Evening up the fight - T-55

[carlos marighela]

Do you mean the commander’s hatch or the loaders hatch? Commander is on the left, loader on the right (Russians being blasé to the niceties of ergonomics). Commander’s hatch folds forward, the loader’s rearward.

This should give you plenty of detail:

https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/t-54.html

[Rich H]

Loaders hatch as no one takes pics of them!  Thanks for the link, I'll work through it.

So if I add the ventilator and not add the radiation protection blocks it would pass as a T54?

[Rich H]

Variants are a pain... loads of minor changes to ancillary kit and I've no idea what is correct...

In the meantime - fuel tanks...

[carlos marighela]

Well, on the upside, the various models of the genuine article tended to get modifications throughout their lives to the extent that it’s a bugger telling them apart anyway. Plenty of T-54s upgraded with T-55 mods. Your dome ventilators and radiation shielding remain the best guide to what the original article was.

Just make sure you do a spare barrel. One with bore evacuator and one without, because everyone will want the iconic 843.

[Digits]

My holiday picture.

[carlos marighela]

Snap! The top one is my from my holidays, last year. They were just gearing up for the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive and there were soldiers dressed up as VC and a large stage being erected in front of the palace. As my wife had booked us into a very ‘opening scene from Apocalypse Now’ hotel for our first night in Saigon, I felt this was overdoing it.

[v_lazy_dragon]

There's also a size comparison on this bloke's blog: http://xanderswargamingmusings.blogspot.com/2014/03/generic-143-chinese-diecast-t55.html

Ha! Wasn't expecting to see a link to my old blog

[Rich H]

More progress

[Shahbahraz]

Looking really good Rich. I'm no expert, but it screams T55/54 to me.

[Rich H]

Ta!

I'm now thinking I need to make some embassy fencing....

[tomrommel1]

So how often were they used in Vietnam and since when? only in the last stages of the war? only round Saigon?

[carlos marighela]

No, they saw extensive use in the Easter 1972 offensive against the ARVN and not just in the south. Large tank v Tank engagements around Dong Ha and the famous stoushes at Loc Ninh and An Lộc. In the latter they outran their infantry support and a column was taken out with M72 LAW rockets. The US also utilised helo mounted TOW missiles for the first time during the Easter Offensive. Raytheon flew out a set of technicians to support a couple of US Army UH-1Bs. They proved very successful against a variety of PAVN armour including T-54s.

In 1975 they spearheaded the multiple offensives that ultimately swept through to Saigon.

Can you use them against US forces? Historically speaking no. Of course you can always depart from the plot. The PAVN employed armour against the ARVN during Operation Lam Son 719, the joint US/ ARVN operations over the border into Laos. US forces weren’t engaged by PAVN armour, their principal focus was reopening Route 9 inside South Vietnam.

[carlos marighela]

So you are going with the T-55 after all?

[tomrommel1]

Thanks for the info Carlos! I think I will try out how they fare agains a couple of M48 then , even if it is not historically right

[carlos marighela]

Oh they faced M-48s and were, on the whole, bested by them. It’s just that they were ARVN M-48s at the Battle of Dong Ha. Empress have said they will be producing ARVN at some stage.