Rapid Fire! Russian Contemporary Wars in 1/72nd scale - Georgian T-72 SIM and Aero L-39

In August 2008 the spearhead of the Georgian army enters pro-Russian South Ossetia. Mr. Saakashvili is looking for trouble...

The Georgian MBT was, and still is, the T-72. By August 2008 some 120+ out of a total around 200, have been reworked by the Israelis of Elbit Systems to this SIM-1 version. Six are the correct number to simulate the tank battalion in a Georgian infantry brigade in RF! terms (30 in reality, integrated in a Mechanized Battalion together with infantry. The rest of the Brigade has three infantry battalions, plus artillery, engineers, etc).

These models are another six from the 3D printer of (Super) Mario Laranja the owner of Tuga Models, after the first four which are serving the Kremlin.

The camouflage of green/brown/ grey was seen in the imported wheeled vehicles from Turkey during the war of 2008 and also in the BMP series but was not widely spread, namely to MBT's. Nowadays it seem to be standard on all AFV's, judging from parade pictures and exercises.

                        

Regarding construction and add-on parts I only placed the small box to the left side of the turret, close to the fume grenade launchers, to simulate the GPS antennae of the SIM-1 version. Most of the other specific details of this version are inside the turret and can't be seen. Also some copies of Irregular Miniatures WWII Soviet paratroopers torsos made out with Blue Stuff were used, as well as antennae and the tricky scratch built  (total 13 parts each... glups!) AA NSVT machine gun. The rest was left untouched from the T-72B version.

A lonely Aero L-39 Albatros (Kopro model) was built to give some ground support to Mr.Saakashvili intentions. The next Mil-Mi 24 and Sukhoi Su-25 I found will also go to the Georgian  airforce.