Special Operations
tamiya; black dogT
he Ground Mobility
Vehicle (GMV) is a
modification of the
HMMWV, the famous
‘Humvee’. It was developed for use
of the various Special Forces units
within the United States military,
following lessons learnt in Operation
‘Desert Storm’ in 1991. This included
several improvements over the
standard Humvee, such as heavier
suspension, better tyres, improved
ground clearance, a more powerful
engine, more external weapons, a
winch, a lat-bed rear for storage of
fuel, ammunition and supplies and GPS
navigation. All of these improvements
were speciically aimed towards
special operations. Several diferent
variants were produced which
were tailored for each speciic SF
unit. The type developed for the US
Special Forces ‘Green Berets’ was
the GMV-S version. Twelve-man
Special Forces units called ODA’s
use the GMV-S, which are crewed by
three operators, with four GMV-S’s
per ODA. These specialist units are
known as Mobility or Mounted
Teams. The US Special ForcesODA teams are famous for being the
irst military units to operate within
Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.
Their exploits are legendary, and with
the help of local tribes, they pushed the
Taliban back in retreat. Although during
the early stages of the war the Special
Forces units operated on horseback,
they soon afterwards began operating
the GMV’s in the Afghan desert.
Special Forces operations have
always fascinated me, not just from a
modelling point of view, so when I saw
the Black Dog resin GMV conversion kit
for the Humvee, I knew it was a kit I had
to get. The conversion kit was typically
resin, heavy, lots of fragile parts, and no
instructions! However, with a vehicle
like this the ability to chop and change
diferent parts was endless. There were
a few major stand-out parts, the main
one being the large rear storage bundle
which lies on the lat-bed of the HumveeWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM 19Manufacturer: Tamiya
Scale: 1:
Kit Type: Plastic injection moulded
Kit Number: 35263M1025 Humvee
Manufacturer: Black Dog
Scale: 1:
Kit Type: Cast resin
Kit Number: TSpecial Forces Conversion Set
us special forces
M1025 Humvee