Persian Gulf Wars: More Desert Storm USMC plus Sand Berms

Howdie.

I recently painted some 1/72 plastic miniatures for 1991 USMC here.  Those were Revell "Modern US Infantry".  At that time, I had put the M47 Dragon gunners away for safe keeping, and forgot them.  I did locate them again.  I also took 17 miniatures from an Esci / Italeri "U.S. infantry 90's" set, as I wanted a little more variety, and a larger total number of miniatures.  Both sets cover a similar time frame, late 80's through mid 90's (so kevlar vests, "fritz" helmets, M16A2s, and so on).  The Esci / Italeri set, in my opinion, suffers in that it lacks any M249s.  Both sets have M60s, the Revell set has a single pose, the Esci / Italeri set has two M60 poses. 

The images will not be great... my paint job on these is very fast anyway, but I have also coated them all in polycrylic, so they look worse via camera than face to face.  I will experiment with dull cote or something, once the weather is moderate again.

There is a size difference between the sets.  The Revell set is larger than the Esci / Italeri set.  That does not bother me so much, as they are close enough.  The single pose that stands out the most are the two deployed M47 Dragon gunners.  See below....

In this image, from left to right... Revell M47 Dragon gunner, Esci / Italeri M47 Dragon gunner, Revell standing rifleman (203 grenadier), Esci / Italeri standing rifleman, Revell grenade throwing figure, Esci / Italeri standing M47 Dragon gunner [btw, that is a neat figure to have mixed in, I probably will only deploy him with one of the deployed M47s].  So the Revell are larger, but only the AT teams are very noticeable.

Anyway, with these additions, I have 65 individual miniatures, with a variety of weapons (12 M203s, 10 M249s, 5 M60s, 4 AT4s, 3 (4) M47 Dragons), and can easily field a full strength USMC infantry platoon with plenty of support teams, or a platoon and a half of US Army infantry with plenty of support.

Now, an added bonus.... I have a 50 miniature box of the Revell figures, and 40 some miniatures from the Esci / Italeri box... plenty to paint in woodland colors, for late Cold Wars conflicts, '89 Just Cause... but that is a project for another day.

I have put in some work on needed terrain features for the Persian Gulf Wars.  I worked very fast, very crudely with foam, polycrylic, sand, and spray paint to create a dozen vehicle berms.  In 1991, the Iraqis dug in all over the desert, with sand berms, in an attempt to protect their vehicles.  This did not work most of the time, but the image of those berms stuck.

I also wanted some textured road sections.  Years ago, I bought some cheap pre-cut boards of various sizes, thinking to turn them into roads.  I finally had a chance to get around to doing that.  Real simple, polycrylic over the surface, sprinkle sand, spray paint when dry, drybrush a very light grey.  I will leave these unmarked as they could prove useful for micro armor, or even games like Battletech.  I used the narrowest sections for the images below, just large enough for a T-72...

The Iraqi infantry are 20mm Liberation, and the APC is a K-63 or Type 63, I discussed previously here.  The T-72s are diecast Unimax I previously discussed here.  Anyway, the berms are not beautiful, but they are quite serviceable.  They will prove useful for most of the Persian Gulf Wars gaming.

Thanks for looking.

Chalfant