A little detail painting with the AK real color pens.
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Looking good!
Almost ready to drive straight to Berlin with out turning!
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Really liking that SMK. That limb of the tank evolutionary tree contains some very interesting vehicles.
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It only drives westwards!
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Right, a fair bit of What-Iffery here, but I thought I’d treat this kit as I did my (fairly) recent Object 450/T-74 - that is as if a prototype (or even a few) were made. The real thing as I understand it never got beyond a wooden mock-up in any case. By treating it as though it got to prototype stage I can add those modifications and extras which might make sense if, in fact, it was say, tested in the States and West Germany.
Piece count is not large:
The plan is to normalise the clearly abnormal, if that makes sense. To that end, I plan to add a few accessories such as a Commander’s cupola, a tow rope, relocate the tool-rack, and add a searchlight. Three crew members will be visible I hope.
So, it will just be depicted on a German road as such:
I’ve replaced the kit’s heavy MG (which looked more like a 20mm) with a metal barrel M85:
A cupola arrived today although I won’t install it just yet in case the Commander figure I have identified doesn’t quite work out; in the meantime, work begins on converting suitable figures:
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Way cool. A couple weeks back, I added a searchlight to an E25 I am building. It made the machine look much more menacing.
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I really don’t understand why the M85 mount has two ammo bins? It can feed from either side if I remember correctly, but not both. You could also mount a M2.
I say this as you seem to be making it into a real world vehicle. 
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Well, that’s where I’m coming from Doug; if I add a Crouse-Hinds searchlight, it will a) add a bit of visual interest, and b) sort of reduce its strangeness with such a normal piece of kit fitted, and enable me to as I say, normalise the abnormal; or rather, that’s the plan.
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I’ve no idea Dan; it looks pretty good I feel so I might just run with it. I know the Sov 14.5mm can take ammo from either side so I haven’t chased the technical side very much at all. I do think the brass barrel looks quite good. I’ve also added a cable from lead wire underneath the sponson, not visible in the pic. The mount on the top is, apparently, a TV camera.
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To change which ever side its feed on required the units armorer, I can be done by the crew if properly trained but its not a easy task and requires some time.
Could it be a spare ammo box?
Is this vehicle written about in a Hunnicutt book?
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It is in one of the Hunnicutt books I understand, but I don’t have a copy.
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That would date this vehicle to the early 1960s at best, though, rather than the mid-1950s when the TV-8 was designed. Of course, a prototype might only have been tested by 1961–62 or so.
Also, I don’t know how much you value accuracy here, but the M85 would be very difficult to feed as you have it:
In 1:35, this translates to the muzzle ending up some 30 mm in front of the front edge of the pivot point through which the ammo feed enters the pod that the gun is in.
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There’s one page about it in Abrams.
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The TV-8 was designed in the mid 50s but by the time it came to fruition (in What-If land) the M85 - according to at least one source - was around in 1959, which is where I’ve set, ultimately my model.
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I’ve used the M85 many times and you’d be doing the crew a favor by replacing it with a M2!
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I can only assume the kit manufacturers have done their very best; it’s pretty well made and thought out, and some of the detail is stunning. I’m further assuming that they took what they could from images of the wooden mock-up, which, way back in the mid 50s may have been constructed by designers, not necessarily engineers ergo, when it came to the HMG, they went for what was thought to be state of the art - not least as they’re trying to market the beast to the US Army; so let’s just assume they got wind of the introduction of the M85, and incorporated it - inaccurately - into their mock-up. The details could always be hammered out later. They also went mad for TV cameras as well, though fighting any AFV dependent on the TV technology of the time would have taxed most tank crews I’m sure.
But that, I feel is where we are; let’s not forget this was a design concept.; if some of the details don’t make sense then I’ll have to live with it. That said of course, my aim is to rationalise its appearance, so we’ll see where that gets me(!)
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I’m just waiting to see how that cupola will sit in relation to the MG and the other hatches!
By the way, if it was me I’d want the searchlight mounted somewhere on the top, maybe a little forward of the driver/gunner periscopes. Better fording protection, and easier for the crew to reach from their hatches.
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It will all get a bit busy I must admit, but I think is the sort of thing that might be installed; I simply don’t see how the commander could fight his tank without one, no matter how many TV screens!
Subsequent to more trials they might even ditch the remote HMG and install something like the cupola from the M60A2 (now that would look impressive would it not?) - the development which was some way off - but who knows? The land of What-Iffery can be a tempting one.
If the Crouse-Hinds searchlight isn’t waterproof then it isn’t much of a searchlight. We’re talking a serious chunk of metal here - hopefully fitted with endless rubber seals and grommets - I mean - God knows. The crew don’t need to reach it from their hatches as I envisage it; it needs, more or less, to be on the axis of the main armament.
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Stop Press. Here’s a couple of pics with the cupola resting in place with crew roughly Blu-Tak’d in position for effect:
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Looks good.
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