Vietnamese T-54

Here are a few photos of my build on the ACE 1/72 scale T-54 kit No. 72140. Built this kit sometime late last year. My turn to share.

All comments are welcome.
-Eddy

I'm very impressed by the amount of details on many brale scale builds. This is no exception. Very impressive piece of work Eddy. Love the scratchbuild details.

Very, very nice.

Tell us more about the paintwork please...

Cheers

Mike

Very good result - especially on the dirt and chipping. I remember pictures of this one in Squadron/Signals book "Armour in Vietnam". You captured the look of the original very well.

Thanks for sharing

Hello Eddy,

very fine work you show here.

Are some resin parts like turret, tracks show on your NVA tank? It don´t look like the plastic ones from ACE. Or make you some copies from it?

Many years ago, I worked with a Vietnamese man, a former Saigon policeman and ARVN soldier originally from the North. (He had fled the north in 1954 and then South Vietnam in 1975.)

I showed him the artwork in the Squadron book by which the above build is inspired and he informed me that ARVN troops marked a captured T-54 with the "QUANG TRUNG" marking in reference to the ARVN Quang Trung Training Center.

Searching on this, I did find this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260147441168

http://www.imnahastamps.com/military/airborne/index.cfm

My friend was adamant that the artwork did not depict a tank as marked by the NVA.

FWIW...

Great build and an even better paint job on this!
I love the weathering which is very much true to scale.

Thank you all for your comments it is very much appriciated.

As for the build I have to give much credit to Doug Chaltry for his in depth kit review and construction article of the Polish T-55 over at "On The Way" web site. Here is a link to the article: http://www.onthewayuk.com/reviews/ACE/T-55%20preview.htm

No resin parts where used. The ACE kit # 72140 just happen to have different colored plasic sprues. Reworked or deleted some items not found on the T-54. I rebuilt the fenders and bracing and added a few needed details here and there with sheet styrene and rod. I added a brass / aluminum tube to the end of the barrel to represent the smoke discharger however, I do not know if the smoke discharger and larger caliber barrel is correct for the Vietnamese version? The few photos I was able to find of Vietnamese T-54’s do not show the end of the barrel. The drawings in the Squadron Signal publication "ARMOR IN VIETNAM - A PICTORIAL HISTORY" shows a T-54 with just such a barrel and not IR equipped. This is also on the cover art of the ACE T-54 kit. The machine gun is from the RODEN Stalin tank kit. Light guards, hatch access handles, antenna rod, fuel tank lines and turret stowage rails were all fabricated from various sizes of brass rod. The lights are MV Products lenses. The tow cable is from the Artesanna Latina model ship products.

I used Model Master Acrylic “Russian Armor Green”. To attain the final color and weathering I followed most of Adam Wilder’s “Painting and Weathering” tutorial from the Missing-Lynx.com web site http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/other/awpaint/awpaint.htm I weathered the model using AIM Products, Tamiya weathering pastals / MIG Pigments.

George - Here are some links that give an excellent account to why such a name would be found on an NVA vehicle and other links (Book) to support the vehicle as captured with the name already painted on the vehicle by the NVA before its capture by the South Vietnamese Marines (not ARVIN troops). Quang Trung is a very commonly used name found throughout most of Vietnam on many business, industry, social clubs, sports, ect., including the ARVIN military school. This name is more commonly found used in the north particuly in Honoi and around the surrounding communities. The name is in referance to a very famous military leader named Nguyen Hue. Read and come to your own conclusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quang_Trung
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/crawdad/204/nguyenhue.html
http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?TRN-141
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/devtrainrvn/ch1.htm

-Eddy

Be that as it may, if you do a search on "Quang Trung 729," you will discover that that is ALSO the name of a 1972 South Vietnamese coutneroffensive.

Sorry, but it looks for all the world that the South Vietnamese marked this tank after capture. While it's been many years since I'd spoken to my Vietnamese friend, I remember very well his utter insistence that this T-54 was marked by South Vietnamese. And I'm inclined to believe someone that was there...

From: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43636

"On April 9, after the ARVN line had been driven in another fifteen kilometers, General Lam was quite optimistic. He decided to counterattack, naming his counteroffensive Operation 'Quang Trung 729'."

Beautiful paint job and markings, just not NVA markings.

George,

Thanks for the link. I found the post most intresting and factual. I also took your advice and did a search on "Quang Trung 729" and found more evidance there to support your friends claim: http://www.bietdongquan.com/article1/armyranger.htm

Good to know more about this vehicles markings and history and about those that where involved there during that period of time. Now I wonder what ever happened to the crew that manned this tank?

-Eddy

It's all very interesting indeed. I was just as disappointed as you might be to learn that the marking was not NVA as I thought this would make for a great modeling subject... And this was back in the days when the only T-54 was the ancient and crude Tamiya kit I was going to attempt to scare up.

As I wrote, it's been many years and I've had to try to remember some of what he'd said. He did tell me about the famous historical personage of Quang Trung and spoke of the training school. It was a vague memory that the "729" stood for something too that caused me to search on it in conjunction with the "QUANG TRUNG" name.

So it seems that I got mixed up about soldiers from the training school and rather the marking references the counteroffensive name.

Hard to tell if it was actually crewed in combat or if the marking was put on it after taking it and marking it as a trophy.

I have a magazine stored somewhere in the garage that has a photograph of a T-54/T-55/T-59 in or near Saigon near the end of the war that seems unique. The usual NVA national marking of the red disk and yellow star is bisected horizontally and the lower half of disk is sky blue, rendering the marking as a Viet Cong marking. It's the only piece of armor I'd seen as such. I should build that someday, but I just don't know enough about these series of tanks to correctly model whichever version it is. I'd have to do a ton of research.

Also, I have a photo of a Kampuchean M-113 circa 1980 with the .50 caliber replaced with a DShK and "086" and the then-Kampuchean national marking on the side. This consisted of a yellow five-tower Angkor Wat symbol on a red disk, edged in yellow.

Somewhere I also have stashed away a newsphoto of Vietnamese M-113 with the VN national marking. This is depicted in the 1979 Cambodian invasion. I'd love to see photos of the M-48s that were used, but never ran across any.

And again, stunning painting of your model. I actually thought it was the 1/35 Tamiya kit... That's how good it is!

George,

Thanks for the reply and for all of your comments converning the history of this vehicle and the events and the people involved during that period of time.

It appears in all likelihood that this vehicle was stripped shortly after its capture of many of its commonents including the DShK and marked as a trophy by its new owners as you mention. On some photos that I have seen of the T-54/T-55/T-59 and T-34/85Ms fielded in combat by the NVA do not have the usual large three digit white numbers painted on them and this may well have been the case with this vehicle, making it a good canidate for marking it as photographed, as some of the other captured tanks near this one are marked with the three digit large white numbers. Because only one photo exists showing one side of 'Quang Trung 729' it may be that the marking may only exist on the one side? I will have to live with that very real probability and learn to get over it!

I am however very pleased with the wealth of good information you have provided concerning this vehicle and those involved during the Vietnam war. I do hope that you will be able to gather enough information to put together the T-54/T-55/ or T-59 with the VC marking you mention and post it here for all of us to see.

Again, many thanks George . . .
-Eddy

Thanks for the kind words. Again, this is all so interesting...

Regarding the VC-marked T-54, I should add that the tactical numerals were stenciled in yellow, not the more common white, making it all the more interesting.

You've really got me thinking about building this tank... Guess I'll have to start rounding up the aftermarket kits to go along with the Tamiya kit. And start the interminable reseach, as I am very nearly completely in the dark about the minutiae of the different variants.

You are sure that it's outlined in Yellow? Sorry, I had to jump into this thread when I saw the "Quang Trung 729" Header from the main page of Armorama. I've been meaning to create a generic set of Vietnamese Turret number markings (I think I've gotten all the digits correct, seems to be similar to Chinese numbers in many cases) and Quang Trung 729 would be the main feature of the set.

Btw, I'm refering to 1/35 version of the markings... (Quang Trung is tricky due to the curvature of the turret but not entirely hard - still I want to get it as accurately as possible)

Cheers,

Lawrence

how people do so much detail work on such a tiny model baffels me...

Just found the magazine illustrating the VC-marked T-54. It's in a twenty year old magazine, NAM, The Vietnam Experience 1965-75, issue No. 18, page 550.

The photograph is captioned, "Flying a red flag, a T-54 enters Saigon." Waving from the aerial is a red banner edged with gold fringe and with a Vietnamese inscription too small to make out.

The national marking of the yellow star and bisected disk is as I described, with one difference: The disk does not feature the normal concentric yellow outline usually seen with NVA markings.

The numerals are "960" and are definitely yellow.

The fenders have been replaced with fenders fashioned from what appears to be corrugated aluminum and are painted to match the rest of the tank.

Behind the tank is an M-113 flying a VC flag.