hye !

I've got that idea of a dio about the Ho Chi Minh trail.
I've got a soviet ZIS151 truck by ZVEZDA and the german bicycle set by TAMIYA.

I know that bicycles were heavily used by the vietnamese to carry all sorts of goods, with some very heavy loads. My problem is I have no photo reference at all.
So who's got pictures of the trucks and bicycles used on the trail ?

cheers !

Penpen--I do not have a photo readily available. I know that one of our dedicated Troopers will provide one for you. Having said that I can provide a verbal description of the North Vietnamese bicycle carrier. It is just that a carrier not a rideable piece of equipment. They were black in color. The seat was removed and a large pole came out of the seat position. They used this to balance the extremely heavy loads they moved. The hand bars were generally extended on one side using a large type pole that the pusher used to guide the bike. They tied their load so that the handbars, frame, and rear portion of the bike held these enoromous size gunny sacks full of material. This could be anything from rice to clothes. We never caught anyone carrying anything else which does not preclude that they may have carried weapons and ammo.. I just never got anyone who had anything but rice, gunpowder, or clothes.. Hope this helps.
DJ

Barnes and noble has many reference books with lots of color photos
Brandneus Pimpus

Here's one:



Another:

Penpen, consider obtaining the DML/Dragon Viet Cong set. The bicycle will be a good starting point and the figures are always useful!

BC--nice find. Envision about a dozen of these things being pushed down a goat size path through some of the thickest jungle you can imagine. You can not force humans to do that kind of labor, they were dedicated to ridding their country of any foreign power. I admire them for their persistence, but not their methods...
thanks
DJ

Thank you guys !
That info is invaluable !
Now I'm starting to know how to modify my tamiya bicycle !

Sounds like a nice idea for a diorama. It'll make a pleasant change. All those 'Panther near a wrecked building' dios get repetitive after a while!
I'm pretty sure I've got some VC/NVA reference pics at home which may help you. (I'm at work at the moment) I will have a look later.
I would bear in mind that since the knowledge you seek is a little 'esoteric', not to mention something of a non-standard 'battlefield modification', portaying something 'believeable' will probably suffice.
Just a thought though, perhaps you could include one of those 'submersible bridges' the VC and NVA constructed along the trail to evade aerial reconnaissance.
Will post pics later.
Cheerio

Holocaust, you're getting me excited...
Still, I don't think the bridge would be a good idea for me : it would be too big !
But, you never know...

That's one of the project I'll be working on during my holidays. Also, there'll be the sniper dio for the group build, the Me109 for the other group build, an israely M50, perhaps a jordanian M47... wil my 2 weeks holidays be enough ? (:-)

Two weeks to finish all that!!? Are you planning on sleeping? Come to think of it, it does say life is but a dream on the end of your post!

I don't get home from work for 3 hours yet but I'll get right on finding those pics for you when I do. At least black pyjamas will be easy for you to scratch-build!

As promised, here you go, more if you like, let me know.


http://www.wonderland59.freeserve.co.uk/messengers%20picture%20upload.html

paste this in your address thing. Dunno how to post the pic here LOL!

Thank you very much holocaust ! That picture will be of great help !
Do you have others ?
Now, it looks like I've got a good idea of how to modify the bicycle, but I'm still looking for exemples of how they were loaded !

Penpen--go to my earlier post on how the load is carried. The posted photos also show clearly how a load goes on the bike.