This is obviously the Revell kt, capitalising on their earlier efforts, but bringing it up to date, or rather, reflecting the modifications made to the last M48s in their considerable arsenal. It incorporated a 105mm gun, amongst other minor modifications.
Revell appear to have done a good enough job on the kit – as I mentioned before when tacking my USAREUR M48 A2. Whilst still moulded in their rather horrid bright green plastic, that doesn’t affect the detail of the moulding. Again, I am going with the kit’s rubber band track. I had thought about utilising an AFV Club product, but all those sink marks – on every track shoe. The rubber bands have a sink mark every 5 links, and most will be hidden by the road wheels in any case. Those that aren’t, then a quick squeeze of plastic putty or filling in with Mr Dissolved Putty should do the trick. The end connectors seem reasonable enough too, though where the track is snipped off the runner means that these will sacrifice a little detail, but I can live with that.
You will note I’ve nearly finished the hull, and have installed a driver figure at this stage. Modellers will be well aware of the over-pronounced cast texture of this kit; this time around I have lightly sanded the hull rear; I believe the rest will not be so visible after a coat of primer and the final colour. That policy seemed to just about work on my US version.
I haven’t outlined the plan so here goes: a simple build I hope, no extraneous figures other than the crew, depicted on exercise, either parked up on a road, transiting a road, (which is getting a bit boring now) or negotiating the exercise area – which may mean ruining a farmer’s field. Whatever I select, may not be that discernible, as it will be on an A4-sized base. We’ll see. Finish will be in Gelboliv, and will represent a tank from Heimatschutzbrigade 53, specifically Jägerbattalion 531, not least as their crews sported the Jäger green berets which will ring the changes a little I thought. Here is the Driver thus accoutred:
There might be those who are interested in the figures I’ve identified for crew; I used the ancient Verlinden set (this image a bit blurry from Scalemates) listed as Israeli Tank Crew, but as it happens, they’re sporting Bundeswehr Parkas which makes them ideal; all I need to do is find some replacement heads and add comms kit:
The kit OOB is pretty decent, especially for the price (under 30€ when released). One of course can go the superdetail aftermarket way but the detail is adequate, maybe a bit crude but it is there, the fit is excellent and the accuracy is excellent.
Be careful on the bustle rack assembly, it is a bit fiddly but can be assmbled and look fine.
I missed it on the build of the M48A2C.. do the Revell tracks respond to any known adhesives or are they melty-pin specials?
Another cool build to follow!
I was rooting around in my parts stash for M48s and found most of the old (very old) Lo Model set that had the German conversion parts. Oooh… they’re not so good but the mantlet and cupola aren’t bad. Hmmm… it got me thinking about a what-if, as in what if the IDF continued to receive (beg, borrow, buy) M48s from Germany and ran them through the same modernization program the rest of the Magachs went through.
Sorry Russel; missed this one. Not sure about the Revell tracks- heavy duty rubber almost so I suspect not - melty pin it is!
The Lo kits are very useful though some parts look a little weedy; for instance I fabricated a searchlight box on y What-if Bundeswehr M103A2; you could, if you have the Monogram kit kicking around you could, with a fair bit of additional work, utilise the Lo pieces on that to end up with what I’m building. However in the land of What If, the world is your oyster, as long as there is something plausible about it all, in my opinion of course(!)
Great job Brian.Ive been watching lots of videos on youtube for Bundeswehr from late 50s onwards,Lots of Hotchkiss Apcs,M48s,SPGs i cant remember the name of and Sherman ARVs etc.Interesting.
