Team Yankee? To the War Museum!

Howdy folks,

As one of my main objectives for the year, Team Yankee has been much anticipated!! Now, Santa was kind enough to find room in the budget this past Christmas for the Soviet starter box complete with 2 x Mi-24 Hinds and 9...uhm, I mean 10! yes, 10 x T72's (sometimes product delays aren't all that bad)...

While I had some familiarity with Soviet kit and these beautiful pieces in particular...I do recall a sleepy morning sitting down near a field kitchen resting my C7 next to me while the cooks radio broke news that there had been a coup in Moscow...what I really needed was a kick ass excuse to go on a roadtrip (okay, not much of a roadtrip...only 30klicks away...) to the Canadian War Museum.

While the daughter-unit was away at winter camp, I managed to convince the wife and young lad to accompany me, at great risk of history lecture (as said by the lad), to the museum.  My main goal was to get some pictures from their Cold War section of the Soviet vehicles...the Canadian War Museum has a T72 and a Chinese copy recce-BMP (BRM...if memory serves me...)

So anyhow, I thought I'd share my photos...there's only about a dozen or two...maybe this will help anyone who may be painting up Soviet kit as well...

Cheers.

One of many great displays in the Cold War pavilion...the Soviet T72 and RPG infantry.

Soviet small arms display with 125mm tankshell at the bottom...

Front of the T72...the CWMs tank was previously in the service of the East German army...

When the full light is on this tank it is very bright in comparison to pics you see online or what we had in recce class...the shadows certainly show a much darker shade of green, but I tried to get a good picture to represent how much brighter the lighting was making the tank look.

Bright light --- bright coloured fender...not so bright light --- a little darker, still not as dark as I recall in pics

Stoic commander in the hatch...East German tanker suit...

alternate view...

 

View of the IR light mount and gun mantlet cover

Smoke dischargers, wiring and tube covers...

T72 exhaust port...deflecting downwards towards the hull...paintjob not so new anymore...

 

blackout light at the back of the tank, mounted on the side of where the external fuel tanks would go.

 

Left side of the turret, storage tube if memory serves me...

 

Tank track and road wheels...

 

Rear view of the T72...complete with log...cause everyone loves a log...

 

RPG equipped Soviet soldier...NATO had much to fear with the T72's 125mm gun, quick speed, and low-profile...throw in a pack of troops jumping out of their similarly fast and hard to see  infantry carriers with plenty o'RPGs...

 

Carriers like these...although technically this is the BRM recce version 

 

View of right side looking towards the rear...you can see the smoke dischargers and viewing devices on top of the turret...

The museum staff let me go behind the line to get some up close views of the vehicle...they were pretty awesome, so I got up close on the right side...

 

Inside view of the rear-right hatch...

 

Much closer look at the track and road wheels...apparently I was obsessed with the tracks that day... 

 

Looking towards the front of the vehicle from the rear...I did not have to stand on anything to get this pic...I am always impressed with how low this vehicle is...I stand at just over 6 feet and the top of the deck is around my forehead...very impressive...and cramped. 

 

At the end of the day...another great visit to the Museum...no prison break attempts from my captive audience...they were great...we got to speak with a Korean War vet...a fellow gunner, so life was pretty good...

no break attempts, but a little bit of hiding behind the 72...