Pics of East German T-72s?

[MajorTalon]

I have been given 5 of the Petner's Panzers T-72 models, and I find that they scale up well with my Flames of War 'Nam figures (who are being painted up as US troops in West Germany). I was going to paint them as East German-crewed tanks, but I can't find references.

[Mathyoo]

Here and here?

It's just google searches. Now, I am no T-72 expert, but I'd say green with (optional?) black camo blotches and black-red-yellow round marks. You can see the insignia on the second link.

[former user]

seriously, typing "T-72 DDR" on google images is too difficult?
then try this

http://www.google.de/search?q=T-72+DDR&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=TMQZUsbcLISEtQbi_4GIAg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=630

[Westfalia Chris]

For added variation, you could try googling ""T-72"+NVA". Make sure to check the sites, though, as "NVA" might be used as a description for the PAVN/VPA (Quân Đội Nhân Dân Việt Nam). To my knowledge, Vietnam doesn't (yet) and never did own any T-72s, but there are a lot of ill-informed websites around (Wikipedia even lists the T-72 as partaking in the Battle for Saigon in 1975, preposterous poppycocks!).

Apart from that, I recall an overall greenish olive (camouflage patterns being rarely used, at least in peacetime) with the national insignia and tactical numbers applied to the turrets. Note that NVA AFVs often featured 4-digit numbers (Regiment/Battalion/Company/Number of individual Vehicle in Platoon) as compared to 3-digit numbers in Soviet service.

[grant]

http://www.armouredacorn.com/ncvm.html

A couple of nice East German references there. Enjoy!

And ... 

[MajorTalon]

http://www.armouredacorn.com/ncvm.html

A couple of nice East German references there. Enjoy!

And ... 

I must need to learn to make more efficient searches because I did, but I couldn't find any.

[Arlequín]

I can't stress the importance of cross-checking even photographic evidence though...



Yes, you guessed it, the guy in the middle tank is wearing the late pattern field cap and not a beret.
 

[grant]

 

Just about some the wife up with my stifled laugh!

[Arrigo]

 "Wikipedia even lists the T-72 as partaking in the Battle for Saigon in 1975, preposterous poppycocks!"

You love wiki don't you? 


Well, you just made my day...  if I have some inconsistencies in my thesis I can now quite some thing worse... well, once an Italian jounralist claimed we had Centauro B1 at El'alamein... well If we had a comapny of them I fear the battle would have gone differently...

Oh well, in the old GHQ Mekong Rules they claimed US tank battalions had M60A1 in Nam... by the way more pressing question... what are Petner's Panzers?

Arrigo

[former user]

Petner's Panzers?

can You put this in a context?

a wild guess would be that it refers to the Panther tanks the french used in Indochina

edit:  totally wrong - Petner was a model manufacturer for 1/87 

[Westfalia Chris]

"Wikipedia even lists the T-72 as partaking in the Battle for Saigon in 1975, preposterous poppycocks!"

You love wiki don't you? 

I actually like to browse it for laughs and procastination, but not as a reliable source. Possibly a starting point, but never an uncorroborated source. My main issue being that since the T-72 only started to be introduced to Red Army units in 1971, I find it hard to believe that a secondary clientele nation such as Vietnam (especially after the Americans had already been humiliated) would be a high enough priority to receive first-line equipment. Furthermore, I've never seen a single picture of the Fall of Saigon showing T-72s (only T-55 or -62 variants and PT-76s), and while it might be possible that they may have received some in time for the 1979 conflict with China, I haven't been able to find a reliable source that confirms the PAVN had (or has) any T-72s at all.

I think there is a computer game that features T-72s in the Fall of Saigon, so that may explain the confusion with some kiddo taking it for fact and editing Wikipedia with this exciting new revelation.

Well, you just made my day...  if I have some inconsistencies in my thesis I can now quite some thing worse... well, once an Italian jounralist claimed we had Centauro B1 at El'alamein... well If we had a comapny of them I fear the battle would have gone differently...

Groan! You couldn't confuse a ram (Ariete Division) with a Centaur, could you? 

Oh well, in the old GHQ Mekong Rules they claimed US tank battalions had M60A1 in Nam...

There were M60 AVLBs and M728 ARVs in Vietnam, weren't there? But apart from that, M48s and M113s pretty exclusively with a brief stint of the M551, IIRC.

[Arlequín]

In defence of Wikipedia, there are some excellent articles in it. Unfortunately there is no obvious way of recognising them and of course which ones have been 'edited' erroneously, or for a laugh... unless it's quite obvious, like the one I read which included part of the intro to 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' in the bio of Kim Jong-il, or someone like that.

It wasn't me by the way...

[former user]

In defence of Wikipedia, there are some excellent articles in it. Unfortunately there is no obvious way of recognising them

I usually go by the references quoted

[Arlequín]

I usually go by the references quoted

That pretty much goes for everything though, not just Wikipedia. 

[former user]

That pretty much goes for everything though, not just Wikipedia. 

obviously 

I am into redundancies lately....