Thank you for posting the images, Nikos. Truly appreciate the help with growing this topic. 
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One of those Turkish M60’s with those dual .50’s with the sandbags and colourful camo’s would look good in the collection. Or an uparmoured one.
Or a “slick” 60 (Think verlinden did an “upgrade”-set once?). And that “Brave Tiger”…
But what’s with the taiwanese fascination for bright flags, banners and pendants? Is 3-tone camo too boring or what?
Ahh, so many ideas…
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A slick M60A0 would be cool.
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For a slick the Def model conversion is the best option. For the hull one can use whatever hull is available, I have done one using an Esci kit and one with a Takom hull.
Takom might release a slick in the near future though.
The flags and banners on the CM-11 are used during exercises for identification but look really nice and make the model stand out.
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The only problem is that Takom make their kits so overly complicated. Just their tracks make me back off.
On the other hand handing over $60 for a conversion… not gonna happen either.
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If you have an AFV Club M60 you might want to reconsider about Takom. The tracks are not difficult to do just time consuming. And a huge improvement over the vinyl track they included in the CM-11 kits that melted the kit plastic.
And the hull assembly is way easier than the AFV Club one and way more accurate than the Tamiya,Academy and Italer/Esci offerings.
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Their M60s are not complicated at all. In my opinion, they are best M60 kits on the market. I built their USMC M60A1 w/Dozer Blade and have their M60A3 kit. As far as I can tell, their M60s have a rubber track that is quite nice that connects with a metal rod. I had no issues with them at all. Well detailed and easy to assemble.
Here is my USMC M60A1 w/Dozer Blade.
Takom M60A1 w/ERA and Dozer Blade build - Armor/AFV - KitMaker Network
I also used their CM-11 hull on an M60 AVLB conversion.
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Looks good, indeed.
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The one thing I like about the Takom M60 is their lower hull.
Is a 1-piece deal. I think the AFV Club lower hull is a 1-piece as well. The on thing that annoyed me about the Tamiya/Academy M60s is the three-piece lower hull; extra work blending the top portion of the hull where the return rollers sit.
That big, ugly seam.
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Trying to keep the thread going… Now, for the rare (kinda) variant of the M60, the M60A2 152mm Gun/Launcher System, known as the “Starship” (not an official designation).
The M60A2, was designed in the 1970s and 520 were made. The turret was designed to have the same main gun/launcher system as the M-551 Sheridan and capable of firing both conventional rounds, as well as the “Shillelagh” missile.
The idea came as a stopgap measure while the US and Germany were working on the MBT-70 project.
The tank was briefly fielded in the 70s in two variants; a early variant, which sported a bore e aviator on thf missile launcher, and a later version without thf bore evacuator, before it was withdrawn from service in the 80s and most of the A2s were converted to either M60A3s, ABLVs or Panther Mine clearing vehicles.
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One day I’ll build one. And a bridgelayer too.
Initially I had planned on doing the M60A2 in MASSTER, but since that might never materialize… due to a certain extended number of ideas I still have…
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How about a rundown of M60 model kits…
Tamiya came out with the first mainstream kit in 1970. It is an OK kit but has/had really poor rubber center caps for the road wheels and lots of simplified parts. It also had a partial driver’s area interior, but it was very basic. Tamiya also has an issue with their tracks. They are molded incorrectly with the center guide teeth in the middle of each track block, as opposed to between each block; ie. connecting them.
In 1972, Tamiya came out with the M60A2 kit. It was based on the M60A1 and had all its issues, (poor details, motorization holes, metal rear axle, poor road wheels, etc.) and more of its own with an oversized turret, really mishapen CBSS bulges at the rear, and a few other issues.
In 1988, Tamiya came out with the M60A3. This was based on the older M60A1 kit, but had some improvement, namely the road wheels were much better.
Academy came out with their own (sort of) versions of the M60A3 and M60A1 w/ERA armor in about 1990. It was an updated copy of the Tamiya kit. Academy did this with most of their early kits, improving on Tamiya kits. It had updated details on the TCs cupola, storage boxes, and a few other areas, to include much better road wheels. They were still motorized though, with all the issues that brings.
Esci out of Italy also introduced their own M60A1 in 1990. It was much better than both Tamiya and Academy’s kits. It was very detailed and was not designed for motorization, so no holes in the hull. It also had very detailed length and link tracks. The Esci M60’s were considered the best on the market for many years, up into the early 2000s and they still stand up well today.
In 1991, Esci added the first IDF M60A1 w/Blazer Armor (Magach 6?) and an M60A3. These were also very nice and the best M60s at the time.
Tamiya came out with their own USMC M60A1 w/ERA shortly after Operation Desert Storm in 1992. It was the same M60A1 base kit with new road wheels and some added gear and figures.
Academy came out with their own version of a USMC M60A1 w/ERA in 1993. It was nicer than Tamiya’s as it had some updated parts.
Academy started their line of IDF M60s with an M60A1 Blazer in 1994. I believe this is also a Magach 6. They had a few different boxings with a couple different options in parts, but they were all basically the same kit.
Like their next release by adding KMT-4 mine roller to their Magach 6 kit above.
Trumpeter, during the 1990 and early 2000s, came out with a whole line of M60s and Magach 6 variants, but they were all copies of earlier Tamiya and Academy kits. Most were really poor copies as well and are not really worth mentioning or showing here.
Academy had everyone excited in 1998 when they first announced that they were working on an M728 CEV. Unfortunately, the kit that eventually came out was an M60A1 w/ERA and M9 Dozer blade, sort of. It was incomplete in that it had none of the hoses or hydraulic parts that sit on the left rear fender of a tank w/dozer blade. This was due to them designing the hull as an M728 CEV, which has all the hydraulic parts internally. They never made the M728 turret parts though.
In 2014, Academy came out with a new-tooled IDF Magach 6B Gal Batash kit. It is very nice and showed the new abilities of Academy designers.
Dragon entered the M60 game in 2015 with an all new-tooled M60A2 Starship kit. It is pretty good but did have some issues with hull shape and its running gear.
AFV Club started their line of M60s, at about the same time, with an M60A1. It was very nice and very well detailed but does have overcast surface texture and lots of small parts. It also has a partial interior with a detailed driver’s compartment.
Academy responded with an updated M60A2 in 2015 as well. It was pretty nice with a much more accurate turret shape, better road wheels, and correct CBSS bulge at the rear. It has very thin and worn-down tracks though.
Academy also came out with a Magach 7C (original M60) Gimel kit about the same time.
In 2016, Dragon came out with an original M60 tank. This was the first M60 A nothing in plastic. It is a pretty good kit and generally correct.
AFV Club continued with their M60A2 kit. It is pretty good and has much of the same features as their M60 kit.
AFV Club and Dragon continued the M60 duel for most of the next few years.
AFV Club came out with an M60A3 TTS with upgraded Tank Thermal Sight system.
Next Dragon brought out an IDF M60 w/ERA (another Magach 6?).
A new company, Meng introduced an M60 in 2018 with their Magach 6B Gal Batash . It is very detailed and looks really good.
Shortly after, another new player, Takom introduced a USMC M60A1 ERA kit. Takom’s M60s are very detailed and not as high of parts count as other kits. They also have a very detailed set of rubber band tracks that connect with a metal rod.
Dragon continued with an IDF M60 w/Dozer blade. I believe this is still the same Magach 6.
AFV Club continued with an IDF M60A1 Magach 6B kit in 2019.
Dragon countered with an M60 AVLB. It is pretty nice, but the AVLB parts need a lot of work/additions to look good.
AFV Club came out with am M728 CEV, the first of its type in plastic.
And a Taiwan Army CM-11 (M48H) Brave Tiger, which is an M48 turret on an M60 hull w/Abrams fire control system. These were built to get around Chinese weapons restrictions.
To round out 2019 (The year of the M60?), Meng updated their Magach 6B Gal with new parts.
AFV Club also updated their Magach 6B GAL with new parts.
In 2020, Takom came out with the three latest M60 kits. They are:
M60A1.
M60A3 with M9 Bulldozer.
USMC M60A1 w/ERA and M9 Bulldozer.
I am sure I am missing a few other M60 kits, but this is most of them. Somewhere in there, Takom had a couple CM-11 Brave Tiger versions as well.
There were also a couple versions of the Tamiya kits that had extra metal details and some other stuff added by a company I can’t think of right now. There have also been multiple update sets by Verlinden, Legend, Def Model, etc., etc., …
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Def Model make the best/most useful upgrades for the Tamiya/Esci/Academy kits. Fender brackets, mudguards, barrels, photoetch details etc included in their sets are excellent.
https://defmodel.com/catalog/htm/dm35025le.html
Also fits the M60 slick.
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Italeri also released several M60 kits
AMT/ERTL (repackaged ESCI kit)
Mini Hobby (repackaged as Mini Boss)
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Italeri, AMT, and Revell are all reboxes of the Esci kits.
Mini Hobby and Mini Boss are repacked Trumpeter junk. They are not worth the effort. Fixing them is a lost cause.
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Found it. Gunze Sangyo added metal and resin parts to help out the Tamiya kits in 1990.
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In this modeler’s humble opinion, my hierarchy of kits from great to worst.
- Takom
- AFV Club
- New Academy
- Older Academy/Tamiya
- Italeri/AMT/ESCI/Revell (they all fall on the same category)
- Mini Hobby/Mini Bos/Trumpeter (as Gino mentioned. Horrible kits, not worth the plastic they’re molded on).
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