Irondog said:
Greetings all! I've been watching and reading here for some time and figured it was about time I introduced myself here, and ask a few questions as well!
I'm a fairly recent returnee to the world of wargaming in general and micro armour in particular ...
Welcome Irondog!
Can you share with us a little more of your background? Returning after how long? Are you an old iron dog, or a fairly new iron dog?
We all just love to hear personal histories of wargaming back when the earth was waste and void....
After going through it all, I decided to build both the Egytian and Isreali forces .... I found references to a T20 halftrack, all I can find out about it is that it is an anti aricraft vehicle, nothing on armament or what it looks like, can anyone help with that one?
"T20" would be an American designation for an experimental model. I know of no such vehicle.
Perhaps your reference meant the TCM-20. This was an Israeli SPAA modification of surplus halftracks.
The mod may have been made to any version of the basic halftrack, but the most common models in Israeli hands were the M5 version, as this was the most common APC provided by lend-lease to European nations. So most TCM-20s were probably M5-based.
The mod consisted of mounting an old Maxson turret (as used in the US-built M13, M16, and M17 SPAAGs), re-fitted with two 20mm Hispano cannons, rather than the original pair or quad of M2 .50cal MGs.
The easiest way to make such vehicles would probably be by starting with the M17, (listed in the catalog under Russian WW2 Anti-aircraft). The M17 was based on the M9 halftrack, which is visually just about indistinguishable from the M5. The M17 has a Maxson turret. Remove the two .50cals per side, and add your own scratch-built Hispano 20mm cannons. You may also want to plate over the radioator grills at the front, and add a ball MG over the co-drivers viewport to add more of the "Israeli" touch.
Another anomaly is a US 90mm anti-tank gun mounted on a halftrack, I thought I could use the M3 GMC and mount a different gun on it, however I have no idea what a 90mm gun looks like, would it be similiar to a 17 pounder or a 6 pounder or any other gun available from GHQ? doesn't have to be perfect, but I would like to be close. Same thing for a halftrack mounting an S-11 missle system as well.
I'm not familiar with the 90mm AT gun mount. Are you sure it was a gun, and not an RCL?
The US 90mm AT gun of WW2/postwar vintage was based on the 90mm AA gun. It was an enormous beastie. I will be surprised to learn if it was mounted on a halftrack.
A lightened version was mounted on the M56 "Scorpion" SPAAT mount for US airborne forces. Might it have been this gun? If so, GHQ makes the Scorpion. You might try buying some of the guns (you can buy just the guns from GHQ just as you can buy only turrets) and mounting them to halftracks. Again, the choice of halftrack is yours -- using a T19 or M3 75mm GMC may be easier for conversion purposes, but most Israeli halftracks were M5s (rather than the M3s used by the two US SPGs mentioned). The differences between M3 and M5 are small, most notably just the rounding of the back corners of the troop compartment. Also, Israel did us SOME M3s, so you don't really NEED to go all M5s.
The other issue, though, is that I suspect the vehicle you are looking for would have had a 90mm RCL, not ATG. If so, you might use the 75mm RCLs out of the Jeep pack.
Also, are there any models of recoilless rifles mounted on the ground by GHQ or any other manufacturer in this scale?
I have RCLs on ground mounts in Soviet modern forces from other vendors. Both the 73mm SPG-9 and the older 82mm models. I don't think either one would serve for Israeli forces.
That's what I get for doing this after work! Hopefully my next post will sound like I actually have a pulse.
Hopefully your next post will show us some pictures of your work! We jes' LOVES piccies of micros!
