Here’s an old one of mine.
Finished for today
Regards
Donald
I really enjoy these build logs, they tell me a LOT about the kit itself, helping immensely in my decisions about buying and building one myself.
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Glad they help
Donald
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I’ll second that - very useful indeed. Keep at it Donald!
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Donald, this is an exceptional; build log. Thank you for the detail.
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Now we continue on with the Turret Mg. and Track.
The painted Hull.
Now how the Track goes together.
That finishes the building , tomorrow the finished Pics.
Regards
Donald
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Nice looking model Donald of a very serious threat to the armoured fleets of the West (which was still on the order of battle of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany in 1971!); an extremely useful thread. Thanks very much.
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In the mid to late 70’s we were told if we saw these, that would mean the Soviets were running out of tanks.
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It’s interesting, isn’t it? Throughout the whole of the Cold War the NATO nations were outgunned by the Soviets, if not in their medium tanks, then certainly by their heavies. The JS3 set the whole thing off and then really the 122mm dominated for most of the succeeding years.
Early Cents with their 84mm, the M26/M47/M48 with their 90mms, none of which would have been – ostensibly – able to see off the JS3/T-10 series; and of course, it didn’t stop there – ISU-122s, and SU 100s (I admit the latter did not have a 122mm gun) were the core of the anti-tank forces the Soviets would have been able to deploy throughout the 50s. JS2s were still in production I understand, as were the fearsome JSU 152s, so I would say that should push have ever come to shove in the 50s, we might have had a pretty hard time of it.
Even by the time NATO had standardized their fleet with the 105mm, the Soviets soon upped their game with the 115mm of the T-62, and a little later with the T-64 and its 125mm.
Of course, comparing like with like – re armament alone – is a flawed exercise, and mechanical reliability (Chieftain? Sigh) propellant technology, sights etc, and crew training in particular will all impact (no pun intended!)
Anyway, back to the T-10 in 1971: that was when I rocked up at my first posting – a Corps HQ in BAOR. Eventually, after cutting my teeth in a registry, I was assigned to G Security Branch, which was part of the whole Intelligence and Security component of Corps HQ. In the Int Section office I noticed nearly a complete collection of the Roskopf 1:100 model series; this included the T-10s and I asked a Corporal colleague in the Intelligence Corps as to why they had it. He replied that they were still in GSFG, operational, stationed at Altengrabow – or somewhere – I forget. They were organized in independent heavy tank battalions, which is common knowledge now, but to me back then, wasn’t.
T-10 was, inevitably, retired shortly after.
Having studied the species a fair bit, I found out (this is much later I hasten to add) that the T-10 was quite nimble for a so-called heavy tank, and not the lumbering giant that some would have you believe. In fact, when compared to the Brit and US efforts to combat it - Conqueror and M103 - it was a considerably smaller and neater package, and (to me) had that low and mean look about it.
Modelling-wise, we’re quite well off with Trumpeter providing every iteration, culminating in the M, as an alternative to the Meng version should one wish.
Thanks again Donald for the article.
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