"15mm "S-tank" Stridsvagen 103?" Topic

Anybody make one?

It's such an iconic piece of kit, after all…

I've seen them in 6mm, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but not 15mm or 1/100. Not even 1/87, that I'm aware of. I agree, it's pretty iconic.

I think ROCO/Minitanks had one, but heaven only knows what you'd pay for one of those now….

{Edited to add…}

Nope, I guess I was mistaken. Googling doesn't turn up an S-Tank model in a search including "Roco" or "Minitank(s), or both.

Duck

I don't think ROCO (1/87) ever did an S-tank, either.

I also forgot the Japanese gashopon 1/144 S-tanks.

I've never seen one in 1:100 either.

Here's one in 1:72
link

And here's one in 1:87 (I suppose it's avaialble for sale, WTD12)
link

I saw mentioned on a swedish forum that Roco used to have one in 1:87, but that it seems it is no longer available.

Searching for "Stridsvagn S", "Stridsvagn 103" or "Strv 103" might be better than anything else, being the Swedish names for it.

I love that tank. Especially if crewed by the Swedish Bikini Army team.

link

Geoff at QRF had one in development and could probably be nudged into production….

Why is it so iconic? Its NEVER been used! I've always thought it an ugly looking,"tank".

Bob

It's a beautiful looking tank.

Sleek, stylish, and heavily armed.

Always with the negative waves, 95thRegt.

Here is one in HO
auction

I didn't know about that Andrea one. Thanks for the link, dragon6.

It's especially cool because it's the only tank in the world in which one crewman can serve as gunner, loader, driver and radioman from one position.

So in a post-apocalyptic world, I'm going to get me one of these babies to roam the world in.

Iconic: to be immediately recognizable, and associated with a specific concept, idea, or nation.

For 30 years, the Stridsvagen 103 was *the* tank operated by the Swedes.

In 1957, it had a turbine engine and could get by with a crew of 2 (the 3rd crewmember is a driver facing to the rear, so that it could scoot away while keeping all the armor facing the enemy). Yeah, it can't shoot from the move. For the first 20 years of it's service, neither could anything else.

I have the 15mm one (for QRF) on my modelling board. Looks like I need to be doing some more work on it. Question of knowing the demand is there.

Ah, I was just wondering what I did with that…

To be honest, I probably would not buy more than 4-5 on short notice. I might be able to fund closer to 16-20 over a longer span of time.

I'll do you a special deal on 16 of them :-)

@Geoff: What, will 16 of them cover the overhead for making the production mold?

===============

Ok, so what's a Swedish tank company's TO&E?

In other words, how many would I 'need' for a company on the table?

will 16 of them cover the overhead for making the production mold?

Certainly goes a long way towards it…

how many would I 'need' for a company on the table?

At least 50…? :-) No? oh…

According to: link

The tank companies had four tank platoons

So I'd say 8-12 to a company (?)

An armoured battalions had armoured companies with four tank platoons each with 3 tanks for a total of 12 tanks. Mechanized battalions had companies with 10 tanks, one platoon of 4 tanks and two platoons with 3 tanks each IIRC. Afaik I know mech units used only various versions of the Centurion, the indepent units with the S-tank/strv 103 were never reorganised into mech. units.

What about the company HQ? Hrm…. Well, that's 14 tanks, reasonably, maybe 15.

I suppose that if I'm going to build a Swedish armored unit, I will also need some armored infantry to go with them. Guess that means I need some PBV 302s, too.

Well that ought to be about feasible for that sort of quantity… and I'll have to take a look at the PBV302 as well:

I will also need some armored infantry to go with them

1970s:

or 1980s:

The company HQ section had no tanks, the CO rode to battle in an unarmoured Volvo L3314 link or in later years possibly a C303 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_C303

The supposed 1980's look only became common in the last years of the 80's since the new 304K combat belt was not in common issue until late in the decade. A unit may well have trained with the new gear during their basic service only to find old equipment and uniforms stockpiled in their mobilisation depot. In the early 90's my unit was trained with much of the new personal equipment of the so called M/90 uniform system but would have gone to war wearing the old m/58 wool uniform with bits and pieces of the newer gear such as m/59 boots, the 304K combat belt and NBC suits from the M/90 system.

The PBV 302 was a great piece of equipment, rugged, reliable and surprisingly well protected as was the army found out when the 302 served in Bosnia with UNPROFOR and IFOR. (Where the 302 found itself on the reciving end of mines, mortars, AA guns and ATGMS, the fact that no one was killed was as combination of luck and the skilled engineers at Hägglund)

Ah, Daniel S is a former practicing professional of the Swedes! Excellent! I love having a first-hand source for information.

Ok, so I'm looking at 12x S-tanks and what, another 12x PBV302s?

@Geoff: since the Swedes didn't transition over to the 1980s uniform until late in the 1980s, I would want 1970s kit troops.

As Sweden had mandatory military service during the Cold War period most Swedish men spent time in uniform with first basic training and then a couple of hundred days of refresher training untill you were 47 and was released from mandatory service. I liked military service enough to volunteer for ROTC and ended spending a lot more time in uniform than I first expected when I was called up for military service in 1990.

The organisation of the armoured brigades changed around 1980. The old pattern 63 TOE was changed to the modificed pattern 63M. (Swedish TOEs were named after the year in which it was introduced into active service).

The armoured companies lost the mechanised rifle platoon which was transfered to the mechanised rifle companies of the battalion while the mechanised rifle companies in turn gave up their anti-tank platoons which were used to creat a anti-tank battalion at brigade level. This left the companies with a "pure" organisation which was easier to both train and command.

Each company now had an HQ troop, four combat platoons and a supply troop. The armoured company also had a repair section attached to the supply troop and a small "reserve platoon" with 17 men (spare tank crewmen).

The Mechanised rifle company had a a total of 14 PBV302, two in the HQ troop and 3 in each rifle platoon.
A mechanised rifle platoon was made up of 32 men:
Platoon commander
Assistant platoon commander
Signalman with the platoon radio
Platoon medic

Three mechanised rifle squads:
Squad leader
assistant squad leader
Carl Gustav gunner
Carl Gustav loader
Machine gunner
Machine gun loader
Rifleman with the squads medical pack & advanced first aid training.

An APC squad:
Squad leader
3 drivers
3 gunners

Each rifle platoon had 3 Carl Gustav RCLs and 2 FN MAG GPMGs. Each squad got a Carl Gustav, two got the GPMGs while the third got the AT mines and mine clearing equipment.

You may want an additional PBV302 to represent the FO from the battalion's artillery company. Each armoured battalion had an artillery company with a battery of four Bofors 4140 105mm howitzers link and no less than 6 FO teams. Three of the FO teams rode in modified PBV302's (no external visual diffrence) while the other 3 rode in the same type Volvo vehicles used by the COs of the armoured companies. The Forward Observers directed the fire both of the battalion artillery as well as the brigade artillery

These old army instruction videos give a glimpse of the apperance of the Swedish soldiers from the late 70's to the late 80's
The first one was made around 1978-1980
part 1 youtu.be/_KigpIIZLEM
part 2 youtu.be/b2KtSUa1mO4

The second one was made in 1989
youtu.be/Tqj5DwH9S8E
youtu.be/e5UuOllxiP4

Only artillery videos I'm afraid, for some reason the armoured videos have not made it to youtube.

Marvellous reference!

Yup, definitely want 15 PBV302s (and two Volvo trucks). I'm an American, I like my artillery. And with 6 FOs per battery, that's enough for one to be attached to each company.

Geoff (and Paul), some of the stuff in Swedish museums and collections is documented and searchable online at
digitaltmuseum.se
Results for bandvagn /tracked vehicle)
link
Stridsvagn (tank)
link

pbv
link

And there is an S-tank standing outside the Army Museum that I can go take pics of if you like.

Ok, so we have you up to 12 S-tanks and 15 Pbv302s.

Which artillery?

And yes, I know I have to do that little tracked BV206… mainly because we also use it as the Viking!

(Well, ok, so the Viking is the bigger BvS10)

Well, *I* wouldn't bother with artillery models. It's all offboard (even my Flames of War arty is offboard except in the Desert). Mortars, however…

Oh, one other question: Did the Swedes mix tank types at the battalion level?

If I went nuts and built an entire Armoured Battalion, would I be more correct with two companies of S-tanks, or one company of S-tanks and one company of Centurions?

No, each brigade used only a single type of tank, even the diffrent versions of the Centurion were kept separate to make supply and mantainance as simple as possible. The only time you would find a 103&Centurion mix was pre-1985 if a divisional tank company was attached.

Some divsions had 1-2 independent tank companies which first used the obsolete Strv 74 but these were replaced with surplus Centurions freed up by the introduction of the 103. In 1985 the independent companies were combined with infantry and artillery to create independent mechanised battalions.

Hrm… Well, that's OK, I'm after the S-tanks, anyway. I understand wanting to keep the logistics as uncomplicated as possible, though it's a shame for the modeller in me!

Guess I won't be doing a complete battalion, then. Just half of one.

I'm Necro-ing this because there was a post by SECURITY MINISTER CRITTER on the subject of S-tanks.

I would like to find out about where QRF and others are upto.

I have released an Independents list on my Blog, here.

link

And the S-Tank features….

It's very close.

We have built the BV-202 for the tank museum, so that will be in production shortly.

We are just experimenting with some new technology, and hope to see the S-tank shortly after that.

Just looked on your site what's the Bv listed under ? I can't find it.

Geoff – any word on the release of the S-Tank

…or Bv202(..or 206..)? :P

I know the S-Tank is near release, based upon a posting on another thread.

Any news on the PBV-302 to go with the S-Tank, Geoff?

I seem to recall someone was working on that as well.

Chas told me he had done the S tank. I'm waiting for him to tell me it is moulded and available. I've just finished the PBv302 (with turret variants)

Yay!!!

Can't wait to see pics of the APC.

Well done, Geoff!!!

Excellent!

platoon deals still in effect, Geoff? I'm in for a total of 12 S-Tanks and 15 PBv302s.