Almost afraid to ask after the last query I made. See how many trolls come out from under the bridge this time. Anyhow.... JGSDF's Tank Co., Fuji Training Center has Type 74s , with red stars …. I presume they are an OPFOR of sorts. I saw a group of photos from about the 11:00. Shows the normal IR light removed. It looks like there is a Soviet style IR/Spotlight on the right side of the turret. Am I seeing things , or they going for the T62 look?

Like these ?















Looks like the fake IR light is made with a plastic bucket...



More info here :

http://blog.livedoor.jp/b_johnny/archives/18715276.html

Markings :





H.P.

Thanks. Frenchy. The set of photos I saw incuded the first two you had. I thought that was a mock up IR light rearing its ugly head. I have a set of Asuka decals that has the markings. Thanks for the rear shot. I did not know about the storage rack. (Hadnt seen that style on the Type 74 before. Looks taller than the stock one. ) Now, any idea where I can get a 1/35 5 gallon paint bucket?

Here's two more photos from Getty.
Caption: "GOTENBA, JAPAN - JULY 9: A Japanese Self Defence Forces tank passes by during artillery live-fire trainings during a anti-terrorism practise at Higashi Fuji training range on July 9, 2005 in Gotenba, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. This is the first time that Japan's first anti-terrorism training range has been opened to the media. Still under construction, it is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year."





Cheers,
/E

Full size


This one is fitted with a different fake IR light (maybe they were out of buckets..) :



Full size

H.P.

Need more ?











(from http://nacekomie.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=171&t=23752&start=20 )

H.P.

Tim, have you built the Asuka/Tamiya kit ? If so, what's your impressions of it?
Frenchy as always, thanks for all the great images !

Ivanhoe ... I was drooling on that Asuka kit (I have 9 of their Shermans. I'd say top of the line, but not familiar with RFMs releases, sooo) Found out its the Tamiya kit with the extra parts from Asuka to make it the "G" of Kai. As I understand the Kai was a proposal to bring the 74 up tp near Type 90 standards. Idea was shelved after 2 were built for evaluation. I think Fuji School kept them as training tanks. Unless you want an esoteric Type 74, for the money, just stick with the Tamiya. If you are into JGSDF or IJA stuff, I highly recommend Fine Molds. They do a whole load of Japanese kits. Their Type 61 puts Tamiya's to shame … and have bothe early model and upgraded. (Course the FM kit dates to 2010 and Tamiyas dates to when the 61 was in prototype stage.) Tamiya and FM have been doing a lot of cross pollinating. The Tamiya Ha Go and Chi Nu kits are reboxed FMs. Playing with their Chi Ha Shinhoto now. (Hataka paints makes a great IJA set with both early and late war colors.) About as "shake n' bake" as a Tamiya kit but with much finer detail.

Frenchy, what is your secret? (unless it's one of those "I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you." things) I spend hours on google/ Bing trying different searches … "Type 74 training tank", "JGSDF OPFOR", "tank co. school unit Fuji training center" and any other version I can think of and get 1 link with 3 or 4 pics. I pop on here and in 15 minutes you have a whole freeking book!

This ain't no rocket science Tim

I usually try to use the langage of the vehicle country of origin for my image search to get more results. I often use Wikipedia to get the right designation. For instance the Type 74 tank is called 74式戦車 in Japanese. I also use Google translator to add other criteria to my search like "markings" "turret" "training" in the same langage. One picture leads to another...Et voilà ! All you need is time

BTW here are a few more :





















Here's the Wiki page about the JGSDF Unit training evaluation team (similar to an OPFOR unit)

https://www.wikiwand.com/ja/%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%E8%A8%93%E7%B7%B4%E8%A9%95%E4%BE%A1%E9%9A%8A



HTH

H.P.