I hope some of you clever people out there can help me?
I am trying to find details of the types of buildings that would have been in Hue during the Tet offensive, I have been looking at the kits available and most seem to be WW2 buildings, knowing that there was a heavy French infuence in Vietnam would Frence style buildings look right or is it mainly concrete buildings I would need?
second part of his question is would the US Marines have been using the M48 A3 tank then?
Thanks for any info you can give me.
David

Hue Thread
Check out that thread. Lots of sub-links in it.

thanks for the link Scott, lots of useful stuff to look at.
David

Pick up a copy of "Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968," by Eric Hammel. It is a huge photo essay on the battle, and should give you everything you need in terms of urban construction. Paperback edition came out last year, and your local library may have the hardback 1996 edition.
During the early stages of the battle, only two M67A1 flamethrower tanks were available (M48A3 with a flamethrower instead of a 90 mm gun--it was disguised as a cannon, but was shorter and fatter).
The US Marines used the M48A3 Patton throughout the Vietnam conflict. The original 1962 batch of rebuilds retained the M48A1 cupola and hatch (as seen in the Monogram kit). The 1968 rebuilds received the vision riser and revised commander's hatch as shown in the Tamiya and Academy M48A3 kits (which depict a partially updated 1962 rebuild). Most of the 1968 batch were based on the M48A2, and had the M60 style headlights and guards, as well as reinforcements around the rear engine grills to protect them from damage if the vehicle backed into something (some of these parts can be gleaned from the Academy M48A5). These weren't seen until after Hue, though.
For photos of Marine M48A3's in action try to find David Douglas Duncan's photo book, "War Without Heroes," which includes a photo essay of M48A3 Pattons and LVTP5 Amtracks in Operation Fortress Sentry, an amphibious landing and sweep near the DMZ in 1967. The book is in many public libraries.

Thanks for the info on the books I will have look for them.
I may well have to do a conversion of the M48A3 to a M67A1 instead does anyone do a conversion kit?
Cheers David

David,

I too have been working on a dio of Hue City during Tet. Another good source is "Phase Line Green", by Nick Warr. I was able to meet with him for 2 hours back in 2000 and he corrected a lot of my misconceptions of what really happened. Not everyone can meet with the author, he was only 6 miles away. As for buildings and such, photo references are available on the web or in other locals as mentioned by others. I found that if you can locate a movie as mentioned by others and put it on to your computer you can print still pics of buildings, etc. I have scratch build all of my structures from plaster and etched out bricks and pillars. All the other buiding techniques come into play at this point. As mentioned before, the M48 and the Ontos were used like a tag teem during that conflict. Hope this helps.

Thx, Ski.

Ski,
Thanks for the heads up on the book, I will look out for it.
I have now got the Tamiya M48A3 and the Hobby Fan Ontos as well as quiet a few Hobby Fan US Marine figures, I just need to work out my basic design and then find the time to make it all!
Cheers for your help
David

If you buy your HobbyFan figures from Lucky Model.com, the postage to the UK is free... some of the figure kits are incredible (might want to change the heads though) but a couple - mechanised infantry for example are not so hot...

Richard,
Thanks for the info on Lucky model, a lot of the Hobby Fan stuff says available but not in stock do you have any idea how long it takes for it to be sent when its not in stock?
Hopefully not too long because its a great cheap site otherwise.
Cheers
David

Verlinden actually has a couple/few things that are well worth the effort in my opinion. There is what they refer to a Vietnam/Middle East ruin and several other smaller accessories that work well. In fact they used the stuff to do a great Vietnam dio for one of their publications, "The Verlinden Way, Vol. 6). It is an M-48 with an armored MUTT. Very effective presentation.

Apparently, "available" items can take up to a month...

Andy & Richard,
Thanks for your advice and input.
I have ordered some figures from Lucky model and hopefully will not take too long to arrive?
Thanks again.
David

Which ones did you get?

Do not forget that the Marines did not only use the M-48,but they also used the Ontos and the Mule with a 106 mm recoiless rifle mounted on it.As far as books go,several very good books have been mentioned,but here is another that you might want to look into.Marines in Hue City A Portrait of Urban Combat,Tet 1968 be Eric Hammel.Looking at the pictures,except for the uniforms and equipment,it could be Iraq.Semper Fi.Ted Nichols

Ted,
Thanks for the info, I have the book Marines in Hue City A Portrait of Urban Combat,Tet 1968 be Eric Hammel an excellent book like you say with some great photos to work from, I came across it when getting Fire in the streets by the same author, which I really enjoyed reading and for me at least explained a lot of what happened there. I also have a Hobby Fan Ontos and Dragon Mule with a 106 mm recoilless rifle waiting to be built along side the M48. It's starting to look like I may be building a few Hue related dioramas and if I'm clever enough (although I very much doubt I am!) they might all fit together to make one very large diorama?
Richard,
I have ordered some of the U.S. Marines Battle of Hue 1968 figures I have some of them already and these will mean I have all of the Marine figures that Hobby Fan do. I already have the group of Marines crouching behind a tank which I think I will have behind my M48 as the starting point of my diorama and maybe a low wall with the other figures behind shooting over or around it? But I also want to get buildings into the diorama so that you can tell its Hue and not just a fire fight some where.
David.