RAM's M41AS Vietnam 1968

[kerick]

. I broke down and bought the Tamiya kit at HL today. If you go to buy anything there check for their internet coupons. They had one for 40% off any one item. Score!! $18.00 kit for $11.46.

I keep forgetting about HL. We shop in the States every week ( gas, beer ) so why not bring a coupon and grab a kit as well ?

Usually HLs prices are right up there but at 40% off its much closer to my ballpark. I will certainly check every time from now on.

[Old Wombat]

Just because I've got nothing better to do, right now, I'm going to give you the run-down on why the M41 build occurred (apart from because I had one in the stash).

The theory behind the M41's in RAM's service is that, with National Service & the increased demands on available resources due to their operations in Viet Nam, the RAM's found themselves short on armour in the field but unable to afford to buy anything. They approached the US with an eye to leasing something. The US needed its remaining M48's & their M60's but was in the process of introducing the M551 into service. As the M551 was replacing the M41 in US service, this meant that there were M41's to spare. Slightly modified these entered service with the RAM's as the M41AS Rowell (after Gen. Sydney Rowell, the only army officer to become an honorary Marine), obviously becoming the "Syd" in RAM's vernacular.

Just for fun I'll give you the run-down on what my model & dio will depict.

The diorama it will be placed in will include the Italeri SAS Pink Panther Land Rover, from which the loader's mg came, modified & painted as a RAM's vehicle plus figures in the Land Rover, on/in the M41AS & on foot. The vehicles & troops (maybe with a civilian or two) will be depicted travelling along a road in South Viet Nam.

The write up will include something along the lines of;

M41AS Light Tank
Bravo-3, 2 Troop, B Company, Royal Australian Marines Armoured Regiment depicted on the road near Nui Dat during the Tet Offensive two days prior to being separated from the main force by a spirited Viet Cong attack. Whilst separated from the rest of the RAM's forces Bravo-3 received a hit to the turret from an RPG rocket. A partial penetration of the armour knocked out the turret & wounded the gunner (Lance-Corporal Thomas Lieberstadt), loader (Marine Jeremy Davenport) & commander (Sergeant John Richter). The driver (Corporal Clarence "Clarry" Cranfield) was unharmed. As Corporal Cranfield attempted to extricate his tank from the ambush a second RPG knocked out the right track. Corporal Cranfield then got out of the driver's compartment & into the turret, where he used the .50 calibre machine gun to knock out the enemy RPG position. During the next 25 minutes Corporal Cranfield engaged in an almost constant battle with Viet Cong troops moving in on the tank. Alternating between firing the .50 calibre heavy machine gun, at the commander's cupola, & the 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun, field-mounted next to the loader's hatch, & administering first aid to his crewmates, Cranfield was forced in one instance to resort to using his side-arm to shoot enemy personnel from the hull of the tank. After 25 minutes troops of D Company, 2 RAMR, reached Bravo-3 & extracted the wounded men from the vehicle, by this time Corporal Cranfield had, himself, been wounded twice, once in the left arm & once in the face. Luckily both wounds were minor. Unable to hold the ground D Company destroyed Bravo-3 in situ, with a satchel charge, & withdrew to the main RAM force, so an accurate body-count is unavailable. However, experienced Marines amongst the relieving troops estimate that Corporal Cranfield may have killed up to 20 Viet Cong & may have wounded up to 3 times as many. For these actions Corporal Clarence Cranfield was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

PS: The designation has changed slightly from M41AM (Australian Marines) to M41AS (Australian Service), it just seemed more right to me & had been my initial working designation (until I forgot it ).

[nighthunter]

Love it!

[nighthunter]

So... Anything new on this?

[Old Wombat]

Not until I get back to mainland Australia & home.

That's only 14 & 15 days away, respectively!

Then I'll probably take a few days to settle back into home life before I start modelling.

I'll probably try to finish this build first, then I have some work to do on my HMBLT! (Including a cargo trailer unit. )

If I'm lucky & the missus hasn't killed me by this time, well, I've bought 3 Strykers over the last few months. So, I may try my hand at a recce version of the HMBLT tractor unit & my own version of a tracked Stryker.

[Captain Canada]

Cool. Looking forward to seeing you work again !

[nighthunter]

Well, I certainly look forward to seeing everything!

[Old Wombat]

Well, "there was movement at the station for the word had got around..."

The RAM M41AS is sitting on the dining table waiting expectantly because (Ta-dah!) yours-truly has broken out the airbrush equipment!

I'll be trying to fit in a crash-course on operating it today & will try to get the basic paint work done on this before the weekend, when I intend to take it to the SAPMA Expo as a WIP.

[Captain Canada]

Forming quite the que on the dining room table !

[Old Wombat]

Well, it's been a cruddy 6 weeks on the modelling front - I've barely been here at all because I've been using what little time I've had to build.

This has got OD paint on it & decals, that's it.

I haven't taken any photo's & my camera's packed away 'coz I fly back to CI too-early tomorrow.

Sorry!

[Captain Canada]

At least we know you're alive and still building ! Have a safe trip and looking forward to seeing some updates again.

[Old Wombat]

Crikey, it's been a long time since I posted on this build!

After a l-o-n-g hiatus & then sitting in my modelling space on the dining table for about 4 months, now, next to the Matilda I was building 6 months ago when I entered a mojo-failure phase (I started coming out of it a week ago - YAY! ), there is movement happening on this.

Nothing to photograph, yet. I've just painted the Fruilmodel tracks, put some weathering on it (OK, a lot), almost finished the crew (not the ones I had almost finished FOUR YEARS ago - which I only found yesterday in a box of Vietnam era figures for the diorama this is going in), & sorted some stowage to busy it up a bit with, which I'm about half-way through doing.

Hopefully I'll have some photo's up in the next week or so.

[Old Wombat]

With a tiny bit of luck this should be finished by Sunday.

[NARSES2]

Looking forward to it

[Old Wombat]

Photo's a bit earlier than planned!

Note: The photo's aren't quite true to the actual colours & the flash activated automatically, so the dust & dirt are a bit brighter than in real life.

I still have to give her a shot of Dull-Cote, too, but, otherwise, she's all done!


Here she is, the M41AS Vietnam 1968:












OK, let's see if anyone (especially Aussies, Brit's, Kiwis, South Africans, Indians, West Indians or Pakistanis) can guess what this is!




As usual, I'm open to all constructive criticism.