Who needs enemies with friends like this- Team Yankee project in 1/100

[Freddy]

Thank you, guys! More to come

[sir_shvantselot]

Well done for sticking with the project and making such amazing army!

[Freddy]

Well done for sticking with the project and making such amazing army!

Thank you!

Meanwhile I bought these old MN-era badges ("Excellent soldier" and "Excellent squad leader") on a flea market, they will serve as objective markers.

[Emir of Askaristan]

That's a good idea !

[CapnJim]

Yeah, that's cool!

[carlos marighela]

Great objective markers! That's inspired. Does make you wonder if there was a 'fairly indifferent soldier' or a 'decidedly blasé squad leader' badge.  Beats the old '15 years of undetected crime' medal.

[Freddy]

Thanks guys! Not to praise myself, but it was a good find indeed, big enough to make a suitable objective marker yet cheap and common enough not to feel bad to use it for decorative purposes- for a Hero Of The Hungarian Peoples Republic medal it were a little bit undeserving to be used in games...

Perhaps the most interesting part of Hungarian badges history is that there were medals designed for cold-war-gone-hot, but as it was cancelled, these were never actually awarded, only a few sample pieces exist. Now those were cool to have! ...but they are out of my price range for sure:)

Great objective markers! That's inspired. Does make you wonder if there was a 'fairly indifferent soldier' or a 'decidedly blasé squad leader' badge.  Beats the old '15 years of undetected crime' medal.

Fairly Average Soldier badges were provided in the form of Fairly Unfucked Exeat Scheduling. The Fairly Average Soldiers were usually  happy with that.

[Freddy]

9K35 (Strela-10) AA vehicles. Hybrid kit of resin and metal, it was not easy to build, but I like them.

[Freddy]

Also some T-55As, in the mid 80s MN still had the basic T-55s as the backbone of the tank troops, so I had to build some of these too. They are the same plastic set as the AMs, it has parts for both versions, which is really nice.

[carlos marighela]

One of my favourite tanks.

The contribution that Hungary made to countering such tanks should not be forgotten. During the '56 revolution a captured Soviet T-54 was driven into the British Embassy in Budapest, where it was studied quite intensively before being handed back. The information provided helped lead to the development of the L7 105mm gun which eventually equipped all of NATO and most other Soviet aligned armies at some point.

[CapnJim]

Ooh!  More tanks!  Yay!   

Lovely job on those.  Well done!

[Freddy]

Thank you, guys!

The contribution that Hungary made to countering such tanks should not be forgotten. During the '56 revolution a captured Soviet T-54 was driven into the British Embassy in Budapest, where it was studied quite intensively before being handed back. The information provided helped lead to the development of the L7 105mm gun which eventually equipped all of NATO and most other Soviet aligned armies at some point.

The first wave of Soviets in late October came with basically late ww2 stuff, the second wave sent in on Nov 4 came with T-54s. A lot of tanks were knocked out with simple Molotov cocktails in those days, some T-54s too!

The backbone of the Hungarian tank force was made of T-34s until the mid 60s, then, in a few years, they were all replaced with these T-55s. My uncle also served on a T-55 during his military service.

[carlos marighela]

I suspect that there were probably T-34's still knocking around in training establishments, war reserve stocks and low readiness mobilisation divisions into the 1980s. That seems to have been the case with Poland and some of the other Warpac countries.

The T-54 that was motored into the British Embassy did so in the second wave. Some say with the connivance of the Hungarian Defence Minister, who had contact with the British Military Attaché and allegedly told the Brits where an abandoned T-54, low mileage, only one previous owner could be found.

The defence minister took a bullet after the revolution, the British Military Attaché was declared persona non grata by the Soviets and later received an OBE at the request of the head of military intelligence, to whom he did not, nominally at least, report. Interesting chap, he had led a tank troop in Normandy and was severely wounded. Clearly had an eye for tanky tech.

[Freddy]

I suspect that there were probably T-34's still knocking around in training establishments, war reserve stocks and low readiness mobilisation divisions into the 1980s. That seems to have been the case with Poland and some of the other Warpac countries.

Yes, they were kept in reserve, but most of them were sold to Ethiopia in the 80s, the last of them was cut up in 1994.

 There are some still active for exhibition purposes, one of them still saw "action" during the riots of 2006. Back then the Prime Minister of the ex-communist party confessed that he lied about the economy in order to be re-elected, and the riots against him (the only real riots in Hungary since 1956) in Budapest met the 50th anniversary installations for the 1956 revolution. There was a T-34 too in the street exhibitions, and a retired, old tanker (György Horváth) knew how the pneumatic engine starter worked, and he started the tank, and drove towards the riot police line. They were scared to death and greeted the tank with a hailstorm of rubber bullets and tear gas, which, obviously, meant no harm as it was a fckn tank! When the T-34 was very close to the police line, the driver decided that he does not want to crush the policemen, and stopped. He was beaten by the riot police (thus being the only one injured in the tank rampage) and got 1 year 4 months of suspended prison time for traffic violations and car theft. Riot police got a couple of RPG squads.

The defence minister took a bullet after the revolution,

Yes, Pál Maléter,  great hero in Hungary. He was an officer in ww2 Hungarian Army, later turned against the Germans and led a partizan squad. He became the founder of the post-ww2 Hungarian Army, and at the start of the 1956 revolution rode atop his personal command T-34 to crush the revolution in an army unit. When he got there, he decided to side with his soldiers, and became the Defence Minister in the revolutionary government. He went to negotiate with the Soviets about a ceasefire, and he knew that it was risky, but he said it is his duty to try otherwise the Soviets will claim that negotiations are blocked from the Hungarian side. Those who warned him were right, instead the negotiations, the Soviets captured the delegation, and yes, later he was executed.


I have two Hungarian T-34s in 1/35, the first one bears the early 50s insignia, the other one is from the 60-70-80s with the new insignia you can see on my little tanks too. In the 50s ground forces had this white circle type, the red-white-green star was only used in the air force. I do not know why they changed it, my bet is on that it was very similar to the Yugoslavian insignia. Well, the red-white-green star is similar to the Bugarian red-green-white star, but at least the Bulgarians were allies.
Maybe I will do some in 1/100 too, ww2 Soviet ranges surely have some.

[Freddy]

Two Shilka AA vehicles.