The 1/16 RC M24 and Panther for comparison and a photo of my Father with the Tongde M24.

A few of my Fathers original WWII photos. Some are of my Fathers M24 but he’s not in any of these pics. Lots of stowage! I didn’t do the sand bags on the model. They weren’t used for very long.     

Great find!   Can we get a front/back closeup of the Ranger tab? It is military.     All I have ever seen were standard US-made embroidered.   Your’s looks “different “.  

Combat Engineers: ‘You make it - We break it’.

Hello All, I’ve always appreciated, enjoyed and have been amazed at the elite model making skills that have been displayed by the members in this forum.  This is my very, very humble contribution.  I’m not sure this qualifies because it’s not a complete hand built model. It’s a Tongde 1/16 RC M24 Chaffee. It came ready to run out of the box but with about 40-50 pieces to be added.  My Father was in the 8th Armored Division during WWII. He drove and fought in an M24 Chaffee. I didn’t own any RC tanks but when I saw that this was available I couldn’t resist purchasing one. I also bought a Heng Long 1/16 German Panther G that I felt needed to go along with it. Besides adding the detail pieces that came with the M24 I  purchased extra stowage to paint and add to the tank. What I mainly did was the painting and weathering of the models. Besides looking up the helpful tips and techniques the members have posted, my wife, with her art background, was also very helpful with her guidance. She also did the hand lettering of tank and division numbers and the crates of rations. I think the added detail pieces that were included were good except the fit for some of the small parts was off and made the final touches on the Tongde a little frustrating. I still need to go back and try to correct a few fittings. The parts on the Heng Long Panther fit perfectly. I also used wartime photos of my Fathers tank and the other M24’s in his platoon as reference and inspiration. I don’t run the tanks often but they run and sound nice except the exhaust smoke feature on the M24 recently stopped working properly. When I get brave enough I’ll look into that.  Thanks for looking and a salute and hats off to all of you extremely talented and patient model builders! Any comments and suggestions are welcome!   Regards Frank

I have seen many over the years. They must have given them out fairly often. 

Some pins and patches, I hope to get more pins one day lol 

The flash hider is off of his BAR.

Hello Doyler   Thank you for the info and the photos.  I think you're right that they may have gone above 500 or a miss stamp. It does look like a double stamp or a stamping error on the 5. I would imagine that the steel was very hard and they looked to be done by hand, not by machine, which sounds tedious.  My grandfather was in the 6th Company, 3rd Regiment, as far as I can tell. I also have his evaluation book, where he kept notes on the men he was with, Marksmen, hand-to-hand, night vision, and stuff like that.  I could try looking up your friend, but I have no idea what the chances are that he would be in there.    Here are some photos of the 1911 and of my Grandpa and two friends. He is the one in the middle.  The 1911 has my great-grandfather's name on it, and the US property stamp has been scratched off. From what I understand, they were supposed to retrieve their gear, and my Grandpa smuggled the gun and the knife out in his cast. Was wondering after Anzio,, somewhere in France.  When I get home from vacation, I will check the papers to see if he was at Monte La Difensa.    Also, thank you, VNAMVET70, for chiming in as well.     

In 2003.