Joint Task Force Pope

[redleg]

Thanks Fellas! I also finished 10 of the 16 HEMTT fuelers for 2nd Squadron HT over the weekend, but I'm trying to wait on the pics until I have a full unit ready.

[foxbat]

That's truly an impressive project. Nice work, and thanks for the close ups that show your highlighting technique.

[redleg]

Progress is slow but steady. Just finished 6 tanks and 6 Brads. These are all going to G Troop. The regiment is now at 28% strength!

[redleg]

I finished some RCH 155 howitzers last night. I'm calling it a battery - 6 howitzers and a pair of Fuchs for FDCs. I intend to make it a proper battery by adding some wheeled support vehicles and replacing the Fuchs with Boxer command vehicles.









And a couple pics for PG!

RCH 155 turret on a M109A7 chassis:


RCH 155 turret on a PzH 2000 chassis:

[pmskaar]

Wow! Your command continues to grow. That is really impressive, Redleg!

[chrisswim]

Looks great. I like you showing- testing those kitbash configurations.
I also like your camo, Michael.

[panzergator]

Like the tracked RCH. It's the shortest way to get what's needed. German batteries are still 8 pieces. Usually move in 4-piece platoons with a Fuchs at least.

[Hoth_902]

Mike,

Looking amazing buddy. Keep the work coming. Love the variety of your collection.

[redleg]

Thanks for the comments you guys!

I'm pretty sure you are right about the 8-piece batteries, PG, but I only have 12 PzH 2000 so I figured I would do 6-gun batteries and I can field a battalion of 2 x PzH 2000 batteries and 1 x RCH 155 battery. I just need one more pack of PzH 2000 and then I can increase the 3 batteries to 8 guns each. And then I will need to get 8 more PzH and 16 more RCH and I will have 2 battalions! LOL

I am still curious about the FDC vehicles for RCH 155 units though. I wonder if they will use Boxer command vehicles for commonality of parts?

[panzergator]

Almost certain they will use Boxer cmd vehicles for arty batteries, although you may see some Fuchs for a period until production catches up. Use the Fuchs or standard Boxers for now. You will eventually find it difficult and expensive to keep up with changes. You just end up depicting units in transition, like a tank battalion with a mix of M60s and A1s, or two companies in MERDC and one still in MASSTER, because a gunnery came along in the midst of the repaint project. Some of my battalions have scout platoons of 10 M114s, some have 10 M113s, some have 6 M113s and 4 M150s, some have three M901s and three M113s. I don't know how many pieces the German RCH battery will have. I have seen German batteries with 6 Panzerhaubitzen, although the literature says 8 is standard. I have 2 batteries of 8. It IS YOUR army, so yours can be different. And maybe you left two deadlined pieces behind in the motor pool. Or you don't have your full issue yet. It you sent two pieces to Graf for crew training, but budget constraints dictated you couldn't send eight. WHO KNOWS? It just IS that way. I have a Bradley battalion with all 5Ts because they haven't received HEMTTs yet. The whole Army doesn't get issued everything all at once. Believe me. I served in 5th Mech at Ft. Polk in '79-'81. We were 16th out of 16 on the Department of the Army's Master Priority List (DAMPL). That"s last in line for EVERYTHING! Ya run whut ya brung!

GHQ doesn't make everything we need.

[redleg]

Just finished up a trio of OH-58D Kiowa Warriors last night. It should have been a full platoon of 4, but I broke a rotor blade during the refurb! New rotors have been received and are in the paint shop.

These are from N Troop. Originally, N Troop birds were armed with a 50 cal gun pod and a rocket pod. I scratch built both and they looked like garbage, so I planned to replace them with a minigun and a rocket pod that were excess from all the UH-60Ls in the assault troop. I was a dope though – the rocket pods that come with the Blackhawks are the big beefy pods like on the Apache. What I need are the little rocket pods like on the Cobra.

I may order some cobra parts someday to get the correct rocket pods, but for the time being N Troop is flying with just the minigun.

[Cav Dog]

I have a couple of Kiowa Warriors on the production line:



I used the pedestal mounted .50 cals from the Israeli halftracks and the rocket pods from the old uh1B model gunships.



The acrylic rotor disk is from Heroics and Ros. Kinda of pricey once you add shipping and tariffs... These were pre-tariff.

[redleg]

Very nice, Cav Dog! Is the whole model from H&R, or just the disk? I love the rocket pod and the 50 cal! Did the helicopter come with them or is that a modification?

[Cav Dog]

Hi Redleg,

it is the standard GHQ KW model, only the rotor disk is from H&R. The armament is kit bashed from other GHQ models. I bent the pedestals from the Israeli HT .50 cals and chopped the miniguns off the UH1B gunship wing stores.

[redleg]

That's pretty amazing Cav Dog! They look like they are molded onto the helicopter! Fantastic work!