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Vietnam GB Chat


trickyrich

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4 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Excellent Craig one for later then still plenty of time, might squeeze Airfix's Vigilante in too!

oh now you are teasing!!!!!  Gotta have a Vigilante or 4 in this GB!  :D

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OK,

 

A question for the moderators. As you may have gathered I am thinking of entering a conversion of the Italeri B-66 as either an EB-66C or EB-66E. No problem finding a plane that was actually used in this conflict, but over a period of time the threat and the equipment they carried to meet it varied quite a lot, resulting in the various bulges, aerials etc changing on a regular basis. Pics are useful but it will be darned nigh impossible to model an entirely accurate fit for a particular machine on a particular day, so at best this will end up being "representative" rather than "accurate". I will probably build it anyway, but will it meet your eligibility terms so that I can enter it in this GB?

 

Pete

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Sounds alright to me Pete, as long as you have the correct markings and scheme for an aircraft operating over Vietnam then you should be okay. The aerial fit on these changed a fair amount so doing your best to represent an aircraft based on what pictures you can find will suffice for me. I can't see Rich objecting either but best give him a chance to reply before starting.

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Thanks guys,

 

This should be interesting, particularly if I have to extend the tail - I have drawings and photos but they are at times rather ambiguous. At least I have some nice spare blisters from my EKA-3B which could be useful! Good job I have over 2 months left as I will probably need it. No doubt just as I finish a conversion set will be released/re-released!

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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       Hello everyone...After spotting a piece in reference by @Angus Turaabout the British in Vietnam during the war. I just wanted to say how good all the builds here are. I thought I would add a bit of history some or all of you may not be aware of. I have a family connection directly connected to the war so its a part of me even though i was born in 1971. In 1967 the Uncle I was named after was sent to  Malaya from Vietnam on a Civilian passport. He was a soldier in the U.S.Army but because the British were officially neutral he couldn't travel in uniform. He had volunteered to be trained as a Combat tracker using dogs and would be trained in Malaya by Gurkha’s and the Royal Veterinary Corps in dog handling.
N2Dewlb.jpg

He spent several weeks there learning how to infiltrate with a five man team.

x0zKcu0.jpg

        Here ⬆️ he is in the local village near his basecamp with his team, he is the one in top center no helmet with the M-16 leaning on his right leg. The job of the trackers was to go in before a main assault force to scout for traps, ambushes, and the enemy. On 11 October of 1967 he was a cover-man, his Dog handler had gotten out about 350-400 yards in front of the rest of the five man team. There they were ambushed and K.I.A. but when the team arrived, the remains of the firefight showed he fought back before he died. He saved his dog but he and the handler did not survive the encounter. I was named after him thus the connection to the war. roGpzhF.jpg

        Here are a display of his medals. Combat Infantryman's badge(top), Bronze star with “V” for valor. Purple heart, air medal x 2 (50+ helicopter insertions), you received one for every 25 missions from what Ive been told. I'm not quite sure what the green white one on the right is. And the red/gold pair are South Vietnamese medals awarded. I have been to multiple reunions, met a couple of Gurkha’s, and have been given the title of honorary tracker by the unit. Here is a link to the website, but be fore warned there are photo’s of dead enemy soldiers posted in some of the photo albums. My uncle was part of Tracker team eight both teams 7 and 8 were assigned to the 1st Air cavalry division. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any ? 
 

Dennis

 

http://www.combattrackerteam.org/

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

Given the number of trucks and tanks that seem to be entered, I was wondering if my Airfix 1/72 M113 Cav kit might be eligible. Not saying I will build it as I have to find it first in the roof, but it should make a fairly quick alternative to more planes.

 

Pete

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9 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi,

 

Given the number of trucks and tanks that seem to be entered, I was wondering if my Airfix 1/72 M113 Cav kit might be eligible. Not saying I will build it as I have to find it first in the roof, but it should make a fairly quick alternative to more planes.

 

Pete

Oh I think we can find room for an M113 Pete, another of the iconic vehicles of the conflict.

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Thanks Craig,

 

Well, I have managed to find the M113 kit, but although Airfix provide several sets of serial numbers they give no indication as to where they were in service. I know the ACAV version was used in Vietnam but I cannot guarantee that I can produce one that definitely was there. I will have a look around but this may be a non starter.

 

Pete

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Ok, We are on!

 

Found that Airfix have included the markings for 12 C 16468 of 82 Airborne, 17 Cav of which a pic is in the Squadron Signal book on the M113 placing it in Vietnam. Now all I have to do is work out the exact shade of green! In some illustrations it seems to be standard US OD as used in WWII and in others it looks more like Marine Corps Green. Anybody know which shade is correct?

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Ok, so that narrows it down to 4 colours in my stock - Hu 155 as suggested by Airfix, Tamiya XF62 OD, Mr Hobby H304 which claims to be OD FS34087 which should in theory be correct for the early post war period, and Colourcoats US 03 1943 OD, and of course no 2 look the same!

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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I also have these, any one of which could be valid for this GB with the right markings.

DSC03918-crop

The PST kits which are/were made in Belarus look pretty good and actually both boxings contain the parts for a T-54 with the early gun, a T-54A with the later gun, and a T-55 with the option of an Infra Red searchlight. I have seen pics of made up kits and they look good. The T-59 in the foreground is made by Ace from the Ukraine and the plastic looks a bit cruder. It is a modification of their earlier T-55 kit and the instructions say "Due to the moulding procedure, certain errors have occurred" which is not promising. They say the second roadwheel needs moving forward 1mm, the fourth backwards 1mm and the drive sprocket backwards 1.5mm which might cause a problem with the track. Also they tell you to file 1.5mm off "a portion of the left hand side shown in the shaded area" but the shaded area is actually on the top of the whole of  engine grille frame so that is rather vague. On the plus side they include NVA markings! I may build one of these if I have time, but have not yet decided which one - they were bought with the middle east in mind, having seen the T-59 in the Tank Museum after Desert Storm.

 

Pete

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3 minutes ago, PeterB said:

I also have these, any one of which could be valid for this GB with the right markings.

DSC03918-crop

The PST kits which are/were made in Belarus look pretty good and actually both boxings contain the parts for a T-54 with the early gun, a T-54A with the later gun, and a T-55 with the option of an Infra Red searchlight. I have seen pics of made up kits and they look good. The T-59 in the foreground is made by Ace from the Ukraine and the plastic looks a bit cruder. It is a modification of their earlier T-55 kit and the instructions say "Due to the moulding procedure, certain errors have occurred" which is not promising. They say the second roadwheel needs moving forward 1mm, the fourth backwards 1mm and the drive sprocket backwards 1.5mm which might cause a problem with the track. Also they tell you to file 1.5mm off "a portion of the left hand side shown in the shaded area" but the shaded area is actually on the top of the whole of  engine grille frame so that is rather vague. On the plus side they include NVA markings! I may build one of these if I have time, but have not yet decided which one - they were bought with the middle east in mind, having seen the T-59 in the Tank Museum after Desert Storm.

 

Pete

I have the PST T-55 kit (top right), albeit in the box style of the T-54 kit, which is the PST packaging I'm familiar with. This appears to hold up very well against the much newer Revell kit, at least to my eyes.

 

I've already built a Trumpeter T-34/85 for the Tet Offensive, so now we need some later NVA armour for the advance to Saigon!

 

I think I'll be giving the Ace Type 59 a very wide berth, given the above 😬

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Hi klr.

 

Sounds worse than it probably is  - moving the wheels just involves modifying the mounting slots for the torsion arms and likewise moving the sprockest just means filling one locating hole and drilling another. As to the engine decking PDT tell you to file that down also on the T-54 but interestingly not on the T-55. although they provide 2 alternate ones. I guess that they are both T-55 mouldings and need reducing/altering for the T-54. Likewise Ace did the T-55 first then modified it to produce their T-54 and T-59. Funnily enough given what I recently posted on your T-34/85 build I am going to have to provide my own wire tow rope for these kits, either home made or the stuff I bought. With the Ace kit I will also need to make wire handrails for the turret, but again that should not be a problem as I have length of OO gauge railway handrail wire which bends easily, particularly if you run it through a flame such as on my gas hob to de-temper it. It will be a bit of a challenge but I might just give this kit a go - must be mad😁!

 

I also have the PST KV-85 and IS-2 and they are in the same style boxing as the T-54, as are a couple of their other kits I think I have hidden somewhere. What I like about them is that the sprues usually contain quite a few extra parts - for example two types of hull, turret and guns for the IS I believe so the short lived  IS-1 is a possibility. What I really fancy is a T-10 but  I thought nobody makes one in 1/72 or 1/76 so I  was thinking of using 2 old Airfix IS-3 kits - the hull should be relatively simple - it is the turret which is a problem. However I have just noticed that Trumpeter now do one! I managed to get an M-103 a couple of yerars ago so now all I need is a mainstream manufacturer to do a Conqueror and I will have all the tanks I want. I have not built any tanks for a couple of years, so I might start again just for a change from planes.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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24 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Hi klr.

 

Sounds worse than it probably is  - moving the wheels just involves modifying the mounting slots for the torsion arms and likewise moving the sprockest just means filling one locating hole and drilling another. As to the engine decking PDT tell you to file that down also on the T-54 but interestingly not on the T-55. although they provide 2 alternate ones. I guess that they are both T-55 mouldings and need reducing/altering for the T-54. Likewise Ace did the T-55 first then modified it to produce their T-54 and T-59. Funnily enough given what I recently posted on your T-34/85 build I am going to have to provide my own wire tow rope for these kits, either home made or the stuff I bought. With the Ace kit I will also need to make wire handrails for the turret, but again that should not be a problem as I have length of OO gauge railway handrail wire which bends easily, particularly if you run it through a flame such as on my gas hob to de-temper it. It will be a bit of a challenge but I might just give this kit a go - must be mad😁!

 

I also have the PST KV-85 and IS-2 and they are in the same style boxing as the T-54, as are a couple of their other kits I think I have hidden somewhere. What I like about them is that the sprues usually contain quite a few extra parts - for example two types of hull, turret and guns for the IS I believe so the short lived  IS-1 is a possibility. What I really fancy is a T-10 but  I thought nobody makes one in 1/72 or 1/76 so I  was thinking of using 2 old Airfix IS-3 kits - the hull should be relatively simple - it is the turret which is a problem. However I have just noticed that Trumpeter now do one! I have not built any tanks for a couple of years, so I might start again just for a change from planes.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Re the IS-3 and IS-10: The Trumpeter 1/72 IS-3 kits - of which I have two - come with pre-formed metal wire parts for the turret hand rails, and look a lot like staples. They also come with a choice of built-up "hard" tracks, or one-piece pre-formed hard tracks with the inner bank of wheels molded in place.

 

I have quite a few PST kits as well, including several IS-1/2 (same contents in all naturally), several flavours of the KV-1/KV-2 series, and some ISU-122/152s. I have to say though that the newer IS-2 and ISU kits from the likes of Zvezda, and maybe even Italeri, seem somewhat easer to build.

 

I also have a PST PT-76 amphibious tank, which is a very nice kit, similar standard to the PST T-54/55 mold. I don't know if the B-model represented by the kit is the same as that used by the NVA though: A PT-76 vs. M-48 Patton double build (as in the Battle of Ben Het in 1969) would have been an interesting project!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/22/2020 at 8:40 AM, Silenoz said:

Pff... Ordered my upgrades at the end of August and something happened with the shipment. All has been sent back without further notice. The courier only wants to give the info to the seller and now the package has been in storage for 3 weeks before it even gets there...

 

It has arrived.... groupbuild almost halfway by now.... don't know if I will start, because at the pace I build, it won't be finished 

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21 minutes ago, Silenoz said:

 

It has arrived.... groupbuild almost halfway by now.... don't know if I will start, because at the pace I build, it won't be finished 

There's no shame in starting a build for a GB and not finishing in time, lots of us do it. And besides you can then carry it on in the KUTA section, or just carry on in your original GB posting as people who follow your build will still get the updates you make to it.

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EEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

 

I've been so caught up with the GB poll I haven't had a chance to look in here for a couple of days and I've 2 pages of builds to catch up on!!!  :yikes:

 

I really have to pull my finger out!

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