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HERMAN BIX wrote:As its quite a "sticky-uppy" accessory, is it robust enough to take the odd snag or bang in case of bad driving !!?

Its the same M2 as on the Tamiya M26 Pershing. The brass barrel makes it barrel heavy, that could play depending on the speed, but the Nick Aguilar resin mount is solid enough. I see no issues.

Louis,

The 50 Cal looks great, the Aber set dresses it up very nicely.

Barry

HERMAN BIX wrote:.
As its quite a "sticky-uppy" accessory, is it robust enough to take the odd snag or bang in case of bad driving !!?

Herman,

That was my concern and why I used the solid metal copy sold by AFV Model on my Abrams. After seeing how well the Aber set dresses up the plastic Tamiya M2 I my consider using one on the Commander's gun station but will stick with the solid metal version for the one mounted out over the main gun.
The Tamiya plastic receiver sure would be easier to modify to the current M48 version used on the Abrams tank.

Barry

In preparation for the crew building and finishing phase, I did some study on the ARVN, its equipment but also its strength, weaknesses, morale and overall capabilities. It is surprising to see that there is not much material available on the ARVN. Surely, there are hundreds of books on the US involvement and auto-biographies of US soldiers available, but next to nothing on the ARVN. Very few pictures exists as well, likely because journalists were mostly sticking around the US forces or its archives were mainly destroyed or went unpublished. I also watched the recent and touching PBS documentary "The Vietnam War" by Ken Burns which provided new valuable information from all sides.

I have drawn some facts and conclusions on how the ARVN soldier must have felt.

- The real North Vietnam leader was not Ho Chi Minh but Le Duan, the fanatic communist party secretary who put no limits to the level of violence to achieve the unification of Vietnam under a communist regime. The whole North was brain washed with propaganda and every person served for the war. It was therefore a very cruel war.
- The ARVN soldier was conscripted for the duration of the war, with limited training and fought an endless unwinnable war against the North whose sole purpose was to destroy the South way of life with full support from China and the Soviet Union. It must not have been a good position to be in and they must have been very apprehensive about their future.
- If the communists could not be defeated with half a million US soldiers helping the South with its armored units, air force and navy, how could the ARVN soldier be able to think he could win after 1973 with his M-16, helped by a couple of hundred tanks, Skyraiders and light A-37 and F-5 for air support...
- The US soldiers knew their families were safe back home. For the ARVN soldier, the family is also very important. But they could likely be in a unsafe area, in a strategic hamlet, in a village under communist control fearing reprisal, or worse as refugees somewhere, their village burned or on the road fleeing the communist advance. He obviously had a lot of other concerns on his mind.
- The ARVN soldier might have a brother or family member fighting on the other side. Every one likely had a loss of some sort related to the previous 30 years of fighting.
- South Vietnam was a poor country with one of the largest army in the world, something does not add up. The ARVN soldier was therefore underpaid, and towards the end of the war, low on fuel and ammunition when US support was cut.
- The ARVN units seemed to have difficulty maneuvering. Trained and spread out for a guerilla war, it was likely not mobile enough to face the conventional armored invasion of 1975. Its leadership was overwhelmed by the rapidity of the action and not enough mobile armored reserves were available.
- The ARVN fought courageously during the defensive Tet and early 70s communist offensives. However, its ranks were infiltrated by spies who leaked mouvement information to the VC and NVA of the area. ARVN columns therefore frequently had no element of surprise and ended up being ambushed by strong enemy forces who opened up on them at close range, too close for air support and artillery to help, decimating whole ARVN units.

Considering all the sacrifices and losses that the Northern people sustained in winning the war, they should ask themselves if it was really worth it. The opening of the Hanoi stock exchange in 2005 should make all wonder who won the longer term strategic goal.

Here are some interesting ARVN pictures of infantry and M41 found on the web.

ARVN soldiers seemed to wear their full uniform all the time. They do not seem to be as shirtless as US troops. Ammo boxes are often piled up on the front glacis and on top of the turret. ARVN uniform seems to be simple in nature, tight pants and not many pockets. M41 were sometimes camouflaged with branches Other than the front serial number on the lower chassis, I saw very few tanks with other markings than this one. And very few had their tools normally found on the left side of the turret. more pictures

Some more ARVN M-41 pictures.
Regards, Louis

Hi,

Continuing with the turret, this post is for the water can racks at the rear of the turret.

This is the rack that need to be replicated. It is not easy because the hole and the raised holder for the strap is important. Looking at this, I knew this would be the complicated part of the build.
The Heng Long parts are accurate in shape but the details are not that great. The issue is that once you start detailing a model, it is important to be consistent. I do not like cutting corners by using some parts that are not at the same level as the others next to it. It would not look good. You either super detail it all, or you don't.
After some analysis, the main components are created in brass because of the rounded features of each corners. I will be using Verlinden Jerrycans that are leftover from the M113 build. But any standalone US jerrycans will do.
Parts are assembled with superglue. The hole for the strap was done with a 1mm drill bit right in the middle, then drilling sideways horizontally on both sides to make it wider. And then I tried my best to make it look good using the drill bit and some pliers, and a small strip of brass glued on top, then sanded and polished. Not easy...
The strap holding the jerrycans in place will be added only after painting. Not sure yet what kind of material I will use.
It took about 90 minutes per rack to build and I am satisfied with the results. After painting and with the strap in place, they should look very good.
Regards, Louis

Fantastic additions

Hi, I am getting close to the end of construction.

Below is the rear of the turret bin, with closing latch, tie downs and two brackets. The latch was created the best I could from the pictures I have seen. I am not really happy with it but it's so small, it needs a close up like the ones below to notice any inaccuracies.
I have never seen an M41 with the M2 tripod stored in the back on those 2 brackets in the middle. Other than being of use maybe if the tank becomes disabled... I do not understand why it was planned for an MG tripod to be provided to tank crews. In any cases, the ARVN crews did not care for it.

There is nothing I dislike like sanding 3D printed parts, specially on road wheel hubs with no flat areas. It is difficult to do a good sanding job on these Shapeways parts. Although they accurately show the hub with the 4 pins of the M41 instead of the 6 pins of the M26, the texture might not look good after painting. In any cases, I still have the plastic M26 hub in reserve in case they look better in the end.
Shapeways road wheel hubs are installed on the tank. They required a lot of preparations and modifications because of my road wheel arrangement with the ball bearings.
As shown in earlier post, ARVN crews loaded their tanks with a lot of M2 MG ammo boxes on the front glacis and around the turret. I purchased 24 ammo boxes from ebay seller Dioramaparts from Germany. Although these resin boxes are of a lower quality than Live Resin, they are much cheaper. As they are to pile up, all the fine details would have been lost anyway on more expensive brands. Not glued in place yet, they are shown here to represent their positions after painting.
Here I am testing the look and feel of a unmodified 1/18 figure on the M41. The Vietnamese people are much smaller than Caucasians. You really can't put an Asian head on top of a 1/16 scale 6 feet muscular body to represent an ARVN soldier. It just does not work, trust me. However, the body of smaller 21st Century (Ultimate Soldier) 1/18 Vietnam figures are a good base for major modifications into ARVN tank crew and infantry. You will not recognize the original figures once I am done with them, specially the infantry riders.
Next step is to go around the vehicle, do a final review and add any missing details. I noticed quite a few brackets that are required. After that, the painting and weathering phases will start.

Regards, Louis

I must say I am most impressed with your detail work. With what is available now in the track department it sure would have made my M41 build much easier. Cutting down the HL tracks was a real pain.
The roadwheels and drive sprockets were relatively easy to narrow by comparison.
I look at my M41 now and although it still looks good to me yours is spectacular.
When finished you must post some pics of it next to a HL M26 just to show the difference in size your work has produced.

I reckon that if H/L took just a bit more time to get things better, the much maligned Bulldog would be a better seller !!