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1/72 M8A1 matting (Vietnam war PSP)


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M8A1 matting was the corrugated steel matting that replaced pierced steel planks (PSP). Anyone know of a company that makes M8A1 matting displays? I know italeri and others have 1/72 PSP matting displays, but this is for a Vietnam era aircraft. Any suggestions on scratch building a M8A1 base for 1/72?

Nick

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It sounds like you might be misinformed. P.S.P. as well as P.A.P. were all over the place during Vietnam. There were some small areas on our flight lines where the stuff was used where they would park some vehicles or ground equipment as well as light prop driven aircraft like OV-10s, O-1s, O-2s and sometimes helicopters. It was also used for emergency short duration repairs on damaged runways. Everyone else sat on concrete. We even used it to shore up our bunkers, towers, and sand bag positions as well as parts of the parking areas around our armory, especially for our M-113s and M-706Es where C.E. never got around to putting in concrete or even pavement.

What type of aircraft were you thinking of displaying?

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PSP was mostly used for chopper pads & parking. Runways were mostly Marsden plate due to wrecking havoc with tires on landing. Plus Marsden plate was much stronger. Still PSP was common from mid 66 and earlier. Chu Lai had several thousand Marsden planks laying in a pile, but very little PSP laying around. Just didn't see it much in 68, but Marsden plate was used in bunker building and chopper pads everywhere. By mid 67 just about all runways were concrete, yet remote strips were usually gravel.

gary

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