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African T-55?
Mech-Maniac
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Posted: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 11:42 PM UTC
I was browsing through the VLS site and saw that warriors has a figure set, 2 to be exact, of an African T-55 crew. What countries in Africa possess, or possessed T-55s?

I thought of Egypt, but looking the way the box art was done, the way the uniforms were painted didn't look like the uniforms of an Egyptian crew.
KiwiKid
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 12:00 AM UTC
According to the Janes book on Tanks:

Algeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia

Hope this helps,

Clinton
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 12:23 AM UTC
Oh wow, more than I thought, were these tanks actually bought, or given to them by the Soviet Governement in hopes of supporting a communist takeover?
Tarok
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 01:27 AM UTC
I believe the T-55 was also operated by Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, although these may have been captured from insurgents/freedom fighters from Zambia (Northern Rhodesia or Mozambique).

Shain, I believe it was a bit of both...

T-55's became almost as common as the AK47... similar principles applied in the supply of most Soviet arms and equipment, which was supplied from various countries within the Communist Bloc, not only the USSR...

Shain,

If you're interested, we're running an African campaign at the moment, SiyaAfrika, which will give you a great reason to built an African T-55...

Why not join us?

Rudi
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 02:30 AM UTC
Excellent information from all, thanks a bunch, I enlisted in the campaign, might not start my build till January or so. Thanks a bunch!

Any good T-55 models out there? I'll look of course, but any recommendations? PE kits etc?!

thanks
-Shain
Rockfall
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 02:44 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Any good T-55 models out there? I'll look of course, but any recommendations? PE kits etc?!


Tamiya is the best T-55 kit on the market today. Nothing else really comes close.

However it only builds into european versions so I am not sure what you would need to do an African one.


Tarok
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 02:52 AM UTC
I seem to recall a Polish version/derivative of the T-55 being used in parts of Africa... I almost think I've seen a SBS somewhere (the likes of M-L or TL) on converting the Tamiya kit into that version...

Shain,

LOL, don't worry mate, I'll only be able to order my entry in Jan or Feb.... and I'm supposed to be leading this campaign! LOL :-)

Good luck mate, and welcome aboard!

Rudi
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 04:14 AM UTC
Tamiya it is! I'm sure Mig and/or a few others have some goodies for it too, and I also meant that I'll only be able to order mine in Jan/Feb :-)
Savage
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 05:42 AM UTC
Shain, if by possess you mean have a few laying around, probably 90% of African countries have a few of them.

Operate and use them, then add Angola to Clinton’s list. Rudi’s correct, Rhodesia did operate T-55s, reliable rumour has it a few were given to them by South Africa, Zimbabwe will obviously still have a few (condition unknown).

Also don’t forget that there are mercenary and rebel forces operating T-55s as well. Quite a few Angolan T-54 & T-55s were ‘misplaced’ by ‘unhappy’ combatants as well.

Add to this that some South African forces were trained on T-55s during Hooper with the aim of infiltrating FAPLA/Cuban lines.
toadman1
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 07:04 AM UTC
Pictures of the Rhodesian T-55's and the interesting story of how they came into Rhodesian hands can be found here. I have one of them on my "to do" list.

Chris "toadman" Hughes
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Savage
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - 05:56 PM UTC
Well Chris, Shain both of you will be happy to know that Luke Pitt’s T-55LD "Operation Quartz" is a Tamiya T-55 conversion.
Tarok
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 02:10 AM UTC
Came across this site by Googling T-55 Africa...

http://members.tripod.com/~Rhodesian/pix2.html

Most significantly:


Quoted Text

The armour depicted here is an example of a Rhodesian manned T55-L. The South African authorities seized ten of these Polish manufactured machines from a freighter in Durban harbour where they were en route to Uganda. The Rhodesian army were given 8 of them, but they arrived in Rhodesia too late to see much action. Photograph is courtesy of Craig Fourie. Info courtesy of Adam Geibel.




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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 09:52 AM UTC
Excellent, I've been looking for more stuff on the T-55 and I'm not having great luck, so all of you are helping a lot might I say.

But.....I cant find any specific information on Nigerian T-55s, does anyone have any info?

Another confusing thing, mainly why I'm posting this response is about the Rhodesian army, in one of the first links provided it shows the tank being manned by white, I'm guessing that they are British, crews, and in the last link provided there are African crews.

Are the Africans pictured hired "mercenaries" so to speak? Or regular army?
Tarok
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 10:51 AM UTC
Hi Shain,

Actually at one point up to 70% of the Rhodesian army consisted of black African (I say "black African" simply because I consider myself a white African - or a Euro-African as I like to say ) volunteers... a point that has largely been ignored by the ZImbabwean and world communities...

Rudi
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 10:57 AM UTC
Okay got it know, since I'm up and haven't got anything better to do, I'll read up on some Rhodesian history to get a better understanding, this is becomming quite interesting, maybe I'll be heading to a bookshop tomorrow :-) :-)
Tarok
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 12:05 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Okay got it know, since I'm up and haven't got anything better to do, I'll read up on some Rhodesian history to get a better understanding, this is becomming quite interesting, maybe I'll be heading to a bookshop tomorrow :-) :-)


LOL, that's the spirit! :-)

Don't worry... I only "discovered" that little fact recently as well...

Another "interesting" little fact about the Rhodesian war which my father-in-law told me about was that towards the end of the war, Rhodesia was running out of ammunition, and only the front-line boys were getting it... my father-in-law was posted on guard duty at army headquarters... armed with ONLY a pick-handle... out of 5 troopies, only 1 was given an Uzi or FN... the others were given sticks to guard Army HQ!
GaryKato
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 01:05 PM UTC
Osprey has their "Modelling the T-55" booklet (I think it's out already). If you go to their web page, you'll find a downloadable extra chapter. The subject is an African T-55.
Tarok
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 01:40 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Osprey has their "Modelling the T-55" booklet (I think it's out already). If you go to their web page, you'll find a downloadable extra chapter. The subject is an African T-55.


Thanks Gary, I forgot about that....

Here's the link to the relevant page: http://www.ospreypublishing.com/content2.php/cid=305

It covers construction, painting and weathering of the Somali Army version of the T-55...

Tarok
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 02:55 PM UTC
Found these on Webshots.... taken in Ethiopian tank cemetry...





HTH

Rudi
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