On April 291975 the People's Army of North Vietnam began the final assault on Saigon. Although outnumbered, the South Vietnamese troops fought tirelessly as the last US personnel evacuated the City. In the early hours of April 30 NVA tanks entered Saigon and the President of South Vietnam announced the capitulation of the country. The Viet-cong flag was hoisted on the roof of the presidential palace and marked the end of the Vietnam war. The origin of the T-54 came from the end of World War II and the development of the T-44. This then became the backbone of the armoured forces of the Communist Bloc well into the 1960s. Armed with a 100mm gun, the T-54 came in a number of versions such as the T-54-1 Model 1946, T-54-2 Model 1949, T-54-3 Model 1951, and the T-54A and T-54B. To the best of my knowledge there is no plastic model of this tank except the Trumpeter one from a good few years ago, so for this build I used the Tamiya T-55 and a T-54B conversion set from Tank Maker. In this set you have a new engine deck and turret fan, so characteristic of this version, and a full engine -which in my copy was sadly distorted and needed a bit of persuasion with a hair dyer! The Tamiya base kit built as you would expect and I added the usual electrical wiring and handrails from my spares-box and also added the piping and fuel tanks from a MIG Productions set. I also used a Blast Models set to improve the details on the turret and main gun.
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