[DaFather]

Not going to make the cover of Military Modeller with this one, but I don't think I've seen anyone else do this real mod on any of the 1/6 military buggies out there.

First, the pics of the real thing ....

Dpv

Flickr: Jpl3k - JonathanL25's stuff tagged with chenowth

US ARMY Chenowth FAV (Desert Storm) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

US ARMY Chenowth 'dune buggy' (FAV LSV DPV) 'Special Forces' | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Some have only front "floppies", some have both front and rear. Makes a lot of sense to me, as who wants to be spitting out sand all of the time while they ride the dunes or bang through the mud, and here they do it with adding any major weight to the ride to get it done. They found these work best when not loaded down with a lot of stuff, so they chose to travel as light as they possibly could in the mission prime, and go back for resupply if they needed it later.

Now grant it, this PTE piece is a bit more fantasy than real, and I spent more on the stuff to "fix it" than I paid for it, plus I can't completely hide the fact the wheels are still hollow ( I don't like thinking about spending $50 to buy some real R/C wheels and tires to clear that up ), but this gets me "close enough for the picture" in most cases.

After doing this mod ( which I can snap on and off ), it makes the ride look more like a Rat Fink than a Pink GOrilla, but I digress ( links provided for those too young to know what Rat Fink was ) ....

rat fink - Bing Images

rat fink - Bing Images

Okay, so here are the shots ..

Other "fixes" include, making a whole new rear seat and harness system for the rear gunner ( brokenn off and mostly missing when I got it ), repairing and adding details to the .50 cal , sculpting on shotgun pipe exhausts, adding details to the dash, filling the joint holes on the frame ( but didn't fill the frame tubes themselves ), final weathering yet to be completed. Wanted to paint the thing pink, found the SAS stopped using Desert Pink after 1970, so no dice for Desert War 1 with it.

Hope if anything else, it gives folks a few grins and giggles, with this partly true partly fantasy ride.

 

[Sir Eaton Flipflop]

Looks sweet custom pipes too - very cool

That SAS Desert Pink topic came up on a Military Channel show ( I think it was the Military Channel ). Something about pink being the most difficult color to see at night.

 

[DaFather]

Looks sweet custom pipes too - very cool

That SAS Desert Pink topic came up on a Military Channel show ( I think it was the Military Channel ). Something about pink being the most difficult color to see at night.

You bectha about the pink in the sand. The SAS found that vehicles painted in that Pink color, all but disappeared at dawn or twilight in the dunes, and still were hard to spot in bright daylight.

Why they dropped that after 1970, I don't know. The current "Sands" works fine it seems,

Testors » Model Master » International Military & Figure Enamel Paint » Paints » Army Desert Colors

... and I guess in dry dirty or even muddy areas too, but the idea of having my ride "pink", seemed like a way to be unique.

 

[Ulrak]

I remember reading that Monty once asked the SAS why they painted their vehicles pink.
They told him that plane wrecks they'd found in the desert had weathered enough as too be showing the red undercoat (bleached pink by the sun)
and that they were very difficult to spot from any sort of distance and from the air.
To which Monty replied "bowwocks". Good ol Monty tells it like it is.

I have seen more modern take on the pink flage scheme with a mixture of tan,darker brown and pink camouflage scheme on a defender 110.
I'll try and dig out the photo for you.

 

[Sir Eaton Flipflop]

Weren't there some modern flightsuits that had a slightly pink sand hue? Seems like a member here who was deployed had an example that he wore ( aircrew guy it seemed like - posted years back ). Sounds like I'm kidding around, but I'm not. Definitely an interesting bit of science involved with color spectrums and how light works ( magic hour especially ).