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Iraq gun truck in Desert Camo 5 ton

Vintage iron

Vintage iron

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I am planning to build a Iraq/Afghanistan conflict Gun Truck tribute. The truck I am building will be of my own design. The truck will be up armored but with early Iraq conflict armor. The level of armor on MV in Iraq and Afghanistan went though many different stages. Since my truck is a M813 I am going for the earlier in country built armor designs. Since Gun trucks played a big part in convoy security my truck will have a bull bar on the front. I am also a Marine so I am interested to know if the Marines painted their trucks differently? I want to paint the finished project like Area52's M816 Wrecker. There is something interesting about the paint on his truck. I have included a picture of Area52's wrecker I hope he doesn't mind me using it as a example of the paint lay out that I am planning. Does anyone know the colors that are used on this truck. I know that one is the standard tan used in four color camo. I am not sure about the darker brownish color?
 

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area52

area52

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I don't mine the picture being up.

I think its called 4 color MERDC, look it up on google and there are several different versions.

Mine is very faded from all the sun I think.
 
NDT

NDT

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Rapco has those colors. Sand tan, earth yellow, black, and field drab brown. 1970's era MERDC desert pattern. Would not be correct for Iraq. The sand colored early conflict trucks were painted CARC 383 sand. But I agree it is a bad azz pattern.

Here is a pic of Area52's old M54A2 cargo wearing the same colors.
 

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Firejareen

Firejareen

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I went over with 2/23 in March of '03. A lot of the stuff I was crusing around in was still green, only some were tan. The Marine Corps didn't desert camo their trucks in any other color than tan. If they had black or brown it was field expediant. But I am partial to the current Afghan army camo of base color tan with dark brown, black and green.
 
emr

emr

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If U e mail me I will connect u with the group that built the very first gun trucks in Iraq, there storys are in a few Army and guard tribute papers, They were laughed at by the regular Army guys they were trying to get parts and stuff, the first one had turtle shell they called it armor from Russian armor vehicles they welded on the sides of one, they had cut heavy tow bars and made 50 mounts out of them for the backs, The NJ guys that did this were the guys who did more miles than any other in history, and carried the Marine tanks to all the big battles, one story from My buddy Joey who was a convoy commander, had a convoy of Marine M1s on back of the hets , they started taking arms fire and as Joey was yelling those marines were starting there tanks lets get em un hooked , they the Marines sat in them the whole time every time they went some where, gotta love the marines, well, as joey was yelling STOP and unchain these crazy bas*&^%$ ds ,, all of a sudden the trucks started samacking front and back as the Marine broke the chains and slammed down the ramps and drove off for like an hour or so, they came back, and said dont worry all dead in a few miles lets go :) gotta Love Marines :) Joey was like we have no more chains, they said we dont need em, just guide us back on :) true story :):):) Im sure one of my buddies would forward some pics,
 
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gunboy1656

gunboy1656

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When I was there in 04-05 one of the units that replaced us brought in an 813 that was built the same way as the Vietnam era guntrucks. It was just a straight tan truck, no camo. Was not the hillbilly armor, had the uparmored cab,armored box and 4 m2hb in the bed that was visible.

I did not have my camera with me that day to take a pick.
 
Varyag

Varyag

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Most of the gun trucks I saw there that were 5 tons had a factory box with divits for the weapons on the sides, a very boxy armored cab and were 9 series. The rear of the truck looked like it came from some kind of kit. We did have quite a few of the green ones with tan up armor kits staged in Kuwait.
 
Vintage iron

Vintage iron

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I have found a few pictures of M809 series Gun Trucks painted "Sand" or "tan" I am not sure when or where they were used. The more 900 series 5 tons had more professional up armor, but there are pictures of them with lighter armor too. I am not building a replica so I am not concerned about accuracy of the build. I just want show people what our troops contributed with low skill, no funding and lots of ingenuity!

If anyone has pictures of M809 or 900 series Gun truck I would like to see them.

Thanks Randy for the story. Sounds about right!:grin:
 
CatMan

CatMan

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Iraq Gun Trucks

There is a book that was published by Tankograd Publishing in 2005 titled ARMORED / GUN TRUCKS OF THE US ARMY IN IRAQ.

By Carl Schulze abd Ralph Zwilling. It is 70 pages large page paperback format. High quality COLOR photo's of all the early in theater expedent armor and the factory stuff that came later. The book is printed in both German and English.

You need to find a copy if you want to build a tribute truck.

Cat Man
 
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