I suppose you could bend a backstory to say, suggest that the USMC had to forgo the A2 version whilst it was introduced to USAREUR, for whatever reason. Mind you, the Soviet heavy tank threat had not gone away and didn’t really until around '71, so the rationale (for a continuation of a heavy tank) is sort of till extant.
By the weay, the tank that @BootsDMS posted is a former USMC M103A2 stationed at Camp Pendleton, Ca. It is currently on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum parking lot, next to the future site of the Tucson Military Vehicle Museum.
I’m planning to use as many parts from the Legend conversion kit as possible (as makes sense).
The crosswind sensor and the other sensor next to it, I will need to find alternative positions for, due to the turret basket.
The Legend turret basket has been glued onto the turret. So far, I have not put the crosswind sensor on, as there is no turret below the two holes in the tarpaulin But the advantages of what if modelling, is that I decide, where parts can go
In fact, the position of the turret basket was mainly dictated by the position of the ventilator cover, since the ventilator cover is part of the Legend turret basket casting. And luck has it, that the position of the ventilator is nearly identical between the M60 turret and the M103 turret.
The IDF did not have any issue adding extended mount on their turrets for accomodating antennas and such. If you check late Tiran 5 or Tiran 6 turrets you can get some ideas of similar additions.
During the past evenings, I have been working on the Blazer ERA bricks. They are just temporarily stuck on, and many of them need to be enlarged. So there is a lot of work ahead of me in this.
Thanks for your comments and interest
Most of the tiles need to be enlarged, to be made longer by adding part of another tile, like I did on the very long tile on the right side, next to the gunners optical sight. It is made from two tiles put together.
Regarding the roof armour, then my initial point of departure was, that my “Magach 8” should look like is was made at the same time as the Magach 6B Gal. So the roof armour should in my mind look like the roof armour tiles seen on the Magach 6B Gal.
Likewise, I will add as many parts as possible from the Legend LF1056 conversion as possible. I did also consider to add the loaders FN MAG, but will not do, as it will interfere with the commanders MG.
The roof rack for 7.62 MG ammo will be added, as well as the rectangular frame for a box next to the commanders cupola. Then the roof will be quite “busy”.
The past weeks progress.
Most of the Blazer ERA tiles on the left side of the turret (looking forward) are now glued. The long tile to the right of the sight unit is the master tile, which dictates the position of the other tiles. At the same time, I can see, that IRL, the tiles are not mounted directly to the hull, there is a short distance between the hull and the tiles.
Roof tiles are also glued now, also with a short distance between the tiles and the hull.
The rack for the 7.62mm ammo boxes is just placed on the roof.
The lifting eye on the roof is from “Elefant”. My first experience with 3D-printed parts. Not easy to work with, but the result is worth the effort.
An update on my IDF M103A2 is long overdue, I have been fighting all the wheels of the model, and there are many, which means an abundance of cleaning wheel parts. Not fun at all. But the Friul ATL-49 Merkava Mk. III tracks will look fine, when completed.