Wednesday 30 August 2023

Vietnam War: NVA T-54 and PT-76 Companies

Earlier this year I put on a 6mm participation game on at Winter Wonderlard III, using Charlie Don't Surf for an 1973 Yom Kippur scenario set on the Golan Heights, which seemed to go down well with those that played it. Of late I have been thinking about what I could volunteer for Winter Wonderlard IV and whilst I am increasing interested in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War (Centurions vs Pattons anyone?), the tanks battles of the latter parts of the Vietnam War (1972-5) are also intriguing (and the war better known to potential players).

The picture of the ARVN 20th Tank Squadron in Osprey's Tanks in the Easter Offensive 1972 engaging NVA armour as they attempt to seize the bridge at Đông Hà has piqued my interest and I've been doing more research into it to see whether it would make for a good game, and this led me over the bank holiday weekend to painting up some spare 3D prints as North Vietnamese units...

First up was a company of T-54 tanks. A lot of illustrations of NVA (and ARVN) armour shows widespread use of foliage on tanks, so I experimented with some Woodland Scenics bushes which I tore up and glued to the models...

Along with the MBT's I also painted up a company of amphibious PT-76's which, whilst lightly armed and armoured, are surprisingly large.

The gun barrels on these prints are quite fragile and I've already replaced a few with wire. Fortunately a bit of foliage on them, disguises this to the casual viewer!

Overall I'm quite happy with the end result here, I've some spare M41's and M48's from my Cold War 1958 project sat in a Really Useful Box so I some ARVN armour could well be on the painting table soon.

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