Friday 7 July 2023

RFR/Able Archer - The Syrian army for the Lebanon campaign of 1982 in 15...


This another old army that still gets some new models from time to time. It includes three famous units of the Syrian army: the 1st armoured division (of Sultan Yacoub fame); the 3rd armoured division (with the first T-72s to see combat) and the 85th infantry brigade (which defended Beyrouth during the campaign). This post also includes the Syrian air force and the AA army assets that were the target of the Israeli Mole Cricket 19 operation.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely work Joao! Some very impressive scratchbuilds and modelling work in improving models.
    As to your "mystery" 1:87 crew, T-55s and BMPs these are Continental Model Supply Company or CMSC. They were designed by Trevor Claringbold IIRC commissioned by a German gentleman, Horst Kalinke of CMSC from Rainham in Essex (from Germany originally). After his death, the moulds etc went to his friend Ian Hanratty of Friendship Models in Scotland. They were also produced under licence by a German company for expensive prices.
    Horst used to import Roco Minitanks and Roskopf models into the UK. He commissioned the Soviet models to fill the gaps left by Roco.
    I also think your 1:87 T-54 are Roco not Eko; Eko were copies of Roskopf so closer to 1:90 or 1:100.
    I'm a collector of 1:87 for gaming myself and intend to do 1982 Lebanon in due course as well as Iran-Iraq, so look forward to the IDF, Iranians and Iraquis.
    I've been working on 1:87 Arab-Israeli for 1967, pics on my blog:

    http://aufklarungsabteilung.blogspot.com/search/label/Arab-Israeli

    Neil

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  2. Thanks Neil. CMSC it was and you explained the Scottish/German connection very well. As I found someone who likes warfare in the 80s I´ll show you more of those.

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