Thanks, but those photos make me cringe. It's almost done, many little things like the mud, making it look more random, the engine deck a little and some tracks and C rations boxes on the turret, plus some paint things. But basically it's done.....now I have some jeeps/mutts and a M274 mule to finish and a few figures.
German armor form WWII and aircraft are varied and interesting subjects. But I just find Vietnam more interesting, it was such a one sided war. The USA came out this all these new weapons and transitioned into a new army during that time. I love reading about things that went on like the whole M551 Sheridan tank mess.....It was all like the military of that time was run by the three stooges comedy team.
WWII German armor is very interesting, way a head of the other countries technically and to model them is a fun process since I have never seen a picture of pristine German armor. Plus they would take anything that ran and modify it to be used since they were being bombed into submission or at least trying to be.
Yes Hue was a major battle during the Tet offensive of 1968 in Vietnam. The amazing thing about Tet was that the USA ended the VC and NVA armies ability to fight for years yet we lost the war. So the USA and ARVN forces won all the battles yet lost the war. That's what happens when it turns political and it's not a situation with clear cut objectives. WWII was beat the enemy and raise your flag on their capitol city like some board game.
Vietnam was a police action like Afghanistan is now. You cannot win those wars, only the people of that country can win, it's a civil war just like the one we had in the 1860s. Could you imagine if England or Spain or France landed troops to help the south fight, man that war might have lasted 20 years and bankrupt those countries like Iraq and Afghanistan did the USA.
Reading about history is great but some times I find it emotionally draining. The battle for Hue was one of those reads. I think some of the commanders of the Hue battle should have been court-marshalled for the things they did. They ignored so many common sense basic military tactics.
The one that got me was telling Marine infantry you have to take on a dug in heavily fortified enemy without anything more powerful than a hand grenade. They could not even use their LAWs or mortars, just their small arm weapons and grenades. The needless slaughter of Marine infantry, sending those brave young men into battle like that. We had the weapons but were not allowed to use them since it was a cultural city, a similar situation happened in WWII at Monte Cassino in Italy. Once we finally got the OK we blasted them, we should have waited until we got the OK before we sent in any troops. They were shooting Medvac choppers out of the sky and chopping up troops by the hundreds.
Very sad and very upsetting to know American Generals sent those kids into certain death. They were kids, most of those Marines were 19 years old to their mid 20s. So many young officers were no more then 20 years old with no experience. The Marines were pulled from jungle fighting and told to just start fighting house to house. Anybody who knows about fighting in built up area's knows that it is a special set of skills to do either. I read some books about how the Russians fought in WWII house to house. Amazing reading......I'm pretty sure a lot of those veteran Russian troops were teaching the North Vietnam army a thing or two. In Hue the fortifications were similar to what the Russians did, I don't think to this day anybody has realized that and put two and two together.
Enough of history and back to Modeling. But it's all tied together, to do a model correctly you have to know the history, IMO. I see a lot of Vietnam era stuff that looks good but is wrong on so many little details, which is OK. But for me I want to get it right from the way they wore their uniforms to the weapons and details of which version of the armor was used and what modification were made.
For instance many of the Marines in Hue did not have all their gear, they were told to leave it behind. So most did not have packs or even suspenders for their web gear. They ended up putting handgrenades in their pockets and using whatever they could find like used demolition bags and used claymore mine bags and filled them with stuff. They were not given rations even, not until later. Some were fed by the local people who came out of hiding with some bowls of rice for them. Their uniforms were worn for weeks without being washed, they were ripped and torn and dirty, the Marines were, unequipped, unshaven, unclean and unfed but fought on.