Modeling the Gulf War 1991

Modelling the Gulf War 1991

By Abrams Squad

Reviewed by Glen Broman

I’m convinced that many of the publishing houses that are catering to the modelling crowd these days have discovered a way to electronically monitor my purchases and observe what books I have on my shelves from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit over my house. I’m convinced they use this information to develop products that will draw me to them like a moth to flame, which pretty much explains my fashionable collection of tin foil hats. Rampant paranoia aside, I decided that maybe this was a good thing as there has been a veritable explosion of modelling publications over the last few years.

I have a little more than a passing interest and familiarity with Gulf War I, so I ordered this from Dave Youngquist at Last Cavalry when I saw it on the “New Releases!!” page on his website. Come to think of it, maybe that satellite over my house belongs to Dave.

This is a 112 page all color publication from the guys at the Abrams Squad. The publication covers models of the LAV-25, T-55, M60A1, AMX30B2, Challenger, MLRS, T-72 and an M1A1, my personal ride, so no bias there. The last section covers figure painting. There is a sound piece of advice in the prologue, “this book is not pretending to be an historic reference…” Good call as the potted history is like gas station sushi, just a little off. Based on that, I recommend that you just pass over that chapter and go right to the build articles.

The build articles are the meat and potatoes of the book. Some serious modelers contributed to this piece. There are some good techniques for weathering and showing the effects of a dust and sand on large metal objects. I found the chapters on the Challenger and the AMX30B2 particularly interesting as I have those on my build pile and at least one of each will likely end up in a desert scheme. The short chapter at the end on painting US “chocolate chip” uniforms and woodland pattern Kevlar is also helpful. Just a note though, issue of the chocolate chip uniforms was not exactly timely and many units did not get theirs until after the end of the ground war. During the ground war, and for a fair portion of the time after the air war started, green or woodland pattern chemical protective suits (called MOPP gear) were the height of fashion for those not keen on getting slimed by Iraqi chemical weapons. There’s a good picture of what are probably US Marines at the top of page 103 in MOPP gear. Bottom line is that crews would have been wearing MOPP gear during the ground war, before and after you have a choice of uniform types.

The weathering techniques I find both awe inspiring and annoying. One the inspiring side, I really like some of the techniques, the water stained dust technique on the M1A1 is very nicely done, most folks either don’t know or don’t remember that the weather at the end of February 1991 was wet, with a chance of late afternoon oil showers. The wear on the Iraqi vehicles is also well done, the paint on those vehicles did tend to chip and show the original Russian green underneath. It replicates what I’ve seen in person and the builder also captured the “lived in” look quite well on the T-72. On the other hand, the extreme weathering on some models is, quite frankly, largely unrealistic. The weathering on the cab interior of the MRLS I’d call a BS foul on. One, crews generally don’t let their vehicles get that ratty, even in a combat zone. Two, much of that platform is aluminum, where the paint wears, it’s a dull silver, not a rusted steel underneath. Just in passing, if you ever find yourself ahead of an MRLS battery when it decides to fire, even if you are in a tank and a few kilometers forward, you’ll be happy you packed a clean change of drawers in your duffle bag.

Another weathering technique that is rather more miss than hit is track wear. Mr. Sand and Mr. Track are not friends. If you drive for even a short distance, the sand wears the track center guides and end connectors to a nice shiny silvery metal color. I don’t see that replicated consistently in these articles. A final note on extreme weathering, early on there was a scramble for sand paint, however, I’m unaware of the application of enamel sand paint to vehicles in theater, especially in the US VII Corps. Due to the threat of Iraqi chemical weapons, nearly all combat vehicles were repainted in Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) sand paint at the sea ports of debarkation before the ground war started. Some combat vehicles and a fair amount of second echelon vehicles remained in NATO CARC paint. CARC paint is extremely hard wearing and generally does not chip off, although it does tend to fade. Just an interesting factoid, those vehicles returning to Germany from Saudi Arabia at the end of the war were repainted in three color NATO CARC paint at the ports before loading. 

A note on photographic references. In a few articles in this publication the authors said that they modeled a specific vehicle from a photo. That’s always a good technique if you are aiming for realism. In most of the others, I tend to think the builders were aiming for effect in their articles, rather than realism. That’s fine, but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind in when modelling combat vehicles. One, the crew has to fight in them. Tons of extraneous gear that blocks sights, fields of fire and observation from the TC’s cupola, like the USMC M60A1, are probably unrealistic, despite the claim that the tank is modeled from a photograph. Also, sections of track are generally carried with the end connectors attached, a handy piece of kit to have if you actually have to use the track. While the author of the M1A1 articles states he is aiming for an impression, one does not head to the wash rack and repainting with weapons mounted, live ammo (the smoke grenades still in the launchers) and crew gear on the vehicle. This is a good way to have an up close and personal interaction with a creature called a “Sergeant Major”.

So, boys and girls, it’s war story time. The photo of the M1A1 on the bottom of page 7 is a very sexy picture of an Abrams with the smoke generator on stun. Way cool, yes? My experience is that, although it is way cool to go blazing across the landscape blowing smoke like nobody’s business, I don’t think this was taken during Gulf I. I recall that we operated using a concept called “single fuel forward”, which meant we used JP-8 for all vehicles and aircraft, rather the regular diesel. The smoke generator won’t work with JP-8. During pre-war training I had a very embarrassing incident when I tried to create a self-generated smoke screen to hide in. You can’t hide a 60 some odd ton Abrams inside a pathetic little tiny puff of white smoke. This is a good thing to know before one is called on to participate in a two way live fire range.

Overall, this is a good book with some good techniques and in-progress photos. My personal experience as an Armored Cavalry Troop Commander during this period causes me to have issues with the realism of some of the vehicle weathering and vehicle stowage, but that does not degrade from its value as a guide to building and painting vehicles from Gulf War I.

I purchased my copy from Last Cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com.