(Note: I realise there is already a thread with a similar topic to this one. However, I did not wish to "hijack" someone else's query with my own. If The Powers That Be require this thread to be merged with another, or deleted, my apologies in advance for any inconvenience!)


Gudday all!

Following recent events in the Caucasus, I am interested in building Russian/Ossetian/Abkhazian armour & militia. I've been viewing footage of the conflict for the past several days & it's set me to thinking about how to get back into 1:35 scale military model building after a hiatus of some 17 years (yeow!)! Heh heh!

I've been browsing what's been available on the internet in terms of images & video of the war, plus various manufacturers & suppliers of model kits along with reviews (including many posts here on the forums), wondering what sorta vehicles & figures I can get hold of. There seems to be a fairly good selection of armour kits & a few vehicles, but something of a dearth of figures which may require some footwork, scrounging, & likely sculpting on my part.

Further to the first couple of posts which kicked the "T-72 or T-90?" thread off with reference to tanks of the Russian 58th Combined Arms Army & discussion over which model they may/may not be, I'd be curious as to your thoughts on which model the ones shown in the below link are (various views, from around the 5:20 mark onwards). I am very likely wrong, but my best guess suggests that I can see some model of T-80 (I'm going by the commander's hatch) and, later in the clip, BMP-1, BMD-1, 2S3, T-72B (maybe), as well as sundry others.


Day one of the Georgia-South Ossetia military conflict, from Russia Today

*In footage from Abkhazia, I've seen some kinda updated version of the T-55 - possibly "AM" (unsure of specific designation) - in Abkhazian service which looks like it'd be fun to build (provided there's a good conversion/upgrade kit for the Tamiya model for this variant). It's run in live-stream footage many times, but I'm kicking myself that I can't actually find a clip elsewhere yet...

** POLITE REQUEST: I realise that at present there is a great deal of emotive argument surrounding this conflict, but please do not post political statements in this thread as I don't wish to begin my contribution to these forums by inadvertently kicking-off a slanging match. Thanks! **


Tommy.

I understand completely. I also tend to want to build the vehicles I see on the news, wherever in the world there is fighting going on.
What did the Abkhazian tank look like? Did it have an Abkhazian emblem on the turret? I'm very interested in the markings of smaller and obscure armies.

Hmm... the Abkhaz tank looked somewhat like one of these -

http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~TANK-GUY/Gallery03/MB-t55sn.html

http://2.csx.jp/~t54-55/tankguys/TK-t55am2b.html

http://2.csx.jp/~t54-55/tankguys/TK-t55amr.html

http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~TANK-GUY/Gallery03/TK-t55mv.html

I know that the Abkhazians have a few T-55's in service, but I haven't seen stills of an upgraded version, only video...


Tommy.

(Ah crap - just realised I mis-spelled "Russia" in the thread title! Is there a way to fix this? )


Tommy.

Ah! Excellent - that does begin to narrow things down. Thanks Gary!





Heh heh! Yeh, my apologies on that front - unfortunately I can't find a re-watchable clip (such as YouTube format) of the footage at present, only live-streaming video where it pops-up now and again. With regard to Czech-built versions - I agree, it's highly unlikely they would be in Abkhazia's arsenal. I went here for a kinda "scattergun" (ie: "I-don't-know-what-it-is-but-it-looks-kinda-like-this") approach by linking a few pics in the hope I might jog someone's memory...


Tommy.


UPDATE: Okay, this might provide a possible Abkhaz/Russian/South Ossetian T-55 reference which may make any identification easier. Check this video at around the 2:15 mark - apologies for the poor quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC-cLNkQnyE&feature=related

Also, here is an additional link providing a closer shot of the Russian 58th Army T-72's I had mistaken for T-80's. What had led me to make a guess that they might be T-80's was that I looked at the flipped-up commander's hatches of the tanks in the column with their little "windows" and I made a stab at it. Do any of you guys here know which model T-72's they might be (possibly "M2"?)? Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s77Obg_YyrE

Sorry, accidentally posted pictures for my build log here.

These might be of help in terms of reference :
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=99988&page=601 (pages 602 to 623, some photos are quite graphic)
http://www.navoine.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=551 (Previously unseen pics. Warning: few graphic pictures)
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=31529&page=1
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=31492&page=1

Gudday George!

The second two links are broken, but the first two are excellent - thank you very much! (I'll go check the build-log that was accidentally posted - thanks for the heads-up! Do you have a link to it?)






Excellent! Very informative and helpful - many thanks Gary!


Tommy.

Righto, I've managed to scrounge several ICM and Dragon figure kits locally, plus a Tamiya T-55 kit (SCORE!! This is apparently un-gettable by local stores here & I was lucky enough to find one on a shelf gathering dust), and a Revell T-72B w/ERA kit. I did read in the "T72 or T90?" thread that the Revell/DML/etc. kit is inferior to the Tamiya kit, but I was looking for something to build straight out of the box with no additional (and pricey) after-market upgrade kits. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has built this kit regarding potential pitfalls & problem-areas related to assembly.

I'll very likely build the T-55 straight outta the box with no mods. as well, as the Abkhazians do field/were fielding them in exercises as recently as February this year (possibly only for training, but I'd be willing to bet that they'd have thrown them into their recent offensive/s). Here's a couple of pics from those exercises (found using Google image search, search term: "abkhazia tank") -


http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/059r01yfKqh02/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/02Ye1mO5JYd9h/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04Vl5Pi6Ch5pu/610x.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0cAd6VCeb641i/610x.jpg


I guess in the case of the vehicles and figures I'd be using, the effect I'll be going for will be "pretty" rather than super-accuracy, as I can paint better than I can model (though I'm in dire need of practice at both! Heh heh!). In any case, with modeling of figures for this theatre there's enormous scope for imagination & experiment, as militias from these areas seem to sport a very wide array of kit & weaponry.

Interesting ideas for other future projects include a ZIL-157 truck in Abkhazian use, a Ural truck with one of those nifty little twin 23mm AA setups, and some kinda T-62 variant being fielded by some second-echelon Russian unit (engineers maybe?) in Ossetia with "shurzen"-style heavy-mesh (similar in appearance to that which has been added to Bradleys & ASLAVs in Iraq & Afghanistan) along the side-skirts and around the back of the turret...



Tommy.

DCS forums have been recovered today.

Ah-HA! Excellent! Thanks for the heads-up, George!


Tommy.