Blast from the past

[jb]

Hi guys,
can someone tell me which tank model is that Soviet tank featured in the flyer (1st post)?
I have browsed throuhg the entire Warsaw Pact Tank catalog but couldnt find anything like it.

Thanks!
Willies

T-55. I'm not sure if GHQ made the T-54 back then...

[Hugewally]

T-54

[Bruce Morris]

The picture shows a tank without a bore evacuator. The evacuators were introduced in late model T-54's and cariied over to the T-55 series. Can't realy see the dome vents on the turret but that is another distinguising feature between the tanks. A point of interest is that I believe GHQ even had a a model of the Israeli Ti-67 (T-55with 105mm main gun) back in the late 70's or early 80's. There my have been different molds of the 54/55s because the rear fuel tanks on some of my older ones are much smaller.

Bruce

[tstockton]

Gentlemen,

My two cents worth...

Given that the text in the advertisement says "...available in almost 150 different models...", my guess is the tank in question is a T-55 from the W-10 pack, no longer "in production", having been replaced by:




W-43 T-55A Early MBT, and



W-44 T-55M MBT (final version of the T-55 series).

I'll have to go through my collection see if I can find a pack of W-10's and take a picture or two...

Regards,
Tom Stockton

[Bruce Morris]

Heck, I had to go out to my 'playhouse' and look up some of my old toys. The T-55 has the smaller fuel tanks and IR searchlights and the evacuator on the end of the gun tube. The T-55 doesn't have the unditching beam under the rear tanks or the large dome ventilator on the turret. These models were probably some of my first purchases after reading a review of the Dunn-Kempf wargming system in Wargamers Digest (Still some where in my collection.)

Bruce

[Hugewally]

T-54

No turret grab rails, no IR, no fume extractor, early road wheels, etc.

No longer in GHQ production.

[tstockton]

Martin,

I don't know how I missed seeing the W-15 T-54 100mm Medium Tank when I was going through my list... but I did.

I also show them as being "out of production" -- and with no "replacements"... yet... by GHQ. Maybe that'd be something that should be added to their "to do" list!

My "inventory list" shows I don't have any of those T-54's -- do you, by any chance, have some... and if you do, could you maybe post a picture or two of them?

Regards,
Tom Stockton

[Hugewally]

I know I have some somewhere. I'll see what I can do (but it'll be next week as I'm not home this weekend).

[kiasutha]

I've only ever seen the first issue...

... any chance I can talk you into scanning them?

Pat

Pat:
I will be scanning them, but it'll be a while. By issue 4, they'd about doubled in size btw.
I'm told there may have been as many as 8, but I've never seen any but these 4...

[jb]

T-54

No turret grab rails, no IR, no fume extractor, early road wheels, etc.

No longer in GHQ production.

I couldn't tell by the picture if the bore evacuator (fume extractor per USSR) was cutoff in the picture or not.
Also T-54s without it were the very early ones. Also to note T-55 had no right side cupola,and early T-55s had no AAMG. Most T-54s were converted to T-55 status after 7000km overhauls.

[ferret701]

[quote="kiasutha"][quote="ferret701"]I've only ever seen the first issue...

... any chance I can talk you into scanning them?

Pat[/quote]

Pat:
I will be scanning them, but it'll be a while. By issue 4, they'd about doubled in size btw.
I'm told there may have been as many as 8, but I've never seen any but these 4...[/quote]

Thanks... much appreciated. I just updated my site with some new models, and am most of the way through the first installment of the Vintage GHQ feature. I hope to use the three day weekend (well, 2 1/2 for me) to finish up the first installment. Like the Nichimo 1/300 and the ISM features, I will update it as needed.

Pat

[Mk 1]

I don't know how I missed seeing the W-15 T-54 100mm Medium Tank when I was going through my list... but I did.

I also show them as being "out of production" -- and with no "replacements"... yet... by GHQ. Maybe that'd be something that should be added to their "to do" list!

My "inventory list" shows I don't have any of those T-54's -- do you, by any chance, have some... and if you do, could you maybe post a picture or two of them?

Well, it may have been directed to another, but I decided to pick up the gauntlet on this particular challenge.

Dove into the "moderns" box, which sees precious little action these days, and dug deep for my original GHQ T-54s and T-55s. At least, I believe these are the original models. I do not have the box labels to give the stock numbers.

I make no representations about the quality of the paint jobs. These were bought long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. I got the T-55s in the late 1970s. They were painted in what I at that time imagined to be Egyptian colors for Mideast wargaming. They were later re-sprayed in olive green to become cold-war Russians, without being stripped. So the details are a little globbed up. I think I picked up the T-54s in the early 1980s.

(Sidebar: Kind of odd ... the T-55 is in my "moderns" box, but it an older tank, today, than the KV-1 was when I put the T-55s into my "moderns" box.)


Here is what I believe to be the original GHQ T-54 model. At that time, I considered this to be a real advance in the level of details on GHQ models. The crumpled canvas over the mantlet, the AAMG, and the straps in the fuel drums were all new to my eyes.


Here it is from above/rear. Note how clearly you can see the loader's hatch, which hinges to the back.


Here are two. Somehow I wound up with 7 of them. I think the only time they've managed to get onto a gaming board was as stand-ins for Chinese Type-59s.


Here is a comparison between the original T-55 to the left, and the T-54 to the right. Some of my T-54s don't have AAMGs. Not sure if I left them off to use them (rare and precious as they were at that time) for other purposes, or just didn't get enough of them.

Items to note:
- The T-55 has a fume extractor at the end of the barrel. The T-54 does not.
- The T-55 has an IR searchlight for the main gun, but also a small searchlight at the TC's hatch.
- The roadwheels on the T-55 are 5-spoked. The roadwheels on the T-54 are multi-spoked.
- The T-54 has a cupola for the loader and the TC. The T-55 has a loader's hatch, but it is not raised like on the T-54.
- The T-54 had big, detailed fuel drums on the back. The T-55 has small drums, with less detail.


Seen from above, you might also observe:
- The T-55's loader's hatch hinges to the front, not the back.
- The T-55 does not have the crumpled canvas mantlet cover like the T-54.

I also believe that the T-54's turret has more of a teardrop shape to it, while the T-55's turret is more round. But that is not obvious from the pictures.

Hope that helps.