Goodie for Steve G.

[John Kettler]

Steve,

The February 2005 issue of MILITARY VEHICLE (COLLECTOR?) magazine has a major, heavily illustrated article in it on the origins, development and use of the M-29 Weasel.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Battlefront.com]

Thanks! Not only do I have a copy as a subscriber to Military Vehicles Magazine, but my dad also picked one up for me (not knowing!). Great article, great magazine.

The February 2005 issue of MILITARY VEHICLE (COLLECTOR?) magazine has a major, heavily illustrated article in it on the origins, development and use of the M-29 Weasel.

Close... it covers the origins of the T-15, which was the prototype that lead to the development of the T-28, which later became the M29 and later still M29C. All were called the "Weasel" and developed under the same program. The T-15 was inadequate, which lead to the T-28 program (which was almost night and day different).

T-15s are rarer these days. Most are in horrible shape. One guy I know who restored one needed 7 individual vehicles just to have enough parts to begin reconstructing 1. Yikes! The problem is only 1000 were made and few parts on it can be found from other sources. Many of these were destroyed because the program had, at the time, Top Secret status. Another batch was lost during operations in the Aleutians (sp?) where they were used for their one and only "combat" operation.

Contrast this with the T-28/M29/M29C program which produced a little over 15,000 vehicles in all and used quite a large number of fairly common parts. Since the vehicle was put into general service the earlier models simply had some Top Secret stuff removed and were fielded in combat or at home. Thousands were retained by Norway until the 1980s, with many hundreds shipped back to the US. So there are lots of them around Heck, I found three of them rotting in the woods near my house (picked them up cheap!).

Schweeeeeew... got that out of my system. Now back to answering CMx2 stuff

Steve

[jeffsmith]

John,

Did you Really think you could "Scoop" Steve RE Weasel Info ?

Smitty

PS

But I am certain the effort is appreciated

[ January 22, 2005, 09:53 PM: Message edited by: jeffsmith ]

[Michael Emrys]

There's an interesting article on the Weasel here. Guy has some nice models and dioramas too.

Michael

[Battlefront.com]

Yeah, that's Barry's site. He had the original forum for getting Weasel guys together. Really nice guy who did a fantastic job restoring his T-24 to near original condition. Lots of body work done that few restorers have the skill or patience to deal with.

The MV collecting circle is quite small, but even smaller for something like Weasels. I don't know if any of you caught a show on National Geographic Channel with a title like "Millionaire Boy Toys - Heavy Armor" or something like that. They showed guys with big stuff in their collections, including one who is restoring a Panther (which came out of Poland in container loads of pieces!). Anyhoo, most of these guys are known to me, either directly or slightly indirectly. Not surprising since these guys are sorta the "Rock Stars" of the historic military preservation movement.

Steve