so well... but you do.
My hat's off to you Sir ! I pressed the "liked" button too.
Thanks Louis, Must have been quite an experience to be around these beasts . I might have mentioned this before, my last gig with the military was with the US Army Reserve 1205 Transportation Railway Battalion, I had high timed with the USNR, but I was able to direct transfer to the 1205th do to my rail experience with the NYCTA. Although the unit wasn't activated as a whole during the 2003 war, we did send multiple detachment to various sites through out the country to move equipment for deployment overseas. Around 2004/2005 the started tapping units for live bodies to augment man power in Iraq. That's when pulled the plug and retired, being in my mind too old for a desert vacation.@lgardner.
Are these HO scale? Wish I had some of these when I was building train sets! Cool vehicles.
Yes, they are HO.@robgenev665.