Beyond The Sprues

General Category => Market Place => New Model Kit News/Reviews => Topic started by: Jeffry Fontaine on June 18, 2012, 08:42:35 PM

Title: RetroKit
Post by: Jeffry Fontaine on June 18, 2012, 08:42:35 PM

RetrokiT (http://www.retrokitonline.com/) produces a variety of resin subjects. 

One that caught my eye was the resin 1/35th scale M75 Armored Personnel Carrier kit that is now available. 
(http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/484173_428851847148148_280066598_n.jpg)
(Image source: RetrokiT FaceBook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/RetrokiT/153012041398798))

RetroKit 1/35th scale M75 APC kit (http://www.retrokitonline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72_74&products_id=262)

RetroKit web page: http://www.retrokitonline.com/ (http://www.retrokitonline.com/)

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: GTX_Admin on June 19, 2012, 02:21:59 AM

I must admit that I had never heard of the M75 - thanks Jeff.

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: raafif on June 19, 2012, 05:32:01 AM

M-75 saw very limited service in the US but was exported to Sth Vietnam , etc.  Greece was a big user & modifier of this beast as was some US Police forces ....

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: Weaver on June 19, 2012, 07:51:36 AM

Didn't Belgium buy most of the US Army ones?

The old APC I always liked was the M-59, with two engines in the sponsons, leaving the whole centre hull free. The real thing was underpowered, but I like the concept.

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: Jeffry Fontaine on June 19, 2012, 09:52:10 AM

Quote from: raafif on June 19, 2012, 05:32:01 AM

M-75 saw very limited service in the US but was exported to Sth Vietnam , etc.  Greece was a big user & modifier of this beast as was some US Police forces ....

M75 in service with the Republic of South Vietnam is news to me.  Nothing I have in my reference library (the Hunnicutt books) shows that the M75 was in service with the Vietnamese.  By the time the festivities really picked up the M113 was the vehicle of choice for mechanized infantry as the M59 was being phased out and the M75 had been long gone by that time.


From Wikipedia - M75 armored personnel carrier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M75_armored_personnel_carrier)

Quote

The M75 is a American armored personnel carrier that was produced between December 1952 and February 1954, and saw service in the Korean War. It was replaced in U.S. service by the smaller, cheaper, amphibious M59. The M75s were given as military aid to Belgium where they were used until the early 1980s. 1,729 M75s were built before production was halted.

Google search results for M75 Armored Personnel Carrier (http://www.google.com/search?q=M75+Armored+Personnel+Carrier&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs)

Google image search results for M75 Armored Personnel Carrier (http://www.google.com/search?q=M75+Armored+Personnel+Carrier&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=2eo&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=rcs&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=CNnfT7ufIufO2gW429n9CQ&ved=0CEMQ_AUoAQ&biw=1605&bih=1027)

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: Logan Hartke on June 20, 2012, 02:54:40 PM

This was always one of my favorite uses of the M75.  Universal Studios in Orlando.

(http://orlandovacationsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/IMG_3739.jpg)

Cheers,

Logan

Title: Re: RetroKit
Post by: apophenia on June 22, 2012, 06:03:27 AM

Quote from: Weaver on June 19, 2012, 07:51:36 AM

Didn't Belgium buy most of the US Army ones?

They did as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act -- 600 odd veh transferred from the US Army in 1961-'62 with almost 100 lasting in Belgian service into the early '90s.

http://www.primeportal.net/apc/gert_burkert-opitz/m75_be/ (http://www.primeportal.net/apc/gert_burkert-opitz/m75_be/)