Danish MANPADS and East German MT-LB's

I've been trying to finish off some odds and ends, so a bit of a mixed bag for this post. 

First off, Danish mechanized infantry units had no integral air defense, i.e. no MANPADS were issued to units below the brigade, or the independent regimental battlegroup, level. Each brigade held six 2-man Hamlet teams. Each team was mounted in a Land Rover, likely to be either an 88:

or a 109:

The teams were generally cascaded down, two to each infantry battalion in the brigade (two mechanized and one motorized). Two launchers are precious little air defense capability for an entire battalion!

The Danish Hamlet shoulder-fired missle was nothing but an American Redeye:

which was never known for its devastating effectiveness. Here's what my Hamlet teams look like:

I'll do three stands of two each to represent the six Hamlets. I've actually used O8's US two-man Stinger teams, but at 1/600 scale, it's impossible to tell one MANPADS from another. 

My second project is to provide some alternative prime movers for my East German 100mm antitank guns and 122mm D-30 howitzers. They were generally towed by a URAL-375D:

if they were attached to a motor rifle unit. However, if they were part of an armored unit, they generally would have had a tracked prime mover, which was most often an MT-LB:

Although Bulgaria used it as an APC, the East Germans seem to have used MT-LB's exclusively as prime movers:

All these are towing MT-12 100mm antitank guns. Given that the rear compartment wasn't exactly roomy at the best of times, I can't imagine that it could carry much ammunition with the gun crew already jammed in there. 

Here are my MT-LB's:

I'll do four stands, which is enough for two platoons of guns. 

O8's MT-LB isn't their best sculpt. As you can see from the above photos of the real thing, the MT-LB is quite squat and low to the ground. However, O8's version is noticeably too tall. Well, it'll have to do, but little details like that bother me. Damn that perfectionist gene!!

That's it for this post!!