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Old Iraqi BMP1

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by Simon Luca ANTELMI

Scale: 1/72

During Desert Storm, many tanks and AFVs were soon abandoned and left along the streets in town or alone in the desert from the retreating troops of Iraqi Army pressed continuously from the advancing mechanized divisions of the Allied Coalition.This is one of the numerous BMP1- Iraqi Army- Third Division "Saladin" 1991 remained on the ground near Al Kafji after the retreat or the surrender of the soldiers that only some time before invaded Kuwait. As it's possible to understand at first look, the AFV is a vehicle properly from the "eighties" period and appears really in poor conditions, as probably many tanks should have been at the time of the invasion, not to speak of their conditions after the coming of the Allied to free Kuwait and the subsequent conflict. Rust, holes and dirt almost everywhere testify how bad is its armor, even if this vehicle - of Soviet concept and production - could have been really a danger on the ground for every opponent if well mantained. In fact, Iraqi AFVs were already very old at that time and heavily damaged cause of the sand and the past and long war against Iran, and so they looked on the battlefield - mostly - at the time of the retreat.

I imagined the model ( an old plastic ESCI Box...I had at home) as a lone wreck from that not so far war, left aside for long somewhere in the desert, soon becoming a damaged relict among the "mountains" of sands that run through those sunny and warm empty lands.

Maybe in the future it could be seen as an antiquity from some future discoverers as it happens sometimes for the ancient buildings and chariots found and frequently unearthed from the archeologists in those countries from the past. In reality, the image I had at first on my mind was a battered AFV half- hidden in the sand, reclining on one side at sunset in the desert....unfortunately I've not had time enough to start working and completing the diorama.

The paints are Humbrol enamels, acrylics and mainly oils for the weathering as well for the dirt and rust. Only a bit of dust on the surface of the AFV complete the job, giving an appropriate and better look of "old times" to the overall vehicle or what remains today.

Image: Front/left view

Image: Overhead

Image: Detail




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