Joint Task Force Pope

[chrisswim]

Redleg, those 8-inch M110A2 look very nice along with the M548. It’s a nice -camouflage.
Don’t change those.

[foxbat]

Nice guns &paintjobs! 8" is a serious caliber, IIRC these are the sole ones outside of Soviet stuff?

[panzergator]

LegionsIVhire has the ex-CinC M110 (short barrel) and the extras long -barreled M107 (175mm) on the same chassis. Those were in batteries of 4 in a division's general support battalion.

[redleg]

The Army is looking for field a new howitzer soon. This seems like a pretty short timeline to me. This is an interesting article:

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/arm ... ming-soon/

[panzergator]

The Boxer 155sp offers a lot if capability and I have read the US is looking at it or something similar mounted on a wheeled chassis. I like the Boxer chassis With interchangeable modules, but I have very strong reservations about committing all capability to wheeled chassis. The Boxer is not designed for air transportability and is heavier than Stryker. The US may be inclined to something like Caesar, which would be better than towed guns for today's requirement for rapid displacement. Read up on the Boxer RCH. The concept and capability is very interesting.

[redleg]

I haven't finished any units recently, but I have been painting! I'm trying to get HHT done, but there are a lot of vehicles in that troop!

Here are some pics of the post-paint shop staging area. Vehicles come here after paint and wait for movement to their assigned units. There are 13 Cargo HEMTTs, 16 Fuel HEMTTs, and 2 HEMTT wreckers, all going to 1st Squadron HHT. There are also 5 M1A1s going to I Troop.

The I Troop tanks are significant because for many years I have had 1st and 2nd Squadrons (crappily painted) but nothing for 3rd Squadron. Now I am stripping and repainting the existing squadrons, but I also have a second production line for new vehicles fresh out of the pack, so these tanks represent growth for the regiment instead of just a refurb effort.

[Cav Dog]

Redleg,

Nice looking vehicles. I do wish GHQ would redo the MGs on the Abrams. The barrels on the commander's MG are too flimsy and the 240s on the loader's hatch don't look right and are a pain to mount.

WIP along the same lines:



This is paint mule for two companies of M1A1s which will be part of a combined arms battalion with two mech infantry companies in M3s, all painted nato 3 tone camo. The brown and black were done with AK real colors paint markers over airbrushed base of Nato green.

Not completely sold on the paint markers, I think the brown is too light. Compare that to this Leopard which was all airbrushed:

[panzergator]

Looking good! More. More. More.

[redleg]

Fantastic looking tanks, Cav Dog! The brown color on the Abrams is noticeably lighter than on the Leopard, but to me it just looks like it's been in the sun. And I am blown away that you are painting camo like that with an airbrush! Well done, Brother!

[chrisswim]

CavDog and Mike, beautiful painting on your vehicles! They look nice.
Great work gentlemen.

[redleg]

Decals are my arch nemesis, but I put my big boy pants on last night and I applied some red cross decals to the M113 ambulances of the 1st HHT medical platoon. I still need to put the red crosses on the M577s, and the wheeled vehicles.

[panzergator]

It is a camo nitpick, to be sure, but using sand around the driver hatch makes a snipers job very easy. Otherwise, I envy your talent and effort. Looks very good!

[panzergator]

Duplicate

[redleg]

Thanks PG! I have to admit that the issue of lighter camo colors around the hatches has never ever occurred to me. I just learned something new! Now I'm looking at all my tanks and brads and Paladins! LOL I will make some slight changes to the camo pattern for 2nd Squadron!

[redleg]

JTF-P Colors: