Peter Pig 20mm Scale T-55 Tank

Having recently been reading about the desperate battle for An Loc at the start of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive of 1972, I thought that it would be very interesting to have some of the models necessary to be able to play games of this period. Whilst the T-55 is not the ideal tank for 1972, it nonetheless can be used to look the part of a T-54, the most common NVA main battle tank of the offensive.

All models are from my own personal collection and have been painted and photographed by me.

Preparation & Assembly

Overall the model is clean and requires little preparation prior to assembly. It was necessary to file the turret mounting in order for the turret to turn comfortably when inserted in the hole in the deck. Once this was done the turret turned very smoothly. Some residue molding lines on the turret were removed with a small file but apart from that there was little else to do in terms of preparation.

Assembly is very straight forward. I first glued the main gun in place and the turret hatches in their closed position (I suspect that the commanders hatch is back to front!). Since the model comes without crew there is little choice but to select the closed position. I wish that manufacturers would include crew figures, especially when the vehicle comes with open hatches.

The kit comes in 9 parts:

• Main Hull
• Turret
• Gun and mantlet
• Running Gear (x2)
• Fuel Barrels (x2)
• Turret hatches (x2)

The model is considerably smaller than it's US counterpart, the M48 'Patton', having a much lower silhouette and less bulky look. This is due to the fact that the Soviet vehicles were not given over to creature comforts and that space inside one of these tanks was at a premium. Nonetheless, whilst it is noticeably smaller than the M48 it still looks every bit as menacing with its long barrelled main armament and the distinctive half-egg shaped turret.

The turret simply sits on the hull deck and is held in place by a spindle which slots through a hole in the center of the deck. This allows the turret to rotate a full 360°.

The extra fuel tanks are mounted on the rear of the vehicle and although not often seen in contemporary offensive pictures were used when the vehicles were moving in column in the advance. Besides, I think they look good and very "Soviet".

As with all Peter Pig models that I have purchased, the running gear is well detailed and easily glued into place.

As mentioned, there are regretably no crew, external armaments or stowage items.

Painting

Rather than use the same colour scheme as I use with US vehicles, I decided to use a different set of colours to paint this vehicle. As usual, I undercoated the vehicle black and I used the same painting technique as used elsewhere in other articles.

As the base coat, I used an old GW colour called 'Battle Green'. This is very similar to US Olive Drab but a little lighter. This was applied using quite a heavy coat over the entire vehicle until only small amounts of black remained visible in the deepest recesses.

As a highlight coat I used a new GW colour (new to me anyway) called 'Camo Green'. I think that this particular colour is one of the best I have seen in the GW paint range for using on vehicles. The finish is really good - a sort of lightened olive drab. I used the sponge to highlight only the high spots on the vehicle and in particular, all the sharp edges.

Once the highlights were applied, I added a few finishing touches. First, I added some weathering. Simply sponge some 'Bestial Brown' onto the lower half of the model and a bit on the upper deck and turret. Highlight this with a lighter coat of 'Snakebite Leather'.

I was going to paint some unit tactical markings but looking through my sources it appears that these were generally painted out for the duration of an offensive. Nonetheless, individual unit ID numbers were present so I painted these on to the side of the turret. I made a mistake when I purchased these vehicles insofar as I only purchased two of them instead of three which would equate to a platoon.

Overall I am very pleased with the model. It is simple to assemble, uncomplicated in terms of painting and, most importantly, looks really good when finished and on the table.

I have no doubt that I shall be buying a third vehicle to complete the platoon and that when it is finally deployed it will cause the ARVN and their US allies a few problems.

Basing

Basing the vehicle was straightforward and I simply produced a base in the normal fashion as detailed elsewhere in other articles.

Send them into Action

For an opportunity to see your new NVA armour in action take a look at The Fight for National Route 1 - a Vietnam Crossfire scenario using the Incoming! rules.